Born to run

You begin to look at the world as a much bigger place when you go everywhere on foot. It is amazing to think that no that long ago that is how everybody traveled. Distances seem a lot bigger when it takes two hours to traverse them as opposed to fifteen minutes in a car.
I've been running a lot lately and if you know me or have read my blog before you know that is because I want to sign up for a half marathon in Kansas City in October. I am mostly doing this because a year ago my sister did the same thing. I could probably say something about how she inspires me and makes me a better person but mostly I'm just competitive and can't stand it when she does things that I can't so I want to show her up.
The other day I ran almost the entire perimeter of my hometown. I was so proud of myself because it is one of the farthest distances I have ever run. I decided to go to a website call mapmyrun.com to use their gps maps and see how far I ran. It turns out I only ran 5 miles. What the #@$!%. I almost killed myself and didn't even get halfway to my goal. I have to run the entire perimeter of my hometown two and half times. It is almost impossible for me to imagine this. I imagine this is similar to how Luke Skywalker felt when the Empire built a bigger death star; something along the lines of "I have to do this again?!".
I've been going into overdrive lately. I've been running everyday, I've been eating protein bars, and I've started doing yoga. Even if I don't achieve my goal I'll be healthier and that will make it worth it....I guess.

In other news, last Saturday me and my friends went "Half-camping". Half-camping is something that we invented so that we can have all the fun of camping without the hassles. We will go to the lake, build a fire, cook hot-dogs, and do all the other things you do at a campsite but instead of pitching tents and then going home to watch TV and sleep in our bug free beds. It may be cheating but its comfortable. We didn't have enough wood to burn so we go creative and burned old rolling stone magazines and girls scout cookie boxes estimated to be three years old. God help what ever poor animal has to breath in the smoke from that. Anyway here is a picture of the girl scout cookie box on fire and a picture of the moon I took.
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the internet

It's amazing that the internet is only about twenty years old. There is so much useless information on the web that it boggles the mind. I once had a teacher say "whoever said retirement would be boring didn't know about wikipedia." This my friends is so true.
Since I have so much free time on my hands, I tend to spend a lot of free time reading stuff on the internet. Most college students spend it on youtube or facebook, and while I do enjoy both of those, I spend my time finding useless information. Look at some of the useless information you can find on the internet. Let's say you want to find out how much weight Dick Cheney lost in 2001...BAM. Here it is http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/a_cheney.htm#obesity.
Let's say you want to know how many rebounds Dennis Rodman got in 1996. BOOM http://www.nba.com/history/players/rodman_stats.html.
It's amazing to me that so many people use the internet for things like this and most people never visit these sites. I could spend all day on sites like google or wikipedia just learning new and interesting things. Did you know that the FBI once tried to kill Fidel Castro with exploding cigars...you do now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/638_Ways_to_Kill_Castro
The world is full of fascinating information if you open your eyes. Thank goodness for the internet to make this kind of stupid stuff easier. Now if you excuse me, I've got some internet surfing to do.

It's always sunny in Kansas

Things have been looking up the last week. I still a job for the summer but I think I may have founds some part-time helping a guy at my church with yard work. I doubt it will pay much but I'll take anything at this point. Besides, it will get me out of the house and give me something to do.
I also think I found a place to live next year. It's not final yet, I haven't signed anything but I'm pretty sure I've got it all planned out. It is a load off of my mind. I have been worrying about where I was going to live next year for a while and I was afraid I was going to have to get an apartment by myself. This will be much better. I will be renting a house with five other people. I haven't seen the house yet but I'm told that it is huge. It has bedrooms in it so I'll probably be sharing a room with someone which is fine. It is going to be a full house. The others living there are Nick Kadau, Beth Wagner, Kyle Cooper, Kelsi Cooper, and their cousin that I haven't met yet. I’m a little nervous because I’m only close friends with Nick and I don’t know how the rest of us will get along but I’m sure it will be fine.
I’ve been running and exercising a lot lately. I’m probably exercising too much if that is possible because I will get bored and just go for a run. Right now I’m really sore because yesterday I lifted weights and went running. Last week I’m pretty sure I set a new personal record for the longest distance I’ve ever ran. It was close to six miles. I was proud of myself when I finished it.
Also the U.S.A won today. It was the most exciting finish I think I’ve ever seen in a soccer game.

Friends ignore each other's creepy habits.

