Religion and Science

I believe in Jesus Christ as my savior and Jesus being God's son in human form. I do not always believe the Bible is completely literal in its message sometimes the Bible speaks metaphorically. This is my conclusion but the large brunt of most christians believe that Genesis is completely literal in its message of how the world was created. They believe the world was created in six days with God resting on the seventh day. In my belief this story is not literal. The world and universe is much more complicated than that but man of the day when the Bible was being written was not educated enough to understand these complex concepts. The Bible would have never became to be as widely accepted as it is today because who can trust in something that is put into a language of complexity that one cannot understand.

I believe when the Bible says a day it could really mean thousands or millions of years. God created to become closer to the image of him. Man is the closest thing to the image of God so far but changes may occur in our population overtime in my belief to make us even closer to his image.

The freaking weekend..

Ohh the freaking weekend how I can never patiently wait for you to arrive. Every single Sunday when I get up I think ohh how the weekend has gone and left already. Since for me Sunday is not the weekend because weekend must be gotten done before the next dreadful day called Monday, a week day. I work tirelessly on week. Monday I make it through my classes  then dive right into my work for the rest of the night usually sometimes I give myself a reprive and go workout or chill in my room with my roomate for an hour or so but then again I must go back down to the salt mine for some mind throbbing or sleep invoking mental work. Tuesday is quite aweful with a start time a a down right synical 8 am. I fall out of bed and sleep walk to lab. Wednesday quite often goes the same as Monday but  I stay up late into the night socializing after when I would usually call off my studies and head to bed. Thursday is a frantic day most times because I do not get up until late so work must start after my lab that ends around three. After I get through my classes on Friday I can never contain my glee I just to leap for joy for I know I have at least thirty-six hours of freedom. I for this I am truely happy.

Microchimerism is... if anyone was wondering

 Maloney et al. (1999) describes microchimerism as the accommodation of genetically different cells in one's body. A study that Nelson et al. (1998) preformed shows that women that have been pregnant may have fetal cells from past pregnancies circulating in their bloodstreams. Not just mothers have a chance of having microchimerism but everyone does as well due to the chance of maternal cells living in bodies acquired while in the uterus. This is especially so with infants with immunodeficiency disorders (Maloney et al. 1999). A study by Evan et al. (1999) in 68 mothers’ of sons was checked for male DNA (Y-chromosome) in blood. Forty-eight were considered healthy and 20 were women with scleroderma (a connective tissue disease that is characterized by the immune system attacking different connective tissues). Out of the 48 thirty-three percent (16 of 48) had male DNA found. Sixty percent (12 of 20) of women with scleroderma had male DNA. This shows a small trend of women with scleroma having a higher likely hood of having chimerism. Renne et al. (2004) did a study on women's thyroids and microchimerism. They found that male DNA was found in 23 of their sample of 49 women which was more frequent with women that had thyroid autoimmune disease.

Thanksgiving

The joys of Thanksgiving break are numerous. First of all lets just start with the word break. A break from the school work a break from college life is just nice. I worry about school work a lot and I tend to stressed out by all of it. I love going home and seeing all my family merely from the standpoint I do not have to think about all the school work I need to get done. It is just so relaxing to go home and not worry, or think. I can just lay on the couch catch on my television time or watch a movie and best yet take a leisure two hour nap. Its just great.

In addition to the peacefulness all it all, I get to see my sister and brother and all my other family members that I really do not get to see all that often. I was able to talk to my aunt, uncle, both grandmothers, father, mother, and my cousins. It was like old times again when my immediate family and I played an old fashion game of monopoly. Just like normal my brother and I were trying screw other people other in our trades to win the game and occasionally pull a fast one on somebody it was just like old times. I miss being around my siblings every night but when we get back together it always seems like no matter how old we get the family dynamic stays the same and thats what I am giving thanks for this fall no matter how much everything seems to change some things will always remain the same.

State of Fear

Michael Crichton really dug down deep into the issue of global warming when he decided to write the book state of fear. He has several pages of acknowlegdements and also of references used in the book. He even compiled graphs using the data from scientists around the globe. He did not just listen to the scientists conclusion he looked at the data and made his own conclusions like any well educated man should.

