Blogging Challenge 4 & 5: Childhood Toy

Vroom! Vroom! Vroom-vroom! I race my toy cars through the mud and across the finish-line. Victory! I will never forget the countless hours I spent playing with my beloved toy cars.

Not only were they fun to race, they look like  they cost a million dollars! With custom tires, rims, hood, and a slick body, nobody could resist how cool they are. I remember my favorite car, a blue, low-lying Hotwheels sports car with meaty tires, and topped with a half-car windshield. Many other similar designs, crazy cool designs, keep me hooked on my toy cars still today.  Toy cars just look cool.

I’m done telling you about just how cool my toy cars are, take a look for yourselves. Click on the video below to check out some fantastic Hotwheels.

Although Hotwheels are cool, my old box of a hundred toy cars represents more than that to me. Those toy cars remind me what it is like to be boy, have fun, and spend a little time in the mud under a hot sun. Long after The wheels break off from my favorite car, and the colors don’t shine bright anymore , I will still love it. I will love it for the memories it holds, and for the reminder of the treasures of childhood.

 

Challenge 2: Austin, Texas

Warm weather, live music, and friendly people— Austin is a great place to live.

First of all, music in Austin is great— we’ve been crowned Live Music Capitol of the world. Austin has an assortment of music festivals, including South-By-Southwest and ACL. You can’t walk more than two blocks downtown without hearing a local musician playing— if you’re lucky you may hear the occasional Willy Nelson. You can’t beat the music of Austin.

Even if you don’t like music, you can’t beat the kindness of Austonians. People enjoy each other so much that they write things like “Hi how are you?” and “I love you so much!” on the walls of buildings. It seems like at least ten strangers ask me how I’m doing everyday! Austin is by far the friendliest city I’ve ever been to.

If you ever find yourself in a bad mood —nothing a little live music and friendly people can’t fix— come to Austin. You may find yourself so in love with Austin that you want to move here! Don’t ever question it again— AUSTIN IS THE BEST CITY EVER!!!

Challenge 1: All About Me

Let’s just say my family is a little odd. My Dad and younger sister have dark brown hair, my Mom and younger brother have blond hair, and my older brother and I have red hair. Now, that’s not all, over the past thirteen years my family has owned three golden retrievers, three hermit crabs, three hamsters, a lizard, forty fish, and a rat.

Although my family is very different, we still love a good game of football. It is not an uncommon sight to see my family on a couch intensively watching a football game while subconsciously stuffing our faces with my Dad’s homemade queso.

In addition, my family loves to travel. Thanks to my great parents I’ve been to the Galápagos Islands, Africa, New Zealand, St. John Island, Belize, Ecuador, and almost every state in the US.

As far as I go, I like to do a lot of things. Such as playing football, basketball, tennis, swimming, reading, and playing the guitar for starters. I enjoy Italian food with a good salad, and tend to bug my friends a little bit with my very mild OCD.

In conclusion, I like my family, and enjoy a diverse range of activities. I’m proud to be an American, and proud to be living my little old life. Make sure to read my upcoming and past post, write to you later!

Reading Is Enjoyable (Expository)

The frantic clash of swords, a dry desert, in a galaxy far, far away…reading is enjoyable.

First of all, reading is a way to escape your troubles. Everybody has at least a couple troubles, no matter how small or large. When you dive into a book, all of your troubles wash away; as if it is magical— gone— instantly. It’s not complicated, reading takes you where you want to be.

In addition, reading is the best of the best in entertainment. Your bored… you pick up a book and… instantly your in another place in another time away from your worries(no wires or power buttons required). When you read, your mind shows you what you want to see, and you’re entertained.

Weather your buried in problems or just plain bored, take a brake and read a book. In life everybody (even you) needs to take a brake… so do it!!!

The Treadmill (My Favorite Mistake)

I’m rolling on the ground; clutching my smoking, bloody mess of a hand. Throbbing in the back of my half-conscious head I hear my subconscious mind scolding me: you should have listened… you should have listened…

Backtrack five minutes, my Dad is strolling through the garage and sees my family and me using the treadmill as a slide.  It was just a simple game, harmless, fun, yet my Dad told us to stop playing on the treadmill.  Ignorantly we decided we knew better and just kept on playing.

