Trayvon

I do not know a whole lot about what went on with this case.  All that I have heard about this case is that a supposedly innocent kid Trayvon Martin was killed by the self appointed neighborhood watch man.  Also from what I heard all Trayvon was carrying a pack of skittles and an iced tea.  Also apparently there was some kind of fight and then he was shot.  I do not know what caused the fight and then the shooting.  Also I know there has been a lot of controversy over how the police responded and a lot of other items involved in the case.

Like I said earlier I do not know that much about this scenario and case.  If I had to take a guess, I would say that the two questions had an impact on the scenario.  From what I know they are not from a good area of Florida.  This could of had a big effect on why the people acted the way that they did.  They were raised in a rough part of town.  This would have caused Zimmerman, the assailant, to think that Trayvon Martin was a bad kid.  This would give him some reasoning for why things may have gotten so physical.  Additionally, Trayvon was out on an out of school suspension.  This would also give Zimmerman some form of motive.  There was probably some sort of intimidation factor and unknown.  If you are a neighborhood watch man and there is some sort of unknown of course things might get a little out of hand.  I am by no means justifying what happened but it is understandable.  Additionally I do not think that there should be this much of an out cry by the public.  

Concussed

Concussions are a rapidly growing issue in today's world of sports.  However, I feel that the leagues do not really do enough in order to protect their players.  For example the NFL is always saying how they provide their athletes with the best equipment in order to protect their players.  But, there are no rules in place requiring players to use said equipment.  Players are not required to wear a mouth piece, and yet that is one of the best ways to prevent concussions.  If the NFL really wanted to crack down on concussions then they would require the players to use the safety equipment.  I do not think that the "big" hits are the cause of all of the concussions. They certainly play a large factor, but i do not think you can take the hits out of the game.  If you're going to do that than you might as well either make a woman's league or a flag football league.  There is a certain amount of pride that goes into being a football player, that people don't understand.  What we do is by no means an easy thing.  It is very hard, but worth it.  Being a football player I feel has affected my views on this a little.  It has given me an understanding about the game that watching it on T.V. can't.  It gave me the understanding that those "big" horrible hits aren't because people are trying to hurt people or things along that line.  It's the fear that is in the game.  You always hear that a wide receiver heard FOOTSTEPS going across the middle.  Without the hits and all of the protecting the league has done making hits illegal has gotten rid of this sacred part of the game, FEAR

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5970086

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5995978

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5996242

Art

I feel that Art in the form of pictures and paintings are something that is kind of a waste of time.  I am not a very creative person.  I mean some paintings and works of art can look good and be interesting, but it is not something that I feel you can deeper meaning out of.  The things that are there are the things that are there.  There are not any alternate meanings or anything along the lines.  I don't understand how people can think there are alternate meanings behind a work of art.  I feel that there is not any real reason behind it.  Like, it may be interesting, but nothing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on.  One form of art work that I can be very interesting is poetry.  I can not write poetry for my life, but I found a lot of the poetry at Casa's Poetry Slam very interesting.  It is a great way to express your feelings.  I think though that only good poetry is interesting.  Not every poem is going to be good as the others, and I feel that those are the ones that are worth time.  But. my all time favorite work of art is watching Roy Halladay pitch to Carlos Ruiz.  It is weird to think of an athletic performance as a work of art, but the way that Roy Halladay does, makes it very clear.  The sequencing and pitch selection that CArlos Ruiz orchestrates is astonishing.  Especially during his no hitters and perfect game.  The canvas is the diamond, Ruiz is the painter (not Halladay) and the pitches are the work of art.  YOu may be wondering why Ruiz, the catcher, is the painter and not Halladay the pitcher.  Carlos Ruiz picks everything out, which pitch to throw and where to throw it.  Without Ruiz, Halladay is still a good pitcher but not at the level he is at now.  In my eyes carlos Ruiz is one of the greatest painters of all time.  He paints a great game every game regardless of who is on the mound.  It is very impressive how he can change so much depending on who is on the mound.  His canvasses almost always come out beautifully.

