I'm Good...

COMP 447 SOCIETAL ISSUES IN COMPUTING 3.00 Letter Grade B 9.000 ENGL 120 AMERICAN LITERATURE I 3.00 Letter Grade B+ 9.900 MATH 202 BIOSTATISTICS 3.00 Letter Grade A 12.000 MATH 208 MODERN MATH FOR ELEMENTARY TCH 3.00 Letter Grade A+ 12.000 MATH 240 LINEAR ALGEBRA 3.00 Letter Grade A 12.000 MATH 399 MODERN TOOLS IN MATH 1.00 Credit / No Credit CR MATH 399 MODERN TOOLS IN MATH 1.00 Credit / No Credit CR

As much as I complain about it... and as much as I dislike it... I'm kinda good at it...

Merry Christmas

I have always struggled with Christmas time... I can't stand the commercialization of Christmas... The hustle and bustle drives me nuts and people have always called me a Grinch or Scrooge because of it... It usually starts with the early playing of Christmas music that just pushes me over the edge. But this year, I really asked God to kinda work on my heart about the whole hatred towards Christmas thing and I really can say that I am happy that it's Christmas time. I am looking forward to spending time with my family and friends. And I have finally found some Christmas music that I not only can stand, but really like!

So in honor of Christmas time, here are some of my new favorite Christmas arrangements. Enjoy!

Erin McCarley - "Little Drummer Boy"

(Also see Katie Herzig's version of "Silent Night")

Seabird - "Joy to the World"

(Seabird's "Over the Hills and Everywhere" Christmas album is fantastic... So different from what anyone is used to, but so beautiful!)

Also look for Matthew Perryman Jones' "O Holy Night," Jill Phillips' "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," and Many Mann's "O Come All Ye Faithful" on the "Your King Has Come" album. Absolutely beautiful!

Ingrid Michaelson - "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

Record Holder

I've been pretty quiet about this, but I thought it was time to share. For the past several months I have been training with my dad to compete in Powerlifting competitions. This last Saturday was my first competition in Powerlifting and I have to say it was really fun! It was neat to see all the different guys participating in the competition. A lot of the older guys had great stories about powerlifting back in the day and it was funny to see them react to the young bucks who "know it all." For being such an individual event, the camaraderie that I experienced was truly a blast!

So... How did I do? Well, I won 1st for my class (there was no one else in my class...) and got invited to work out with Scott Mendelson and his family at his gym in Chatsworth. Who is Scott Mendelson you ask? Well he just so happens to be someone who holds the record for both raw and assisted bench press. How much has we benched? Well, raw (without a bench shirt), he holds the record of 715lbs and with the bench shirt, he holds the record of benching 1009 lbs! Needless to say, he is a strong dude and he invited my dad to come lift with him (his wife invited me... that's why I say I was invited... He didn't technically invite me, but his wife did which I still consider an invite). Along with 1st place in my class and an invite to work out with the Mendelson family, I established an American Record for raw bench (there was no record so anything I benched would have set it...). More importantly, I set a personal best of 133lbs (I have been stuck at 125lbs for a while so I was super pumped to break through that). The best part of the whole day, I have to say is spending time with my dad and seeing him light up as he chatted with the other athletes. I am super excited for the next meet, but I have a lot of work to do before then... For now, I guess I can add American Record holder to my list of accomplishments...

Speaking Of...

Speaking of blogs, here is a funny one on this week's episode of The Fashion Show Ultimate Collection on Bravo featuring Ojai native Dominique Pearl David. It's fun watching someone you know on a national television show. It's also really funny to see how networks spin things to make shows more interesting. The show is basically a really bad version of Project Runway, but it's fun seeing someone you know and rooting for them even though it's already been filmed. If you haven't turned into this show, you should. Even though it's a bad knock-off version of Project Runway, it's pretty entertaining to see what Calvin is going to say next... "Oh here go hell come!"

Avalanche of Gossip?

Yesterday I submitted a 6 page research paper on blogs and I thought it only appropriate to write a blog entry on it. The prompt was similar to any research project; tell the history of blogs, where did they come from? Compare blogs to Usenet... The overall direction of the paper was to determine whether blogs illustrate empowerment and increased availability of information, or do they illustrate the avalanche of gossip and inaccurate or useless information on the Net? Considering that I have had this blog for the last 4 years, I thought that this was the best topic to choose for my research paper.

Blogs first came onto the scene in the mid 1990s with OpenDiary and later followed by LiveJournal and our beloved Blogger (later bought by Google in 2003). Usenet, for those of you who don't know is an online discussion program where users can submit articles and respond/post new articles in response to those articles. Basically it's a very early form of blogging that gives way less control to the users but allows for some great discussions on a global scale. Blogs are useful in all areas of life, from classrooms to large companies to a mini journal of the life of a 23 year old, 7 year plan college student. There are thousands of inaccurate blogs out there and yes, many quickly become "an avalanche of gossip" but I truly believe that as long as people have something to say, blogs with exist and thrive (well, until something better comes out...).