Holidays Bring out the Best in People

The holidays bring out the beat in people...usually. This holiday season has brought some good and some bad. Why around the holidays? Holidays are fun and suppose to be jolly. But many bad things have happened over this holiday season. Is this because it’s the last one of the decade and people want to leave with a bang? Probably not. Lets start in sports. Brett Favre and his coach are in a fight. Mike Leach (Texas Tech head coach) gets fired one day before he was suppose to get his bonus because he locked a kid in a shed for multiple hours. Wide Receiver Chris Henry got killed. The only undefeated team (the Colts) lost. Hometown Chicago Bulls Coach is about to get the boot. Urban Meyer (Florida head football coach) has to step down because of health issues. Tiger Woods (the worlds greatest golfer) having more problems with his mistresses and his family. Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather fight still hasn’t been set. All these bad things that’s happening in today’s sports news. There’s also some good as well. But why all the drama around this years holiday. And lets no forget about the most serious of them all a terrorist attack gone bad and potential terrorists could be anywhere. And a suicide bomber killed eight American civilians, most of them C.I.A. officers, at a remote base in Afghanistan. And many other bad things have happened this holiday season. C’mon why can't we all just enjoy the holidays?

So Many Bowl Games...

Thirty-four bowl games come on that’s a lot of football. Even the biggest of football fans don’t watch them all. Over this break I have watched many bowl games that I wouldn’t normally watch because of all the down time I have. I don’t know if you have watched any of them yet, but for all of the bowls that have already been played the stadiums are about half way full. This is because no one wants to watch the Independence Bowl and the Roadys Humanitarian Bowl. This is because these games don’t mean anything to the fans, and to the nation. On the other hand these games are what make college football so great today. If there weren't 34 bowl games that means 68 teams play and if they cut that number of bowls then the number of teams has to go to. This wouldn’t affect the well-known schools but for schools like SMU, Bowling Green, Idaho, Troy, and Central Florida wouldn’t make it to these games. For those teams the bad bowl games are like national championships for them, winning the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl is just as big as Texas winning the National Championship. Those teams just have their goals set lower then going undefeated. So college football needs all of the bowl games and many people want to lessen the number of bowls, but I say we add another 5 bowl games to give 10 more teams that aren’t as good as a Florida, Texas, Ohio State a chance. Teams like Notre Dame could possibly make a bowl game. 

Are any Coaches Loyal to their Teams?

Just the other day Brian Kelly signed a contract to be the coach for Notre Dame starting next season. Kelly leading his former team Cincinnati to an undefeated season 12-0 with a Big East title. Along what that great season they earned the right to play in a BCS bowl game v. the Florida Gators. But Kelly had different things on his mind this week, not thinking about the blue and orange Florida Gators but the Gold, Blue and Green fighting Irish. By signing this contract with Notre Dame will he coach the bowl game? The answer is no. He is going to ditch his team that he has been the coach since 2006. He has brought the Bearcats out of the dark and into the national spotlight. He’s leaving to join a team that has been peril for the past 10-15 years. If you were a player for a team that has gone unbeaten for a whole season and you have the biggest game of your life coming up, and your coach decides to ditch you. How would you feel? Twenty years ago this was very uncommon, but now today everything is about the money. NO coach has any school pride and often coach at a school to get a different job. If you have any thoughts about modern day coaches let me know.

The Man Among Men: Tiger Woods

Being in a family of all golfers and myself included we have been the biggest fans of Tiger, from when we first saw him on the golf course in 1996. I don't think me or the rest of my family will ever stop being fans of his. We all have heard about what has happened to Tiger Woods in the past couple weeks. One of today's major athletes, one that has one of the cleanest images in sports, just got caught. The day after Thanksgiving was not only Black Friday for the shoppers but also for golf fans around the world. Tiger Woods, the very first billion dollar athlete, was caught.  Caught cheeting at that. He was caught cheating with not only one women but with as many as three. But how can one of the biggest names in sports get caught doing something like this? Not only were golf fans upset, but anyone who respected the game of golf and Tiger Woods were shaking their heads at the newly polyamarous Woods. Early in the morning on black friday Tiger Woods got in a car crash, not with a car but with a tree. You may ask yourself how something like this could happen. Well there are many different stories circulating, but the truth is that Tiger and his wife were experiencing a domestic dispute and she tried to attack him. After Tiger ran out of the house and got into his car his wife chases him outside with a golf club (probably Nike).  He in a moment of panic, crashed his car into a tree in his driveway. The next day cops came to Tigers door, and Tiger and his wife refused to talk to the cops, and anyone for that matter, concerning the crash.
Should you have the right to deny talking to a cop after something that serious has happened?
If your Tiger Woods maybe. But what I'm tired of is this being all over the news since it happened. The more and more its on the news the more and  more embarrassing it is, not only to Tiger and his family but to the game of golf. By now everyone is familiar with all the facts so why keep telling us again and again.I think its time to leave Tiger and his family alone and let them figure things out like all other regular american families would have the right to do. If this happened to anyone else people would move on, but in this case when you hear the name Tiger your not gonna think of "the" Tiger, instead you will think of "the cheetah"

