Free Rice!

Welcome to my blog again everyone!

Did you know?
-One in seven people on Earth are malnourished.
-Hunger is the number one health risk in the world, even more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
-You can help make a difference.

There is a website run by the United Nations World Food Programme called Free Rice (Links coming!). This website is dedicated to helping stop the hunger problem worldwide, and they do it in a very unique way.

The website earns it's money through advertisers on the bottom of each answer page. This money they earn is enough to get them about 10 grains of rice per page. If you spent an hour a day on this website (assuming you could, fairly easily, answer 20 questions per minute), you would earn 12,000 grains of rice. It takes 19,200 to give a small family two meals each, and you'd be contributing to over half of that!

The website is really easy to use. A recent addition to the website is the ability to log-in. When you are logged-in you can track your progress, and you can join groups, where you can work together with other people and compete against other groups in the leaderboards. In fact, this is going to be the paragraph where I give a quick plug to the group I just created, just to see if I can refer anyone to Free Rice, and to see how much of an impact my blog can make on this website. --> Here is the link <-- Simply join the website, click on that link (to take you to my group's page), and click play. The group will then be listed on your bar going across the top of each page, right above the amount of rice you've donated in that single playing session.

For those of you whom do not want to join my group, or track your progress, or any of that fun stuff, here is a banner that will just take you to the website:



The website is very fun, and actually really educational. You can play in a variety of different catagories, each with their own difficulty levels. You can play English Vocabulary on level one, and get words like "small", which means "little." Or you can take it up to level 60, where you'll get words like "ostiary", which is apparently a "church doorkeeper."

The other categories on the website include:
-English Grammar
-Famous Paintings
-Chemical Symbols (Basic)
-Chemical Symbols (Full List)
-French
-German
-Italian
-Spanish
-Identifying Countries on a Map
-World Capitals
-Basic Math (Pre-Algebra)
-Multiplication Tables

Clearly there are tons of things you can study on here, and while some of them are very basic, some things can truly test your wit. Any category you are playing will automatically start out at the lowest level, and for every three questions you get right, you automatically level up, but the next one you get wrong will take you down a level. It also keeps track of the highest level you've attained, and it's fun to learn new words! The best part is, if you don't know a word the first time, it'll come back around in a few questions, and you'll get another chance at it!

Thanks for reading everyone, I really hope you take the chance to check out this great website. If you'd like, you can also go straight to the WFP website (which I linked to earlier in the post), and make a direct donation, which would probably take up quite a bit less time, and help a little more, but no matter what you decide to do, you'll be making a difference!

Bye everyone!

What Do You Want to Do With Your Life?

Post #2 for the day!

Alright, I just spent the last half hour looking around the Internet for games. Rachel said she wanted ideas for my birthday, and I was looking at all of the games that I wanted, and it made me want to make a blog post about what I actually would really love to do with my life.

I am a journalism major currently, and I'm debating whether or not I want to transfer over to broadcast journalism. I probably will, because it would open up a few more options for me.

My dream job, the one that I would take if I could work anywhere I wanted to in the world, would be with Gamespot. They are a video game journalism website that runs under CBS. I check their website at least three or four times a day. I would love NOTHING more than to work for them.

"Why are you minoring in film studies than?" -
Because I want to have a broader background in the entertainment industry. Do I want to be a journalist for Gamespot that covers movie-based-games? Heck no! But I think it'd be nice to know more about the entertainment industry, to watch more movies to broaden my knowledge of forms of entertainment, and because it's fun.

If I do end up majoring in broadcast journalism however, I think I could live with a job with G4TV. They are an entertainment-style television station that mainly focuses on video games. They used to more back in the day, than they do now, but it'd still be a blast to work for them.

These are all dreams of course, but I just thought I'd throw my dreams out there.

Also, on a side note-
I found out from Rachel that there are still 17 male community adviser positions open still for next year. I sent my old hall director a message on Facebook, and she thinks it'd be a great idea for me to reapply. So this is me letting everyone that doesn't already know that I plan on reapplying for the job on Monday. I loved that job so much, and I miss it more than anything.

Thanks for reading everyone! Leave comments, as always. This time leave a comment on what your dream job would be!

Role Models

Hola!

Last night Rachel and I watched the movie Role Models. The movie is about two guys who get in trouble with the law, and to get out of going to jail they are forced to do community service. The two guys have to help out a non-profit organization that acts as a big brother, little brother program. Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd are both in this movie, and both deliver alright performances.

The way the story plays out is pretty funny, but in most cases, it was very predictable. I guess I didn't watch it for the predictability factor though, Rachel and I watched it because we'd been watching a lot of heavier movies lately, and this looked like an easy way to sit back and have a laugh. The movie is pretty funny, but it is also very vulgar. I don't recommend showing this movie to anyone under the age of 16. There is nudity, there is a ton of swearing from the 10-year-old character, and there are a few drug references.