As I read through his exciting tale of a well known organizations supporting eco-terrorists all in the name to send a message and the few good guys trying to stop them I picked up a farely decent amount of knowledge. I learned about ideas that I could have never have fathomed on my own. Like the urban heating effect an idea that seems so simple but I would never have thought of it, let alone try to make calculations on how this should change our temperature readings.

Love how this information was summed up in a book that was so interesting to read... I actually learned information about global warming and the side that usually does not get broadcast in the news or that many magazines because with it it holds a stigma of those that don't believe in global warming don't care about the environment. That really cannot be further from the truth just because I do not believe in the death penalty does not mean I don't believe criminals shouldn't get punished.

I have learned a lot about what I think about the issue of global warming and the main thing I learned is I don't know enough about it to preach to anyone my opinions on it and that other people do not know enough either and that further research is very necessary to completely understand this issue.

Tuesday Morning

Oh how I hate Tuesday mornings that always seem to come to early. I set my alarm for 7:30 and I always hit the dismiss button and freak out when I see that the time is 7:55 and I have five minutes to get dressed and get to class. It is just so difficult since I have been at college to get up. I hate waking up in the morning. I have gotten used to getting up at 8:45 for Monday, Wednesday,and Friday and ten at the earliest all the other days.

I get up with my bed head grab an apple for the road and to listen to Dr. Hu I go. The only thing that keeps me awake on Tuesday mornings are her hillarious accent and how stereotypical she is. She does not ever say words with -ing in them even when they are grammatically correct. She also squint to see things up close and it is so funny. I do not mean to laugh I try not to but one time she kept saying the formuler instead of formula and I just could not control myself. I mean she is a great lab instructor but some of the stuff she does leaves me unable to control myself.

After I finish up lab I usually attend the konditterie for a delicious raspberry parfait that I devour in about point 2. Then off to the library I go for a day filled with the quiet peacefulness studying alone provides.

the wonders of the library

The library has many functions. It has the obvious function of being a holder of knowledge. In the old way of thinking people come here and pick books off the shelf maybe blow the dust off of them and sit down to read for hours on end. It is meant to be a quiet place to do scholarly research and to do personal research.

Unlike mos people I don't always use the library this way. For me the library is a place to get away in its own right of getting away. I enjoy the quiet which is very different from my dorm with a rule stateing  the beat has to stay bumping so their is loud music blasting all day essencially. While here I study or pretend to study with others in study rooms and usually I am unpreductive because when I study with others I see it as social hour.

I also use the library as a hallway to stay out of the bitter cold. Speaking of the weather it snowed today. Oh the joys of winter maybe tomorrow the wind chill will be below 0 degrees that would be just great... but I digress. The library has become my home almost I spend the majority of my time there. The only time I am not here is when it is closed or when I am sleepy. I have a hard time understanding why I didn't spend all my time in high school here it is a pretty happening place.

In review during college I have come to love the library even though early in life I saw it as a bland boring place.

Research team plus digression

My brother is currently doing a research project for his senior level biology course. This is mandatory for all biology majors. I hear my brother complaining all the time about how lazy and/or dumb his partners are. That is why I have started my hunt at an early time. I already have found one hard working smart individual that I know will weather the coarse of being a biology major. I have also become friends a brilliant asian man. He is quite possibly the smartest person I know and he is in pre-med just like I. All I need to do is scope one other person of great skill and determination that will work hard to get that desired grade/get it with superior intellect.

I have also acquired some study bodies that will help keep me on the right path. It sometimes is lonely being a biology major in pre-med. There is just so much work that is involved in this. With my biology friends I know I can do it. Because you really do need friends on this lonely place called earth. At first I tried coupled up to a cold hard text book alone. I was farely efficient at times but found that my stress was severly lowered when I was around others in the same boat.  I also could bounce ideas off them and ask for help when I wasn't completely understanding the material. I now realize college is best kept social and solidarity is not the best path on this road.

Social networking

I first heard of social networking in 8th grade. A thing called myspace was all the rave and seemingly eveyone had one... except me. People from my class would say something that wasn't funny at all and everyone would laugh according to me no reason I just didn't understand what it meant to post something on a wall. What is posting? What on earth is a status update? I finally got one late that school year. I tried to take part but unfortunatly I was not truely living in the 21st century. My family had dial-up internet and people would post videos and music on there walls. These videos will start to download automatically and completely freeze my internet. So my love for myspace didn't really develop as severly as other peoples.

