Blogging 101

In order to blog, you probably should have a creative mind. You have to have the ability to entertain an audience and keep them wanting more. I am not quite sure how I am at that because I don’t really talk to others or my peers about my personal blog. I was told to pick a few topics that really grab my attention and that I am really interested in. They have to be topics that you are fairly familiar with because you are going to be telling others about that topic and you want them to be well informed and make them think you know more than them. For me, blogging is something I try to do whenever I can, but most of the time I am just so busy and never have time. I think of blogging as some time to kind of bond with yourself and use you’re noggin a bit more than usual. Blogging is very relaxing and can actually be fun if you make it out to be.

When I first started blogging, I was very full of new and cool ideas to talk about on my blog, but now I have kind of run out and don’t really have a theme. Sometimes when I am out of ideas I search on Google for current events that I could talk about and put my say into it. A lot of blogs that I have glanced at have some sort of theme or main idea to them, but mine doesn’t. I feel that my blog doesn’t really have a purpose so I never really know what to talk about while blogging. When something randomly clicks into my head when I am not blogging, I just write it somewhere so I don’t forget what I wanted to write about.

I think that typing on the computer is way much faster than writing it out in a notebook. That’s one of the reasons why I prefer my blog over my writing notebook. I find myself finding more things to write about when I am on the computer because I always have the choice to use my search engine or not, but when I am writing in my notebook I have to come up with a lot of the ideas by myself. If I am really desperate for a topic I use my surroundings to help me come up with something to talk about.

I am not very coordinated with computers, so when I try to get new gadgets on my blog and other cool applications, it’s rather hard for me to go through with it because I am not sure how to do it. When I look at other blogs it always makes me feel like I should improve my own blog because I am comparing it to theirs’ and I want my blog to look advanced, too.

When I start a new topic for a fresh blog, I always feel like I need a visual, like a picture or something of that nature. I never want to leave my audience hanging so they are not sure what I am talking about. I always try to include at least one picture for readers. I always wonder what people think about my blog when they see it. Do they think it’s cool? Bad? Random? And if you think it’s random, its okay, because it kind of is.

Blogging 101

RIP Tyler

For many years now, coping with death has been something I have gotten used to. Just Tuesday morning, I lost a friend by the name of Tyler Toll. I have known him for about 7 years now with a couple of no contact years in between. Coping with his death has been a struggle for many, including myself. When I heard the news (about 30 minutes after it happened), I started to shed a couple tears. I couldn’t help myself. Many of my Cedar Valley friends texted me and informed me another time about the incident. He died just about 3 months before graduation.

It’s hard to think about that fact you’ll never know when the person sitting right next to you will be gone, just like that. There is a song by The Fray called “You found me” that I blogged about earlier. That song reminds me so much of this incident. It’s so ironic that the lead singer is talking about how he lost someone on the spot with no warnings, and what happened? Tyler is dead. I have had Tyler in my prayers every night since then.

Michael Phelps... smokes marijuana?

Just recently Michael Phelps was caught red handed in some pictures smoking marijuana. The pot-smoking incident, exposed by the ever-so-famous News of the World through a photo taken at a house party in South Carolina last November, isn't the first time Phelps has fallen off his sports hero pedestal. When he was nineteen he was pulled over by the police after strolling through a stop sign and charged with driving while intoxicated (DUI). After everything was let out and he acknowledged the pictures, he posted this on his facebook site: "I'm 23 years old, and despite the successes I have had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner that people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public -- it will not happen again." The interesting thing is that he has never failed a drug test during his whole career and even volunteered to be further tested to determine whether he is taking performance-enhancing drugs.
I feel rather bad for helping publicize his negativity, but I think stories like this need to be recognized. Celebrities sure are great, but definitely not flawless. They probably make more mistakes than the average person. Some may think that posting this is wrong, but I feel that it is necessary for the public to know about his "wrong doing" and hopefully Phelps regrets his experience and learns from his mistakes.

NEW oldest woman!

