Super Heroes

You know who they are, everyone has a favorite. The dominate the toy stores, the cartoon channels, and every child's dream. They are the Super Heroes, and their fictional fantasy of unparalled power and virtue is admired throughout all the ages. There are thousands to be mentioned, but I will only mentioned a few... This list begins with most powerful, and ends with least powerful.
Superman,
Batman,
Wonder Woman,
Spiderman,
Captain America,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Iron Man,
Micron,
The X-Men,
Fantastic Four,
Green Lantern,
Flash,
Elektra,
Zorro,
Daredevil.

These are pretty much the best Super Heroes, but I know I'm missing some, so please let me know if you have a Super Hereo that needs to be added.

Now, here is my stand on the largest debate in Super Hero History-Who is better, Super Man, or Batman? Let me tell you straight out, Batman is the best, but not the most powerful. Of course Superman is invincible, superfast, superstrong, can fly, and has heat vision, but he was one fatal weakness, and that is Kryptonite. Superman can defeat any opponent, unless the have a handful of kryptonite with them.
Batman doesn't share his weakness, you can throw as much kryptonite as you want at him and the worse thing that could happen is Batman beats you up for it. So what if Batman isn't immortal, that just gives us a chance to relate to him. Batman Invented tools that give him all the powers of Superman, he has his own personal jet and Batmobile, along with plenty of other tools that he uses to defeat his enemies.
This reason is a good one, this puts Batman above Superman, just this one fact. Super Man is an Alien! He is from another planet! Batman is the real deal, from good ol' Earth.
The only weakness Batman has is that he doesn't trust anyone, not even Superman! Batman has his own stash of Kryptonite in his Bat Cave, just in case Superman goes crazy. And Even if Superman killed Batman before Batman got to the Kyrptonite, The world would be shocked and they couldn't trust Superman anymore, I mean whose going to trust a Super Hero who goes around killing other Super Heroes? A rather large reason that I like Batman better is that Superman just has too much power...After a while Superman is going to find out that he could take over the world by himself, and why wouldn't he? Batman is the one who would have stop Superman if ever an occasion came up. Besides that Batman is an inventive genius and knows like every martials art known to man, and some to aliens! And Batman is all that he is because he wanted to be, he earned the right to be a Superhero.

Anyway that is my stand on the Batman/Superman debate, but Batman isn't the only superhero I like. I love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they are just the best. They couldn't take on Batman, but they would make an awesome team. But the most widely known superhero, who has the most believers and is by far the most powerful, is the one and only Santa Claus, I'm totally serious. Well if you read this please comment and tell me who your favorite superhero is, and whose side you take in the Superman/Batman debate.

Holy High School, Batman!

Ohhhh my goodness, I have never been so unrelentingly bombarded with large amounts of work and study than ever before, thanks to wonderful high school. I used to be so excited to be a high schooler and now that I've gotten here it has taken some time to cope with the evermounting dissapointment that has been coursing through my veins ever since the third day of school. I do have to enjoy the A and B day schedule, it eases the pains of homework, even if ever so slightly.
High school has also been the one of the most enjoyable experiences, however. I have come to know many people from all schools, and it have gained some pretty awesome friends. I fully endorse High school, but take caution, High School is amazingly similar to cough medicine, it tastes awful at first, but eventually makes you feel better.

Summer Jobs

This summer practically everyone has a summer job, so I got one. I work at Lagoon in the merchandise department, so if your ever at Lagoon and I'm there working please refrain from laughing hysterically and move on. I really think that all teens start out working way too early, I mean we can't even drive, but we're off earning minimum wage, or less than minimum wage, it depends on where you work. But I'll take what money I can get, and at fourteen, 4.65$ and hour isn't so bad. It can be worse, for instance I worked at Crestwood Growers during the months of January, February and March, and it was not a pleasant experience at all. Our job at Crestwood was to take trees from Idaho and plant them in buckets then fill the buckets with dirt from a pile about the size of the average house. There was usually twelve pairs of 14-15 year olds working on Saturdays, and as the trees came in semi trucks, each day of work usually took about nine hours. It was pretty darn hard, and on days when the tree trucks were late, we then loaded planted trees into more trucks for about six hours. All that for about 4.18$ an hour wasn't worth it, but money is money, and I couldn't get it anywhere else.