The next big thing that consequently myspace a joke, was facebook. It was basically the same concept but I don't know why it just seemed better than all the other networking sites of the time. People quickly starting using facebook jargon and I as well as the rest jumped onboard farely quick. Everyone quickly knew what was going on in people's lifes very quickly. You could find out almost instaneously when someone was in or out of a relationship. The saying of is it facebook official was frequently used? This also lead you to be able to know everything you could ever want to know off facebook, quite possibly way more. Facebook was/still is used as a weapon people poke fun at each other all the time and sometimes in can be quite hurtful. There is also a thing called twitter that people post everything from what they are eating to inside jokes. This is basically a simpler social network that just has status updates or tweets if you will.

Despite all these social mediums I still find face to face interaction is my favorite. Yeah, now that we have social networks it is easier to stay in touch with your all your old friends that may be hours away. There will always be a need to have friends that you are close to close in distance and that is why friendships from a far maintained through social networks will never be enough.

My childhood

I was born on December 10, 1992. I was born in Mercy hopital and raised in Des Moines. I went to Des Moines Christian, a private school. My parents never wanted me to go to the public schools in the inner city if you will but they didn't know where to move untill I graduated from kindergartin. I two older siblings that also went there. My brother, Steven was in fourth grade when we finally did move down to a town called Winterset. We grew to like it there. Everyone said hi to each other and waved as they drove by you on the gravel roads. Out in the country my siblings and I had to improve our imagination since all of our we didn't have all our friends living right across the street from each other. This is one reason I believe that my siblings and I are very close. We played together every single day during the summer and every night during the school week. For the first couple years I shared a room with my brother. This was later converte to an office so my mom could work from home.The great things about having a stay at home when I was young was always having someone to take care of me and to play with. Unfortunatly, as I grew up there was always someone there that thought she needed to take care of me and play with me.

When I think back on my childhood I realize how much my parents loved my siblings and I. We didn't realize it at the time but back in Des Moines there was a lot of bad influences. Des Moines public schools can be rough. It is easy to become lost in the shuffle with all those other kids in your class. My parents moved so we can grow up it a better environment even though all of there friends were back up in Des Moines too. My father even to this day has a longer drive to get to work but he made a sacrifice to allow us to have a better childhood and I am thankful for that everyday.

Social Change Wheel

From the Wartburg College Social Change wheel I exhibit characteristics of socially responsible daily, behavior and direct service. I really attempt to help keep the bathrooms and other areas toe. I make sure to recycle all my cardboards from my room. I also, recycle all my paper waste. I always try to be responsible in my daily life.

For direct service I have helped at the elementary of my home town. I helped with the behavior disorder children. All of these children that I helped were not bad kids they are just misunderstood. They just have difficulties understanding the difference between right and wrong when they get worked up.

Other service activities I am involved in is Habitat for Humanity. A couple weekends ago I woke up at 7:30 a.m. to travel to Waterloo. A group of eight of us worked on a house. House's are built for individuals that have problems with making money. These people have to volunteer a certain amount of time to be able to come into possession. Over the course of eight hours we built two porches and finished the opening to the attic.

Since I have been in Wartburg, I have learned how I can help out my community this is done in a variety of ways. The ways that I do help out my community is just by being a responsible citizen and by volunteering in varying organiztions.

Mort Machir impersonating Seth O'Conner

First off, I don't like sarcasm. Secondly, I never apologize, I'm sorry, thats just the way I am. Third, I don't make excuses, besides they are too hard to come up with anyway, and I'm normally too tired. Fourth, I attend NWC ( I abreviated Northwesetern College to save space.). Fifth, I never procrastinate, at least not until tomorrow because I don't feel like it today.

I'm not saying that I am a mutant, but I do have a wicked crazy hitchhikers thumb. Let's say that I am walking down the highway and I need a ride to the next state, retractable metal claws or lasers for eyes aren't going to get me a ride, but ah! I have a great hitchhikers thumb! Suck that wolverine and cyclops!

When I go to the mall I often times see Brad Pit in the dressing rooms. Of course this is until I realize its just the mirror and my fantastic sculpted body.

