The United States No Longer The Best

This is crazy. The reason why all of this speculation has came about the United States losing its dominance is because of the financial crisis that the United States is in. The future of the United States of America is not looking very good right now. They are making it seem as though we are running low on fossil fuels and will eventually run out of them in the future. They make it seem as though we will run out of fossil fuels and countries will start competing for them very soon. I do not think that this is true. I think that it will be a while, at least a hundred years from now, until the acquisition of fossil fuels will become extremely competitive. I used to think that only my children would have to worry about global warming and fossil fuels, but officials are making it seem as though I should be worried about them now because they can affect me also. I really do hope that this is not the case. Even if it is not the case, I still think that we should be careful with our usage of fossil fuels for the sake of future generations. You would think that someone would have thought of some better ways to use other sources of energy. I am sure that people have. The only thing is that those methods, if there are any, are not popular enough. I know that people have made cars that can run on water. Other people just need to work on it to make it better and more popular. It also needs to be affordable. I know that one of the cars that were made to run on water worked, but it did not go that fast. Also, there should be much more solar powered items and wind powered items. I do not know where all of the innovative minds, that the United States used to have, went. I hope that the United States does not fall off of its throne of being the most dominant country. If it does, that could only mean worse situations for us, the people who live in the United States. The United States has been a major if no the most powerful nation in the world for several years. The United States is just going through a tough time right now just as it did back in the 1930s around the time of the Great Depression. However, did not the United States bounce back? Did not it raise back up to its standing as the world’s most powerful nation. I have faith in the United States and believe that everything will be all right. Even if the financial situation of the United States becomes worse than it is today, it will eventually get better. It may take five year. I may take ten years. It may even take twenty years, but it will get better. Hopefully the use of nuclear weapons does not become more likely. I just wanted to say that I am so glad that this is our last blog entry! Hallelujah!

I Love to Eat

I am going to write about how I love eating. I really do love to eat. I will almost eat anything. Many things that my family members and other people may find nasty, I seem to like and eat it. It may not be the best thing in the world, but I will almost eat anything. The only reason why I will not eat some things is because it is not healthy for you. Lately, probably within the last year or two, I have been more conscience about eating more healthy. I have come to realize that I need to take care of my body and eat right, so that I can live a good, long, and healthy life. I have always liked to exercise, and now I do it more consciously than I used to. I still do enjoy exercising even now that I do it consciously. Throughout pretty much my whole life, I have gotten my exercise in by playing basketball. When I was younger, from about five years old up until I got to college, I used to play basketball almost everyday. Those were the good old days. However, ever since I went to college and had to work, I have not been able to play basketball nearly as much. During the school year, I will probably only play basketball (at the most) three times a week. However, I do exercise in some way everyday/night (usually at night). These nightly workouts that I do consists of abs, quadriceps, hamstrings, calf, bicep, chest, triceps, and a little bit of aerobic exercise. I remember when I was younger, from ever since I could remember up until about a year or two ago, I used to eat like crazy and until I got really stuff. Now, I realize that I can not eat like that anymore and not have any consequences with it. I have never had any weight problems; (I have never weighed over 155), but I observed this fact (that I could not just eat like I was crazy) by checking my weight almost nightly. Now I still eat a lot, but not nearly as much as I used to when I was younger and my metabolism was probably a bit faster. I think that everyone should exercise, even if they are the skinniest person in the world. Exercising helps prolong your life and helps certain body parts to perform better. I also heard that exercising helps you feel better and gives you more energy. I have not been sleeping too good or long at night when I have the chance to. I think this is because of me working out at night; (I have weights and stuff at my house). My lack of rest could also come from my body not being accustomed to getting much sleep. If I get five hours or less of sleep on most nights, then when I have the chance to sleep in one morning and get a total of ten or twelve hours of sleep, then it is probably hard for my body to do this because it is used to me getting very few hours of sleep. Despite the “healthy” way of think that I have developed over the past year or so, I still love to eat.