Yes We Can They Say

       Over this Thanksgiving break my brothers friend showed our family this music video featuring will.i.am, john legend, herbie hancock, nicole scherzinger, scarlett johansson, kate walsh, and others, singing along with the Yes We Can speech by Barack Obama.  

       If you do a quick youtube search of any government candidates' name you will see hundreds of unoffical supporter-created songs, love poems and false campaign ads. But only one of those was created in a professional Los Angeles recording studio, spearheaded by the Black-Eyed Peas’ will.i.am and involved the participation of 30 famous musicians and actors.

       On the song’s Web site, YesWeCanSong.com , will.i.am says he was inspired to make the video after hearing President Obama’s modest speech after finishing second in New Hampshire. The black-and-white video is a mix of  singing and speaking the words to Obama’s New Hampshire speech simultaneously over Obama’s  own voice. It’s set to a simple guitar melody and considering the amount of  pop stars involved, probably wouldn’t seem too odd if it was on the radio. 
      They said that they wanted it on national television but to get 4 minutes and 30 seconds of air time would have been impossible, but through the internet millions of people have seen the video. Many still havent seen this video but to the millions of people that have seen it have said that it is very inspiring and that it puts all other celebrity ads to shame. 
This is a very simple video that shows how music artists can influence many people and show their support for others through their voices.  I'm not saying that people voted for Obama because of the stars that supported him, but it doesn't hurt Obama that many were behind him.

Click here to see the video YesWeCanSong.com

This video has not only inspired me but the millions of others who have seen it as well. 

Please let me know what you think. 

Cleveland Fans are in Perilous Times

The Cleveland Browns: terrible.
They have gone from bad to worse to worst. The Browns have only had 2 winning seasons in the last ten years. And are currently 1-7 this year. And arguably the worst team in the league. And are close to last if not last in every category possible. The highest they have been ranked this year was 28th out of the 32 team league. Many would say that they are awful. Many fans dont enjoy their team any more and cheer against them now. Here are some stats that back up that they are the worst.
1. They have not scored more than 20 points since the last game of last season thats 8 games.
2. Since the beginning of the 2008 season, the Browns have had ONE game where a QB threw for 250 yards.
3. Since the beginning of the 2008 season, the Browns have not had a 100-yard rusher. That’s 19 games without Cleveland RB eclipsing the century mark
4. Since week 11 of the 2008 season, the Browns have scored 10 points or more just four  times.
Quitting seems possible for them Browns. The worst team in the NFL: probably
The fans are getting worse and worse. Perilous times is a understatement for them. If their team wins more then 4 games a season its an alright year. At the end of this year it will most likely be another new coach. Maybe what the Browns really need is a new home. Ever think of that? A city where no where cares and a team that can't get worse...Every season is a war being fought with the Browns and they lose each and every year. When you think of Perilous times in sports you got to think the Cleveland Browns.
If you know of a worse team or you have anything to say please comment below.

Being a Trevian

Being a student at New Trier is not like being one at any other school around. Going through four years of high school here is not considered typical. Ya we have classes, extracurriculars, sport teams, and social lives to balance everything out. We have a student body of over 4,000 and yet we have NO spirit and support for our teams. New Treir is the only school that winning a state championship is normal. This past week our field hockey team won the title and i bet more then 70% of the students didn't know. Of the people that knew a few of them actaully thought it was cool. We are the most divided school around we have more "cliques" then any other school around. Its not that they dont get along with eachother but theres one thing that every "clique" has in common and that is that no one cares about our schools sports. At anyother school if their teams make it to the state championship the whole community would know about it and at the end of the year everyone would remember. At New Trier at the end of the year if you ask majority of the students "What teams played in and/or won the state championship?" many of them would not know. Maybe we are good at a lot of sports but theres no reason why you shouldnt know about the sucess. At New Trier if your not first your last!
Along with sports, grades work the same at our school. We recently got our first quater grades, and majority of the students are getting upset at "B's" in AP classes. This may seem ridiculas to most but that looks pathetic to the straight A student. Students aren't the only ones getting upset, their parents are also involved. For some if you come home with a B you are grounded or punished. But isnt a B above average? Yes but our parents have influenced us to believe that an A is the only way.Would we be as competitive without the pressure from our parents? What would we be like if our parents didnt pressure us as much?