I'm not an organ donor......but I do have a piano for sale.

I am way more humble than you.

I don't know how to dust my wood surfaces but I pledge to find out.

I know you were staring at me because I didn't take my eyes off you for a long period of time.

I am never redundant for you fyi. So stop saying that I am, asap as possible.

My friend leads up  a train company. One time a lightning bolt hit the back of his train and went all the way up and shocked him, I guess you can say that he is a good conductor.

My body wash says it removes dryness. Hopefully that doesn't include my sense of humor.
As you can see my friend, Seth O'Conner from high school, thinks he is quite a comedian. He says witty stuff like this all the time. Even my our senior year he used his humor to drop calculus even though he had an A-. I was in the guidance office at the same time and was forced to make my guidance counselor laugh before he would let me drop that aweful class as well. It was very difficult for me to be funny on the spot like that and I am aweful at telling jokes. I finally made him laugh by butchering a joke so badly that I gave away the punch line in the first couple seconds and he couldn't control himself it was so painful. No matter how corney my friend is I will always find his little witty sayings funny and hopefully he can provide everyone some much comic relief too.

The joys of a roommate

I heard horror stories before moving up here about having a roommate can be so problematic and it is just aweful having no privacy. What if your roommate is gay, man or what if they are a slob? (not that there is anything wrong with that because there isn't) Maybe like what if your roommate is really... How do I put this friendly with the opposite sex. What are you going to do if... the list goes on and on. Fortunatly, I lucked out. My roommate is actually really cool. All of his friends are mine friends and vice versa. I feel like I could tell him almost anything. Its really nice to have someone like that conveniently living in the same room you are.

The first week went pretty well except I sleep talk in my sleep and I said some things that well could be taken the wrong way. To name one I literally said "but he is always in the room" when I was sleeping. I haved told people that but it always begin with he is really cool and thats because he is. Also kind of funny I find out that I already knew of him before we moved in together. He ran track in junior high and was a pretty stellar athelete. All my friends actually remember him as the half-black kid from Ballard that was winning all the sprints and jumped pretty darn high on the high jump. Its just weird what a small world this place we call earth is sometimes and how good things can happen and do all the time. We just have to open our eyes and acknowledge them.

Sunday is the day of rest?

How Sunday has changed...I used to associate Sunday waking up for church good and early and being very sleepy. I would make it through the sermon. Go home and have a lovely lunch with my family. Then my brother father and I would watch football the rest of the day with not a complaint in the world and who knows probably take a nice two hour nap that day.

This is no one. The Sunday which I had once loved for its leisure quality is now gone. I wake up get some brunch and then head over to the library and furiously work on all my homework which I have put off for the joys of Friday night and Saturday. In fact, I haven't seen one NFL game this entire fall. Not one, this is kind of outragous I think. I loved watching football, all kinds of it. I would play football Friday night watch high school highlights after the game, get up watch college football on Saturday and then proceed right into to Sunday and watch pro ball.

I would like to say this is a phase my Sundays will start to improve. But I honestly can't even get myself to believe my own lies. It is truely tragic. I am luckily going to have a reprieve coming up next Sunday when I am home because it will be fall break and not much studies will be happening.

I hope that when I am not in college anymore my Sundays will change back for good.Thats one of the few things in life that keeps me going, the idea of a relaxing Sunday...I can see it now the journey will be very long and tiresome but it is coming all I have to do is have patience.

Outfly

Outfly in German is "Ausflug." It is a student-facilitated one day holiday and it got started in the 1890's. Only the student body president and the president of the college know the exact date it will be held. To this I call BS, better known as bullshit. It is indeed a crazy idea to keep students stressed while playing a guessing game of when it will be. Freshman students try to "guess" when this day will come. To which I say if ever come. I hear freshman telling each other gossip about whats going on with the college and "how the lawn was just mowed", better yet "there is tons of abnormal food in the mensa that is being opened up today or best yet "I know this girl thats, umm.. lets say very friendly with the president and she told me its going to be wednesday." Ohh yeah thats what your going off of they just mowed. Really they mow every week. There is food in the Mensa? Wow, no way that never happens and you know this older girl that is nice to Rex. Really? They are in on it they are not freshman.