Did you hear? Uzbekistan has found the new OLDEST WOMAN. According to BBC, Tuti Yusupova was born in 1800, which would make her 128; the oldest woman to ever walk the face of the earth. She is six years older than the previous record holder; Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died on Aug. 4, 1997 at age 122. She says that the only health problem she's came across over the years is that her hearing isn't as good as it used to be, which is very normal for older people. That's crazy. I can't even imagine living to be that old. If I ever get that old, please just stop the life support coming. People that live to be that old must have been very healthy people. Most of the oldest people claim that they never smoked or drank throughout their entire life. Its really hard to find someone now-a-days that can admit to that.

You found me- The Fray

"You found me" by The Fray


I found God on the corner of 1st and Amistad
Where the West was all but won
All alone, smoking his last cigarette
I said, "Where have you been?" He said, "Ask anything."

Where were you, when everything was falling apart.
All my days were spent by the telephone that never rang
And all I needed was a call that never came
To the corner of 1st and Amistad

Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me
Lying on the floor, surrounded, surrounded
Why'd you have to wait? Where were you? Where were you?
Just a little late, you found me, you found me.

But in the end everyone ends up alone
Losing her, the only one who's ever known
Who I am, who I'm not and who I wanna to be
No way to know how long she will be next to me

Chorus

The early morning, the city breaks
And I've been calling for years and years and years
And you never left me no messages
You never sent me no letters
You got some kind of nerve taking all I want

Lost and insecure, you found me, you found me
Lying on the floor, Where were you? Where were you?

Chorus

Why'd you have to wait, to find me, to find me?



"You found me" by The Fray is one of those songs to listen to on a really bad day. It surely wont bring your spirits up, but it helps cope with whatever problems you may be having. The main idea of this song is about the girlfriend of this guy and she has been hurt. The guy finally finds God... after the fact that she killed herself. The lead singer says these lyrics are exactly what he would say to God if he met him face to face. The lyrics really touch the heart and makes me wonder who I will lose next in life. Finding God is something that anyone can do, anytime. You don't have to wait for him to come around to find you. You have to go to him if you really need help and he will work in your favor.
I think this song is explaining how he didn't go to God quick enough and before he knew it, his girlfriend committed suicide.
If you search around on m.t.v.'s website they discuss why they wrote the song. One of their points was that the lead singer lost his mom to cancer and even though he prayed everyday for a year and she still died. The reason he sings this song with those lyrics is because he had problems after that and he feels that when he found god that it was too late for any recovery, whatsoever. At the end, he realizes that he has been watched over the whole time and that even though he thought God wasn't there for him, he really was. I think a lot of people misinterpret this song to be way more confusing than it really is because it has a lot of meaning to it. A lot of people could really learn from the meaning of this song.
I was listening to the members of The Fray talk about and explain this song on Youtube. They said that they didn't really know what or where the street Amistad was before someone suggested they used it. They believe that it's a dirt road in the country. This song is, by far, one of their best songs yet.

Here's the video if you care to watch it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obhdTlImFBo

Austrailian wildfire

On February 8, a wildfire broke out in Australia raising the the death toll from the deadliest wildfires ever to strike Australia to 128 people. More deaths are expected to be accounted for as they move to land that hasn't been searched yet. It was the largest and deadliest fire to ever occur in Australia. All of the deaths happened in Victoria state. There were 750 home counted that were destroyed from the wildfires. AOL News says that only five houses were left from one neighborhood of about forty. That ratio is incredible. Just think about it. How fortunate would you feel if your house was standing out of eight other family's' houses. I would feel very guilty and ask myself why my house was standing rather than any others. When I hear about disastrous news from other countries or continents, it doesn't physically effect me. I know for a fact that some Americans will read the title and if it doesn't effect them they will discontinue reading it. From what I've heard from foreign exchange students and other media, Americans are perceived as being very selfish and greedy. Don't get me wrong, but some people are like that and you can find people like that in every country. I actually care and feel sympathy for countries that go through hard times, so I figured I would slip a blog in on here about them and recognize that they do need help. I want countries to think globally and put their care and thoughts more into other countries. Sometimes I wonder how many people from other countries actually paid attention to the Cedar Rapids flood of 2008. I know that the day of the flood, it was top story in Spain for the whole day. With as much snow as we got this year, people are claiming that we are going to get hit with another flood. Just hearing that makes me want to start packing my belongings right this very second. Natural disasters are things that people need to take more seriously. Anything could happen to Earth to cause human life to be gone forever.

love life? Nahh.

