The Mystery Country......

The place that I want to visit is in Europe. It's in Western Europe and the people speak German, the country has a few internationally known car companies, and has a capitol that was split during the Cold War. Do you know the place? If you don't, it's Germany. I want to visit Germany because first of all, I'm in German II, and from the pictures in the textbook, have decided that it's beautiful over there and that a few of the infrastructural aspects are much better than America. Second, it's right in the middle of the European Union, and I've always wanted to use Euros and see all the countries without having to deal with different monies and laws. Lastly, Anderson has a great exchange program to Germany for a lot cheaper than normal tourist programs. We get to stay for a month for under $2000. 

In the last two weeks, I've continued my petsitting job, gotten some new clients, and prepared for the end of school. With my petsitting job, I walk a golden retriever once every Tuesday for $10 a week. It's lots of fun and provides me with some exercise. I also go, whenever another client needs me, to his house and fill the food and water bowls twice a day for $5 per day. I actually met another potential client while walking the golden retriever, which will hopefully give me some savings over the summer for a car. Not meaning to sound tacky, but if anyone needs someone to take care of their pets, consider me. For band, we've gotten our audition music for next year. It' s kind of hard because we have to know all twelve scales, which can range from very easy to pretty difficult, but it's not that bad.

Overpopulation

Past societies (and present ones) have controlled overpopulation by murdering innocent babies who haven't had a chance to speak for themselves. They have also killed the babies inside of a woman who haven't even lived yet. This poses a problem, at least for me, because I don't think it's ethical to just treat unborn and recently born babies like objects and just take their lives away like you would an animal. Therefore I just don't believe that it's right to develop an plan to make sure that people don't exercise a natural right (having babies). But if I had to, I would tell people to abstain, which can destroy a marriage, because then a baby wouldn't have to die. If couples chose to not abstain, they would then have to use condoms, because that wouldn't make a baby either, and it wouldn't have to die. If people didn't use condoms, the baby would be deported to be adopted in another country. Finally, if people really wanted a child, we would just let them keep it, because a woman should have a right to keep a baby.

My two weeks have been hectic. We've had projects due and have started lots of projects. We've been getting ready for the Biology field trip, which sounds like it will be a lot of fun. Natural Bridge Caverns is awesome, and they have a cool rockwall outside of the cave. I've actually never been to Aquarena springs, and have also not been in a glass-bottomed boat, so that sounds exciting. And Barton Springs is great, especially in some non-lifeguarded portions of it, but I'm sure that the lifeguarded part is good as well. Our student teacher, Ms. Owens, who replaced Mr. Schwarz this semester, is getting ready to leave after the field trip, and we're getting ready for Mr. Schwarz again. Finally, Walk for Water got cancelled and instead of having to just to the ski trip, I can now walk on the 2nd.

Darfur

I think that the people at fault for the mess in Darfur is the Sudanese government. They are the ones that accept money from China supposedly for goodwill and instead use it to fuel their war machine directed at killing civilians. Even though China is still giving Sudan the money for weapons, which is bad because China knows where it's going, Sudan is still the loser here because they didn't listen to the UN and are relentless in their genocide. For China, all they want is to get oil and just give Sudan the money, no strings attached. They don't want to muddy the waters of international transactions because of an ongoing crisis in the country they're investing in. And for the Janjaweed and anyone else who slaughters the people of Darfur, they're just getting paid to do a job. Yes, they will probably have a lot to think about with their conscience later on, but this is probably the most amount of money they've ever gotten. Unfortunately, this exceptional pay leads to murdering innocent people.

For my two weeks, I had fun participating in Shattered Dreams, the drunk driving program that about 50 Anderson students did. For those of you that saw me during the day, "dead," I probably wasn't that good of a dead person. I was laughing and doing assignments instead of my real assignment to be a cruel reminder to the class that I was dead and couldn't do anything. But after school was over, we could talk again and boarded the vans to go to the retreat. I think that the retreat was for people who were more likely to drink and therefore made the people quite emotional. I would have enjoyed it more, except for the fact that I was sick and tired (literally). The day ended with us going to bed at midnight, much to the relief of me.

My Music

I'm not much into many groups outside of Christian or God-related songs and artists, but there are a few that I like. Here are some of the them. Big Daddy Weave is one of my more favorite Christian bands, as they sing about the struggles and high points of being a Christian. Here's the link to his website. I also like the Dave Matthews Band for their creative lyrics and catchy tunes, and because they are close to the place that I was born. Here's the link to the band's website. Finally, I like Jeremy Camp, because he gets Christians to come together as one body and to fight the causes that we are opposed to. Here's the link to his website.

My last two weeks have been fun. For my Spring Break, I took care of people's animals. One of them was a 100 pound golden retriever, and two of them were cats. I got $200 for taking care of the dog for 5 days, and $80 for taking care of the cats for 7 days. Then, during the week, I had 2 projects due, which were sort of annoying, but now it's all over. The only projects we have left, as far as I know of, are the food project and the essay due next Monday. Now it's time to finish out the year and have fun doing it.

