The Joys of A.D.D.

Finals, homework, parents, and a cruddy job; all of these things make me want to go play in traffic. I must digress.
     I really have a hard time staying focused on my homework. I'll do two problems, have a thought about something completely off-topic, then completely lose concentration and my train of thought. For example, it took me like 10 minutes to write that first paragraph. I thought of a song, started singing it in my head, listened to it on my ipod, and was about to look up the music video of it before I realized I had a blog entry to finish.
    When a homework assignment doesn't interest me, I have a hard time completing it. For some reason, I like certain homework assignments. When I sit in a quiet space with no distractions, I can be very productive, depending if I have had enough sleep the night before. It seems as though this scenario is very hard to achieve. Last night I was up until 1:00 a.m. to write and research a paper. I finished three lousy paragraphs.
     My attention span is really holding me back. I am off to do more homework, wish me lu... Oooo a shiny red ball....
 

and the winning number is........

I work at a gas station (won't name which one) and everyday I am amazed to see how many lottery tickets people will buy. I have seen people buy dozens of lottery tickets at a time, bring them all in the next day, and lose all of them. Then what will they do? They'll proceed to buy a dozen more. The worst I have seen is when one of my customers just finished cashing his paycheck, and used it all on Powerball. It made me sick. The chances of winning are slim to none, so why bother. I suppose people would then insert the "you can't win if you don't play" card, but i'm sure you won't win even if you do play. I honestly don't see what the point is; I figure it's just a big waste of money. With everything being said, I bought a Badger 5 ticket today. I wanted to see if the allure of money is the only thing that drives people to buying these tickets, or if it is something greater.

Looking at the front of the ticket, there is a small black font that says the winning odds. The odds of winning a measly dollar are 1:7, the odds for winning $2 are 1:53, the odds for winning $50 are 1:1308, and the odds of winning the jackpot are 1:169,011. If I win back my money, I would be a happy camper, but I have a good feeling developed from seeing thousands of tickets winning nothing that I will be winning the same.

I never really studied the back of a lottery ticket, but I happened to find a gambling problem hotline:  1-800-Gamble-5. I have a feeling that the people who come into the gas station should definitely call this number. Of course not all people who play the lottery have a gambling problem, but the one's who waste paychecks on lottery tickets should definitely call the number.

If I win thousands of dollars I'll be sure to let you know!

Mega Ramp.

I love skateboarding, but the only thing that causes me to shy away from it is the fear of falling. That being said, it amazes me to see skateboarders use mega-ramps. Mega-ramps are giant monstrosities made for skaters to come as close to death as they possibly can get. The basic concept is have a skater roll down the biggest drop in imaginable, hit a huge ramp, fly through the air over a gap which can be up to 68 feet long, and land on the other side only to have to hit a gigantic quarter pipe. The whole sequence is extremely dangerous. If you haven't seen what it looks like, this should give you a hint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xycA3D_EG7M . Crazy huh?

Before I die, I want to try and skateboard a mega-ramp. I have always wondered what it would be like to fly!

Kettle Moraine

   This weekend I felt compelled to get off my butt and enjoy the weather. I decided I was going to bike from my house to the Kettle Moraine mountain bike and hiking trails. Besides the initial "pukey" feeling for the first couple miles or so, and that crazy-ass dog trying to bite me and my bike, it was a good ride. Eventually I made it to the the Kettle Moraine trails, and decided to hike one. Hiking might not seem that exciting or fun to most people, but walking the trails makes me feel great. I love to hunt and I've grown up with a giant swamp and forest in my backyard, so walking the trails comes naturally to me. It is really nice just to enjoy the fresh air of the country, instead of being stuck at work or school; the feeling is almost freeing.
    The kettles are a beautiful place to explore. There are about six different trails that one can mountain bike or hike, along with the ice age trail made for hiking. Each trail has a difficulty rating, and a time average. For example, the blue trail is the hardest trail because it takes almost three hours to hike, and has very rocky terrain. Each trail is made conveniently into a loop, so people can park their cars at the start and end where they started.
   I decided to hike the white trail. It is a pretty easy trail, and takes almost an hour to hike. I really need to invest in some hiking shoes, instead of worn out skate shoes. Some of the areas have quite a bit of snow and mud, so it was tough getting through it. I never saw anybody on the trails, which was really nice.
   If you really want to "get away from it all" consider taking a trip to the kettles this summer.