My Life

I am going to write about my life. I was born in Melbourne, Florida. If you do not know where that is, it is about an hour an hour and a half from Orlando. It is on the east coast. Most of the family on my mom’s side lives in Melbourne. I was not raised in Melbourne. I only lived there for about a year or two. After that, I moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. That is in the northeastern part of Florida. I stayed there for about a year or less. Then, I moved to West Palm Beach, Florida. This is about two hours away from Miami. I live there for about one year or less. From there, my family and I moved to Georgia. This took place when I was about four years old. We moved around two times in Georgia. We lived in Clayton County both times that we moved in Jonesboro. We stayed here for about four or five years, then we moved back to Florida. This time, we moved to Poinciana, Florida. Poinciana is pretty synonymous with Kissimmee, which is about thirty minutes or less away from Orlando. So, there were lots of tourists coming there. Most of the stores were like dedicated to tourists and the “great Mickey Mouse.” Like in a Wal-Mart that was there, they sold lots of tourist items and lots of items that had Mickey Mouse and other Disney related icons on them. So, as you could imagine, there were lots of people that did not know where they were going on the roads. There were also lots of Puerto Ricans and Hispanics in general in Poinciana and around that part of Florida that I lived in. This was alright though. Then, from there, my family and I moved back to Florida and live where we currently reside. We moved back to Georgia when I was thirteen years old. I had to start my second semester of ninth grade at a new school. It was kind of difficult at first, being a freshman and going to a new school without knowing anyone there, but I adjusted pretty quickly. The longest my family and I have lived in one spot will be six years in December. As you can see, my family moved around a lot, kind of like how a military family would. My dad is not in the military. He just keeps on getting job promotions that causes us to have to move. Right now, my parents are building a new house in Snellville, about five to seven minutes away from the house that we are living in now. This should be finished by the end of this year. It is a huge house. My parents said that this is the last time that they are going to move. I do not know if this is true because they always want to “grow”. By this, I mean they always want to get a bigger house with better things in it. In a sense, you can say that they are never satisfied. Well, that my life in terms of where I have lived my whole life.

Good and Bad "Art"

One of the pieces of art that I greatly despise is not really just one piece. It is rather a collection of pieces that I despise. I do not like the music that is played at Old Navy at all. This is an example of one of the pieces of music that was played at Old Navy a couple of months ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvKE5xAZttc&feature=related. This is just a little example of the many horrible songs that are played at Old Navy. Even thought this song is no longer played at Old Navy, it sounds very similar to some of the other songs that are played there. I remember when I was younger (as a child), I used to think that the music at Old Navy sounded good. I used to think that the music was bumping and the store had a great atmosphere. This was when my dad was the store manager at an Old Navy store and I would go in there every once in a while. However, now that I am working at Old Navy and have been working there for over a year now, I have had a very good chance to listen to a lot of the music that is played there, and my opinion of the music has greatly changed. I will admit that some of the music that is played there does sound good, but probably about seventy-five percent of more of it sounds bad like this music. Even though I, as well as almost all of the employees that I work with, would consider this music to be bad, this song sounds alright compared to some of the other music that is played there. I really do not think that this music makes folks dumber, but I do believe that it affects my performance and the performance of some of the other employees at my job. When I hear bad music like this, it makes me want to work less and somewhat makes me angry at the people that put that playlist together because they could have chose so many other good songs that may even encourage shoppers to shop there more often. I know that this music affects the performance of some of my fellow employees also because they told me so. One of the pieces of art that remind me that not everyone is a total knob is Lil Wayne’s music. This is an example of one of my favorite songs by him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BHgYkrn9HI. This is his is his “Walk it Out” freestyle. They should play music like this at Old Navy. They could just take out all of the curse words and play it. I know that Old Navy has to appeal to all people by playing a variety of music, but they could still play more music like this. Everyone once in a while (like every three months) a song that is almost like this (a rap song) will be played, but at least three to five rap songs should be on every playlist at Old Navy. Another piece of art that remind me that not everyone is a total knob is Lil Wayne’s “Upgrade You” freestyle ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APS9EwRlNA8 ). This is another one of my favorite songs by him. He is a genius.

