D4.

                I was sitting at home the other day and I could not for the life of me think of a topic to blog about. Nothing exceptionally good or bad had happened to me in the recent past. I had reached a complete mental block. I was staring at the screen of my computer, trying to come up with an idea when I heard a shriek that could shatter glass. I looked up from over the screen to see my brother sprint out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel around his waist. His face was as white as a ghost. When I asked my brother what happened he said “There was a spider”. Really? A spider?  That’s what made my brother, the starting linebacker and guard of the Alden JV football team, screech like a prepubescent girl?  I would understand if it was a fist sized Tarantula that just crawled up the drain, but it wasn’t. This spider was maybe the size of a quarter, and I’m being generous when I say this.

This got me thinking though. Why are people so afraid of spiders? Not once in my life have I come into contact with a spider and thought “Wow. This thing might kill me”. I’m not saying that I’m abnormally brave or anything, because that is not the case. All I’m trying to say is that of all of the scary things in the world, why would you waste your time being afraid of that? We don’t live in an underdeveloped country with baby-sized spiders crawling around that have the power to kill a grown man with no medical supplies around for miles. The worst spiders around here can do when they bite you is leave a tiny bump that can sometimes itch. All it takes to solve that problem is a trip to the gas station for some cheap ani-itch cream. Also, the saying that spiders are just afraid of you as you are of it is completely ridiculous. Would you be afraid of anyone who screamed like my brother did?

D1.

                It’s hard to decide which teacher has impacted me the most. In one way or another I have been impacted by every one of my teachers. The teacher that I have picked may come as a surprise to some people, but believe it or not, that teacher is Mr. Papagni. I was in Mr. Papagni’s science class for both seventh and eighth grade. Although his teaching methods are different and sometimes just plain weird, I found them to be very effective. Some of his antics included kicking the recycling bin, crawling on the floor and shouting at students in an imaginary alien language. He is also known for putting his head in the sink and being quite amused at how it amplified his voice. He would deal with students who acted out by being just as ridiculous as they were. I remember hearing the most bazar thing one day during science. I was making up a test in the room across the hall and toward the end of the period I heard a loud scream coming from Mr. Papagni, followed by a  three minute song about why he hates it when students start to pack up before it’s time to go. This song even included several kazoo solos. I found myself sitting in front of my unfinished test, unsure of what just happened. I ended up getting a 100% on the test, by the way, proving that his methods of teaching are effective. His original composition later became known as “the paper shuffling song”. I believe that it was his odd sense of humor that made it easy to learn about science. His unorthodox way of teaching is why I still like this subject so much. I can’t say that about every other teacher that I have ever had.

D2.

                My favorite class without any doubt is biology with Mr. Kasper. Every day we go over homework, review what we did in the last class, learn something new and have a class discussion. The best part of bio is our class discussions. We can start out talking about the main lesson of the day, but end up talking about something totally different. For example we were talking about urbanization one day. Then someone asked a question and another person had a comment after the question was answered. One thing lead to another and before I knew it the discussion turned into a heated debate about whether or not McDonald’s is better than Burger King. I personally believe that Burger King is way better than McDonald’s. This happens all the time with a variety of topics. What also makes this class my favorite is that I’m interested in what we learn about. Science is my favorite subject and has never failed to amaze me. I have had to take a lot of classes that I didn’t have an interest in or even care about. I tend to pay more attention in that class than in any other. Because I can focus, my bio grade is one of my highest. The material that we go over is relatively easy. We were taught a lot it last year. What I don’t like about bio is that we have homework due almost every class. At least it’s simple and the answers are in our notes. Tests are not a problem for me either. They consist of only forty multiple choice questions and a couple short response questions. We go over everything in class so much that it’s almost impossible to fail. I can’t wait to take more science classes like this in the future.

C4. Why I am not a morning person

                I am not a morning person, I have never been. I can’t stand waking up a six thirty every morning for school. It’s unnatural for me to wake up before the sun is out. When I have to get up that early I am never completely awake until about noon. Every morning I have to rush to get to school on time. This normally results in me forgetting something or at least me thinking that I did. Last week I was in a hurry to leave I grabbed my shoes from by the back door and went to get my water bottle for football from the freezer.  When I opened the freezer door I set my shoes down to retrieve the water bottle. I then put it in my backpack and went to brush my teeth. Once my teeth were brushed I was ready to leave, but then I realized that I had not yet put my shoes. Frantically I searched the entire house and even the back yard in case my dog took it out there. I was about to put on an old pair of shoes when remembered that the last time I had them was when I got my water bottle out of the freezer. Quickly I ran upstairs to find both of my shoes sitting in the freezer. Relived, I put on my shoes and got to school with less than a minute to spare. That is just one example of the stupid things I do in the morning. My sisters never had this problem when they were in school. My brother doesn’t have a problem with getting up either. Even my parents are used to waking up early. Everybody in my family can function in the morning except for me. 

C3.

                Getting a swimming pool was one of the best things to have ever happened to me. I like having a pool for a lot of reasons. First of all really like to swim. I have swum for the school’s swimming team in the past and spend most of my time swimming in the summer. It is normally warm enough to swim in from early June to mid- September.  My favorite thing to do in the summer is to blast the radio and go swimming. Sometimes I get in at ten o’clock in the morning and stay out there until three o’clock in the afternoon. There have been days where I’ve stayed out there for longer than that. I also like to have my friends come over to swim. A lot of the time they just show up at my house to go swimming without even asking. Most of the time I’m in the pool anyway, so it doesn’t matter. We almost killed Matt Myzka on several occasions while playing chicken. When they sleep over we normally go midnight swimming. One time when we did this we were too loud and my neighbors called my parents. My mom and dad didn’t let me have a sleepover for weeks after that. It’s also great for after football practices when I’m hot and tired. This year we had four hour practices. Every day after football I would go swimming for at least an hour. I am always the one who has to take care of the pool. I have to vacuum it, keep the leaves out, empty the skimmers and replace the bromine. For all of the fun it brings me it is worth the work. I hate having to close it for the winter in late October because I have to wait for seven months until I can go swimming again.   