Last night I did something I have not been doing a lot lately on Friday Nights. I went out. I haven't had much of a social life this summer except the occasional game of basketball or the occasional movie, so I was actually kind of excited about it.
Me and my friends decided to go to the casino. I really don't like gambling that much but I usually have a good time. I'm not against gambling for any moral reasons other than I think it's stupid and your only going to end up losing money. That's why I never bet more than five or ten dollars at a time.
We went to first council first but did not stay there very long. We decided we would go to the Southwind Casino because they have video blackjack. I put five dollars into the blackjack machine, lost it quickly, and quit. My friend Ben put some money in and quit not long after. My friend Nick however kept pushing his luck. He was at one point down to six dollars and somehow kept winning. I begged him to leave once he got to a hundred dollars but he kept winning. He ended up winning $442!!!! I've never been so happy and pissed off at someone in my life.
The larger part of this story is about friends. I haven't seen a lot of old friends this summer and that makes me sad. One of the things I hate most in this world is losing close friends after I spend so much time with and make so many memories with them. Unfortunately , it seems I'm really good at doing this. Not including the aforementioned guys I went to the casino with, I only have two or three really close friends that I kept from high school. There are a lot of old friends from high school that I'm sure would help me out if I called them but not a lot that I hang out with regularly anymore. I don't even talk to any of the friends I had in middle school or elementary school anymore.
The worst part about going to Cowley was being able to meet new people for about two years and then have to go in a different direction than all of them. There are a lot of people I already miss from Cowley and it hasn't even been that long. I'm sure I'll never forget them. Since I'm not working for the summer I'll probably try to contact a few of them and maybe try to visit some of them.

best new bands

The Hold Steady
I first heard this band about six months ago through one of my friends who has a radio show. They are definitely my favorite band right now. They have their own style that only they can pull off that no one has ever tried before.

The band is almost the antithesis of your average rock star. Most members of the band are in their late forties. They look more like they should be doing taxes instead of rocking out. It is the paradoxical fact that the band shouldn't be cool that makes them cool.
They just released their newest album "Heaven is whenever". I haven't listened to all of it yet but what I have heard I love. The lead singer, Craig Finn doesn't sing so much as just talks with a rhythm. It can sometimes be similar to rapping. On newest album he pushes his vocal range to the limits and it can sometimes sound weird because I'm not used to it. That being said, I like the classic "Hold Steady" of him just talking.



Metric


There are not a whole lot of rock bands out there with female lead singers. Most girls if any have solo careers like Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga and there are definitely not a lot of rock bands with female singers.
The band is mainly an electric pop band and reminds me a lot of the Killers which is always a good thing. They have really creative lyrics also such as "I fought the war but the war won".
My favorite thing about the Metric is their ability to be creative without being to weird. There are a lot of bands like the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's and Animal Collective that get way to weird that their music just starts to suffer but Metric is able to be unique without going off the deep end. I haven't downloaded any of their stuff yet and all I've heard has been from YouTube or Projectplaylist but I can tell I'm probably going to get really into this band.

Pheonix

Pheonix is new to not just me but to most of America. They've released three other albums but their newest is the only one to make waves outside of their native country of France. They have released It has garnered enough attention to be in a car commercial though.
The best thing that pheonix is able to do is bring euro-pop to America without making it annoying. They have really catching songs that are mostly based on synthesizers that are fun even if you aren't dancing to them. They are able to make catchy and intellectual lyrics in English too.

Indecision 2010- Politics as unusual

November is coming up faster than you know it and that means midterm elections. It may not be as important or glamorous as the presidential elections but it's still important. We will be voting on the entire house of representatives, a third of the senate, and a new Kansas governor. I thought I would take this time to talk about some of my political views.
I believe in a representative democracy and that the government is by the people for the people. I think that a basic government's goal should be to uphold basic human rights and to do whatever is for the good of the people.
I used to be very conservative and even though it looks like the Democrats are going to lose some seats this election, I find myself getting more and more liberal as America gets more and more conservative. That is because the conservatives have just gone crazy. It seems that lately Obama has been under some of the craziest criticisms. They range from him not being born in America, to him being a communist, to him being a Muslim, all of which are completely baseless. I rarely hear good arguments from the right which is sad because it drowns out any good arguments that they do have.
The Republicans and the "Tea Party" members seem to always be fighting for the wrong things. They spend their entire time debating about gun rights and fighting against health care, two subjects that really have little relevance. The democrats have made absolutely no laws prohibiting guns in the last two years since they took control and the new health care bill is not as radical as most people think. It will cost only 1/10 of what we spend one year on the military and it won't even reduce the national deficit. Any debt that it does cost will come from America and not any other country. Besides, it is no where near as radical as making people pay social security or even the installment of the medicaid system and is no more communist than the Food and Drug Administration and I don't see people protesting safe food.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think Obama and the liberals have done the best job. I think he has done a bad job regulating Wall Street, I think he should have put more pressure on the MMS like he said he would on his campaign, I think he should have closed Gitmo by now, and I think it was a bad idea to send more troops to Afghanistan. But overall he has done a pretty good job. He has not completely screwed us over like the last president. That being said I think he is the best choice in two years. Mostly because there is no one to oppose him.
But that is tomorrow and this is today. The Republicans want to destroy all progress we've made and go back to their strategy of "doing nothing". That is why I will probably be voting democrat this year, unless I find I third party candidate I like or a conservative person shows me their not crazy. I'm not sure who's running for governor other than Sam Brownback and I'm pretty sure I won't vote for him. Bill Haley looks like a decent choice for senate but not a great one. I don't know who's running the House of Reps. unfortunately. It looks like I have a lot of deciding to do.