Maria Full of Grace

I thought that this movie was all right. It was a lot better than that first movie that we watched. I do not even know if that should even be considered a movie, but I guess it is. I guess it could be considered a documentary. However, Maria Full of Grace was not a bad movie. Out of all the wonderful movies that you could have chose you chose this one? To add to this, the movie was in Spanish, and we had to read English subtitles the whole time. If it was in English, then I am sure that the movie would have been more enjoyable. I guess I should just be happy that we could even have the privilege of watching a movie. Thanks James. I really did not see any religious symbolism in this movie until you mentioned it at the end of class and people started pointing out different things. You said that there were crosses “everywhere” in the movie, but I really do not remember seeing one. There may have been one on the necklace that Maria was wearing, if she even was wearing a necklace. If I am not told to look for something like symbolism in a movie, then I probably am not going to notice it too much unless it is very obvious. When I watch a movie, I am expecting to be entertained. I am not trying to think that hard and that deeply into the movie to try and find something that is not obvious, especially if the movie does not really ask or want you to figure something out (with them stating it pretty explicitly in the movie). Some movies do have a pretty obvious (religious) undertone/symbolism in it, but this movie’s symbolism just was not that obvious to me. I do see how this movie does has some religious symbolism in it because of how the main character’s name is Mary and she is pregnant. This is just how Mary in the Bible was pregnant with Jesus. That is about the only way in which this movie was religiously symbolic (that I can think of). That guy does look familiar. I believe (and am pretty sure) that that is the guy that worked in that building and sat at a desk. He was the guy that tried to help Maria and Blanca find a job. It is pretty neat how this guy does what he did in the movie in real life. I think that what he does is very good. He tries to make sure that the drug mules that die receive a proper burial. I think that it is pretty sad how his mom died, but at least she was doing a good deed when she died and not smuggling over some drugs. I really do not find anything rug with people being drug mules. People are going to find illegal drugs one way or another. So, I think that they might as well be able to bring the drugs over. I do not think that it was right in the movie how the police officer, at the airport, stopped Maria just because he thought that she might be a drug mule. There really was not any sufficient evidence that would prove that she was a drug mule by just looking at her. Those are my thoughts on this movie.

Great Depression Oral Interview

I am going to write about the interview in which Horace Clayton was the interviewee. Studs Terkel interviewed him. According to the source given by this blog assignment, Horace Clayton was an African American that is talking about poverty. In my opinion, Horace Clayton sounded like a white man because of the way he said some things and what he said. He was referring to black people as “Negros.” I thought that only white people called black people Negros back in those times. I did not know that black people called other black people Negros as well. I guess I am mistaken. Also, he was saying that he dressed better than some of the other black people. In a sense it seemed as though, he looked down on the other black people, as if he was not a black person himself. He also made it seem like he was better than the other black people and looked down on them because of the tone of his voice that he used when he was saying certain things about them. I think that this is extremely wrong. I do not think that anyone should look down on anyone else no matter how much higher in society they may be. Someone should definitely not look down on someone that is within the same race that he or she is in. I like how he said that the black people stuck together when it came to laying down on the ground together. I think that people should stick together like this, no matter if it is the same race sticking together or multiple races sticking together. Americans should stick together as a whole. Hopefully, Barack Obama becoming president will help all Americans, no matter the color of their skin, stick together. I think that Americans of all races have grown closer together since the days of slavery and are continuing to grow closer together and erase race lines. This is shown through Barack Obama becoming president. Not all of the people that voted for and supported Barack Obama were black. This shows that many Americans did not care if Barack Obama was black or white, which is a great thing. I thought that it was kind of neat how Horace Clayton was with the other African Americans, but he did not get beaten like some of the other blacks did. I wonder why this was the case. Maybe it was because he was better dressed than the other black people were; or maybe it was because he was light skinned (I do not know if this is true or not). I thought that this would not matter. I thought that as long as he was black, he would be getting the same horrible treatment that all of the other blacks got. Although some of the words Horace said may have sounded like they could have came from a white person, the way in which he talked sounded like a black person. I do not know how to describe it, but the way he talks sounds like he could have been black regardless of what he actually said.

Democratic President and Congress

I think that the effects of a democratic president and a democratic congress will be dramatic. I think that they will be great also. Of course I will naturally think this because I am a democrat. Also, Bush (a republican) has been president long enough and it is about time a democrat is president again. With both congress and the president being democratic that is even better. This country under President Bush has been a mess. We have engaged in a war that was not even necessary. We have spent way too much money on a war that was not even necessary. The economy is worst than it has ever been since the great depression. All of this took place with a republican president. Hopefully, all of this will change with a democratic president (and congress). When the president and majority of congress are of the same party, (most of the time) they can get a lot more accomplished than if there is divided government. To go along with this, it seems as though Barack Obama is a very active president and will get the job done. I know that it is a little early to say this because he has not even became president yet. However, I can conclude that he will “get the job done” just by how he carries himself and by how he has acted these past few days. It has only been a few days since he was elected to be the next president of the United States and he is already appointing (or trying to appoint) people to different position in the new government that will be formed when he is president. That is very good. If he is doing this much now, just imagine how much he will do and (try to) accomplish when he is president. I am so happy that he won the election between him and John McCain. For one thing, he black. This is great for America as a whole and shows that the United States has come a long way since the days of slavery and is still growing. It is also good for blacks also. Hopefully, this will help blacks out and cause them to be better looked upon in society. If McCain became president, like Obama kept saying, it would be “eight more years of Bush’s failed policies” because “McCain voted with Bush ninety percent of the time.” He calls himself a maverick, but I do not see anything that resembles a maverick by his voting history, which coincides with Bush’s. Hopefully a democratic congress and a democratic president will bring about the needed change that needs to take place in the United States, and it is more likely to happen because their will not be a divide government. I know that this change may take some time, but I am confident that they will be able to work things out. I really do hope they do because I do not think that some people can continue to live the way in which they are living now for a long time.