C2.

                It is tough to say what restaurant in Alden is my favorite, there are at least ten. Five or six of them are pizzerias. I would have to say that the best restaurant is Carbone’s. I've been eating food from there for my entire life and it has been consistently good. I like there pizza because it isn't too thick and it isn't too thin. The pizza at some other restaurants comes out too doughy and under cooked, but at Carbone’s it is cooked perfectly. I also like the array of topping that you can choose from. It’s not that they offer you anything different from other places; I just think they taste better. I’m not a fan of their chicken fingers, however. I think that they can be a little bit under cooked sometimes. Their wings, on the other hand are great. My two favorite ways to order them are medium, cooked extra crispy and BBQ, extra crispy. I always get them with extra bleu cheese. It is debatable that LaPaloma’s wings are better, but that is for another blog. It is certain that they make the best subs. Although I just said I don’t care for their chicken fingers, my favorite is their chicken finger sub. Chicken fingers in general always seem to taste better on subs than they do by themselves. I also like their steak subs. They are best with fried onions and mushrooms. I also like their subs because my sister works their and gives me one for free. Free food always tastes better than when you have to pay for it.

                It is a tradition for my friends and me to go to Carbone’s on Fridays after football practice. It’s a great place to hang out at and kill time before we go to the varsity football game.  

C1.

     Tacos from Mighty Taco are my favorite packed lunch. Whenever I go to out to Mighty on a school night, I always make sure to pick some up for school the next day. My favorite thing to order is an El Nino Burrito. I look forward to eating it all day. Although Mighty Taco is unhealthy, I would eat their tacos every day if I could. The very evident risk of contracting type-2 diabetes doesn’t discourage me from doing so at all. I’ve talked to a lot of people about how great their food is, and almost everybody agreed that it is delicious. There is, however, a small group of people who don’t like the food there. What’s not to like about it? You can have anything on your taco that you could ever think to put in one. Even if you don’t like tacos, their menu is full of other great items. Some of these items include fajitas, nachos, salads and empanadas, which are all great tasting. Naysayers of this establishment also swear that they don’t put real meat in their food. These people must not have heard the expression “don’t ask what’s in your sausage”. Sometimes it’s just best not to ask. I wish that there was a Mighty Taco in Alden. It would make a lot of money here. People from here and several other towns would go to it to fulfill their needs for cheap Mexican food. It would also create jobs, which is good for Alden’s economy and would even bring some diversity to a town dominated by pizza joints. Then I could bring tacos to school every day. The moment they decide to build one in this town will be the happiest of my life. That is why Mighty Taco is my favorite packed lunch.

B3.

                I have had a lot of great moments in my life. One of them was when I beat my brother in a swimming race. This, however, was no ordinary race. This was a race in forty degree water with a twenty dollar reward for the winner.  It all started when Chris and I finished helping my dad open up our pool last April. My Dad bet me and my brother five dollars that we wouldn't go in the pool. Neither of us did for only five dollars, so my dad told us that he would give the winner of a race twenty dollars. We agreed to do this after we made sure he wasn't bluffing. The entire time it took us to get ready we trash talked. My brother would call me a girl or something like that and I would retaliate with an oh-so witty comeback. The more he spoke, the more I wanted to beat him. By the time we were ready we were actually angry at each other. It was decided that the race would be two laps long. Then we were ready to race. I dove into the frigid water and was immediately stunned by how cold it was. I felt my muscles start to tense up and my heart rate increased. I was so shocked that I hadn't realized how far behind I had fallen. I snapped out of it when I remembered what he called me and in a second I was in the lead. I steadily made my way to the finish line in first place. I had proved my brother wrong and was endlessly proud of myself. That was not the greatest moment in my life. The greatest moment in my life was when I saw his face when he saw that I bought him a bikini and a pair of water wings with the twenty dollars I won.    

B4. Why Carl is the worst character in The Walking Dead.

                On October 14^th, the popular AMC series, The Walking dead will return for another season. I am excited to see what will happen in the new season, but I’m not excited to see Carl. For those of you who don’t know who Carl is, he is the 12 year old son of the main character, Rick Grimes, who always wears a ridiculous cowboy hat. In every episode, Carl manages to screw something up. Carl’s one and only job is to stay in the house, and he even manages to mess that up.  He is so bad at this job that it has gotten several people killed. Dale’s death was completely Carl’s fault. Carl decided that it would be a good idea to go into the woods alone without telling anybody. He then approached a zombie that was stuck in the mud and ended up getting stuck himself. Instead of killing it, he ran away. By that night the zombie had managed to escape and find the farm where it eventually bit Dale. Had Carl stayed in the house like he was supposed to, Dale would be fine and life would be good, but Carl’s mistakes have caused countless problems for the group. What I don’t understand is why they make Glenn do all of the dangerous work. They should make Carl do these things, since Glenn is actually a competent member of their post-apocalyptic society. Would it really be so bad if Carl was sent to get some supplies from the nearby town and didn't come back? Carl is more of a liability than an asset anyway.                

                Carl is quite possibly the worst person to have to survive the end of the world with. I would rather be stuck in an alien invasion with Dakota Fanning than be stuck in the zombie apocalypse with Carl. He may very well be the most annoying child on television.