God

I have to admit that I'm passionate about God and don't really put anything in front of going to church or youth group except when it's necessary. I am always get fired up at youth group when we have free food, a few songs, and a great message. And the best part about my youth group and church is that they are mainly youth-structured! Instead of the more tedious hymns which have no real passion for God in them, we sing praise songs that are meant to get people jumping. I think that both kinds of praise and worship are great, but when everyone is excited and not just singing the words, it really makes a difference. I don't want to be all "Everyone become a Christian!" on you, but if you ever aren't doing anything on Wednesday at 7, come to my youth group. We won't pressure you or anything, and you'll have a good time. We have video games and food. Fun Fun Fun.
My 2 week review is basically that I was at a youth retreat this past weekend with my church, and that I had a great time there. We sang a lot, and heard some great messages. Before it got cold on Saturday, I even got to swim! The hotel had 2 jacuzzi's. Before that, I had to spend the week waiting for the weekend to come. I just thought that last week was really slow, and couldn't wait for it to be over. In other news, I got my job at Walgreen's! I'm really excited, and if any of you are reading my blog, please stop asking when I'm going to work. I still have to take the background and drug tests. But that's all I have to say.

Love and Forced Love

I think that it is better to fall in love, but Romeo and Juliet was an exception. I think that the issue with that situation was that Juliet was always so loving and obedient to her father, and then she just abrubtly turned on her father. I can see how Mr. Capulet would have let his daughter marry who she wanted if she had a record of being rebellious. But I think that his reaction was way over the line, and too dramatic. On the other hand, falling in love could lead to deadly consequences. If you fall in love with the wrong person, that isn't good, because it usually ends in divorce, death, or another extenuating circumstance. Your parents can cut all ties with you if you pick the wrong person, in their opinion. But overall, most parents aren't sticklers for a wide variety of people, and that's good.

My reflection for these 2 weeks has lots of stuff. Last week, I got to drive down to San Antonio to visit my grandparents. The weather wasn't that great. Then we went to visit my grandma in The Summit, which is a high-class assisted living place. Then during the week, we had lots of projects to work on, and lots of assignments. I am still adjusting to the school life, and am not looking forward to finishing my science project.

Gobal Warming

Well. To start off, I don't believe in gobal warming to the extent that many other people do. I believe that it's a natural cycle, and humans do a lot less to warm the earth than other factors. Even so, it is nice to attempt to help the environment, and putting green energy in is lots of fun, because it doesn't require dependence on a exhaustible energy source. For the people that think that gobal warming is a big deal, unfortunately, even if it were, there would be nothing they could do about it! If one country abstains from releasing excessive pollutants, another country would still be chugging away! But to list some examples for trying to help the environment, I would say that Austin Energy is a good way to start. They are starting to sell green and dirty power. The green power comes from fields of wind turbines in western Texas, but the transmission (the power lines) is not good enough, so the power gets congested, which makes it hard to get any. Our school doesn't really do anything to help the environment, though, because there are no solar panels, no wind turbines, and no tinted windows. They did put in efficient air conditioners, though.



The last two weeks have slowed down, but are still racing by. Most of our projects have been turned in now. The only project I have is the Biology project that is due March 11th. That will be a bundle of fun. The major event that I had to practice for was Solo and Ensemble for band on Saturday, and the spaghetti dinner on Thursday where the ensembles play for parents. Then I have to look forward to filling out the choice sheet completely - depending on whether band double-blocks or not. But the final review of the past 2 weeks are that I have been re-adjusting to school life again. It's hard when you have 3 weeks of break, and right as you are adjusting to being out, you go back again.

A Technological School

In school, as of right now, we use a computer to do many things, such as type letters or blogs, or to create massive projects for many different classes. I use a cell phone and a laptop to keep myself running after school, and use my laptop to play games, research current events for school and not for school, and to write letters. My family has a Wii, and so we use a large television and the Wii to play games using our Wii remotes. We all have mp3 players and use them everyday to enjoy music. These devices have brought us into the 21st century, and have made us heavily depend on technology to solve our problems. I, for example, depend on e-mail to get some late assignments directly to a school computer so that I can print it and turn it in. I take my cell phone for granted, because if I didn't have one, I would have to use landlines. Also, the fire department/police department couldn't track me if I were lost somewhere in the wilderness. So the conclusion about my technology is, I take it for granted too much. I would put the computer in the same category as electricity, even though electricity is needed to run it.

The last two weeks have been slow, but filled with many topics and new starts. The problem with starting over, though, is that one daily grade can totally ruin your beautiful average (thanks, protein synthesis page). But with GradeSpeed now in place, I can always look at my grades and pick up the pace to try to get the grade above a 90, which only takes 2 points in some classes. We have started MANY projects, and have lots of stress over these times, which makes some of us forget things, even with a 2 week window. But, excuses can't be part of this, and we should be able to handle a few projects. Some of them are even fun, like making the video for World Geography! It doesn't involve creativity, which I'm terrible at, and is just my kind of project. But some are just terrible, like involving art and other things, which make me cringe.