I have come to believe outfly or "Ausflug" is really just in our hearts. Something to keep our hopes up of tomorrow being better than today. Well I am not that guy. It doesn't keep my hopes up at all. It has been disappointment after disappointment for me these last couple weeks. I get so excited stay up late and enjoy life and then I wake up to the same boring alarm clock every morning. Outfly I have to believe is the weekend that is our only days of leisure. Unfortunatly leisure doesn't come easy when you are becoming buried in homework. My venting will hopefully sway others into the fact that, that fateful day is not our fate. We will get up the next day go to class as displease as we are today.

The Freshman Fifteen?

   The freshman the general term that has been to people that go to college and gain weight. The reason that many students gain weight at college is farely simple. These reasons include stress, lack of exercise, unhealthy eating, large portion size, and unfortunatly metabolism starts to slow down from where it was in high school.
   Four of the top things can be controlled the first is stress. Stress may seem like an inevitable thing about college that can't be solved but it can be managed. Some things that can be helpful are studying with friends or people of like majors. You don't have to take on studying for a test by yourself and other peoples ideas can help with learning. Even papers you can seek advice through services provided by the college. Your paying good money to go to school so help is always out there. Also kind people are out there that can help and someone will.
   Next is lack of exercise. Exercise doesn't have to be for hours at a time. A quick workout several times a week will not only increase you metabolism and burn calories but also it will wake you up or provide a mental from your studies. Just twenty minutes a day can help you to a smaller waistline.
    Unhealthy eating is a very big problem on colleges campuses. Getting your recommended servings of fruits and vegetables is important. They provide key nutrients that take a while for your body to digest keeping it from turning into fat. Healthy foods keep you full for longer so you won't be running for unhealthy snack after snack. Another great idea is avoiding very fatty foods. Fatty, greasy foods aren't good for you and provide more calories than your body can burn.
     Controlling portion size is important. A way to do this is eating smaller meals more often snacks are good as long as they are healthy foods like an apple or granola bar. These smalls meals will keep your metabolism up and keep you from binging on food.
    Since metabolism slows down with age in the natural course of life, more effort needs to be taken on taking care of your body even if its only to fit in those new slim fitting jeans you just bought.

Wednesday

    My alarm goes off at 8:23 a.m. Darnit I was having the best dream too. I hit the snooze and attempt to forget my day thats in head of me. Unfortunatly sleep is impossible now. I feel like I have been laying there for ten minutes. I look at my phone and its been a mere two. I get up, yawn, stretch and hit the showers. I scrub off the warm water feeling so good early in the morning. I can hardly make myself leave the warmth of the shower because its cold all around except in that lovely stall.
    I dry off in my room shivering as I do, why can't they turn on the heat yet...its definitly cold enough by now. I slip into the warmest clothes I can find. Unfortunatly, I didn't bring all my warm clothes from home yet. I figured I would be fine by the time I go back. I was wrong.
    I pack my adidas bag with my pencil case, books, notebooks, planner and calculator. In my other bag I only carry my computer due to the fact I am paranoid that it could somehow get hurt. People tease me about my two-bag system but it works for me. Even though this is a small campus I don't like having to go back to my room to get a couple books. Why not carry them?
   I leave my room at 8:45 even though class doesn't start until 9:00 and it is like a two minute walk if that. I get to class early find my favorite seat in the second row so I can engage in biology conversations with my professor and see the board which is kind of important.
    Class ends and I am off to the Konditorie to buy my lovely raspberry parfait. I love them so much even if it does clash with my flannel shirt and scruff I have going on. While I eat that I look up my facepage. Do some creeping (thats what people do on facebook don't take that the wrong way; its just a saying) get bored then off to my second class of the day chemistry.
       I stroll to lunch and get some good eats and then go back to my dorm where I find my roommate Jordan Jackson watching Tom and Jerry and loving every second of it. I can't help but chill until my next class and take in the humor. Mainly the humor of his laughing at all the child ish jokes.
    I get to my IS five minutes early and have a chat with several classmates. Tom gets there and just brightens up the room... Oh Tom Wright was indeed right about you being the perfect man.
    I have one more class to go and this is the worst. Applied calculus, guranteed headache everyday. I barely make it through that hit up the library and go right to dinner from there. I stay in the mensa for about an hour talking to my friends. Luckily I have co-ed volleyball tonight which always makes my mood improve. We lose like normal but we all have fun and the game was really close.
   I go straight to math lab to actually learn the material from Dr. Scott. Who isn't actually a doctor at all just a very helpful student teacher.
   Finally I am done for the night and can take a load off in my room with all my roommates and I's friends for movie night. I gently fall asleep during the movie from mental exhaustion. Lucky for me I know tomorrow I will have a much needed respite. I don't have class until one and it is maginificent... You just have to enjoy the little things in college like a much needed small break.

