Mr. Compton and his crap

Me. Compton brought up some very valid points in his presentation and in his documentary, Two Million Minutes. However in his search to scare the hell out of Americans, he scewed and stetched his support and evidence so to the extreme, and in my opinion well out side the line of acceptability. The schools that are chosen in India and China are both public schools, Carmel High School is a public school. The city of Bangalore is the 3rd largest in India with over 5,000,000 inhabitants, thats quite the pick of the litter in my opinion for one school. The city of Shanghai has more that 14,000,000 inhabitants, way more than Bangalore and 217 times more than the number of people in Carmel, Indiana: 64,400. Granted I would have accepted the information if he had choosen two students from say New York Cities top preperatory school. Undoubtably the differences would be much more minute. Also the charter school visited in Shanghai is funded by a the Xiwai Corporation. If thats not biased than I don't know what is.

Christmas time is here.

I love Christmas time. Its the time of the year when everyone enjoys cpending their money. Its the time of the year where it starts to get a little chilly and then all of a sudden you wake up one morning and unexpectedly there is snow on the ground. Well, maybe not around here. Its the time of the year when the clothes begin to layer and the brains begin to fire on all cylinders for the imminent finals week. Coming from New York, where the Christmas meal is planed for a month in advance. Where there are more cookies than there are counter space to keep them. And where there are more cooks in the kitchen than there are cooks. Christmas time is when the world slows down a little at the end of the year, getting ready for the next one, bringing up the caboose of the holiday train. Christmas time is a time to reflect upon one's self and plan on what you could do differently or better for the next year, the next christmas.

Two weeks forward

There is only two more weeks left in this semester, and only this week is in actual class where next week is reserved for finals administration. This is the first time in a while that I'm both worried and calm. Im calm because I have actually cared about my grades, for the most part, for the whole semester (a task normally half-heartedly attempted however never accomplished) and have good grades to show for it. I am worried however because I have cared all semester and some kind of phenomena forces me to worry more and more with every passing day that goes without studying for my critical Bio Lab final the week I come back or the term paper due for English 1101. I am glad I have developed this uncanny "phenomena" to care about my grades and their outcomes because for the first time in my long standing academic career I feel like the grades actually represent an outcome in the immediate future. In four years these grades could either mean I go out and get a job, I get a nice job offer, or I continue my education at a higher level. Hopefully the care I have "cantracted" this year for my grades will play out for the next three years and if I'm lucky enough through the rest of my life.

Thanksgiving: Boro style

Last night, my roomates and I hosted a small Thanksgiving get together, about ten people. It was alot of fun and different because all the dishes were made by college students, and from personal experience nothing tastes better than turkey and the works all made by your college friends. We all sat around the table and destroyed the food but there was plenty of left overs. I love the hollidays. When the holiday time of the year rolls around, you see people hold the door for others more often, people donate more to the Salvation Army santa's; everyone puts a smile on this time of the year, as long as it isn't so as blustery as it was out this morning. All our friends gathered around our upturned beer pong table and ladened it with food; we did it more or less pot luck style where the roomates made the turkey and everyone else brought a dish with them. As the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, bisquits, pumpkin and banana bread. It was a feast for kings, even though I doubt kings ate at ten o'clock at night. All the boys then went into the living room and began the movie "Elf". Then the girls cut up dessert for the guys and sat down and made themselves some smores. It was like we were a big ole family, just hanging out after thanksgiving, like we had done it years before, and will hopefully continue to do in the future.

