Final Blog

Well now, this is my 21st and final blog. As much as I am going to try to keep posting and writing new things on it, I am not sure if I will be able to. Its strange because I can't tell if I really am that busy or just that lazy. So far this year I have written about dreams, steroids, living on campus, a gunman on campus, and even about how random I am. This blog experience overall has been really different, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it. It did show me that I could write basically anything about sports, which I had never done before. I easily found information and could write vividly about certain teams and events that happened around the league. Writing about something I knew very well and watched religiously made certain blogs just fly out of my mind onto the screen. Another thing that aided me in my blog writing is the fact that we could write about anything. I could write about what happened today, or even a girl with beautiful eyes and short smooth hair. She might also have small soft hands and smile thats impossible to miss, with a laugh you'd love to hear. You could write about how even though you don't see her too much, it's worth goin to Jersey just for that short amount of time. This has been the strangest blog I've ever written, I trailed off there for a little bit. Anyway the year has been awesome, I enjoyed the blogs, maybe this won't be my last.

Undefeated?

With only a few games left in the regular season, the New England Patriots are still undefeated. Don't get me wrong, I am not a Patriots fan at all. Even still, you can't argue what is obviously true: the Pats are the real deal. The last 2 games against the Eagles and the Ravens were not as dominating of victories as they have had all season, but they are still victories. New England's offense is just too good for any of the other teams to compete. It is pretty much unfair, because they have so many weapons to deal with. Between Randy Moss, Dante Stallworth, and Wes Welker their receiving core is one of the best in the league. It also happens to compliment one of the best quarterbacks in the league, Tom Brady. He is on pace this season to break NFL single season passing records. So far this season alone, he has thrown for 45 touchdowns and 4,095 yards. His quarterback rating at this point is 123.5, which is 20 points higher than the second league leader. On the defensive side of the ball, Rodney Harrison and Mike Vrable continue to perform well for the Patriots. Even if the defense does not play well, they still score nearly 40 points a game making it hard for other teams to keep up. So as much as I hope it does not happen, it probably will. A perfect season and another super bowl do not seem to be too far in the future for the New England Patriots.

Beowulf?

Recently, the movie version of Beowulf has been released in theatres. Due to the fact that I remembered reading and actually liked the story version of Beowulf, I had to go see it. The special effects and graphic in the movie were amazing, but the movie itself was not that good. This is largely because the movie was really different from the story. In the movie Beowulf kills Grendel and then has an affair and a child with Grendels mother, but in the story Beowuld brawls with and kills Grendels mother. In addition, the story says that Beowulf failed to kill the dragon but Hrothgar did not, eanwhile the movie shows Beowulf killing the dragon himself. The special effects were not enough to keep this movie as good as it could have been if they stuck to the original story rather than changing it drastically.

Why football is the greatest sport ever:

There are so many different aspects to the game of football that make it the spectacle that it is. Every play is an all out battle where the entire team needs to do their job in order for the play to work. For a running play to work, every offensively lineman needs to set a perfect block on the defender in front of him. The center must have a good snap to the quarterback, the quarterback must give a perfect handoff to the runningback, and the runningback must read the hole his blockers make. The wide receivers must seal off the corners, and if all parties do their intended jobs, the play will work. However, the defense is trying to stop this play. So that means every play is pure mayhem. A truly dedicated player is doing whatever they can to the best of their ability to stop the guy in front of him. That means every single play of every single football game is all out war. It may not seem that way to some people, but thats really how it is. The "gridiron" is where only the true warriors are the victors.

Randomness In General

I am uncontrollably random. In speaking, in my blogs, in life generally. It is strange but I have gotten used to it. Its just part of my personality. When I have a thought, I normally just say it and it comes accross as out of the blue to others. Sometimes when I'm talking with my closest friends, other people will have no clue at all what we are talking about. We go from a discussion of one random moment or conversation to the other non-stop. Now that may seem wierd to quite a few, but I find myself unable to care. It's entertaining talking about so many different things and 90 percent of the time we all get a good laugh out of it. Unpredictability can be bad in some situations, but most of the time its a lot of fun. When talking about a football game the other day we can bounce to something hysterical that happened 4 years ago but is still funny. I love just talking to my friends because it always provides some source of entertainment. You can say I'm wierd or strange, but I'm really just random.

