Sgt. Ashbacher? Beleive it or not...

About a couple weeks ago, I decided to check out the benefits for the army and get a little bit of information. Last Wednesday, I found myself on a bus heading to Des Moines. That night I took the exam called the ASVAB which qualifies or disqualifies you for the job you want and the following day I was examined for everything under the sun that could be wrong with me and took my physical and swore in. The categories on the ASVAB include: general science, arithmetic reasoning, word knowledge, paragraph comprehension, mathematics knowledge, electronics information, auto shop, mechanical comprehension, and assembling objects. Most of the questions on the test are rather questions of common knowledge. I did very well for a junior in high school. The average is about 35 and I scored a 71. The test took about 2.5 hours. After that we headed back to the hotel to eat and get some sleep. They told me that I could qualify for any job that I wanted. Everything seemed to happen to me so sudden. I could believe that I was actually at MEPS, making everything final.

Patience is one quality about my personality that came very useful in Des Moines at MEPS. I felt like all I did was wait, wait, and wait some more. Everything was so secure and safe. I never thought that I would ever do anything like join the army. Wake-up call was at 4:15 on Thursday to get ready for the physical. We ate breakfast and were on our way. When we got there, we had to line up and take attendance. We then met with our sergeants about the plans for the day. We then started our physicals.

I learned that if something wasn't that important about your physical history, just not to say anything about it. The less you say the better. My sergeant told me my favorite words are no and never. I felt bad not telling them, but just wanted everything to go quicker. I had my blood drawn to test for AIDS and other diseases, used a breathalyzer, had to take a hearing and eyesight test, peed in a cup to test for drugs (primarily marijuana), took a pregnancy test, had an interview with the doctor, had a head-to-toe examination, and perform exercises in front of a doctor and a nurse with my undergarments on to test my muscle capability.

All of that took about five hours. I was tired and felt violated with everything I had to do. Next, I met with a guy to discuss my job availability. He told me that the job I wanted, Health Care Specialist, was open and was the last spot available. I was very relieved. Seeing that I won’t be leaving for a while, there aren’t too many jobs to pick from because the date is so far ahead. He set up all the paperwork and I had to sign an endless amount of papers. The next eight years of my life are planned. Just saying that makes me nervous. I can’t believe I committed to such a big thing. I was fingerprinted and then had to take a survey.

My day was almost over, but before I left the most important part still remained; swearing in. After all the paper work was signed, my physical was over and done, I had to memorize a phrase that I had to say with my right hand raised in front of other members of the military. Swearing in meant that this was it and there is no turning back from here. I currently leave for basic on June 30, 2010. Wish me luck.

El verano esta viniendo!

Summer is almost here and with that said many parents are worried that they won't be able to handle the expenses. During the summer, kids in elementary school, middle school, and high school tend to rack up the parents' bill with camps and summer activities. For kids that are still fairly young, not being a daily attendee in school takes a whole new impact on parents. This means that they have to have constant supervision by them or someone else. Babysitters are often needed when in this situation, but most of them aren't cheap. Some charge up to minimum wage or charge per child. Parents might need to rethink whether going out for a night together is actually worth it, considering the total price of everything.

For high school students, it's a whole new story. They run up the bill with things like sports camps, hosting get-togethers, money for going out, pool passes, and things like such. In high school, there is a lot of competition between sports players and who's better and that's why more teenagers hope to go to summer camps so they are ready for that sport before the year actually starts. Summer is also a time for the reverse affect to occur. Getting a job during the summer is something that every teenager should have to do to reduce the cost of everything.

Summer is a prime time for families to take trips to places with each other. It's really the only time of year where they have enough time to do whatever they want without worrying about time. Now with limited budgeting within families, they are debating whether to go or not. They are now searching for places closer to home where they can do similar things, rather than spending the money to travel (especially considering the money it takes for gas money these days).

If you find yourself in a tough position as a parent, there are ways to tell your children that there are other options. They may be disappointed, but assure them that everything is okay and for them not to worry. Many kids love to go to the local pool so you could buy a family pool pass, which assures that you all could have a lot of family time. Another option is to offer a trip to a local theme park once or twice. It may not be as nice as the one you normally attend in a different state, but they are sure to have a good time regardless.

Superior Relationships 101

Finding a stable relationship is something most everyone struggles with. Any highschool relationship is normally pointless and inane. Sorry to break it to you ladies and gentlemen, but most high school relationships don't last more than a week. According to suite101.com, there are seven terms you need to drill into your brain about any relationship.
· Freedom
· Respect
· Commitment
· Trust
· Healthy conflict resolution
· Support
· Equality

Unfortunately, relationship usually don't last very long becuase people fail to sustain them. There are so many distractions that can keep you from having a long-lasting relationship (friends, family, work, addicted to only the physical part of the relationship, drugs, basically anything). A relationship should not be revolved around giving. Doing something for him or her is something that should happen in a relatioship often. Something as simple as buying flowers for them or setting up a date sometime can often spark the relationship and prevent the flame of love from burning out.

