Snow Days

                Last Tuesday, we had a snow day.  There was eight inches of snow on my driveway.  Swimming practices were cancelled.  I slept in until eight a.m. and realized missed school.

                I spent four hours shoveling the driveway.  The snow was wet concrete.  This sludge would barely move.  When I fired up the snow blower, it broke one of the augers and tore a pin.  This snow was tough stuff.   My coat was very warm, but I forgot to wear wool socks.  When I finished, my feet were solid blocks of ice.  I proceeded to take a shower that burned the crap out of my feet.  I hate shoveling. 

The problem with snow days is when you finish the crappy shoveling job, you are tired.  You end up sitting on the couch doing nothing for the day.  I sat on the couch and played Halo 4 all day because I was too tired.  Even if I had energy, I couldn’t go anywhere because the roads were really bad. 

                The worst part of a snow day is the homework.  Your teachers aren’t stupid.  They can sort of predict when a real snow day will happen.  Their homework is planned accordingly.  I always have projects and lots of monotonous work when we have snow days.  Teachers don’t want to get behind, so they assign a ton of work.  Most kids just don’t do it, but I feel guilty if I don’t do it.  They usually collect the homework for completion points because they know how many won’t do it. 

                 I would rather have school than a snow day.  If it is too bad to have school, I can’t do any fun activities outside and friends can’t come over because the roads are bad.  There is a pile of homework to do as well as work around the house.  Shit, sometimes, we still have swimming practice during a snow day.  I would rather be in school because we are in school 180 days, regardless of whether we have snow days.  I’d rather have the three day weekends in February. That’s just me.     

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NuVal

     Eating Healthy is as interesting as a sack of potatoes.  Eating healthy means that you have to give up old habits of unhealthy food.  Eating snickers and drinking coke must stop as you exchange them for water and carrots.  At first, nobody wants to eat healthy.  The human body is trained to love sweets and “junk food” because you can put on weight.  In the past, keeping weight and having energy was a big problem.  Any source of fat or sugar tasted really good because it provided the body with energy.  Now, most people consume more calories than their body uses.  The body stores it as fat.  People don’t use the stored fat energy because they eat more at the next meal.  Eventually, people become overweight and unhealthy because they have stored too much fat.  In this case eating healthy can actually make you feel better.  It will better nourish your body and improve your standard of living.

     Last month I was with my Youth Leadership group for Five Seasons.  We were given a talk about nutrition and a way to calculate food you buy at a grocery store.  Hy-Vee bought the rights of NuVal to test all of their foods.  The foods were given a number from 1-100 based on nutrition.  There were a lot of interesting results that came from the NuVal testing.  Most cereals scored below 30.  Pure foods with no added sugar or chemicals scored much higher than those foods that were healthier with influenced sugar.  The NuVal system preferred nature foods as more healthy than vitamin rich or protein rich foods.

     I asked the nutritionist at Hy-Vee if they had a specialized NuVal scale.  She said no. Men and women need different things from their food.  Generally, men need more protein and more calories from their food than women do.  Generally, women need more iron and calcium than men do.  I brought the point up to the nutritionist and she quickly dismissed my idea.  She then continued to praise the NuVal scale for how accurate and helpful it can be. 

     Here is a link for the NuVal website.  (here)

     Look at the website and leave a comment.  If you could, address some of these questions.  One, do you think the NuVal system is accurate?  Do you think the Nuval scale works for people?  Would knowing the NuVal scale of every item make you change your eating habits?  What would be a better design for the NuVal scale so stores across the country can implement the scale?