Dreams

Dreams are absolultely crazy. It is so strange how anything and everything is possible in dreams, but you never control them. Things just occur at random in your mind while you sleep. They can seem real, so real to the point where you cannot tell if it happened or didn't happen. Dreams can also seem ridiculous, with the dumbest or most random things imaginable, so strange that they could never be close to being mistaken as reality. For example, my friend woke up this morning and said (seriously he said this) "Dude, last night I had a dream about Steven Segal (a mediocre martial arts actor), but he had one leg. He was like, shooting a movie and fighting people, but he had a prosthetic." Now, I highly doubt that this dream has any relevance towards daily life or some greater meaning lost in translation. My friend does not know Steven Segal, Steven Segal does not have one leg, yet he had such an odd dream involving this. I have had deja vu dreams, where in my sleep I saw people I have never met before. Then, weeks later I would meet them or see them in real life. I can find no explanation for this, and its kind of creepy. Will these people end up meaning something in my life? Is this just a random sighting? What is the purpose of a dream? Dreams just confuse me in general. So in the end whether you dream about Steven Segal or random people that show up in real life, dreams are crazy.

Home Videos are AWESOME.

For the past few years or so, I have been watching television shows such as Whacked Out Sports, Worlds Most Amazing Videos, and Maximum Exposure. Such programs are simply a compilation of short videos caught on tape live using home video cameras. Honestly it sounds pretty terrible because some of the videos involve people getting hurt, but thats not why I enjoy it. I just enjoy them because live action captured at random is really interesting. Its crazy to see things happen in the moment rather than a recreation or a spoken account from an eyewitness. Where else can you see a BMX riding jump over a house or see a pilot get sucked through a jet engine and walk away from it? Whenever someone catches a pride of lions fighting with a crocodile for a water buffalo only to see a heard of buffalo come back and rescue its companion, it is a rare event that probably wont be seen again, at least any time soon. When such raritites are caught on tape, it is always amazing to see them. So in the end, home videos are definitly a great form of entertainment and always will be.

Different people?

In my years so far on this earth, I have noticed many people change due to the consumption of alcohol. I never understood it, but I have seen some of my best friends and some of the nicest kids turn into the complete opposite of their normal behavior. It is just strange as to why this happens. I had no idea what to think of it, so I looked online. I found that: 1.) the intoxicated may experience an overall improvement in mood and possible euphoria. 2.) They may become more self-confident or daring. 3.) Their attention span shortens. 4.) They may look flushed. 5.) Their judgment is not as good — they may express the first thought that comes to mind, rather than an appropriate comment for the given situation. 6.) They have trouble with fine movements, such as writing or signing their name.
After learning this information, I can certainly confirm it. For example, I saw one of my friends stumble around and bump into another person. Rather then apologize or ignore it, he screamed at the other person for no reason. The other person happened to be intoxicated as well, so a fight insued. This may seem like a stupid topic to discuss, but I just had to bring it up because I see it so often. People need to be more careful and be aware of their limit. Better yet, don't drink at all.

Mark McGwire: The beginning of steroids in baseball.

Mark McGwire was the previous single season home run record holder, and the first player to obviously perform better because of steroids. When he played for the Oakland Athletics, he was a small skinny basehitter. Later on when he played for the Cardinals, he was a massive home run hitter. This change occurred pretty much out of nowhere. Although McGwire has never admitted to or been convicted of any steroid use, many of his accomplishments, particularly his historic home run surge late in his career, have come into question due to his connection to the steroid scandal in Major League Baseball. In 1998, after an article written by Steve Wilstein, McGwire admitted to taking androstenedione, an over-the-counter muscle enhancement product. While legal for use in MLB, it had been banned by the NFL and IOC. Former "Bash Brothers" McGwire and Jose Canseco were subpoenaed to testify at a congressional hearing on steroids with five other baseball players and four baseball executives. Canseco had released Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, a book in which he spoke positively about steroids, and made various claims-- among them, that McGwire had been using performance enhancing drugs since the 1980s. McGwire declined to answer questions under oath when he appeared in court. Besides Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire's career has benefitted the most in baseball because of steroids. He is lucky he retired, because he would fail the MLB's current drug tests.

Last band appraisal. I promise.

