Sunday, February 27, 2011

Coach P.




Bulldog lacrosse. That is where it all started for me.

During 3rd grade, I was introduced to a new sport that I have never played before. Something new and something that looked interesting. A mix of all different kind of sports, and since I was semi decent at sports, I figured I should try it out. It was a very tough sport to get used to and be good at. Sometimes it is frustrating because you want to be good, but you have to practice a lot in order to do so. Coach Peterson was definitely the right person to coach me. Even though he is tough minded, he always was good at teaching the sport. I remember he would use to always be yelling, but in positive ways, and made lacrosse fun. When I first started everybody gets nicknames created by Coach P. Mine was Uttski, and still today Coach Peterson calls me that with the rest of my friends too. Also to make practices more fun, he would make us all jump in the big rain puddles if it had rained that day. That was a good start to the practice. Sometimes I remember I was scared of Coach Peterson because of all his yelling, but in the end I think it made me tougher as a younger kid. Coach Peterson has definitely been a great mentor for my lacrosse career. He was the one that introduced me into the college lacrosse recruiting process. I remember that night when we sat down at the dinner table and laid at all my options and how to get best recruited. I am very thankful to have had him as my lacrosse coach, but am also thankful to have him as a good friend for the rest of my life.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Skiing

Every year my family goes out to either Colorado or Utah. This has been a tradition for a while and trips that have made me be the skier I am today. Colorado has very beautiful scenery and makes skiing out there even better. As a young kid I was not a great skier, but once I went out west to ski, my uncle and dad could teach me better and give me the technique I have today. I remember I used to be really scared to go down some of the steep hills in Colorado, but now I am so used to it that I can just fly down the hill. When you feel like you’re in a rhythm when you ski, you feel like you can go down anything. I especially love going in the back country where no one goes. The powder is so deep and smooth and you feel like it is just you and the mountain. Also, you can make your own trail when you are out there. Then you can experience new things each time.
This weekend my family will be going out to Colorado to ski Keystone, Breckinridge, and Vail. We will also meet up with my dad’s brother and his kids and grandkids. I am very excited to go out there. The towns are just very unique and nothing like any place in Cincinnati. I wish I could just stay out there the whole winter and ski every day. Maybe someday that will happen!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Super Bowl Sunday

The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather than the year in which it is held. For example, Super Bowl I was played on January 15, 1967, following the regular season played in 1966, while Super Bowl XLV will be played on February 6, 2011, to determine the champion of the 2010 regular season. The game was created as part of a merger agreement between the NFL and its then-rival league, the American Football League (AFL). It was agreed that the two leagues' champion teams would play in an AFL–NFL World Championship Game until the merger was to officially begin in 1970. After the merger, each league was redesignated as a "conference", and the game was then played between the conference champions. The day on which the Super Bowl is played is now considered a de facto American national holiday, called "Super Bowl Sunday". It is the second-largest day for U.S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day. In most years, the Super Bowl is the most-watched American television broadcast; Super Bowl XLIV, played on February 7, 2010 between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts, became the most-watched American television program in history, drawing an average audience of 106.5 million viewers and taking over the spot held for twenty-seven years by the final episode of M*A*S*H. The Super Bowl is among the most watched sporting events in the world, primarily due to mostly North American audiences, and is second to soccer's UEFA Champions League final as the most watched annual sporting event worldwide.
File:Super Bowl 29 Vince Lombardi trophy at 49ers Family Day 2009.JPG

Friday, January 21, 2011

heart

In times of need, people come together with open hearts to care for one another. Certain life events stir emotions which enable people to drop whatever they’re occupied with in order to bring time back to order. This is an act of kindness and courage in a human being. Recently in our neighborhood, a loved one was killed. As soon as the scene occurred, arms were reached out to help this family. They experience a kind of pain that many people across the world feel by losing someone so close. The Mariemont community came full on with an act of kindness by holding a loving memorial for this woman and her family. All took the time to stop whatever was going on in their lives to secure love back into this household. As time passes, it is hopeful that this family will be able to go back to their regular daily routines and be supported by everyone in the community.
                Kindness and courage are two attributes that go hand in hand with helping those in need. After helping with these retreats with the kids I could tell that they have learned a lot. They really gave their heart back to the people they forgave. It was great to see this in these little kids. You may not see love everyday which is kind of sad, but when you have days like these, seeing the love makes you fell so much happier. Hopefully in today’s society people will find their hearts in themselves and give people more love around them.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

The Social Network

Every age has its visionaries who leave, in the wake of their genius, a changed world--but rarely without a battle over exactly what happened and who was there at the moment of creation. "The Social Network" explores the moment at which Facebook was invented--through the warring perspectives of the super-smart young men who each claimed to be there at its inception. The movie moves from the halls of Harvard to the cubicles of Palo Alto to capture the heady early days of a culture-changing phenomenon in the making--and the way it both pulled a group of young revolutionaries together and then split them apart. In the midst of the chaos are Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), the brilliant Harvard student who conceived a Web site; Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), once Zuckerberg's close friend, who provided the seed money for the fledgling company; Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who brought Facebook to Silicon Valley's venture capitalists; and the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence), the Harvard classmates who asserted that Zuckerberg stole their idea and then sued him for ownership of it. Each has his own narrative, his own version of the Facebook story in this multi-level portrait of 21st Century success--both the youthful fantasy of it and its finite realities as well.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12145381

Sunday, January 2, 2011

"Dont Ask, Dont Tell"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101222/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_gays_in_military


Equality In the United States is what people have wanted for a very long time. There has been many flaws in having equality, like having the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Gays have been discriminated in the military to a point where some have been kicked out and lost honors based on their choice of path in life. This is certainly not the kind of equality that a lot of common Americans and I are looking for in a day-to-day society and military which protects our country. How has this kind of enforcement been allowed all these years? This has been questioned over the last century and our new government is finally enforcing some action to change the prejudices of past societies.
President Barack Obama officially signed a law to allow gays into the American military line to encourage the face that “all men and women are created equal.” He felt this law would strengthen the national security and encourage men and women to continue to risk lives to defend our country in times of need without discrimination. Zoe Dunning, once a naval officer who is not associated with the advocacy group Service Members Legal Defense Fund, felt there is a need to a greater trust in the military especially in a time where troops are needed during the two wars our country is in at the present time. Obama made sure that all Americans knew that “your country needs you, your country wants you, and we will be honored to welcome you into the ranks of the finest military the world has ever known.” Gay activists are now highly supporting the president and look for an honorable future. Even the high standing president seemed to be overwhelmed by this new bill and change in our 2011 government. To all new members enlisting in the army and giving time to prepare in this New Year, everyone will continue to be honored for their courage and love for their country for the years to come.