I commented on AlmostFamous' blog "People Watching"

I commented on Brittney Spears' blog "Should College Change Us"

Growing Older But Not Up

My birthday's getting closer. Well...relatively closer. It's a month away.

Nonetheless I'm getting older and the idea isn't necessarily appealing to me. In fact I find the idea of growing up ultimately confusing and depressing. It never made sense to me that one day you were considered a young boy and than the next you were allowed to buy pornography, cigarettes, and lottery tickets and now you were considered an adult. In celebration of my 18th birthday I got the joy of signing up for the Army Reserve services need they ever reinstate a draft. A day before I wasn't allowed to vote and the next I could be enlisted into the army. The idea seemed a bit ridiculous, which is why after middle school when I moved away from home to a boarding school I stopped celebrating my birthday. Instead I focused on everyday and the small things in life that I was blessed with as I got older. However, to me the thing I'm most protective about is staying young. To this day a number of my friends still refuse to go shopping with me for a number of reasons. One such person was a friend who took me to buy my bed when I arrived at school. My process was quite similar to the way I bought a bed when I was a kid. I jumped up and down on them on all fours and picked the one that was the most fun to just fall on. Needless to say since than I have not been shopping with that friend. However, staying young is essential to my view that I never want to grow up. It's always been more fun to stay young. So until that day that I absolutely must grow up, I plan on hanging on to as much innocence and childness that I can. Even if I do turn 21 in a month.

Living in the Slow Lane

The end of the term is fast approaching and it seems college students are being taught one last lesson. There is nothing wrong with taking a break and stepping away from the world. While some students blow off steam drinking or with a significant other, there are some who still manage to step out of our busy world to relax. Some do this by going to coffee and reading a book. Others who live nearby escape back to home to see family. Recently however as the academic and work world has become more prominent the raise in the number of kids looking for these leisure activities.

With a view like this is there any reason that CD's such as Kenny Chesney's new Luck Old Sun album are such huge successes? The CD proclaims the wonders of living the slower life in the islands and finding the escape and balance that come with working hard. The truth is that people are looking to balance out their lives. All life needs balance between living healthy, staying social, and working hard. As we begin to work harder and harder that side of the triangle begins to overbear the other two unless we find a way to evenly balance everything. For some people this means hitting the gym with friends during exam. For others it's eating healthy and staying in touch with the ones they love as they look to relax. What does it mean to maintain a blanced lifestyle and how should people go about doing it?

For me, I'll just put on my Kenny Chesney and Jimmy Buffett and remind myself there's nothing like the carribean islands as I study.

The Other Side of Sex

"I'm pregnant"

The words appeared on my computer. 1,341 miles away one of my closest friends had just told me the life changing news over Instant Messenger. A child of adoption and having been raised in a catholic family and attending a catholic high school and college, I didn't have to ask her what her views on what would be happening next were. It stunned me to hear that one of my closest friends was going to be a mother. Though she always was the caring type it was still hard to see someone I had spent so much time with and even dated at one point open up the idea of taking care of a child.

The truth is in today's culture sex is such a common part of relationships, particularly in college. People it seems often look to find the intimacy and closeness that comes with sex often not realizing the consequences. I know that I've constantly found that closeness throughout my life often not thinking past the moment. However, America has one of the highest pregnancy rates of developed countries with a 7.5% chance of a teenager getting pregnant. The interesting thing about this statistic is it does not take into account the majority of kids in college where sex much more open. Even though my friend was on the pill, used a condom and even tracked the times when she was most likely to get pregnant, it happened eventually. The truth is that sex is prevalent and I don't think anyone would give it up given it's place in our culture. In a recent survey in the UK the surveyor's found that "As the credit crunch bites, Britons may be turning to sex as a cheap way to pass the time" (complete article here). What than is the appropriate approach to sex and pregnancy in today's culture and what do people feel should be acceptable?

Steroids for your Brain

Coffee. Adderall. Red Bull.

Set for another study session. Enhancing my focus and ability to stay awake so that I can do better in my classes. The truth of the matter is that with the drugs and energy supplements I can push myself to study longer and work more than someone not taking the supplements. Basically I'm taking steroids for my brain to help me achieve a goal. Unlike steroids however there's no long lasting side effects and my reward is knowledge besides just a good looking body. The question then is why is there no outcry about the mental edge that students are getting by using these mental enhancers? Is it morally better to cheat in the world of academia than in the world of sports? Or should we consider these enhancements as cheating as their not speeding up teaching of material only prolonging the studying ability of a student? The thing with steroids is that they don't themselves build muscle, you have to be willing to put time in to lift weights and practice to see improvment. In the same way though Adderall or Ritalin let you stay awake to study but you have to actually open a book and learn the material. So is it any different from physical enhancers?