Skateboarding (to me)

Since spring is (hopefully) on its way, I figured I’d write about skateboarding; something I have missed very much since the start of winter.

Skateboarding is a very important thing to me. Not only is it great exercise, but it keeps me occupied during the summer. I usually go alone because it gives me some “me time” and I can escape stress for a little while. When I’m on my board, I’m in my own world. I focus on things clearly, and I tend to be calmer when I ride.

Although skateboarding by myself is pretty fun, skating with other people is pretty cool too. I’ve gone to a few skateparks and when I see someone land a hard trick, it gives me energy to “step my game up”. I get motivated to try something hard, or try something I would normally be afraid to do. If I land something (which usually doesn’t happen all too often) it can inspire and motivate others to try other tricks.

When I skateboard I can reflect my style, personality, or mood by the way I skateboard. I usually am a loose bodied skateboarder, but when I am angry about something in my life, I usually am more aggressive with my movements or tricks. I see other skateboarders reflect themselves while on a skateboard. I can see someone is really dedicated when they get up after a hard fall, and try the same trick again. I can see someone is creative when they do something on a board that has never been done before.

 Depending on how much time and effort someone puts into skating effects what they get out of it. I have skated since my freshman year of high school. I might suck at the sport, but I have a lot of fun doing it.

My Little Project

This summer I got my hands on a backyard gem; an old Volkswagen Manx (it is made from the frame, engine and steering components of a VW bug, except with a fiberglass body attached instead). My dad, uncle and I picked it up from a friend of ours. I recently have been working on it only to find out that I'm in a little over my head. I'm not a car mechanic by any means, but figured this project wouldn't be too hard with some help from my dad and uncle.

During the summer I worked on getting the interior ripped out.The seats were basically lawn chairs bolted to a bracket, which in turn was welded to the floor (not the safest setup). The roll bar had a slight shimmy to it (not the safest setup either). The floor had a lot of rust, so when I sat in one of the seats, my feet went through the floor and touched the ground.

Even though this VW looks bad, there were a lot of good things about it from first glance. For instance, the windshield was intact, the fiberglass body was in pretty good shape, and the steering column seemed to be alright. However, we still needed an engine. The one we have is so rusted; it's completely beyond repair.

I worked on the wiring, taking the gas tank out, and ripping off the fiberglass body with my dad this weekend. As I took the hood off, I was shocked to see an wiring nightmare:

After we had finished removing the wiring, my dad and I worked on removing the gas tank. As dad proceeded to lift it off of the body, it started leaking rotten gas everywhere. Pretty soon he smelled like a rotten gas tank himself.

The fiberglass body was next on the list. We were unsure of the surprises awaiting the removal. Since the way things were going, my hopes were not that high. My worst fear running through my head was that we were going to find a rusted out frame and broken axles. As we lifted the body off I was stunned to find a really good looking frame and good looking axles. Thank God!

We still have our work cut out for us, but hopefully things will go alright!

Last Living Souls

Searching for inspiration for a writing topic, I turned to music. As I was listening to my i-pod on shuffle, the song "Last Living Souls" by Gorillaz came on. I love the band Gorillaz, mainly because they create so many unique songs, none of them are alike. Thanks for the inspiration Gorillaz!

What would it be like to be the only human being on earth for a day? I'll set a scenario: you wake up, and walk around your house to find that no one is there. You turn on t.v. ........nothing. You go to town, nobody is there, you are completely alone, what would you do?

The first thought running through my head would be to go to the local auto-dealer, perhaps to "sample" their finest car available. I would then go to a walmart and cause complete havoc (create the world's largest domino-effect with the shelves, take a louisville-slugger to the display cases, throw mannequins off the roof, the works). I suppose by the end of my utter destruction of walmart, I would probably have a large appetite. My next visit would be to a local Culvers or any fast food restaurant to eat sickening amounts of fatty foods.

Upon waking up from my food-induced coma, I would look for a new home. Why would I go to my house if I could have any place I wanted for free? Where would be the best place to sleep? I have no trouble saying that I would go to a mattress store. I could find the perfect, most expensive bed ever made, and sleep like a king.

I'm not sure if I could handle much more then a week of being completely alone. I would go mad if I couldn't see my friends or family for the rest of my life, no matter how much some of them annoy me. Complete isolation would not be fun.....