Why didn’t we stop?  Not even five minutes later I was smugly pushing off after a rather successful ride when my hand caught in the space between the tread and the metal plate.  Ahhrrgg!!  The pain crept up my hand slowly – excruciatingly slowly – as if slow torture.  I felt each morsel of skin, each muscle melting as I sat helplessly clawing at the treadmill.  Time ticked slowly as smoke and blood fill the room.  My smirk melted into a mask of anguish.  I looked down and saw that all the remorseless treadmill had left of my hand was a bloody blob; I’m just lucky that I still have all five fingers.

Always listen to your parents.

Looking back I realize that listening to your parents is the best thing that you can do because they can teach you lessons, without you personally having to make the mistake (go through the pain).

The Shark Tank

Lately I have been watching a show on TV called The Shark Tank.  It is one of the only things that I like to watch on TV. Don’t stop reading right when you hear this, but it is about business.

Various entrepreneur’s come into a room full of people that are rich off self made money. They chose to either give them a deal, and invest in their company with their own hard earned money; or they’ll say “I’m out”, and the entrepreneur goes home very unhappy.

This show is amazing, and I think that everyone should watch it. It is really intriguing to hear all of the great business ideas.

 

The Shark Tank

The Reading Chair

Come with me,

To another place,

To another time,

To where anything is possible.

 

Greeted by lassos,

By saddles,

By cowboy boots,

And cowboy hats.

 

To Hogwarts,

To Rowan,

To Camp Half-Blood,

To Redmont.

 

A simple block of paper,

A simple softness,

A limitless possibility.

WHY?

Do you ever wonder why? Just why? Something that has always been why for me is scary movies. Why would somebody want to watch a movie just to freak them out? Why would anyone do anything just to scare them? I’m not exactly sure why, but let me just tell you why you should not!

Just the last night my little sister couldn’t go to sleep and had to sleep in my room. this was  because her friend told her a scary ghost story. On a larger scale I have many friends that claim to not have slept for a week after watching a horror movie. Why would somebody not want to be able to go to sleep?

Second of all, there have been studies on how what you watch, especially on TV, affects what you think, do, and believe. If you watch horror movies all the time, how do you think that will affect what you think, do, and believe? I can tell you this: I don’t think that scary movies will help you think about happy things.

Next time you want to go watch a scary movie, I hope that this makes you think: how is this helping my life? How is this affecting what I think, do, and believe? Just think what you can do with the time you would spend watching that movie. Maybe you could read a good book.

 

Reading

Reading is something that I enjoy and probably couldn’t live without. One of my favorite sensations is when a book completely transports me to another time, another place, in another mind.

Harry Potter by JK Rowling is a book series that does this for me. Sometimes I sit down in my favorite reading chair, a comfortably padded western style chair in front of a large window, and time slips away. I have to admit that sometimes I haven’t quite wrapped up my homework yet when I sit down to read, and I go into a shocked frenzy upon hearing my Mom call for dinner. How could three hours slip away so fast?!

Every now and again I hear people say that they don’t like reading… rubbish! If you have ever said that then listen up! I have come to the conclusion that everyone, some way- somehow likes to reading. Though some people either think that they don’t have time for it, or haven’t connected with a book yet. It’s possible that you don’t like reading novels, so try reading short stories or magazines.

There is reading out there for everyone!  Just keep reading and you’ll find a book that transports you, you’ll think; “how could I have ever not liked reading?!”

Juicing!!!

Today I want to share with you something amazing, something that will go home thinking about, and maybe even what you do everyday.

About a year ago I was visiting my cousins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was was offered an oddly textured, orange drink by my cousin. I took a sip and was surprised that that it was… GREAT. Being a young, calculating type, I asked what was in the drink, and the answer surprised me even more… just carrots, oranges, and apples! My cousin started showing off this thing that he called a juicer, it looked like a mix between a blender, food processor, a box, and a pipe.

Carrot Apple Ginger Juice 2of3 JE95XL

Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Food Thinkers via Compfight

That night we watch a documentary about about juicing called, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. It is about a man who is, well, fat..sick…and nearly dead. He starts only drinking from his juicer for sixty days, no food! Then he…WAIT! I can’t tell you the ending, you’ll just have to watch it to find out. Lets just say that by the end of the movie I was inspired, and I think you will be inspired too. Just watch it!