No Sleep

I am not getting enough sleep at all. I heard that you are supposed to get at least eight hours of sleep a night. Instead, I usually get about four or maybe five hours of sleep per night. I know that this is very bad. This is just how much sleep I usually get. At the most, I will sleep for four to five hours a night. I heard that if you sleep more than eight and less than six hours of sleep per night, then you are more prone to be obese. This may be true, but this will definitely not be true for me. I will never become obese. I work out and play basketball too much to become obese. Anyways, I also heard that it is very important for you to get the proper amount of sleep at night so that certain parts of your body can function properly. Also, when I am sleepy, which is pretty much always, it is hard for me to stay focused in class and to work at my job (which is at Old Navy). I know that it is pretty much my fault that I do not get enough sleep. I need to stop procrastinating so much. I procrastinate with almost everything that I do. I procrastinate when I am going to work by leaving at the very last minute that I can in order to make myself right on time. I procrastinate when I am going to school by doing pretty much the same thing as I do when I go to work. I procrastinate with my homework by waiting until like five o’ clock to do it when I have off that day and when I do not have school that day as well. I also procrastinate when it comes to studying for a test by really studying only like the day before or the day of the test. When I do this, I usually only get like one hour of sleep or no sleep the day before the test. Sometimes I actually stay up twenty-four hours! That really is ridiculous, but I do what I have to in order to make a good grade. I know that I should not wait until the day before the test to study for a test though. I really do not even know if I will even do well on a test if I study for it weeks before it is actually time for me to take the test because I have never tried it. Another thing that could be keeping me from getting sleep at night is the fact that every day (usually at night time) I workout. I heard that it is not that good to workout (especially with weights) at night time because it will keep you up. I think that this may be true. This does not really have anything to do with when I actually go to sleep, but I think it does negatively affect the quality of my sleep at night. I must change my ways so that I can get more hours of sleep at night.

Congo Conflict

I really could not tell you what all of this is about. I do know that what these people are doing is extremely wrong. First, they (some of the retreating Congolese soldiers) are invading other people’s land. That alone is enough. You should never go on someone else property, of whom you do not even know, unexpectedly. They not only invaded other people’s property, but they also raped women. This is also very immoral. I think that raping a woman is one of the worst things that you can do to her. I think that this conflict that is going on is crazy. It should not be going on in the first place. This is just like the War in Iraq. All of this fighting and killing could have been avoided. Now, like the article says, several thousands of people have vanished from the refugee camps. I really do not know why this would happen. Maybe they left to find more food. Maybe some of them left also to find more medicine. I really do not know why they left the refugee camp. You would think that that would be one of the safest places for them to be staying. Maybe they believe otherwise or know that this is true but are too strong willed to stay at the refugee camps. I think that these two sets of people should resolve their problems and do so without violence being involved. For one thing, soldiers (I am sure) are getting killed pretty much for no reason because there is no need for them to be fighting. Also, innocent civilians are also being harmed by their fighting taking place. It is enough for a soldier to be harmed because they are pretty much expected to be harmed in some kind of way. However, it is even more heart crushing to know that lives of innocent people are being harmed. I am sure that innocent people have been killed and harmed in some sort of way with this current War in Iraq. (I really do not watch the news and keep up with the War in Iraq too much to know whether or not this is true). The American news programs probably do not want to report these incidences because they know that (most) Americans will look down on it. I know I do. I do not care how bad a problem may be; I think that any problem can be solved without fighting. I really did not fully understand why this conflict was taking place. However, I do know that it should stop as soon as possible so that more innocent people will not be harmed and more innocent women will not be raped. I think that they should quickly find a way to get those people more food because without it, of course, the people will die. The love ones of these people that will die from starvation will also be harmed. This is another way in which this conflict has negatively affected the lives of the people in that region of the world.