Avoid arguments and fights as much as possible. They can only lead the relationship in the wrong direction.

Tearing down the projects of Chicago

Due to low income many chicagoans families have lived in trashy, public housing, but now due to the poverty in Chicago, the city has been having to demolish them because they are getting too overwhelming. Instead of having poor, low-income housing, the federal government is making better quality housing for people. By making Chicago look like a wealthier city, they are tearing down the projects in order to have land to construct million dollar houses. Due to the raised price in housing, Chicagoans are now moving out of the city to similar cites nearby, such as Cedar Rapids. There was a drive-by a couple weeks ago in downtown Cedar Rapids. The shooter's name is "Derrick Roberts who was arrested Friday under suspicion of attempted murder, intimidation with a weapon and willful injury", says the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

That shooting might be a sign that more violence is arriving in this city because of the new Chicagoans. This was something that would go on anyways, regardless of whether the Chicagoans are moving here. I think that violence is something that Cedar Rapids needs to pay more attention to. Even though it is hard to stop someone before they are about to kill, it can be stopped and I believe that it should be. I feel as if demolishing the projects of Chicago is something that the government shouldn't do because when they replace it with one person's house they aren't doing things in order to please the most people as possible, which is what they should be doing.

To see a slide show of some of the largest projects in Chicago, check out this link.

http://think.mtv.com/044FDFFFF00989E1E001700992665/

OH no! Got swine flu?

As many people have heard, a breakout of a type of influenza by the name of Swine influenza has been traveling around part of the United States, Mexico, and parts of Europe. Not only is the swine flu very popular and growing in Mexico, but it is heavily spreading around in the United States. There are currently nineteen states that are either expected to have the flu or are for sure at least one person has it in the state. The most effected state is New York with 50 confirmed cases. There have been an incredible number of 68 deaths in Mexico already and over one thousand people infected. The swine influenza was raised to a level 5 pandemic on April 29, 2009.

Swine flu is usually diagnosed only in pigs or people in regular contact with them. The majority of the cases are occurring in people from age 25-44. I think that this is something that people need to take in and realize what kind of damage it can do for our country. Yeah, sure, the news cast does exaggerate a lot of stories in order to make money, but these kinds of pandemics could tear up the entire United States, just as the "black death" did in the late 19th century during 1347 and 1351. It is considered one of the deadliest pandemics in American history. It was spread around all of Europe by fleas and with the help of the black rat.

If anything, there is one thing to look forward to during this whole time of sickness; if one gets sick, they cancel school! I know we are all looking forward to that, hoping not to be the one that gets sick. You would think that more people in Iowa would be retracting the flu because we are all farmland and own so many cattle. There has not yet been one person with the flu in Iowa. I think that one of the reasons that the news overstresses the pandemic is to scare Americans into being more careful and sanitary than they have to be in order to stop the spread of the flu.

The last time that America has seen any traces of this flu was in 1976 when David Lewis of Ashley Falls, Massachusetts had been killed during his army training. After he caught it, 500 after him retracted the flu and died. Before that there was a massive killing of the swine flu in 1918 that killed 500,000 Americans and two million people world-wide.

There are some very simple ways of avoiding the swine flu. Since influenza spreads between humans by sneezing or coughing or people touching something with the virus on it and then putting into contact with their own mouth or nose, the easiest way to avoid it is to wear a face mask around pigs or other people with the flu and/or just simply don’t be around them. Scientists and researchers have not yet found a cure for this pandemic, but they are very close to one, possibly finding one within the next week. BE CAREFUL, please.

Mexico- the other follow-up

Over the few days we spent outside building the house, I got to know the family pretty well. I was one of two people out of 22 that could actually have a conversation in Spanish. Conversing with the family was one of the most memorable experiences during the whole trip. There were three members of the family: the mom, the dad, and one son.

The son was very sweet and had a very cool personality. The sun was so hot when we were working. We finished the house very fast compared to previous mission groups, so we got to have a lot of chill time. Getting to know the family was something I cherished, but the friendship I made with them was so hard to leave behind. I found out later that we have no way to connect with them after we leave the work site. I actually cried when I heard the news.

We stayed at one church during our stay in Mexico; Jesucristo es la respuesta, which means Jesus Christ is the answer. We were told that the church we stayed in was one of the nicer ones in the whole town. We even had the chance to attend a Spanish church service. One of the most memorable moments during the service was during worship when a song that both the Mexicans and the Americans knew. No matter what language you’re speaking, God always knows what you are saying.