Paulo Freire

    Paulo Freire lived a very hard life. He taught the rural poor in Brazil and was exiled from his country in 1964. He used education as a tool to help the poor and oppressed. In his writing, The Banking Concept of Education it is pretty noticable his neglect for the style of education in his country. He begins his writing talking about the student-teacher relationship. Teachers have knowledge and students don't. Teachers must bestow there knowledge onto the student. The student is a receptacle for knowledge and must be filled by teacher. Knowledge can't be acquired without the grace of the teacher. In this way teaching becomes an act of "depositing" this information into the "bank." This creates an issue though because students are just memorizing information they are not actually appyling this knowledge. They learn to not think for themselves but for someone that is smarter than them only for the fact that they have a position of power.
       Power is held by a few. They hold onto this power by means of teaching. They organize knowledge so it is advantageous to them. They keep the majority oppressed so they can maintain power. When people don't think for themselves and can't teach themselves it makes them reliant on the person that can teach. It turn we become mechanical beings only doing what we are told and how we are told. If a true problem arrises we won't know what to do further increasing the reliance on the few and powerful.
      After hearing Paulo Freire talk in this manner I feel like I understand his life better. I understand the oppression that he went through and fought agaisnt in Brasil. I may not know what exactly took place in his life but I do know that these experiences led him to become a stronger more independent man. He used his experiences to help people out in situations like him. Paulo was a strong complicated man that innovated the world of education.

Biology 151

    My professors for biology 151 is McClung and Foster. They both have different subjects in biology that they are passionate about. McClung throughly enjoys the anotomy and physiology of cells. He could talk about the componets that make up different cells parts for hours on end. On the other hand, Foster loves ecology. She loves how members of a community work with each other and give ecosystems their characteristics. We started off the first unit of biology learning about ecology, trophic levels, biomes, hiearchy of life and populations. I have been over all these subjects before but not to this extent so I didn't know what to expect exactly. A couple concepts really had me worried one of which is the nitrogen cycle. Other things I was worried about was the characteristics of all the biomes. Not only did I need to memorize these characteristics I also needed to apply this knowledge to answer questions.
  Being my first exam I started studying a week in advance of the test. I started my studying by going over some, what I belivied to be, key terms. I didn't know where to focus my attention so I focused on basically everything that was ever said during class or read from the text book. This was a night and day approach compared to high school which I could just drift by and not worry because the teacher would always have to slow down for the less well-versed in biology students, if you will. Its hard accepting that I am not one of the most naturally intelligent people in the room, but I have learned one thing through my studies in the short time I have been at college, hard work does go noticed. After numerous hours of studying I recieved exactly what I wanted and the was an A at ninety-six percent.

Laundry

       When I first got to college I didn't really put much thought into the normal essientials of life... one being laundry. My dirty clothes hamper was starting really pile up and I was starting to get nervous. I have never done laundry before because I had a lovely mother that would do anything for her little boy. The first time I did laundry I was a little confused to say the least like which clothes do you wash together, the temperature of the water, how long does it take, what tumble cycle goes with what?
       Luckily by this point I had aquired some friends that were actually pretty adept at being independent. Shockingly the people that knew how to do laundry were women. My roommate and several other guys on my floor were having difficulties doing laundry and I was not alone. We thought about forming a support group for the ground south males. Fortunaltly a girl going by the name of Bree was kind enough to show us the tricks of the trade. She didn't want any compensation in return but she received the up most respect and friendship from us all.
      Besides learning only like-colors wash together, whites in hot water, darks in cold water; I learned that kindness goes a long ways in making friendships.
    