When I started working the merchandise stands all by my self, some pretty weird things started happening. One of my intensely weird stories happened just last week, and I still can't get over it. It all started falling into place when I broke the cash register...
I was starting my shift at Rad Brad's (the store that you have to pass through to get to Lagoona Beach) and I was doing pretty good when this strange old man came wondering in and repeatedly asking where the sun tan lotion was. I directed him to the little rack stuffed chock full of all kinds of lotion, but the old man said kept saying "I don't want that, I want some lotion!" I had no idea what to say, so I apologized and told him that we didn't have the kind he wanted. He totally flipped out! He started rampaging around the store stating that "You really have it, you just don't want me to have any!" I was on the verge of running out the store and looking for someone with higher authority for help, but I decided to try one more time. I told him "Sir, I'm sorry but we don't have that kind of lotion, but if there is anything else that we could help you with we'd be happy to." Just as I said this, he stopped immediately and said, "Oh, in that case, where are your nearest bathrooms?" He said this as if he hadn't been ranting for a full five minutes, and, being a little shell shocked, I pointed him in the general direction trying to find the right words.
Another time happened at the same store, and the day was going pretty well. That's when my supervisor Becky came and told me she needed me to replace the other supervisor at the booth near Rattlesnake Rapids. It's a small booth, with no walls so people just walk through, and the racks hold sunglasses, necklesses, and other assorted novelties. Of course I said yes, and she explained to me that she thought that I was the hardest working, so I would be working the booth all by myself while both the workers up there took their breaks. It was a living nightmare. As I started working the bo0th, a lady came and asked me how much a small bag of polished rocks cost. As I turned to the price roster, I noticed that this booth had no price roster, in fact, there wasn't price tags on anything! So I had to call in to Merchandise headquarters and get the price for everything in the store as the line got longer...
Well, to sum it all up, the register ran out of receipt paper, the credit card machine malfunctioned, and Headquarters called to tell me that they told me the wrong prices! AAAUGHH!
It was way hard work, but the moral of this story is....work may be hard, but at least you learn the value of a dollar.

Oh, and in case your wondering, after taxes and uniform costs and other costs, my first pay check came to a whopping 13.89$ OH YEAH.

Test

I hate end of level testing, I just gets so tiring after a while. I know that we need the testing though, because it's the only way to see if any of us learned anything or not, but some tests are really lame. I think that if you get high grades all throughout the school year, you shouldn't have to take the tests. Of course this would conflict with the large amounts of students that fly under the radar and get barely passing grades, but when it comes to the end of level tests they cram all the night before and pass the test with pretty good grades. I still think though, that if you survive through the end of the year without completely failing a class, you shouldn't need a test at the end of the year to prove that you know it.

Another thing that I've heard throughout the school is that teachers don't review all that they should, and some kids don't do well because they forgot the massive amounts of information given to them at the beginning of the year. I have to agree with them on this point, we all could use a little more review. But I'm not saying that not everyone reviews, just some of the teachers refrain from refreshing. All in all, I know testing is a necessary item, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it right? In fact I don't think anyone at all likes it. Whoever reads this, I pay money to the first person who can show me someone who likes testing!

I'm in the Band

If you ever have a need to be in a large group of people and be a part of something really big and fun, you should join the band. I mean, it's only two hours of practice a week, and you learn to play a new instrument. The marching band is the best, or so I've heard. You get to know so many people and gain so many friends, it's totally cool.
"No car, No job, No money, but I'm in the Band!"

Marching band gives you a chance to shape up physically, sharpen mentally, and peak socially. From my very reliable sources (my brother is in marching band) you get a lot push ups when you don't follow instructions, and you get killer biceps from lifting your instrument. Not to mention the repetition of the program.

"Marching Band: Someday Football will be played at half-time."

The top kids in the surrounding high schools all participate in band. Band has been scientifically proven to help kids concentrate and do better on tests. And who knows, maybe it may help you when applying for a job or an education...
There was two people competing for the last spot at Harvard, but their resumes matched almost identically, except for one thing. The lady had taken band when she was in high school, and that's what got her into Harvard. Because that's what Band does for you, it helps you think straight and concentrate harder and longer.

It also gives you your own category to be in during your entire duration of the school year. People ask what you do for fun or what extracurricular activities you are in and you can say with your head held high-
I'm in the Band.