Seeing as I mentioned Slipknot, I am now obligated to give proper praise to Metallica. As a kid, I was raised on Metallica. No other music around that time really interested me. Between their different vocal styles and speed/heavy guitar, I have been fixated on the band for as long as i can remember. Metallica has become one of the most influential heavy metal bands ever. The band has sold more than 90 million records worldwide, including 57 million in the United States which makes Metallica the most commercially successful thrash metal band so I am obivously not alone in the world. Metallica was ranked by MTV as the third "Greatest Heavy Metal Band in History",was listed number five on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock",and was number 1 on VH1's "20 Greatest Metal Bands" list. Speficially, the black album is one of the greatest rock albums ever. "Fade to Black" and "Sad but True" are two songs that I can listen to any time because they are just that good. The reason why I had to give another blog of praise is because Slipknot or pretty much any other band I like would not be around without Metallica. They paved the way for modern metal, and deserve the credit for it.

great metal, period.

Slipknot is one of my favorite bands, because of how they achieved their status and what they believed in. When the band started, they made rules. In 1995 there were two rules. Slipknot had to play what they wanted to play and it didn't matter what they played, who they played to and the cost of seeing them play should never matter. A band that played for the fans and not for themselves was rare, and that combined with their unparalleled sound sold me completely. The second rule was that there needed to be 3 drummers. The members came from several different bands and each had the common view on the way that everything was going in the town of Des Moines, they were sick of it; there was no music scene, it was hard to get bands CDs, or anything. As a result Slipknot was born with one mission, this mission being to 'Clean up the music industry'. The band's aims remain to be to create a sound the world has never heard, a vision no one has ever seen, this can be clearly seen by the hype to Slipknot's second album. They sensed people were ready for a show, rather than some guys just playing some music.
I love this band because their music is fantastic, and for some strange reason I connect with it on a level that I rarely can do with anything. A small band from a small town in Iowa accomplished so much, and their music started a "revolution" of sorts in metal music.

Thats not too smart..

Nearly everyone has heard by now, Michael Vick is clearly an idiot. Why is he an idiot? He is now viewed (in my eyes at least) as below average intelligence because he had a growing career in the nfl and in 2004, he signed a 130 million dollar contract with a 37 million dollar signing bonus. That does not make him stupid, the fact that he threw all over that away in a heartbeat in order to have dogfighting competitions in his yard. Vick and three other men were charged by federal authorities with felony charges of operating an unlawful six-year long interstate dog fighting venture known as "Bad Newz Kennels" at Vick's 15-acre property in Virginia. Vick was accused of financing the operation, directly participating in dog fights and executions, and personally handling thousands of dollars in related gambling activities. Now why would anyone need to gamble on dogfights with 130 million in the bank? Why give up your career for nothing? He had to have known what he was doing was wrong, but then again anything is possible with this guy. I will never forget the first thought that came to my mind when I saw the first news report detailing what had happened with Vick, and that thought was "Wow, he's a smart guy. Now he will lose literally everything." As much as i try to feel bad for him, I can't. He didnt just attend one dogfight, he had a whole ring and station set up at his house. He executed a lot of the dogs that could no longer fight, and thats just ridiculous. He chose to end his career, so now he has to live with the consequences.

Need for Speed?

A serious topic that people continue to ignore is speeding. Every day accidents happen because of a driver traveling at a rate faster than they should be. I grew up in New Jersey, where a lot of people speed because it is a rural area. However, rural roads account for 40 percent of all vehicle miles traveled, and 61 percent of accidents occur there. Crash severity increases disproportionately with vehicle speed, so a head-on crash at 35 mph is one-third more violent than a collision at 30mph. The faster you go, the worse the crash will be and thats just common sense. It is nearly impossible to drive on a highway without seeing at least a few drivers fly by going 40 miles an hour above the speed limit, and its confusing as to why this happens. Regardless if someone is late for work or is trying to catch the begining of a game, they should not speed. It is not only dangerous to the person speeding but others as well. Reaction time is cut in half when you are traveling at high rates of speed, and drivers need to be more cautious and aware of what they are doing.