Post 6

Best Food Item
      The best cheese steak in this local area can be found at Philly's Phamous in Ambler.  First of all their rolls are amazing.  They have these nice Amoroso rolls that they toast.  The meat they use is just so good, and the cheese and onions they use are fresh.  But the best sandwich they make is the buffalo chicken cheese steak.  Their Buffalo Blue Cheese sauce is soooooo good, I could probably drink a gallon of it.  However, the best part of Philly's Phamous is their frequent eater card.  It is just like any other frequent eater card, but you get a free half of a cheese steak.  The people that work there are chill and sign off on like four visits each time that you go there so you get your free half in three visits when it is supposed to take ten.  As good as Philly's Phamous is, there is one flaw with them.  Their french fries are not the greatest.  They are decent but nowhere near what I expected from them.  Their cheese steaks are soo good, and I was expecting their French Fries to be of similar quality but they were not. They were not terrible, they were just average.

Best Person at Profession
     The best person at their profession of all time is Pete Rose.  Pete Rose was by far the greatest hitter of all time.  No one will ever be able to break his record of 4,256 hits in his career.  In order for that to be done, a player would have to average 200+ hits over a career of 20+ years.  That feat is nearly impossible even for some of the greatest hitters of all time.  The consistency that Pete Rose was able to hit the ball was outstanding.  I do not think that it matters that Pete Rose bet on the games that he played.  Sure, it was not the right thing to do but I believe that he deserves to be allowed into the hall of fame.  People that have used performance enhancing drugs are still eligible to be voted into the hall of fame.  Pete has been banned for life.  HE deserves to be put into the hall, he has put up the numbers and should be allowed in.  Never will his record be surpassed, the shear quantity of hits is just insane.  No one was better than Pete Rose at hitting a baseball.  It did not just come to him either.  He would practice for hours at a time hitting, and studying film for any tells that a pitcher would give.  He is by far the greatest hitter of all time.

Annoying
     The thing that annoys me the most is all of the changes that have been made in the NFL.  Yes I agree that some of the changes should have been made, but there have been so many changes that have limited players.  Some of the rules keep people from playing the way they have been taught.  They weren't taught to take people's heads off, but the form that they use is good fundamental tackling.  Some of the hits that have been going on are cheap shots and deserve to be punished.  But not all of them.  I feel that this is destroying the game and making it that much easier for offenses to throw the ball.  I think that the game was at its best when players like Sean Taylor was in the league.  He was a bad ass on and off the field.  He did not care who you were,  he wanted you to feel the pain. He was one of the biggest hitters in the game.  In the Pro Bowl, when players are supposed to be "taking it easy" he laid out a punter on a fake punt.  Brian Moorman had know idea what was coming.  It was probably one of the most electrifying hits I have ever seen in my life.  It annoys me that the NFL is trying to limit this.

► 1:27► 1:27

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPiZjUf9TcQ

1.  I feel that one of the characters that has been shaped the most by the events of her life is Sofia.  There are many chapters that solely focus on Sofia, such as, The Kiss and A Regular Revolution.  These chapters zone in on decisions that she has made throughout her life.  I think that she has moved forward a little because of her decisions.  In A Regular Revolution she has little care for the consequences.  Even if she knowingly does something wrong she does not fear the consequences that are to come.  She was very nonchalant when her mother was reprimanding her for possessing marijuana.  She was actually happy that she was going to be sent to the Dominican Republic.  Even while she was living in the Dominican Republic she was still care free.  She would hang out with her boyfriend without a chaperone and did not worry if she was bringing shame to the family name. When her sisters told their aunts and uncles, Sofia felt betrayed.  I feel that she has moved forward from this because she now acknowledges that there are consequences.  She still makes brash decisions, like running away and marrying Otto, but she knows there is a price to pay for doing so.

2.  One of the positives from this story was Yolanda's conflict with her father over the speech that she wrote.  In the moment it was certainly a negative because they were not able to express how they were feeling and why they did what they did.  In the moment it was hard for Carlos to explain why he was so infuriated with Yolanda's speech.  I do not agree completely with the way that he solved the problem, but part of his solution was good.  When he was capable of explaining the motive behind what he had done, I feel that was enough to make up for their differences.  I do not think that it was necessary or right for him to get her a new typewriter.  I do not believe that is good parenting.  Just because a parent made their child feel bad, does not mean that they have to buy a material item to make it up to their offspring.  It does not send the right message to their kids.  I feel that this conflict was a positive because it showed the blind love between a child and their parent.  Although initially it was negative, in the long run it turned out to be a positive.