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Snow Days

The Thursday before break, we had a snow day.  There was eight inches of snow on my driveway.  Swimming practices were cancelled.  I slept in until eight a.m. and realized missed school.
      I spent four hours shoveling the driveway.  The snow was wet concrete.  This sludge would barely move.  When I fired up the snow blower, it broke one of the augers and tore a pin.  This snow was tough stuff.   My coat was very warm, but I forgot to wear wool socks.  When I finished, my feet were solid blocks of ice.  I proceeded to take a shower that burned the crap out of my feet.  I hate shoveling.
     The problem with snow days is when you finish the crappy shoveling job, you are tired.  You end up sitting on the couch doing nothing for the day.  I sat on the couch and played Halo 4 all day because I was too tired.  Even if I had energy, I couldn’t go anywhere because the roads were really bad.
     The worst part of a snow day is the homework.  Your teachers aren’t stupid.  They can sort of predict when a real snow day will happen.  Their homework is planned accordingly.  I always have projects and lots of monotonous work when we have snow days.  Teachers don’t want to get behind, so they assign a ton of work.  Most kids just don’t do it, but I feel guilty if I don’t do it.  They usually collect the homework for completion points because they know how many won’t do it.
     I would rather have school than a snow day.  If it is too bad to have school, I can’t do any fun activities outside and friends can’t come over because the roads are bad.  There is a pile of homework to do as well as work around the house.  Shit, we still have swimming practice during a snow day.  I would rather be in school because we are in school 180 days, regardless of whether we have snow days.  I’d rather have the three day weekends in February. That’s just me.    
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Gun Control

     How many children have to die until the people agree on strict gun laws?  100 more? 200 more?  1000 children, innocently murdered?  We are better than this America.  I can’t believe the amount of school shootings.  Society is numb to the tragedies.  20 elementary school kids died avoidably today.  If the assailant didn’t own a gun, he wouldn’t have been able to walk in and shoot those kids.  They would still be alive today, able to run home for Christmas and open their gifts.
     There have been multiple mass school shootings in the past few years.  One reason is mental health.  As it society gets more complex, an increasing amount of people can’t keep up and go insane.  I am not saying society is to blame, but we have an increased amount of mental people in our country.  Our government does nothing about it.  They have actually decreased mental health spending and released more and more mental Americans to the streets.
     Bullying is another factor that has led to school shootings.  There are so many bullied kids in school.  Most of them can take it, but there are a few who get bullied a lot.  Kids see a weakness and extort it.  Most have to move schools or start counseling.  Some, though, lose their minds and plan a school shooting.  Many have been avoided because they told someone beforehand   but a few have still occurred.
     The biggest problem is the easy accessibility of guns in the United States. I mean Jesus Christ.  There are no mental checks to get a gun.  Most mental people do not get checked.  If they wanted a gun, they just go and apply for one.  Personally, Americans have outgrown the need for guns.  Back when the Constitution was written, we had just freed ourselves from British rule.  A big reason was the minute men.  They kept guns at their house while under control of the British.  They fought the British and won.  Gun owners feel like they should have a gun in case the government was to turn on them, causing them to revolt.  One problem with the theory, the government has more advanced and bigger weapons in comparison to the 1800s.  They have nukes and unmanned air drones.  Give me a break.  If they wanted you dead, you would be dead.    
      There is no reason why any local citizen should be able to carry a gun unless they are hunting or at a shooting range.  Those regulations would be fought out in Congress.  Before they figure that out, Congress needs to figure out how to tighten regulations on guns.

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Hawkeye Receiving

If this past 4-8 season wasn’t enough to inspire the receivers on the Iowa football team to get better, they should take notice of what’s happening with recruiting. The Hawkeyes are really hurting at the receiver position.  They have committed 4 receivers and are looking at four more.  Last year, the receiving core had 2200 yards and 7 touchdowns.  That’s it.  There are individual receivers who can do that.  It took all of Iowa’s receivers and running backs catching balls to add up to those stats.  Frankly, it is embarrassing. 

What has changed for the Iowa receiving core this year?  Coach Cambell left Iowa for other opportunities.  We do not have a replacement.  Cambell was an excellent coach and will be hard to replace.   As hard as it is to imagine, the Iowa receivers could have played a lot worse than they did.  Many people were frustrated because receivers ran short of the first down marker so many times on third down.  I would caution you to point the figure at Cambell.  Those routes were given to him by Davis, our “wonderful” Offensive Coordinator.  He believes on third down that receivers should catch the ball and make a play to get a first down.  This isn’t the Big Twelve, players wrap up receivers.  After all of those failed attempts on trying to reach the marker, you think Davis would have changed his scheme.  Oh well.  Kennan Davis also used up his last year of eligibility last year.  He was second on the team in receiving.  He was the big threat that we never used.  He had big hands and speed but Vandenberg never seemed to find him. 