The Fear of H1N1

I was watching the news the other night and  the section about the H1N1 flu. The vaccines have recently come to the public of Illinois. And an amazing amount of people showed up to receive the vaccine. Many more people showed up then they has supply. Parents with young children and really scared and want their child or children to get the shot as soon as possible because it is more dangerous to the youth of the country. So how are the states going to control the spread of the vaccine and how to distribute it. But many states are far from figuring out how they'll distribute the 251 million doses headed their way. There are a number of children with this type of flu and there are some results and stats of this here.
Should people be as scared as they are right now?
I think that they shouldn't be freakin' out because this is just another flu that is more harmful to children then the elderly. Millions of people get the flu every year and yes a fair amount of them die but the only thing you can do is get the vaccine. Once you get that there is little that you can do.
My advice to young parents is to try to get the vaccine as quickly as possible.
Although H1N1 is very contagious, it is no more dangerous then the seasonal flu.
Please let me know your thoughts about the H1N1 flu.

Is the Constitution a Living Document Today?

“Living” documents – putting into use documents written hundreds, even thousands of years ago.

So many people have heard of and used the phrase “living document”.  To define it for those who may not be familiar with the term, a living document (as defined by Wikipedia) is “a document which may be continually edited and updated by either a limited or unrestricted group”. An example of a document that should be represented as a living document is the United States Constitution. Our Constitution we would think is the idea of a “living document” but it is not at all because the Constitution itself cannot be altered.  At all. The text within the Constitution is the same as when it was written by the colonies in the late 1700’s. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights have not been edited, but reinterpreted.  And depending on the Justices and the make up of the Supreme Court, it has been reinterpreted by many people over the  200+ years of US History. It's  considered by many to be a living document.  I, personally, believe that it kind of has to be a living document.  We have shown that it cannot be interpreted based only on the words written in Constitution because it was left some what vague in certain areas.  For example: The rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are guaranteed and are very important, but you are going to have arguments on what those words mean. Some others are also vague and the meanings of them have to be interpreted in order for them to apply to the population today.
So is it really a "living document" or not?
Please let us all know how you feel.

Is the Solution to Health Care that Easy?

Steven A. Burd is the president of Safeway. Safeway is on e of the largest grocers in the world. Steven A. Burd has established Safeway as the company with the ideal health care system for their employees. According to Mr. Burd that there are two things that the health care reform must do 1) It must secure coverage for all Americans, and 2) it must dramatically lower the cost of health care. Health-care spending has outpaced the rise in all other consumer spending by nearly a factor of three since 1980. At Safeway they believe that well designed health care reform, utilizing the market, can ultimately reduce our nation's health-care bill by 40%. The key to achieving these savings is health care plans that reward healthy behavior. As a self insured employer, Safeway designed just such a plan in 2005 and has made continuous improvements each year. During this four year period, Safeway has kept their per capita health care costs flat, while most American companies' costs have increased 38% over the same four years. As much as they would like to take credit for being a health care innovator, Safeway has done nothing more than borrow from the well tested automobile insurance model. Every employee has to take a test based on four main groups which are tobacco usage, healthy weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. And if their tests get better then they get rewarded and if their tests get worse then their premium goes up.
Burd was planning on going to the White House and present his case to Obama. He believes that this would be a logical way to fix the health care crisis and this would help the health care debt and decrease it by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Many people are talking about Burds way of insuring his employees and that he should go to the White House and do something about because his way could work.
Do you think that this is a good way to have the heakth care system? Please let me know what you think.

Are Grades Any Good?

Throughout our class today we discussed grades, and how grades aren't the most important thing in a class. If you are learning and trying your best then the grade shouldn't decide your future.

Every parent wants to boast that his or her child is “a straight A student,” “at the top of her class,” or “on the honor roll.” What generally determines this? Grades of course. Report cards are the first means of measuring a child’s progress through school. Doing “well” in school is measured by a series of letters on a piece of paper: A is great, B is ok, C not so great, and D or F? You’re grounded! Some parents reward children for good grades adding additional value to each letter. 

Are those letters that meaningful?

Studies have shown that there are three main effects of giving students grades First, their interest in the learning the material is lost. Second, they come to prefer easier tasks. Not because they’re lazy, but because they’re rational, and are focused on the grade and not weather they like the material or not. After all, if the point is to get an A, your odds are better if you avoid taking risks. Third, students tend to think in a more grade oriented, and forget what they learn when grades are involved. Students who are lucky enough to be in classes where they don’t get letter or number grades are more likely to want to continue learning the material, more likely to want to challenge themselves, and more likely to think deeply.