Adam Faris and Landon Klimesh

   This is an ode to my two best friends currently going to the University of Northern Iowa. They ended up coming to see me up at Wartburg the other day. It was so fun, we played ping pong. Adam is always fooling around and breaks stupid stuff all the time. I borrowed a guy's ping pong stuff so we could play and some how he ended up throwing the ball up in the ceiling. Adam tried to balance on a chair and ended up tipping the chair and partially breaking a ceiling tile in the process. Landon and I tease him all the time like holy crap Adam you should not touch spherical objects ever! We never get it so we have to go on a Walmart run. We get there, I buy some ping pong balls to replace the one we lost. I turn around and my two friends are fighting each with foam swords in the middle of the store. I swear to God I don't understand how they get away with the dumb things they do.
      We get our supplies and head back to drop them off. I leave the room for two seconds to find them putting a picture from fours years ago as my rommates background on his laptop. I can't even get mad about all the mischeif they do though; everything they do is just too random.
       I have never been there apartment so we go to Cedar Falls. I get in there and the first thing I see is a fortress made out of couch cushions, chairs and blankets tied together in front of the television. My sister calls me up asks what I am up to. I tell her that I have in Cedar Falls and she tells me I have to visit here at this house party. I finally agree after my friends literally beg me to go to it because they are a little bit obsessive with my sister which really creeps me out. We end up going and my sister is her happy old self. I force us to leave to keep my friends from drooling all over themselves.
   We leave start walking back to the apartment. We are almost there so I can finally call it a night but my friends see a line to get into Mo Jo's and so logically they want to go to the happening place. We get out of there covered in sweat around two o'clock in the morning. They having seemingly limitless energy are going up to random people and trying to introduce me to every lady. Like they don't get it I want to go to bed. All in all it was a good day and despite all the little problems they cause I wouldn't have it any other way. It seems with them no matter how much time I spend away nothing changes. We just have careless fun. Its nice to know some friends will always be there no matter how much time is spent away.
    

imMORTal empire

The greatest flag football team in Wartburg's history.       Daniel, a running back that also runs track, just printed off the plays for tonights game which is agaisnt a experienced senoir team. Not going to lie I am worried, I haven't played flag footbal since the fourth grade. I don't even know if I completely remember the rule differences between tackle football and flag. My senior year I didn't catch a pass and hardly ever went out for passes. The only thing that helped me not be completely frightened is the knowledge that my team has some farely good atheletes. We have Clay from the basketball team, tall and can body defenders up to make plays. Alex a first team all-distrinct quarterback from Van Meter, also on the track team. Wesley a fast wide receiver in high school that has soft hands. Jacoby a very large man that can catch and is quick. Lastly there is Chad a music major with a beautiful voice. We were doomed to be arch rivales when I found out he played for Bouden-Hall Rock Valley, the team that ended Winterset's playoff run and my organized football career but then I found out he is a great friend.
     It is finally time to take the field on a chilly fall night. They are all seemingly confident with me attepting to look the same. We play some catch to warm up all our hands and more importantly Alex's arm. The senior team that we are playing has the president of Rittorchore as the captain. The game gets started and the first couple plays are drops. Then out of no where daniel rips off a huge catch run. He flies by nearly everone utilizing his track speed and we are rolling. Alex tosses a pass to Clay in the endzone and we are on the scoreboard.
     As the first half ends the score reads good guys, eighteen, bad guys zero. Our team has our swag on now and I feel nobody can't stop us. In the second half I actually have a few nice catches and runs after catch. I realize now that there is no reason to worry about a game that doesn't matter everyone had fun, even the losing team that lost to us by thirty-one points in the end. Even I who hasn't done much physical activity in a while played well. I realize that once an athelete always an athelete no matter what happens I will always have the competive drive to excell.