As I look at the possible recruits coming in, one really opens my eyes.  His name is Brian Lemelle.  He is Pennsylvania’s all-time leader in receptions (269) and receiving yards (4,529) for a high school player.  There have been a lot of good receivers out of Pennsylvania.  To have the record in these categories means he was a ball magnet.  He consistently got open and was able to catch the ball.  Hopefully he is able to give the Hawkeyes a boost that is so very much needed.  Before he can catch the ball for the Hawkeyes, he has to commit.  Hurry up and commit to Iowa!  If he doesn't, Iowa receiving might be in for a really, really bad year.     

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Big Ten Conference Divisions

     There are quite a few options when it comes down to realigning the Big Ten Conference.  We finally get to get rid of the awful division names!  I am nervous on how the league will divide the teams up.  Each team has their own opinion for their best interest.  I want to protect as many rivalries as I can.  Which one would you pick?  I’ll go through the positives and negatives for Iowa in each situation.

Adam Rittenberg’s (espn.com) Plan
East: Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Michigan State, Indiana, Rutgers, Maryland
West: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Northwestern, Minnesota, Illinois, Purdue

     Iowa gets all three trophy games every year with this alignment.  Iowa also will play Northwestern every year.  That game has become a rivalry.  Iowa definetly benefits a lot from this alignment.  If they would happen to be good, they avoid many of the big teams.  They have a good shot at making the title game every year.  The downside to this lineup is that Iowa and Michigan don’t play.  Iowa also doesn’t play Penn State.  Ever since Iowa robbed Penn State of a national title run in 08, this game has been filled with tension and excitement.  If Iowa was to go undefeated however, they would still have enough quality wins to be considered for a playoff spot (need to be in top 4).

Brian's (espn.com) Plan
East: Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, Maryland, Rutgers, Purdue, Indiana
West: Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Northwestern

     This is by far my favorite plan.  It swaps out Purdue for Michigan State.  Like the alignment above, Iowa gets all three trophy games.  This plan isn’t popular in Michigan.  Michigan and Michigan State in different divisions takes away some of the hate and no Michigan or Michigan State fan wants that.  They want to see the other team on the sideline while they play in the Big Ten Championship Game.  Michigan State is a better team than Purdue, so Iowa would have a tougher conference schedule.  The games would still be a lot of fun to watch!

     Don't like either of those? Well here is my plan for the division.

Inner-Outer plan
Division A: Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Michigan State, Wisconsin
Division B: Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Rutgers, Penn State, Ohio State, Purdue

     This is definitely not the easiest way for Iowa to get to the Championship Game.  This is purely based on fan enjoyment.  Every conference game would be a big game for Iowa.  We usually play to the talent level of the opponent.  I don’t see us losing more games because we are versing harder teams because we lose to bad teams just as much.  Division A is definitely stronger than Division B.  The league would never go for it.  Division A would be the second toughest division in the country behind the SEC West.  If you had to play Michigan, Nebraska, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and a crossover game with Penn State or Ohio State, you would be ecstatic to win 4.  What is your thoughts on how the conference should be aligned?
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Sexism in College Applications

      There are definitely some problems with unequal treatment in our country.  There is an overemphasis on beauty of women in our society.  They start to spend more time looking pretty rather than getting an education.  There is pressure of women from society to do these things.  There are also bonuses from society for being a smart girl.  Counter Discrimination has gone too far in some cases.

      Women are starting to get into colleges with lower scores than men do.  There are more men who apply for college.  In order to promote “equality,” and a good college atmosphere, colleges try and keep the school 50 50.  This is ridiculous!  They are starting accept women over men with a lower SAT, ACT, and GPA.  It is unfair to men that women have an easier time trying to get into college. 

      The same ease of acceptance also factors in with minorities such as Blacks and Hispanics.  They are more likely to get accepted that a white male with the same scores.  It is just unfair.  There really isn’t much more than that. 

      Acceptance shouldn’t take race or sex into consideration for acceptance.  They should look at your athletics, volunteerism, leadership, G.P.A., and test scores.  Women don’t want to get into college because they are women.  They want to get into a college because they deserve it.  Don’t give women and minorities handouts to get into their college.  Make them work at it, they are just as smart as anyone.    

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