Election Schmelection

Who wants to vote for either of these candidates? John McCain is a mid-seventy year old veteran who, during all three debates, just stood there and pointed fingers at Obama and was nasty to him the whole time. McCain wants to help people stay in their homes by more or less butchering the value of America's homes. He then wants to fix health insurance by letting small businesses decide if they want to give health insurance. If they don't, which many will not if not forced. Obama wants to give everybody a $5,000 "credit" to help float the average plan of $5,800. This seems like a promising plan to me, no matter what your financial situation you will still recieve $5,000 you can get yourself either a basic by just adding a thousand dollars or so or a better plan by adding say $10,000. I only see two big problems: Where is this money coming from and how are these credits going to get payed back. Many people are going to take the credit on the basis they can't pay it back, thats exactly how we go into our financial crisis now, bad home loans.
I also haven't heard a thing about new fuels. I have heard alot about the heated debate between the two senators about off shore drilling; drilling that can only deliver about 5% of our consumption. McCain says we need to do it and do it know, "we need to show the world we have our own fuel supply." Well we do need to show we have our own fuel supply, but we don't have one! And we never will with off shore drilling. I think that Bio-Fuel or another alternative resource be thouroughly developed right here in the United States. That way we will own the means of production for the new world. No more polluting the air with the drilling of oil in the Middle East, and no more supporting governments simply for their means of oil. Instead of consuming 75% of a product that is killing our earth and making massive amounts of money for a foreign power we need to be the top manufacturer of an alternative fuel. An alternative fuel or means of energy found, developed, and produced, in the U.S. would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and in the same stroke lower all prices (assuming that all prices are based on the inclusion of shipping and transportation costs). This would create a BOOMING economy, one the world has never seen before. But hey, what do I know, Im just a college freshman writing a blog.

America- The Land of the ...

Why is America so great? Is it because we have a huge GDP? Or is it because we can vote? Or is it because of our great military? Or maybe is it because of our huge mesh of cultures? Well sure we have a tremendous GDP for the population of our country but the majority of that money is funneled towards big business executives, most of the countries working population is in a credit crisis and are struggling to hold on to their houses from day to day. With our GDP so high we purchase 25% of an indefinite fuel supply that powers everyday essentials such as cars, buses, and airplanes, petroleum. Consuming so much drives up the price of petroleum for the third world countries who don't have a GDP able to support promising research on alternative fuels, something the U.S. could easily fund. Voting. This is an election season and personally i believe we have two incompetents running for office. Barack Obama has served only one term in the Senate, no experience, has plans of increasing the US budget, poor economics, and plans to cut taxes. He wants a change without explaining how his is really gonna work. John McCain on the other hand would rather sit at a debate and repeat himself time and time again with his housing market "buyout" and then point fingers at Barack and say nasty things. McCain might as well read George Bush III supporting almost identical funding planning as the Bush Campaign, keeping taxes off the wealthy. Our great military is fighting a ten billion dollar a month war that most people believe is to hunt down the people responsible for 9/11. They are confused. The bulk of this money is spent in Iraq which we first entered seven years ago under the suspicion that Sadam Hussein, who I believe is dea, was hiding nuclear weapons, which we have. Well if its none of those it must be our huge mesh or cultures, right? One in every five black men is in some phase of the correctional system, one in seven of hispanic men. Gangs once formed in means of protection are now soliciting illegal activities and substances that flood the streets of low income city areas into battle grounds and trafficking networks. Im not being racist but simply trying to say that if this is what so called "minorities" have to do for oppotunity than something is wrong with the equality system. I still want to know what makes America great.

Home Sweet Home

I had some friends from Roswell come down this weekend to visit the roomates and I. We love having company come down because it isn't too much of a hassle to have them in our townhome. Whenever family or friends come down it makes me long for home: my two dogs, my huge queen sized bed, my windowless room, the bigscreen, my back deck... I miss the privacy I guess would be the central theme. In Roswell, however, it is not always so private. Whenever I drive my red sports car through my neighborhood, even at the speed limit, I am always eye balled by the parents who are walking letting their children ride their bikes a hundred feet in front of them and yell at me when their kids veer out into the road. Teenagers are hated in Roswell by many of the young parents. I can't blame them because many people moved here when Roswell was featured in a few magazines as one of the top ten cities to raise a family in the U.S., but then again there are thousands of students in the area who work, spend money, and help the economy as much as the young parents. There are maybe four or five highschools within fifteen minutes of my house and regulations such as no Junior/Senior war and ten o'clock curfew for minors are in strict effect. After I think about all the balogna that I went through before I left leaves me just a little less home sick so that when I do get to go home, I'm glad im only visiting.