Let The Good Times Roll

Tonight I am going to the Red Bar with some friends from work. I have heard awesome things bout it. They apparently have the best hot dogs ever, and a sloppy joe challenge where you eat a 5 lb. sloppy joe in 30 minutes and you get your picture and name on the wall. I am tempted to try this since I am pretty good and throwing down food. Although I am afraid of vomiting from it. So hopefully it will be a good night of food, drinks, and friends.

Speech

I am not really a big fan of talking in front of people about vague topics. So this semester I was not looking forward to taking speech class. I hated speech in high school because they would give you a vague topic like an acceptance speech and tell you to make it 5 minutes long. I do not have much of an imagination. I hate just making somethign up like that. So I thought I would HATE speech, but I ended up with the best speech teacher ever, Tony Ziegler. If you can get him do it. He is very funny and very professional. He is a comedian and a hypnotist so the classes are hilarious, but he also is very well versed in speech communication. I learned alot in that class and can now say I can talk about just about anything. So for those who dread taking speech there is hope.

Ron Paul

Ron Paul is my political hero. I think he is one of the most down to earth, common sense politicians in Washington. He was one of the only congressman to vote against the War in Iraq, the Patriot Act, the bailouts, and the stimulus packages. All which were major failures. He believes in limiting the size and power of the government, he believes in not spending more money then we have, he believes we shouldn't go to wars unless it is the only way for us not to be attacked, and he believes in the legilization of marijuana. Most people in Washington view him as crazy and that his ideas are to far out there, but so far he has been right in predicting all of the things that have just happened to our country. He is a doctor and a very smart man and should be listened to, especially since those leading us now seem to be just digging us in a bigger hole.

Summer time!

I am so excited that this semster is almost over. It has been a very rough one. I bit off way more than I could chew and then mixed with various other factors in my life it created a perfect storm of being an awful semester. I am glad that the end is here and I am still entact. This summer is very promising. My best friends are all coming home, I will most likely be getting a new job in the backroom at Target, and the warm weather is here. I will be taking 3 online summer classes, Music Appreciation, Cultural Anthropology, and Mid-East History. I am very excited about these courses. In the fall semester I have created an easier semester on myself. So I am also looking forward to that. I am taking German 101, Biology 100, Criminology, Intro to Police Administration, and Policing: Methods and Ethics. I can't wait to be done here to SWIC and transferred and being able to see the end of college. This first year is hard because I feel like an adult but yet I have alot of school left to complete. I hope that this summer will rejuvenate me enough to cross the finish line.

Decision Time

I have to decide what I want to do next fall. I want to change my major. I'm not sure to what though. I want to be in law enforcement, but I am not sure to what capacity. If I want to be a cop I have to get an Administration of Justice degree or if I want to be in the FBI or another federal agency I would have to get a Criminal Justice degree. I am having a tough time choosing. Criminal Justice would mean I would have to take foreign language classes, which I am not a fan of. While Administration of Justice is just an associates degree. I am considering going into the Air Force to try and buy time to decide and that way they would pay for my education. I am pretty scared right now. I have no idea what to do.

My Solution For Making America Better

I think it is time as citizens for us to stop listneing to the dumb politicians in Washington. They are recieving to much money from corporations to care about us. It is time we put into effect some simple, common sense solutions. I think first off we need to get smart regulations on companies. We need make sure they aren't screwing the consumer. Second, we need to stop spending so much money. Are country is so far in debt it isn't funny. Things that we could do to save money would be to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan, legalize drugs like Marijuana which fills our jails with people who commited victimless crimes, we also would recieve a ton of tax money from this, also we need force the banks who took bailout money to pay the American people back, and finally we need to limit the scope of government. Things like welfare reform and an audit of the Federal Reserve would also help save money. We also need to repeal the Patriot Act. That is one of the single greatest violations of individual civil liberties in American history. It is also time to shut down Guantanamo Bay prison. This would save money and get rid of an embarrasment to our country. I also believe we should give out school vouchers. If you are paying taxes your kids should be allowed to go to whatever school they want. This would create competion and force public schools to get better, this is the tactic they use in Europe and a big reason we rank so low in so many categories. I believe if we put these changes into effect our country would be a much better place.

I Miss Boring

When I was younger I used to complain all the time about boredom. I felt like I couldn't wait to be older and always doing something. Now that I have gotten older and am busy all the time I find that I wish I could go back. I miss simple things like sleep and just watching tv. Things that make up childhood. Being an adult is overrated.

My Top 5 Places To Go

5. City Musuem- There is so much to do here. I love all the caves you can crawl through and the new ferris wheel!
4. The Zoo- I love that it is free to get in and there are so many cool animals.
3. The Galleria- I love all the stores like Urban Outfitters that we don't have at the St. Clair Square Mall. Also the food, like Cheesecake Factory and California Pizza Kitchen.
2. The Delmar Loop- There are so many unique stores here. Also when I get a tattoo I am going to go to Iron Age which is in the Loop.
1. Busch Stadium- No other place lets me be as relaxed as it does.

Back To Reality

Back to school today. I have not been looking forward to it. I just want another week of relaxation. Even though my spring break was just filled with work. I got one day off the whole break! I need a real vacation. I am sick of the daily grind. I wish I could just win the lotto and take a year off to travel around. I am starting to hit that point in the semester where I feel worn down. It is hard to keep going. Somedays I just feel like I am not gonna make it, but I know I will. I just can't wait for this semester to be over and summer to be here. Summer will be awesome this year. All my buddies will be back home and I know it will be good times. I also can't wait for the warm weather. There is so much more to do in summer. I love going to Cardinals games, going to parks, and just being outside. I feel so alive in summertime. I can't wait to escape from this reality.