Music is the key to happiness

Whenever I am doing something that doesn't take intense listening skills, I listen to all sorts of music. It must be really hard, though, to be able to come up with a song all by yourself and make it sound great. I'm not talking about bands and rockstars, makings guitar and drum solos isn't too hard, but the people I'm really impressed with is the major composers, like John Williams. I heard that he wrote the star wars music before he heard the movie or heard the outline. They just told him that they needed music for a scene where Darth Vader confronts Luke skywalker, and that's it. I only heard it, of course, but it seems like something John Williams could handle.
Anyway, it's scientifically proven that listening to music will help you relax and relieve stress. So every now and then I take a break, lay on my bed and pop a CD into my very out of date walkman. It would probably help you out a lot if you did the same every now and then. It probably help if you listened to something that relaxes you, though. It would really make you feel better if you were listening to a song about a guy addicted to drugs who was left by his wife and can't pay rent anymore so he has to go homeless and ends up dying in a gutter. But that's basically what every country song is about, right. Yeah, it's best to just avoid country music all together.
Then there are the people who like to make music rather than listen to it. My brother is one of those people. He happens to be my littlest brother, the baby of the family. He can already play Mary Had a Little Lamb on my trumpet, with me teaching him. Yes, those people who can really make music are going to make a lot of friends.
So if you are feeling down on your luck and are deciding which method of suicide suits you best, try listening to some music, and maybe you'll feel good enough to leave off suicide for another day. Who knows maybe listening to some country song about a guy and all his problems might make you feel better....

Behold, the power of pressure...

Yes, my friends, I'm talking about pressure. Not the pressure that pushes down on us all, but that great thing called peer pressure. We are all affected by it, but no one tries to stop it. There are those who resist it, but they are mocked and ridiculed until they finally give in.
I can't believe what has happened to our community, when if you don't have an iPod you are not cool. But there are the few who don't give in... They usually don't have all the cool clothes and newest gear, and they usually don't look the best everyday. Everyone makes fun of them, but nobody knows why they don't conform. Some people don't even know that they are "sticking it to the man" by not dressing the best. They don't get it, but I guess ignorance is bliss. The other people just can't afford those new clothes, or the iPod video. So they pretend to not want those things, and sometimes they are mocked and called weird. But I say go for it, if you don't like them, ignore them.
All in all, this whole peer pressure thing usually makes people do stuff that they do not want to do. Peer pressure usually makes kids do drugs or buy stuff that they don't like, and the kids don't want to.
"People buy stuff they don't want,
with money they don't have,
to impress people they don't like."
--Will Smith

Hollywood

Why are people so famous if they are in a movie once or twice? They play a good part, work a couple months and BAM! Rich for life. Usually rich for life, some of them can't handle their money and end up needing more. How do they do it? Why do we let them? A lot of the money wasted on very few people could be helping others, but nobody seems to care at all. Then there's the tabloids, the action figures, the whole package. It just doesn't seem fair-but for some reason life goes on. I guess in one case it's justifiable, but in another it isn't. That is where the big money is nowadays-Hollywood.

Respond in form of Essay:

Usually, I hate to write essays at school because we are given the topic. This I cannot stand at all, it just kills my imagination. For instance, when I was in eight grade I was told to write an essay on my opinion of the government. What kind of essay question is that!?!?! Not only did that kill my imagination, it slowly tortured it first, then dragged it out onto the highway and taped it down in the middle of the road. I like writing essays about what I want, especially when writing persuasive essays. But Most of all, I love writing short stories when I can. Maybe someday I'll become a writer. HAH! I really had you going there, huh? Wide-scale writing is way too much to hope for, but the short stories I can handle. I like doing horror stories and a little bit of sci-fi. My most recent piece I wrote was a horror story that I wrote solely for the purpose of showing my competency with commas. It was a pretty good story, let me tell you, maybe I'll post it sometime. Now that I'm older and I try to write stories myself, I have a much greater appreciation for those great writers of old. I won't list them, you all know who I'm talking about. What worries me today is, if we've been collecting books and have millions of writers across the world, how do we come up with new ideas?

Those crazy new slang words

Have you ever noticed that here in Utah, people speak a completely different language when it comes to cursing. This can only be shown by example, so I'll give you one. I'll create a conversation between boy 1, we'll call him Joe, and boy 2, he will be Jack. The following slang will be italicized. "Hey Jack, how's it going?" said Joe. "Not bad, but my math teacher gave me a frikin' (it is pronounced as it is spelled) lot of homework," said Jack. "Not mine," said Joe, "But I can't stand the flippin' huge term project in science." "What the heck does flippin' mean?" askes Jack. "I dunno, but it sound pretty dang cool." says Joe.