Frustrating Day

    Today I went to my first chemistry lab. I couldn't find it. I was so scared but luckly I found a man that was in the same situation as I and together we got help. This lovely man that had a heart of pure orange told us it was up the next floor three doors down on the right hand side. I slipped in the back without anyone noticing.
   We move to our designated labs and I get the best partner ever and my luck is about to change. His name is, Jordan Sabus, we met during our SOAR day. That day we bowled and had ice cream. Anyways back to the subject.... We get going on combining different chemicals and writing down observations.
   "Class. Listen up class. I have an announcement only fill the bottom of you wells with your chemical," Doctor Hu announces.
    Great. Now we have to restart the whole experiment over again, I think to myself. We end up taking almost an hour over of the set aside time. Good thing thats the only class I have today. I am off to the library to work on my plethora of homework. I start off finishing the rest of Chemistry chapter two and then three. I look at the time. Holy crap!! Lunch is almost over! I sprint off to the mensa and grab my food which is a sandwich that just happens to be the only edible thing left besides cereal. I inhale it and trudge through the grass back to the library. I work for four straight hours and seemingly get no where and is seriously getting frustrated!!! I don't get my hot topic done for my Biology class after all that work and I am on the brink. I end up getting done the next morning while eating a glorious parfait.
      This is what I learned when I am in a slump. All I need is some protein in the form of yogurt, carbs in the form of granola and finally vitamin c from fruit and I am set to take on any problem as long I have my friends encouraging me the whole way.
   

Jurassic Park

     There is several scientific ideas throughout Jurassic Park, the main one being genetic engineering and one very key idea to the plot that blood can be extracted out of mosquitos that are millions of years old that were found in fossilized sap, known as amber. All need be done is to find some DNA sequence it and easy as that we have a dinosaur!...
      But lets think. Is this actually plausible with today's technology? The answer is no and lets start off with the basic. DNA is held together by weak hydrogen bonds between adenine to thymine and guanine to cytosine. They come apart pretty easily making replication of DNA pretty easy so an organism can make proteins within its cell or just to replicate and make a whole new cell. This some property allows strands to come apart and degrade very readily. There has been reports of genes being recovered from an organism over twenty-million years old but it was just one gene. There is thousands and thousands of genes found in organisms and not every gene has a function. Lot of genes are just random junk that doesn't get used. How would scientist know if they got all the genes that a prehistoric animal needs to survive. Even if all the proper genes got put together inside an egg how would it be able to develop without the mothers genes to provide key proteins and enzymes that help in early development. To fill in the gaps that would be there in the movie Jurassic Park frog DNA was used, which is quite bewildering to me since frogs aren't that close to dinosaurs in evolutionary terms.
   Organisms are more than the sum of the parts. Scientist can breakdown complex organic systems to its basic building blocks and understand how they work for the most part, but putting these parts back together in the perfect configuration that natural selection did over millions of years is not the same thing. So in conclusion, DNA is fragile and doesn't stand the test of time, key proteins and ezymes would be missing from egg, frogs are hardly related to dinosaurs and complex organic structures are more than the sum of its parts. This is my belief of why Jurassic Park though entertaining is unrealistic and could never be practiced.

My great computer skills....

My family still has dial-up internet service at my house and this is the very first laptop I have ever had, so obviously I have vast amounts of technological knowledge bursting at the seams or so I thought..I arrive at Wartburg last Thursday on a hot steamy day. My family and I gets me all set up and ready to go so they leave me figuring I am a smart capable young man that can conquer the world over.           
        Quickly I realize this is false, within thirty minutes I come to the conclusion I don't know how to get on the internet. This is just the beginning of my problems. I finally get it fixed the next day at IT. No problem. I think to myself, phew I am back on the right track now. This was not the case I attempt to order Microsoft office 2010 online that night. I click continue...Nothing happens. My internet is frozen. Great, just great. I decide to go to bed and see if it got sent through tomorrow. Luckily, my bank told me nothing was taken out of my account. So logically I try again and get everything figured out untill a Microsoft disclosure pops up "Your order could not be sent." No explaination just a flat, bare statement. I decide to go back to IT and they are like just download open office off the internet for free. I am astonished...For Free! Why didn't they tell me this sooner?!  I am on cloud nine then I attempt to download a pdf, no dice. Seriously frustrated at this point, I try to download adobe reader but that won't either.
          Here I find myself not being able to see my powerpoints professors posted online and screwed. Now all I can do is look to the heavens and hope God will spare me and send a miracle. None have come yet. Hope is not lost yet though. I have recently heard of his son in human form. A young man, a freshman like I, named Huter Pagel with an extra copy of microsoft office on a disc that he is going to ask his beautiful mother, whose name I assume can only be Mary, to bring when she comes up here next which will be soon.

THANK YOU GOD. That is all I am able to say. Thank you.