Work, Work, Work...

It feels like all I do these days is work. Between the 35 hours a week I spend there, and the 18 credit hours here at SWIC, I feel like I have no time to do anything. When I am not working or at school, I am resting. It is very tiring. I hate the feeling of exhaustion, but that is what I have been feeling of late. It is hard to not have a break from it all. I can't wait to graduate and have a real job with vacation days. I would be happy just to have a nice weekend. I see none of this in sight for me though. I have to make the money, to pay for school, so that I can one day get the job I have been dreaming of. I guess it will all pay off in the long run. It would just be nice to have a day off though.

Decisons

The last few weeks have forced me to make some hard decisions. I live at home right now, but a friend of mine recently was displaced from their home. My friend now wants me to move with them to an apartment. This would mean I would have more bills to pay and much more stress. I am afraid this would effect my school work. School is the most important thing in my life. So anything that would cause me to possibly fail is unacceptable. At the same time though I feel bad for my friend who needs a roommate. This has caused quite a quagmire in my life. I am afraid to move out, but at the same time I want to help my friend. I hate having to make grown up decisions.

First Assigned Blog

"More than anytime in history mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we will have the wisdom to choose correctly."-Woody Allen

I saw this quote and immediately loved it. I think this quote is very true of human life. Whether it be as a society or as an individual. We are constantly faced with tough decisions that sometimes have the option of bad or really bad. It is like when I graduated high school. I had the option of going to college and paying the huge fee or going into the workforce with just a high school education and doing grueling work for low wages. Both were really not ideal, but I chose college with the hope of one day being able to get a high paying job.

Now I believe the quote is a little dramatic, but I love that. I think it puts a unique prespective on our current society. So many people talk about hope and change. Blah, blah, blah.... Things will always relativley be the same. Society is ruled by one ideal that may change, but there will always be people disenfranchised. We live in a democracy, but some people wish it was a diffrent system. Then some in different systems wish they were in a democracy. Our societies always seem to be heading toward impending doom, with wars, financhial collapses, and bitter infighting. It creates a mindset that at anytime everything we know could be destroyed. It puts us through trials and tribulations, but ultimatley I think the feeling of despair and the looming threat of extinction is what makes us human. If we were happy all the time and faced with choices of good and even better we would become complacent. It is the hard times that challenge us to become better. When we face personal trials thats when we usually see the most personal growth. The famous marine saying, "Pain is weakness leaving the body" is ever so true. Pain makes us stronger, despair makes us find ways towards happiness, and hoplessness opens up the door for faith. This is what I think of the quote. Maybe I am overthinking it, but hey its a thought right?

Legion

This weekend I went out to see the movie Legion. I wasn't sure what to expect when I was going in. I knew there would be lots of action and awesome special effects, but I was hoping for a good storyline. I find action movies generally seem to lack adequate storylines. Which doesn't bother me if there are enough awesome special effects, but I was really hoping to get the best of both worlds.

The movie is about God becoming sick of mankind once again. His punishment was to send angels to wipe out the human race. Their was a glitch in this plan though. Michael, one of the archangels, broke away from the plan. He knew there was a child who could save all mankind. He goes to find this child and protect it from the attack of the angels. We find the woman who was pregnant with the child and the people that were in her life. She works at a small diner in the middle of nowhere. Her boss is a bitter old man whos best friend is his cook who has a hook for a hand. The owner also has a son who is madly in love with the pregnant woman. Even though she is pregnant with another man's child and seems to have no interest in him. He tells her how he doesn't think she should give it up for adoption, and how he will help her take care of it. She tells him she doesn't want it, and tells him how she had even went to an abortion clinic but got cold feet. She is always very harsh towards him, and everyone thinks he is dumb for going after her. His own father even tells him he wants him too move away and get out of the dump of the town they live and stop chasing her. He persists though. He truly loves her.

We then go to a diner scene where a mother, father, and daughter are sitting in there. They were having car problems and the owner of the diner's son was looking into what was wrong with it. Also a young man pulls up looking for a phone to use. It seems like another normal day, but all of a sudden the tv goes to a screen that says this is not a test. Everyone in the diner begins arguing about the meaning of this. They try the radio and all they get is static. Also. the phones are out. Everyone starts getting concerned. Things get weirder when an old woman comes in and begins acting strangely. She then threatens the pregnant women and others in the diner defend her, the women then attacks the man whos family's car has broken down. She goes crazy climbing walls and they try shooting her. They eventually kill her, and they all are dumbfounded.

By this time Michael shows up to warn them of the incoming doom, and how they must protect the woman's child. More and more attacks come. It was full of excitment. I loved every moment. It goes down to the end with a showdown between the archangel Gabriel and Michael. It had lots of twists and the ending is very interesting. I enjoyed every minute of it. Especially since I come from a Christian background and I recognized all the Biblical characters the movie refrenced. All in all it was one of the best movies I have seen in awhile.

Introducing Myself

Hello my name is Sam Borders. I am from Collinsville, IL and work at Jimmy Johns as a delivery driver. This is my second semester at SWIC, and I am a studying to be a Political Science major. I hope to one day be a political consultant. I love to read. I am currently working on reading The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, and Paradise Lost by John Milton. Last semester I had Jerry Ross as my English 101 teacher and he really made me enjoy writing again. I used to hate it so much. Most of this was from bad high school teachers who seemed to never think a paper was good enough. I hope this semester to continue to learn how to write effective, well written papers. I am looking forward to this class. Especially since one of my other classes is statistics. I hate math with a passion, and this is hopefully the last math class I will ever take. If I could just take classes like Government and International Relations every semester, that would be my dream semester! Sadly, I have to get a well rounded education. Well thats all that I can think of for now.