In my opinion, this new way of speaking your opinion is pretty funny to hear and doesn't offend you. I use a lot of them myself, come to think of it. All I can say is that our community has entered a state of censorship that leaves no one offended and everyone still light hearted. Of course, on occasion a certain person may look on it and critisize and mock, but who cares? Oh yes, the funniest one I have heard this week was spoken by an older person; Mother Fletcher!!! I guess old habits die hard.

The Olympics

I can't believe how people can train themselves enough to qualify in the Olympics. I mean, it would take so much time, money, energy, and extreme patience. Even as I sit here, I witness the greatness that can be brought from entering the Olympics. But sadly, there is always a downside to everything, and in this competition when you fail, you don't just fail, you crash into a pitiful pit of misery and woe as the world watches you all the way. They still try, though, and many are successful. If you were to enter the Olympics, which sport would you enter? I myself would go into the curling sport, since I myself am scared to death Heights and high speeds. The worst mistake I've seen in the Olympics was when the Ukrainian figure skaters messed up. The guy was supposed to hold the girl for a while but he lost his balance and dropped her right on her head. She instantly lost consciousness and everyone was shocked, but this year they are currently in second place. What a recovery! I don't know how anyone could get up in front of several billion people and perform to there very best without having a complete breakdown. This worldwide competition could also bring alot of harmony between countries, so many people coming together for the games. And these are just the Winter Olympics, who knows what the Summer Olympics may bring.....

What do you need education for anyway?

A lot of people have I know have been asking the question "What is school doing for me anyway?" Let me tell you, it is working miracles for those who are actually utilizing it. Of course there are the people who could care less about their future at this time, and just want to do nothing. I have a friend who just dropped out of High school because he couldn't handle the work load and over all didn't care about his life. He is now living with his grandparents and is working at a nearby auto shop. If that is what floats his boat, more power to him. I, however, am not going waste my life working for minimum wage. I'm going to get as much free education as I can, then it is off to college wherever I can get accepted. On the other hand, my other friend's father is a lawyer, and he is very affluent, let me tell you. Nowadays school is available to practically anyone, and it can only help you. "The only ones who complain about minimum wage, are the ones who are planning to be living off of it for a long time." -Dr. Scheuller, 2006 I've got plans, I know where I'm going, so how about you? Do you know what your future looks like?

The internet

This Bill Gates guy was a real genuis. I mean, how does this whole internet thing work? All I know that you type in where you want to go, and your there. My knowledge of the internet is not much more than that. You can gain so much from the internet and all it has to offer. I mean, you see all these movies about how guys can hack into the internet and download all these things, or they can hack into special systems and control the world!!! Well, that may be a little drastic, but one day we will be so dependent on computers that if someone would be able to control the internet, they would control the world!

What is wrong with the world?

Homicides. Suicides. Assault. Robbery. Drugs. Kidnapping. All these things have one thing in common, they are all happening more than ever in our generation. I mean, there used to be a time way back when if you promised something to someone that was all you lived for. Can you believe it? People used to keep their promises!! It's like an ancient fairytale or myth that you still have trouble believing. I'm still angry when the Iraqis beheaded an American on tape and sent it over here to be seen world wide on T.V. I can't believe that LDS missionaries are now being shot nowadays! They are the most harmless people besides monks and hermits. The suicide rate is higher than ever, which makes me wonder... If your going to commit suicide, why not have the time of your life before you overdose or grab a gun? Who cares, use a credit card buy all you want, you won't have to pay for it. I mean, what are they going to do, bring you back to life? Well, I heard they just dump all your debt on your family, so don't do anything too expensive. Oh, and I guess the whole depression thing can get in the way of someone having fun. When I die, I'm going out with a bang! You know, go sky diving without a parachute or something! I'm just joking, just in case you serious people out there are reading this.

They can do it all

If you've ever played basketball or football or baseball or monopoly with me, you already know I'm not the best player in the world. I guess I'm just not coordinated enough cause something just doesn't click when I play these games. But when it comes to board games like Risk and Chess and Sorry, I'm the master and you better watch out. But like everyone I meet up here seems to be an All Star at everything. What can you do, you know? I guess the only thing to do is to just keep working on it, and hope you friends aren't watching. Anyway, There is one certain type of people that just amaze me. There's the people who can take on an after school sport, a band instrument, the science olympiad or national academic league and honors english all at once without showing on ounce of stress of frustration. Whatever medication there taking I want to know where I can get some. This school thing can kill a person!!