Personally I've used Adderall which has been prescribed to me to help me study and stay focused when I need a boost or have a heavy workload. It helps me from being distracted by the things in our world which are supposed to improve our life yet seem to provide only more distractions. Facebook, AIM, and the air conditioning clicking on are suddently a lot less intresting when I've taken my medication as I can't come unglued from the article I'm reading or the paper I'm writing. The new age drugs that I take help keep me focused and away from the new age distractions in life.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is two fold. Should students be allowed to use Adderall to mentally push themselves longer? And are the drugs now more prominent on campus because of the number of distractions we're open too?


Update:
After posting I found this article on BBC which focuses on the same question.

Bring on the Cold

Bring on the cold. Bring on the fall breeze and bring on the jackets. After living in the northeast all my life it's a blessing when the weather takes a turn for the cold. Being able to wear layers again and get ready for the start of Ski season. My true passion is skiing and being around the mountains. And every year about this time as it starts to get cold I feel as if I'm being called back to the mountains. A perpetual ski bum I've always valued the gift my parents gave me of taking me out into the open and just going skiing and letting me be free. It's an expression of openness and a true sense of accomplishment while feeling peace at just being out there in the first place. For me being up on the mountain skiing is all of that. So now that we enter into the cold weather with the thermometer dropping, the girls putting away the mini skirts, and the guys pulling out the hoodies...I'm smiling. As for me...you can find me on the mountain sometime soon.

Just in case you need in motivation check out this trailer for Warren Millers new movie to get pumped for the oncoming season.

I commented on JSC's blog "Parking on campus? Ehh, not so much..."

I commented on Genesis' post "So What Exactly Are Our Politicians Doing?"

The French, The Yankees, and some guy named Drucker

I crossed an intresting article in the Time about the current state of the economy. Which openly challenged the current federalization of corporate enterprises in America. While I'm aware this is a fresh topic among some bloggers, I was urged on in my idea to add my comment when I recieved an article from my father entitled "What Peter Drucker Would Have Said?". While I have not been able to find where the article was from it quickly capitalized on many of Drucker's hypothesis' about the direction the US economy and where we were today. In fact in one of Drucker's last articles he mentioned the shift of financial power shifting from New York, where financial power has been since it's days as a trading post in the colonies, to Washington D.C. and this year with the current state of the market it seems that his hypothesis' may be increasingly right.
Throughout the history of the US we have abided by the laissez faire stance of economics as introduced by John Keynes. However recently it seems that as we've relied more and more on the credit industry to help fund our efforts and now we need the federal government to come and bail out an economy that for years screamed hands off until it needed help. The problem however is that with the federalization of the economy, not just in the US but globally, we face needing to deal with the govenment regulations and rules that can further restrict and suppress natrual growth. However another intresting problem is in the belief that the experts of wallstreet really were experts. Instead they were just men who can now rely on a government paycheck to bail them out of their mistakes. Much like NASA making a miscalulation that loses millions of tax payers dollars these financial experts have lost billions of dollars and hope only that the US government that they are protected under will bail them out. What comes next? When teachers don't teach will the government start doing it for them? For a humours and contemporary look at this issue please take a look at how the world of sports sees the issues of the financial market. (editors note: please read up to the first heading, and a reminder that this was written as a joke and not an actual new story. Also the most entertaining look at why the Yankees failed to make the playoffs this year.)

I posted on AlmostFamous' blog under the "Careless Drivers" post. You can check it out here

The Sanctity of Sports

The sanctity of football. The domination of water polo. The clash of lacrosse. The passion of soccer.

What is it about sports which so thoroughly hold our attention that people across the world are consumed with not only playing but watching these sports. In every part of the world their are sports which dominate the community and manage to unite and hold the attention of the public. In fact, with the proliferation of networks such as ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programing Network ), NESN (New England Sports Network), YES (Yankee Entertainment and Sports Network), Fox Sports, NFL Network, and other such area sports related networks it's hard to find a place where televised sports are not available. Coupled with the proliferation of Foxsports.com, espn.com, espn360.com, cbssports.com, nfl.com, nhl.com, mlb.com, etc. it's impossible for there to not be somewhere in the world that someone can access immediate sports news on their favorite team. What is it than that holds us in such constant admiration of sports?