This is the new year; and I don't feel any different

This year I did something I don't normally do. I made new year resolutions. I made several of them this year also. Since it is about half-way through the year, I thought I would go through and see how I am doing on some of them.

1. Get better grades
This is one accomplished. I probably still should have done better but my gpa did improve this year. I also got a letter saying I did excellent on the CAAP test, which included doing better than 96% of the people who took the math portion.

2. Learn how to play Cliffs of Dover on guitar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55nAwmVLQSk
I sort of accomplished this one. I can't play it impressively or as fast as the original version but I think I can play all of it. doubt I could get through it without making a mistake though.

3. Start acting like a genius
I've noticed that over the years I have sometimes dumbed myself down for other people. I realize this is stupid and I'm trying to stop it. I've been trying to spend less time watching tv and on the internet and more time reading books. Right now I'm reading The History of Western Philosophy for no reason other than I think it's interesting and I'm hoping I can learn something from it.

4. Run a half marathon
This goal wasn't actually a New Year's resolution but it's still I goal I want to accomplish. There is a half marathon in KC in October that I'm hoping to be able to run. Currently I'm no where close to being in shape for this. I've been exercising a lot lately. The other day I ran about five or six miles and was pretty proud of myself for that. At the same time I know that's no where near the 13 miles I'll have to run. There is still a lot of time left though and I think that I will still be able to do it.

5. Get a girlfriend?
I put a question mark behind this because I'm aware that this might not happen and I'm not going to go out with someone just to accomplish a goal. If your wondering how this resolution is going...not very well.

"We learned more from a three-minute record than we ever learned in school" - Bruce Springsteen

Music and poetry are really important to me. I tend to express myself in words that other people write in songs. I decided to write some of my favorite lyrics from different songs. These are just a few of my favorite I left some good ones out so this note would not be too long.

"Run, Run, Run, all you do is fucking run but you'll never run away from yourself. I know it's hard but you've been there before and you know your gonna be there again."-
Tomas Kalnoky

"The decades disappear like sinking ships, but we persevere God gives us hope, but we still fear what we don't know"- Killers

"Don't you go to sleep, it's such a bitter form of refuge"-Killers

"It's a luscious mix of words and tricks that make us bet when we know we should have folded"-The Shins

"The universe is shaped exactly like the Earth if you go straight along enough you'll end up where you were."- Modest Mouse

"You were talking about nowhere well it sounds like someplace I'd like to go"- Modest Mouse

"Language is the liquid that we're all dissolved in; it's great for solving problems after it creates a problem."- Modest Mouse

"Just shut, shut, shut your eyes. It sounds so good right now and it came as a big surprise"- shout out louds

"The Bible is blind the Torah's deaf the Koran's mute, if you burn them all together you'll get close to the truth."- Bright Eyes

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." - Semisonic

"Don't kill yourself to raise the dead, It never works you'll only end up joining them"- Kevin Devine

"My dreams, they aren't as empty as my conscious seems to be. I have hours only lonely, my love is vengeance that's never free."- The who

"There will be an answer; Let it be" - The Beatles

I recently wrote a song...sort of. I'm happy that I finally wrote one because I've been trying to write a song for probably over a year and have just never been able to finish one. I have a lot of songs I've started on but have never finished, so I'm glad I was able to actually make a complete song. It's still not technically done yet, it is not that good so I will probably do a lot of tinkering with it, but the point is it's a song. Here are the lyrics. The lyrics are not that impressive but if you look at the early stuff of most bands their stuff wasn't that great either. This is an okay start for someone who isn't trying to get a record contract. It's called "Tonight".

I'm sitting here in this waiting room
Waiting for all the things I'll see
Will i see you tonight?
Will we make history?