Nascar is Boring...

I have spent many Sunday afternoons with my dad watching Nascar. Usually by lap twelve I am already asleep. I truthfully do not know how someone can watch a whole Nascar race and be enthused the whole time. Personally I think it is one of the most boring things to watch on t.v. today, and I have many reasons to back up this statement.

In a Nascar race, drivers turn only left on almost all tracks. Nascar could be a bit more interesting if they throw in a right turn! I can't watch cars go around in counter-clockwise circles over and over again.

Another reason Nascar is boring is because races last 200 laps or more. Does there really have to be that many? Why can't Nascar speed things up instead of having people watch left turns for FIVE HOURS!

All of the cars in Nascar are terrible looking. Sure they may have some cool colors, but people can barely see designs because there are millions of sponsor stickers covering the entire car. Plus all of the cars are the same. Sure one car may be a Chevy, or a Dodge, but it doesn't matter. All of the cars have the same engines and body styles to keep things "fair".

I often ask why there are so many flags in Nascar. For instance, a yellow flag is a caution flag, where drivers have to slow down and get into a line. Yellow flags are for when accidents occur or when debris is on the track, but is it really necessary to clean up the debris? Why can't Nascar leave it on the track to create an obstacle course?

I have found only a few things that can make Nascar interesting: crashes and the last three laps. Crashes are great for many reasons. Seeing a car fly through the air or burst into flames can make the past hundred laps bearable to watch. Also the last three laps can be interesting, especially if it is a close race. If there are two cars battling for the lead in the last few laps, things can get pretty tense.

With all things said, I would still rather watch paint dry then an entire Nascar race.

Can Video Games Be Useful?

While trying to think of ideas for this weeks blog, I got frustrated. Instead of punching a hole through my drywall in my room, I decided to take my "blog anger" out on video games. While killing hordes of aliens, I thought to myself, 'is this worth my time? Should I be trying to think of ideas for my blog, instead of saving the universe from impending alien doom? Do playing video games help me at all in life?' While trying to ignore my thoughts, and focus on the game, I had an epiphany. The answers to all my questions was right in front of my face. It turns out video games can be useful (sometimes)!

For me, video games can have ill-effects when played to often. I usually lose track of time, and before I know it, it is 10:00 p.m. and I have four papers to write. However, when played in moderation video games can help me quite a bit. Instead of taking anger out on real people or things, I take it out on aliens, zombies, cars, or anything else video games have to offer. 

If people play the right video games, they could learn to make decisions faster. For example, if someone where to play a fast-paced video game, they would be forced to make quick decisions. A fast-paced video game could also help with hand-eye coordination as well. If ravenous zombies where coming after you, you would have to press the right buttons fast enough, otherwise you would be eaten.

Some video games are designed to teach children. Because video games are a great form of entertainment, they can keep kids hooked on certain subjects.

While I may procrastinate a lot using video games, they have helped in certain situations (this blog being one of them).

Meanings to Fight Club

Besides being violent and hilarious at the same time, the movie Fight Club is deeply philosophical in many ways. The movie, starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, is about two men channeling their problems through fighting. Both of the men eventually start a fight club, which grows rapidly into other states and continents.

Within the movie are many points directed towards the flaws of American Culture. The character Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, makes many remarks in the movie about being an American and wanting everything, but still becoming less and less happy. Durden remarks, "we've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." In a way, Durden is correct, because the only things people see on T.V. these days is action movies, music videos, celebrities, ect. all living their dreams. Even Disney movies point out that "anything your heart desires will come to you". Sadly, that is not the case, no matter how much wishing upon a star you may do.

A lot of focus in the movie is towards possessions and the things people do to get them. The narrator of the story, played by Edward Norton, works everyday to buy his expensive possessions. However, they all get destroyed from an explosion within his condo. Afterwords, the narrator talks with Durden about the situation. Durden eventually explains, "the things you own end up owning you." Everyday Americans go to work, just to buy certain possessions. Sure, some of those possessions are necessities, but many are not. We buy clothes to fit in with certain people, expensive cars to make our neighbors envy us, and many other things for terrible reasons.

Overall the movie shows many great representations flaws in American culture. I personally would say that not all American culture is bad, but Fight Club surely shows its downsides.