As a swimmer in my youth I constantly pushed myself to a higher limit. I learned life lessons of how to manage my life and push yself out of my comfort zone and become a better person. On a personal side the lessons I learned from sports greatly complimented the fact that I got to stay in good shape. However growing up in the swimming world I came to appreciate the things that athletes put themselves through. For example, watching Michael Phelps break Mark Spitz's record this past summer at the Summer Olympics for me was truly remarkable because being a swimmer I could openly appreciate the effort and training that went into the remarkable accomplishment. For my friend Carolyn however, being a softball player it was extremely important to watch the USA woman's team play on the olympic stage for the last time. Connected to the sports we grew up playing we were both intrinsically attached to these moments of watching the best of those who played our sports compete for greatness that only comes once every four years.

My friend Sean is on the other end of the spectrum. A born football player the NFL holds a remarkable hold over him as he analyzes salary caps, team rosters, playbooks, scouts games, and other miscellaneous things. For him the NFL is all about the sport and not the marketing aspect that has resulted in the spawn of everything football. Perhaps it's the marketing that has taken over the sports industry. As players are paid more and teams compete at higher and faster levels there is a growing chain of marketability to an action addicted audience. Forget cigarettes or Proctor and Gamble, the sports world has by far some of the best marketing in the world. Why? Because it connects to those moments in our lives when we're kids. Because we're passionate about the local sports teams and people know they can market that and build suspense on it to make money. The things we are loyal to and that connect to us on a personal level have become the things that we admire and hold and grasp our attention. Is it the marketing than that holds our attention or is it the personal aspect of our lives that truly connect us to sports. Either way it seems that like every other Monday I'll have Monday night football on, and like every October I'll be watching cheering on the Red Sox, and like every four years I'll be cheering on Michael Phelps and the USA water polo team, it seems that I'll always be following sports for whatever reason.

Sick Day

I’ll never forget my junior winter of high school. I was involved in Varsity Swimming which had double practices, I had an amazing girlfriend, a heavy work load to look good for colleges, a couple term papers, and community service. And I was sick the entire time. With a temperature holding in the steady hundreds one would think that I would be seeking medical help and resting. However I continued to push away at my work load and continued to maintain my life the way I always did.

Most kids are probably now thinking, well why didn’t his parents call him out of school. Why didn’t he just cut class and get better? The answer lay in the fact that I went to a boarding school where I lived on campus so there was no easy way to call out of school. Even if there had been there was a trend at school of kids coming to school with all sorts of sicknesses. From the constant strain of mono to sinus infections and massively high temperatures, the culture we were in pushed us to exceed past the limits that we set for ourselves. Students were constantly coughing and struggling past headaches and nasal congestion to hear a lecture.

Once leaving for college I figured I’d left this behind. After all it surely was a rare thing that I could attribute to the competitiveness of my private high school. My idyllic dreams were quickly shattered when I realized it was simply worse in college. The general attitude among kids was that they were invincible and that they by no means needed to take care of themselves outside of their general hygene. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that infections and such run quickly through dorms and sports teams and most people didn’t want to deal with being held back from their daily agenda by their health. In the end it became apparent that something is just simply wrong.

Students should be constantly encouraged to take care of themselves. While sickness can be dealt with thanks to the plethora of drugs on the market (legal, over the counter drugs only of course) it’s a burden that generally drags someone and the people around them downward. So the question is raised if being sick is so bad for us why do we continue to press on? Is the culture we live in and the drive to succeed really that great that we can put off caring for ourselves to better our future achievements? Why can’t our future achievements take a week off while we get better so that we can more fully deal with the life we all need to live. If it’s not our culture that pushes students into this situation, is it the teachers or their peers who lead students to wanting to succeed and impress everyone which leads us to going to class sick, throwing up, or with raging fevers? Are these really things to have to deal with when trying to learn new material and succeeding in life? Personally I believe that on a whole students need to take care of themselves when their sick so that they can then better understand and comprehend the learning that they’re then required to take a part of in the classroom. This way we can learn things perfect the first time. Like the age old question goes, “If you’re not going to do it right, why do it?”

On a side note please excuse me from class today as I have a sinus infection that I caught from my roommate and I plan on aptly resting and sleeping it off today.

Name

Kelevra, what's in a name?