In our class: An American Studies I'm not sure how the grades work yet, but from what we have had so far our teachers unlike many others at our school (New Trier) are not focused and concerned about our grades. The two teachers are interested in us learning the material and wanting to See, Think, and Wonder about everything that we talk about. 

I believe that having a class like this is an advantage because at New Trier every student is always worrying about their grade and other people’s grades. No one really cares about what they are learning anymore all we care about are the letters on the pieces of paper. And being at a high school that is so competitive and very grade oriented it is hard to enjoy what you are learning. It is safe to say already that I have learned more in this class so far then possibly all of my other classed combined. 

Why have grades? Do they help or hurt the students?

Please let me know what you See, Think, and Wonder...

Olympics: a Test of Athletes or Politcal Power

As we all know Chicago is not the host for the 2016 Olympic games. :( We all are so sad and bummed that our city is not going to be the home to thousands of athletes in the summer of 2016. Why didn't we get it? It seemed like all Americans were shocked to see Chicago get knocked out first. Weather of not if you wanted the games here it would have meant so much to only the city but our country. But I feel like us the Chicagoans took being a option to host the games for granted.
The fact that the President of the United States Barack Obama is from Chicago we all thought that we would for sure get it. Was his speech to authoritative? to listen to his speech click. Did we really think that we would get to host the games just because the president is from our city. What about South America they have never had the games and they wanted to give them a shot.
Rather then seeing that and thinking that its a good we assumed that the whole world was out to get us. And that politics get in the way of an event that is not meant to be political but it is suppose to consist of athletes representing their country.
If Obama didnt represent Chicago and Michael Jordan did instead would we have gotten the Games? Most likely not, the voters wouldn't have change who they voted for. Maybe one of the best athletes of all time would help our cause. Now we can look forward to another race for the games maybe the 2020 or 2024 games.

Out of Work and Out of the Search

Millions were left out of last months count and many counts before that. Millions are not counted in the unemployment rate. This happens every month more and more people are not counted  in the total number. Why is this? Well its mainly because these millions of people that are not being counted for have stopped looking for jobs let only any work. This does not mean that many Americans don't want job but it is that they have been looking for so long and have failed over and over again that the recession is wearing and beating them up. It man seem like we are a bunch of lazy Men and Women but really we are just looking too hard and have no where to turn.
Some halting their job search because of pure frustration and others because it makes more sense too. By stopping they can become stay at home moms or dads and many more people are going back to school to enhance their degree. By doing this they will look better for employers and maybe the recession will slow down by the time schools over.
Here's one way to look at it. So in High school there's the hottest girl and she keeps getting asked to go on dates with numerous amount of guys and says "No" and at some point you stop asking her out because it get to the point where its like why bother? Its just like that in the Job Market today so many people have been told no so many times that they don't even bother anymore.
So is there a right choice here? Go back to school or stay at home with the family? or could you keep looking for that job because you neven know what door may be opened?

iPhone Changing Labels?

As I was watching the news they had a quick segment about the iPhone and as I was getting up I heard that the exclusive deal that apple has with AT&T is coming to an end within the year. This is both good and bad news. Good for all of the other phone carriers so maybe they can get the iPhone and also bad for AT&T because the iPhone has been one of the best things that has happen as of late. If other cell phone carriers get a hold of the iPhone we will all be likely to see the sales in iPhones go through the roof. No one knows for sure when the deal is to come to an end but people speculate that maybe it will before the end of 2011. Seems like a long time but for monster companies such as Apple a year is not a lengthy as we may think. But ending its exclusive deal with Apple could result in big trouble for AT&T. First, the iPhone has helped AT&T claim new customers. About 40 percent of AT&T's 10 million iPhone customers switched to AT&T from another carrier, according to the company.
Customers have complained often about the poor performance of the the iPhone. And this has had a negative effect on the company's reputation. When users experience problems with the iPhone, they  blame AT&T not apple. Even with all of the complaints nothing major has happened because AT&T is the only provider so if you don't like it then you can't have the iPhone. But if others carriers such as Verizon pick up the phone then you will most likely see many users swith to Verizon because of their problems with AT&T along with many Verizon users getting the new iPhone.
This is not only a huge deal in the United States but all over the world over 50 countries carry the iPhone and over 20 million of them have been sold. What would AT&T be like without the iPhone? No one will be able to tell if that happens. And what if other carriers get a hold of it? What will happen no one knows for sure, but we can all say a lot more iPhones will be sold if exclusive relationship between AT&T and Apple comes to an end.

DUMMY POST fun

My name is jimmy and am going to blog