Naturally Helpful

Recently, I heard about how plants can be naturally beneficial to the human body and can help aid certain ailments. Many people are unaware that there are plants possessing healing qualities with the same of modern medicine. For years natives of different countries such as Africa and Australia have used these plants as methods of healing. Different plants have different benefits to various ailments. Many common yard plants have healing characteristics if used a certain way. White Cedar Evergreens, The Houseleek plant, Lawn Daisy’s , and Dandelion's are some of the common plants that can be used to treat many different health problems. The White Cedar Evergreen can be used for urinary and bronchial infections. The twigs are known to have anti-viral qualities in their treatment of rheumatism and coughs.
The leaves are used in baths to aid the skin and made into tea to assist mouth sores.
The liquid in the leaves is used to sooth abrasions, burns, and insect stings. Perhaps the most surprising plant with a benefit is the dandelion. The leaves can be used as an effective diuretic. They can treat urinary disorders, and deal with fluid retention without depleting the body of needed potassium. The white sap that comes from the stem is used to treat corns and warts. The root is good for reducing inflammation, and can stimulate liver functioning. After learning this information, maybe people will look at plants differently. They can be very useful in the field of medicine for natural healing. Depending on how and which particular part of the plant is used, certain plants can aid those with certain ailments. They have been used for this purpose for many years and still can be used today. Hopefully they will continue to research and find new ways to aid people today.

Oh, how wonderful it is to be a resident.

St. Johns University, Staten Island campus. Home to many, school to even more. As a resident of St. Johns, I have a few tidbits to share. Having an full apartment rather than just a bedroom dorm is certainly a plus. As people know, having a lot of space is always a good thing. A lot of residents are unhappy with their roommates, some are just different or incompatible I guess. Slobs are sometimes paired with clean freaks, angry hyper personalities are sometimes paired with softspoken kids resulting in daily conflicts and wars. Once again, I lucked out in this department. My roommate and I get along very well. Its odd because we are very very different and exactly the same at the same time. We get along despite the fact that I am a low-grade mess (mentally and physically) and he is a clean freak with never-ending determination towards an immaculate living space. I do my part (not on purpose of course) to crush his dreams of cleanliness, but we make due. We share an unmoving infatuation with the nectar of life known as food, which aids us in our quest for survival in on-campus living. We both should weigh about 400 pounds but another similiarity we share, our love of sports, keeps us in check. Now, I have so far talked about the positives of living the campus life, but I can't stay in the sunshine for long. Before I even started my messy life in the apartment, it was fairly messed up. The bedroom door refuses to close, if I slam it I'm afraid I'll be locked away forever where only my neighbors can hear me scream. I know they can hear me because I hear them. Every night, every step, every song. As a light sleeper, I can probably tell you my neighbors night better than he could. Almost as necessary as sleep, is the internet. We were given promises left and right about how it will be working soon, but it never does. I feel like I'm back in the old days where you have to troop somewhere to use something which is funny, because im trooping to use a wireless internet connection (not exactly the old days). I've shared complaints and positives, but overall how you feel about where you live depends on what you make of it. Unless your roommate eats all your food, of course.

The NOT-SO Amazins

To all the New York Met fans out there, I apologize in advance. However, as a Yankee fan, all season long I have heard the jeers: The Mets are guaranteed playoffs! Hey look, the Mets have a better record than the Yankees! The Mets are winning the World Series no question about it, etc. You have spoken too soon my friends. As it would appear, the Mets have lost 12 straight (yes, 12) games. The Philadelphia Phillies, on the contrary, have made ground and squeezed out tough wins against tough opponents to earn their playoff spot. Granted I am not a Phillies fan at all, but they have without a doubt earned their spot in the playoffs even though the Mets gave their's up. I apologize again, Met fans, but do not cry about it. As well as they played all year (yes im admitting it) they should have had an easy coast into the playoffs. As bad as the Yankees played at the beginning of the year, I had my doubts for them. BUT, the Yankees are in the playoffs and the Mets are not. All I can say right now is better luck next year, and don't be so quick to trash talk in the future.

Memory

A memoir is a story that tells an account of a specific memory. Memory is a strange thing. There are days when I cant remember what I had for breakfast, but can remember everything that people in my classes were wearing. Why I remember pointless things like that, I don't know. Overall though, most people normally remember things that affect them when they were younger. For example, I vividly recall a fall from the monkey bars in pre-k. I only remember it because I ripped my upper lip open from the bottom of my nose to the end of my mouth of the right side. I screamed and bled heavily for about 15 minutes before a teacher even looked outside, and the pain makes me remember the accident in detail regardless of how young I was. If I had fallen and just scraped my knee, chances are I would not remember it as well as I do now. However, not all things that people remember are bad. Good memories are also often rememebered in their entirety. I got the game ball in our only win for our football team last season. Despite the length of the game and physical duress I was under at all times, I remember every play as if I had watched it on tape over and over again. Memory for most people goes by how that moment made you feel.