Most of my friends have boyfriends, but when I really think about it, it’s not something that I need in life right now. Having someone to hang out with, spend time with, and love everyday would be something very nice, but not essential at this point in time of my life. I also think that getting a good education and being involved in sports and extra-curricular activates is more important than hanging out with a boyfriend. When I hear or talk to older couples or parents of my friends about them being high school sweethearts it makes me wonder how they really did with their high school education. Most of them say they didn’t do very good and I bet it was because they were too occupied with their significant other.

My mom always complains about how she is going to be alone for the rest of her life. She doesn’t really get out too much and has been let down by a couple people online. I always tell her that meeting people online is never a good idea because anything could happen, and I don’t wish that for her. She always tells me that she has no way to meet any guys because there aren’t any good places to meet guys. I believe it has to come natural and you can’t go out and look for them because they will come to you. I am always told that I could get a decent boyfriend, but I never really try that hard, and I’m okay with that because I’m better off right now. Now that I am getting older and smarter, I have realized that having a relationship in college would only throw me off. It's one of those things that would be really nice, but not necessary. I would rather just have really good guy friends that I can just hang out with that won't be a distraction.

Another upcoming event has really been bothering me; WPA-Women Pay All dance. I don't have a date, but yet I am too shy to ask any guys. One thing that bothers me the most about WPA is that the girls have to ask the guys. This is definitely not one of my favorite things to do. I'm am never really sure who I want to go with and by the time I decide, normally its too late to ask the person I want to go with because they already have a date. Whenever dances roll around, my self-esteem gets really low because I feel like I'm not good enough for any guys because they don't ask me. I guess that is one thing in life I am going to have to overcome.

Plans for college?

For years, I have known about my step dad's involvement with Mount Mercy. He always promised that I would get a free ride to college because he works there. I never really thought about a back-up plan. Just a about a week ago, my mom informed me that he had been fired for being dishonest with Mount Mercy about something. I was torn. I didn't really know what to think. In about a year, I will be registering for college. That's something that really scares me because now I have to choose where I'm going to start off my life in the real world, unlike a week ago.

In a way, my step-dad losing his job was a good thing. Mount Mercy doesn't have any good medical classes. I am looking to go to a college that offers classes for pediatrics, which is the route I have chosen to begin my career. Lately, I have been reconsidering what I want to go to college for. I feel like I need to talk to people about it and what would be the best job for me because it's something that's going to affect me for the rest of my life.

My math teacher told me that he wants everyone to experience the dorm life for at least a couple years of the time your in college. He says it’s a great way to feel like you’re on your own. He told me that the first couple years of his college career, he messed up completely. Seeing that the advisors are nothing like the counselors during high school, you have to worry about yourself because they won’t do it for you. Being alone without my mom kind of scares me because she won’t really be there for me and I will have to rely on others to get my back. I am trying to prepare for college by creating good study habits because going to college comes with a lot of homework and much studying.

A lot of people also tell me that you have to know your limits. When its late Sunday night and you haven’t finished your homework and some people ask you to hang out, you have to be able to tell them no, even though it’s going to be very difficult. Another important factor to help in college is to actually go to class. People think its okay just to skip class because they don’t have to go, but it does indeed affect them because they miss the whole lesson for the day and gradually get behind and struggle to keep up. People that drop out of high school and expect to get a good job and do good for the rest of their life, usually don’t end up very good in the end. I also feel that waiting a year after graduating from high school is a very bad idea because college normally expects you to remember stuff from your high school classes, but people don’t because they don’t use that information during the year they take off.