The ride home was treacherous. I had such a hard time sleeping because I was too busy recalling all of the cool experiences I had during the trip. Going to Mexico made me realize how much I have compared to people of other areas.

Mexico- the follow-up

This is the end to the last Mexico trip blog I posted. It felt like it took years to finally arrive at the border. One thing that really shocked me was the lack of security they had when entering Mexico. We rolled down the windows to the Excursion and held our passports right next to our faces. Without checking the dates on them or really paying attention to the connection between the picture and our faces, they let us pass through. It was obvious that they didn’t care about what passed through there. The thing they cared about most was us entering back into the United States. We passed about 300 cars trying to enter into the U.S., most of them Mexican.

The change between El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico was such a downgrade more than I can even explain. You would have to see it yourself to believe me. It seemed as if everywhere you looked was the “ghetto”. Buildings were run down, small, and had graffiti tattooed all over them. There were Mexican people trying to make a living out of selling pop and miscellaneous items on the street corners or on the median between going and coming traffic. There was more poverty in that one city than I had ever seen in my entire life. Overall the scarcity, deficiency, and poverty Juarez was so beautiful.

I felt so much of their pain throughout the four days I stayed there. Little things like not being able to use the tap water, taking cold showers, surviving the awful wind and sandstorms, the dreadful beating sun, the violence, and scarce materials really made me think of how much better life is for me, yet I still complain.

The house that the family had already was made out of cinderblocks, a material that acts like a freezer in the winter and a sauna in the summer. I felt so bad for the family. Their bathroom wasn’t connected to the house and was made out of plywood and duct tape, barely standing up. It looked like random scraps were holding it up. Since the family didn’t have running water anything other than a liquid put down the toilet was to be washed down with a bucket of water.

Too fat to fly?

United Airlines is currently charging "extra-wide" passengers for an extra seat. Now the flight attendants will be on the plane looking for large passengers who can't buckle their seat belts or put their arm rests down completely. This is something that should've been paid more attention to earlier. They are doing this because the weight of one person may be the weight of two, which cannot happen or the weight of the plane won't be evenly distributed throughout the whole plane and could cause problems, especially when the bad whether kicks in because there could be uneven balancing.

If the plane is full, the overweight passenger is to wait until two seats are available that they can purchase. The passenger either has to choose from buying a whole extra seat or upgrading to a cabin seat. One of the reasons companies are doing this is to try to make the goal to make sure that the majority of the passengers are happy and comfortable while still making a profit on the discounted seating.

This will also solve any of the problems with neighbors having to deal with 'crowded space'. A lot of overweight people do not feel that this is right for them to have to pay for being a larger person. They think that it would be more sensible just to have to pay a little extra. Now that United Airlines has issued this new "law" more and more airline companies are starting the new trend as well.

Purchasing a second seat comes in helpful also for the passenger, however. Most say that it is very uncomfortable if you don’t and one seat makes you very sore after you get off the plane. It used to be that the airlines would just offer you a seat out of politeness, but now they are charging passengers because they were losing too much money considering 35 percent of all United States citizens are obese ( according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

In my opinion they should either make the seats wider, or keep charging passengers double the original price, making them very angry. If I was riding on the plane and the flight attendant approached me telling me that I am too big for just one seat I would feel very embarrassed and humiliated. That is why I would ask for a second seat even before I boarded the plane so that wouldn’t happen.

Airlines are even scrapping unnecessary items such as magazines, telephones, and occasionally life vests to make up for overweight loads. Another way to make up for people’s weight is to decrease the size and weight of their carry on bags.

Smokers can increase cancer chances by consuming fruit?

Yes it's true. On Wednesday, a new scientific study says that smokers could increase their chances of contracting colon cancer by eating fruit and vegetables as oppose to non-smokers. Consuming fruit actually helps non-smokers from catch colon cancer.

"People who eat 600 grammes or more vegetables and fruit a day appear to have a 20 to 25 percent lower chance of developing colon cancer than people who eat 220 grammes or less."

- Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment

Protection against colon cancer through the consumption of fruits and vegetables all depends on the amount of smoking the person does. I think that this should be a wake up call for smokers. If someone loves fruits or vegetables, or better yet is a vegetarian, they would have to pick between the two, or risk the chance of contracting colon cancer.

In the Netherlands, colon cancer is the second most popular type of cancer right below breast cancer. The conclusion for the research about this project took approximately eight and a half years and questioned about 500,000 people about their smoking and eating habits within ten European countries. It was the first study conducted that examined the effects of fruits and vegetables on smokers versus non-smokers.