Chorus
Our dreams are like a runaway train tonight, tonight
We'll look for an escape to the pain tonight, tonight
The impossible will be possible tonight, tonight
The unaccepted will be acceptable tonight, tonight
Tonight we are gonna live

The night is almost here
and we all have the same thing on our mminds
We all dream of making it
We all hope fate is kind

Chorus

self-control

I've been making a conscious decisions lately to stop judging people. I've always tried not to but now I'm trying not to do it at all. They say you never know what is going on in other peoples heads but now there is scientific research to back that up.

http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2007/03/selfcontrol_is_a_muscle.php

This story scares me a little. Think about all of the decisions you make in a day. There are literally billions of them that range from what socks should I wear to what college should I go to. The fact that something as little as trying to memorize numbers could change the course of your day, let alone life, is not something people might want to believe easily but whether you like it or not it's true.
This is not the only small thing that affects our lives. There is research done that states people with names that start with the letter A are more likely to get good grades then someone with a name that starts with F. The reason this is is because a person's favorite letter is usually the first letter of their name and the brain subconsciously rewards itself whenever something happens with that letter, whether good or bad. It might sound crazy but there are a lot of studies that show people named Aaron are more likely to be successful than people named Fred
It is things like this that made me give up judging. If we can't even tell when things like memorizing numbers and the first letter of our names affect our actions, what other things affect what we do that we are not aware of?
Imagine someone is at a party and they have to memorize a bunch of phone numbers. They then lose self control and get really drunk and mess things up. Their life is than ruined because they had to remember numbers. Is it fair for everyone to look down on them for the rest of their life simply for something they were not aware of?

Books

I saw that I friend of mine did this so I am doing it also. These are in no particular order.

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you. They should be the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag some friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your Profile page, paste rules in a new Note, cast your 15 picks, and tag people in the Note, upper right hand side.)

15. Bible [various authors]
This book has probably influenced me more than any other book. Even as I grow older and my beliefs change, I'm definitely not going to forget this one. I don't want to get all preachy so that is all I'll say here.

14. Harry Potter Series [J. K. Rowling]
All of the haters who don't like these book can suck it. They are awesome. I really felt that I grew up with Harry Potter. Even though they are set in a whimsical dream world they still convey a great sense of human emotion. I can't pick my favorite so that is why I combined all seven into one. From the very first book I was hooked. Not only did these expand my imagination they also taught me things about friendship (as corny as that sounds) and about myself (which also sounds kind of corny).

13. Yes Man [Daniel Wallace]
This book inspired the Jim Carrey movie if you were wondering. The book is much better. This is the true story of what happens when you say yes to everything. After reading it I actually tried saying yes more. I didn't go overboard like in the book but I did experience a lot of things I normally would not have.

12. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
This might possibly be my favorite book of all time. I had to read this book in school and was not looking forward to it but I fell in love. I could not put it down. The book tells the story of an autistic kid and does it so well. It is so realistic its amazing. It doesn't use emotion like most books but uses logic because that is how the character thinks. I learned so much through this book.

11. 1984 [George Orwell]
One of my favorite books that I was forced to read in school. This book really made me think. A lot of my political views were formed through this book. It is also about a lot more than politics, it is also very philosophical. This book is a timeless classic.

10. The Watchmen [Alan Moore]
I don't know if this counts because it's a graphic novel but I am counting it. I don't read a lot of comics but this one was awesome. I wish more people have read it so that I could have more conversations about it. There are so many symbols and motifs in it that you can read it 10 times and still find new things. Probably the best comic ever.

9. Lord of the Rings [Tolkien]
I'm aware of how nerdy it is to put this on the list. Again I can't pick a favorite so I'm combining all of them into one. It's one of the most exciting books I've ever read.

8. I am America and So can you [Stephen Colbert]
This is probably the funniest book I have ever read. This book has made me laugh more than most movies and TV shows I've seen.

7. Wigfield [Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello]
Most people have probably never heard of this book. It is incredibly well written for a comedy book. It prose is actually really impressive. AT the same time it is probably the second funniest book I've ever read.

6. To Kill a Mockingbird [Harper Lee]
Another great book I read in school. It is just a great tale of morality set in the south.

5. The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America [Bill Bryson]
Bill Bryson is probably my favorite author at the moment. I was tempted to put more books by him on the list but since most of his books are similar I decided to stick with this one since it is my favorite. In the book Bill travels all across America and writes about it with a wit that makes it so exciting to read. Although he complains most of the journey you can't help but agree with him. At the same time you want to visit the places he's complaining about. To see him rip apart the only country I've ever seen was a surprising delight.

4. Motherless Brooklyn [Jonathan Lethem]
The book tells the story of a detective with tourettes trying to solve a murder. It's amazing how well written it is. You really get to know the character and get a sense of what it's like with tourettes.

3. A Brief History of Time [Stephen Hawking]
Yes I actually read this book. No I did not understand most of it, but the things I did understand I thought was amazing. I love learning about science and the cosmos and that is why I picked up this book. I know more about black holes and neutrinos than I thought I ever would. The world is an amazing place if you look and this book showed me that.

2. Outliers [Malcolm Gladwell]
This is a non-fiction book that tries to show who becomes successful and how. It really changed the way I look at the world. I not only view success different but I view myself and other people differently.

1. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy [Douglas Adams]
One of the smartest books I've ever read, surprisingly. It is also hilarious. It really makes you think about things differently.