GEORGE BUSH ON CAMPUS

You may have heard, you may not have. Apparently, a man in a George Bush mask carrying a rifle was apprehended on the St. Johns Queens campus. I'm sorry, but thats pretty crazy. However, it was incredible how well campus security as well as the NYPD handled the situation. Emergency alert text messages were sent out, which is a brilliant idea because pretty much everyone always has their phone on and on them. All classes were cancelled, keeping students and teachers out of potential danger. The mad bushman was arrested, but they did not just call it a day afterwards. They searched the rest of the campus thoroughly and made sure that there was no other armed man roaming around. No offense to them, but if the Virginia Tech campus security handled things in a similar way rather than just send out an email, maybe things would have turned out differently.

Get that on tape

The New England Patriots. The home of 3 super bowl championships. Also the home of all-pro quarterback Tom Brady and pro-bowl receivers such as Randy Moss and Donte Stallworth. Not done yet, because it is also the place where Bill Belicheck the coaching genius is employed. Despite all these weapons, they were fined $750,000 by the NFL due to illegal filming infractions. Confusion ran rampant throught the league. Why would the best team in the NFL (arguably) have a camera stationed on the sidelines stealing the defensive signals of the lowly New York Jets? The Patriots won the game by a landslide, but because they out-played them or out-signal-stole-cheated them? They clearly have enough weapons to win on their own, it is incomprehensible that they would have to cheat a team in such a cowardly conniving way.

Why Cheat?

Steroids. A constant controversy in pretty much every sport. You hardly ever hear of someone being caught taking steroids and coming back after punishment to still play well. Rodney Harrison of the New England Patriots, a pro-bowl safety part of two super bowl teams. Suspended from the NFL for 4 games, and you havn't heard a word about him since. Why? Because he has not played as well as he has in the past. Rafael Palmeiro of the Texas Rangers. Accused of steroids, fearing testing, he retires. Probably because he was afraid of playing without his beloved juice. However, there are sometimes oddities that recover well from failing steroid tests. Jason Giambi of the New York Yankees was accused of taking steroids during the 2004 season. He admitted using them right away, served his punishment, and still came back to be a decent hitter, ending the season with 12 home runs and two back to back 30 plus home run seasons in the following years. Shawn Merriman of the San Diego Chargers was suspended from the NFL last season, yet still led the entire league with 17 sacks and earned a pro-bowl selection. Apparently these athletes can work hard on their own and still play well, so I ask why cheat?

A job that can be a headache

NFL football, one of the worlds most popular and well-known sports. Its also well known that professional football is one of the more physical sports, mainly because some of the players are the size of a doorway and the ones who arent run faster then race horses. Everyone who has ever watched a game of football has cringed or yelled "Oooooo" at a high impact hit. People are aware of the big hits, but most people are not aware of the frequency of catastrophic injury. Even before Kevin Everett of the Bills made a career and possibly life threating tackle when he broke multiple vertebrae, the NFL was aware of increasing injuries, such as concussions. Everett's injury is more severe but less common than the rising number of concussions. They became such a problem, better yet a concern to the point that the NFL commission reformed its policy and had a conference with team physicians and athletic trainers from every team, stressing new rules and guidelines for dealing with a concussion. The guidelines were:
1. The player should be completely asymptomatic and have normal neurological test results, including mental status testing at rest and after physical exertion, before returning to play.
2. Symptoms to be taken into account include confusion, problems with immediate recall, disorientation to time, place and person, anterograde and retrograde amnesia, fatigue, and blurred vision.
3. If an NFL player sustains a loss of consciousness, as determined by the team medical staff, he should not return to the same game or practice.
4. NFL team physicians and athletic trainers will continue to exercise their medical judgment and expertise in treating concussions, including considering any history of concussions in a player.
Most people are unaware of how frequent and severe the concussion problem is, hopefully some people will realize just how dangerous each down can be. For the National Football League to be forced to take steps in an attempt to "manage" concussions, clearly playing in this brutal league can be a headache.