The yearling essay

Even after being threatened, stolen from, and beaten Penny Baxter still managed to continue on with his life and forgive the Forresters of their crimes. Penny Baxter was a person of many great qualities, many of which he passed on to his son, Jody Baxter. Jody learned a lot from his father, and through his father he began to understand what it means to be a peacebuilder.
Jody learned to give up put downs early in his life. Penny taught him that if you were to hold a grudge and be offended with every insult you were given, you wouldn't get anywhere in life. The same goes if you insult others, nothing good will come of it. But if you do insult someone, you should always make it right.
You should always right wrongs. Sometimes accidents do happen, but if you do your best to right the wrong you did to others your on the right track. Penny Baxter recognized this, and during a two on one fight between Oliver and the Forresters, Penny tried to right this wrong by joining the fight and defending Oliver. Even though Penny wasn't the biggest guy in the town, he still managed to even the odds.
Penny Baxter taught Jody how to be forgiving. This is not a very easy trait to learn, but Jody got a crash course on how to forgive when his only neighbors stole their hogs, which they depended on to feed them during the winter. Jody was forgiving in this event, which not many people would.
Penny Baxter was a great person when it came to peacebuilder traits, and he taught all his family everything they would need to be great citizens and really great people to be with. If everyone were to be like Penny and was forgiving, gave up put downs, and righted wrongs, this world would almost be bearable to live in.

Snowboarding...Whoo Hoo!

This was it. My first time on the ski lift to the top of the hill where I'd be going down on a snowboard for the first time. I was ready. I mean, it can't be that hard, right? I got off the lift (without falling, I might add) and strapped my other foot in. Then I slowly got up... and fell down again. No problem, I thought. I got up again, and fell down. "That's it" I said while I was turning my board, aiming straight down the slopes. I gathered some courage and off I was, zooming down the hill. It was so easy, to just go straight and gain some speed. But after a short while I started nearing the bottom of the slope and the beginning of the ski lift at an alarming speed, and at that time I decided to start slowing down. At that exact moment, however, I hit a particularly large rift in the snow which stopped my downward progress immediately. I flew what fell like twenty feet (which in twenty feet going downhill, you can get pretty far off the ground) and hit face-first into the hard-packed snow. After a couple of minutes of laying there motionless, I thought that I might be able to live through this snowboarding day. That's when my little brother proved me wrong. My little brother was also learning to snowboard that day, and he's just about my size, so it hurt about the same as falling twenty feet when he hit me from behind and fell right on top of me. As soon as we were both conscious enough to move out of the way of other, more competent skiers and snowboarders, we decided that this whole snowboarding thing was not something you could just pick up and learn to do in one day. But with three more times down the slopes and many more times falling, I think I've got the hang of it. I'll be pro in no time.

Christmas day

I woke up at 6:30 in the morning on Christmas day, which surprised me because I'm usually up about 4:30 and just waiting for everyone else. Anyway, I got out of bed and slowly made my way to the family room where the Christmas tree was stationed. I forgot to write my wishlist this year so I was in for a big surprise. As I made my way to the tree, I saw a huge mound of presents surrounding it, and became extremely excited. The only people up at that time was myself and my mom, who just walked in looking extremely tired, so I took it upon myself to wake up my three younger brothers and introduce them to the pile of gifts that Santa left behind. Soon everybody was in the room, including my two parents, all four of my brothers and my one sister. and my aunt Jenny and my Aunt and Uncle with their two kids, Brock and Rylee. Brock and Rylee are my most favorite cousins in my whole extended family. Anyway, back to Christmas. This year I didn't recieve numerous gifts, but the ones I did get were really cool. My most favorite gift I got this Christmas was a Snowboard and season pass to Park City. I had never hinted I wanted a snowboard, or even thought that my parents would get me one! I've been skiing a couple times, but there is a big difference between skiing and snowboarding. I was extremely excited, but before I could go pro I would have to learn how to snowboard. Meanwhile my family just recieved the largest stash of board games than we've ever gotten, so if the whole snowboard thing doesn't work out I could still become board game champ.