3.  I could not disagree more with what the article talked about.  There is a certain reality that the author has to come to terms with and that is that there is always going to be racism and hatred in our world.  He was saying that sports tend to fuel this racism and thought process.  However, he could not be more wrong than what he is already.  Sports do not tear us a part.  Sports, and sporting events are what bring us together as a nation.  In sports it does not matter what race or color you are, all that matters is your God given athletic ability.  Are there some stereotypes that are involved with different sports? Sure there are, but they are not only in sports they are everywhere.  I pretty firmly believe that there is not going to be a day in which there is no racism or hatred.  Besides, sports are something that can bring us through a tough time in our lives, even times of war.  Like during World War II fans would turn towards their sports team for hope and inspiration. Even though there may be some racism strewn through sports, I do not think that it is the biggest issue we haveto deal with

Post 4

Jeremy Lin

This article was interesting to me because I am a sports fan that watches Sportscenter every morning before school.  For about the past week the major story has been about the Lincredible Linderella Story of Jeremy Lin.  The article seemed to be mostly fact with some opinion, however, the author did exclude some facts.  He failed to mention that Lin averages just over seven turnovers per game.  That is a terrible statistic to have as a "premier" point guard in the NBA.  Personally I do not believe all of the hype that is around Jeremy Lin.  He has just had six good games, putting a respectable number of points, but he turns the ball over too much and he can't go to his left.  I see a lot of similarities between him, and Tim Tebow, Mike Vick from two years ago, and Vance Worley from last year.  All of them exceeded all expectations when they came to play early on in the season.  There was very few scouting reports on all of them, so none of their opponents knew what to expect.  But, as the season went on and there was more film on them, their mediocrity began to show.  They were still able to put up decent numbers, but not the superstar numbers from earlier on.  I believe that this effect will happen to Jeremy Lin as well.

Guns

This topic was very interesting to me because we live somewhat near Philadelphia.  A couple of years ago I know that we were among the leaders of murders per year.  That is a rather concerning statistic.  Guns were a big part of all of the murders.  However, I don't think that it should be illegal for people to own a gun.  The Constitution permits us to bear arms.  I do think though, that people should be more responsible with their weapons if they choose to possess weapons. It was alarming to read that Pennsylvania leads the nation in missing guns.  If there is a crime committed with that gun, it is untraceable.  It's scary to think about how many people can get a way with a crime because they are using an unregistered gun.  I feel that the author did a pretty good job with  the article.  It was very opinionated but it was backed up by facts.  Additionally, there were many terms that were unknown, but the author did a good job explain what they meant.

Valentine's Day

I feel that Valentine's Day has now become sort of a scam, and this article backs my thoughts up.  I think that is was become more of an economic day.  Hallmark has benefited greatly from this holiday.  They have been able to sell all sorts of Valentine's Day related goods.  That kind of takes away from the point of the holiday.  It is not supposed to be about who has more money, or who can buy more things for their significant other.  It is supposed to be about spending time with someone that you care about.  I even think that the whole idea of the holiday is pretty stupid.  You shouldn't need a special day to show that you care about someone.  If you really care about that person than you should show it everyday not just one day out of a year.  This article expressed another interesting idea that the author brought up is that less people are getting married due to economic reasons.    This was very interesting because before in the olden days people got married for economic reasons.  Now people feel that they can't get married because of economic reasons.  I thought that was pretty interesting.

Men V Women

The expectations for men and women have changed a lot in 2012.  We are now living in a society where the expectations for men and women can be interchangeable.  Women are now able to enter the work force and earn income for their family.  In other generations only men were supposed to have a job while the women stayed at home and cooked and cleaned.  Women are now expected to be able to do everything that men can.  Likewise men are expected to be able to do everything women can except, give birth.  There is one thing that women cannot be expected to do.  That is to play professional sports, and have an audience.  They will never have the same skills and abilities, and they probably will never be nearly as marketable as men's sports.  Although, men and women now have equal opportunity in society, the mind sets have not really changed as much.  I feel that predominately there is still the idea that men are superior and women are inferior.  Women still have the opportunity to be successful, but the mind set is that they cannot be.  I think there are some disadvantages being a women.  I think that is due to the negative stereotypes about women.  Some of them are that all they can do is cook, clean, stay home, and not have a job and not earn an income.  With a lot of these stereotypes out in the work force it provides many obstacles for them to overcome.  These are all obstacles that a man would not have to face, simply for the fact that they are a man.  I feel that if Carlos were posed the question about the soul mate and having their collarbones broken once every three years, I think that he would answer that he would have his soul mates collarbones broken instead of listening to the music.  I don't think this because Carlos doesn't care or love his wife.  I think this because he lives in a patriarchal society, where the men shouldn't have to make a sacrifice for women, but women should make a sacrifice for men.  This is not just true for Carlos but I feel that this would also be true for most men living in that society.