I think the reason I enjoyed this movie more than I probably should have was because I really enjoyed the nerd-style humor embedded in the movie. One of the characters, played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin', playing his type-casted McLovin' role, once again), is involved in a live-action roleplay world called Laire, and I think without that aspect of the movie, it really would've bombed. So, if you don't enjoy nerd humor, KISS jokes, or excessive cursing from a 10-year-old, I really wouldn't recommend this movie to you. If you do on the other hand, this is probably your movie.

If I had to give it a star rating (which I haven't been doing until this post, I'm starting this now), I would give it 7/10. The movie was above average for me, but I didn't LOVE it.

As for the rest of the weekend, I've got to study eventually, probably soon. I also think I'm going to go to the hockey game tonight, since it's the last one of the regular season at home. I'm sure Rachel and I will maybe watch another movie today as well.

Thanks for reading everyone! Have a great day!

3:10 to Yuma and Revolutionary Road

Hey everyone!

Yesterday I went to the library to pick up a book, which I'm sure I'll finish and do a review on soon, and I discovered that the library actually has quite a few more movies than I had originally thought!

The first movie I found was 3:10 to Yuma (2007). I can't actually recall ever watching a true Western film, and I must say, I now feel much more inclined to start watching them (so I've added A Fistful of Dollars, and For a Few Dollars More to my library holds list. Hopefully they'll come in soon, but onto 3:10 to Yuma).

The film starts off with a stagecoach being robbed by Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) and his gang. In the process of robbing this stagecoach, Ben's men also kill a few of Dan Evan's (Christian Bale) cattle, and Dan and his kids witness it. They think about trying to leave at first, but then they are seen, so Dan steps forward, and he explains to Ben and his crew that his family needed those cattle, because they were having troubles paying for their home/life/etc. Eventually, a little later in the film, Dan catches up with Ben again, and Ben pays his for what he owes, and at that point *SPOILER* (Highlight to read, it's not that bad of a spoiler, it just helps move the plot along)

The local police come into the saloon where Ben and Dan are talking. They need to bring Ben to the train that will take him to Yuma Prison.

The rest of the movie is a wild goose chase between Ben, Dan, Ben's gang, and a few other groups of people. It's loaded with action once they leave Dan's home, and even before that. It was really entertaining, and I really enjoyed everything up until the ending. If you haven't seen a Western, much like I hadn't before, this may be a good one to start with! I'll be back with more reviews on Westerns when I get the two movies I had spoken of earlier!


Revolutionary Road was very, very different. When I first read the cover I was excited that I had found a movie that I thought Rachel and I could watch and enjoy together. I'm going to start off now by saying I wasn't wrong, but it wasn't at all what I had expected. After I picked it up I went to my film studies class and my friend James told me that it was a very depressing film. I went on to check Netflix for reviews and saw that people had given very low ratings because they also couldn't stand all of the depressing material in this film.

The film takes place in the fifties and is about a couple with two kids. The film starts with them fighting, and ends with one of them wishing they'd appreciated the other more. They both lie, they both cheat, and it tears their relationship apart.

Here's judgment time. Rachel and I both really enjoyed the film. It wasn't perfect, and the depressing factor in the film did bring it down a little, but the overall story, we thought, was filled with lessons on love, they're just delivered in a very harsh way. The film also has lessons about living the life the way you want it. One of my favorite quotes from the movie was:

"If being crazy means living life as if it matters, then I don't mind being completely insane."

I think it's a little rough to take, but if you prepare yourself for a lot of depressing material, Revolutionary Road is definitely a film worth watching. Aside from the story, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet both deliver great performances. Give this one a chance.

Thanks again for reading everyone, if you also write blogs about film, please leave a comment with a link to it, and I'll check it out! As for my readers, I just picked up three movies from the library, Role Models, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Milk. I've heard good things about all of them, and I'll try to bring you some posts about each of them by the end of the weekend! I also picked up Chinatown this weekend. Hopefully I'll get time in to watch a few of these. I've got tests on Monday and Tuesday as well, so studying comes first!

Bye everyone!

Date Night and Thelma and Louise - Spring Break

Hey everyone!

Over the last few days I've watched a few movies. In my film studies class I watched Thelma and Louise for the first time, and I really enjoyed it. I also watched Date Night with Rachel tonight. I really enjoyed both of the movies, and I actually couldn't help but to find a similarity between the two.

Thelma and Louise is kind of a female-power movie which dramatizes the way men bring down women. The movie has very few woman, a ton of men, and all of the men in the film seem to be bad guys. Actually, now that I think of it, not one of the men I saw in that film was a good guy. I guess at least one was trying, they just weren't having it. Can you blame them though? They did go all the way across the country to flee from the police!

Date Night was just a fun romantic comedy, which, trust me, I get to see a lot of since my wonderful girlfriend loves them so much. And, quite frankly, some of them are actually really good. Date Night pushed a few boundaries on being a good film in that some of their jokes got used... Over, and over, and over. Seriously, the kill shot joke, was funny the first time, not so much the second. The dancing scene was funny for the first 15 seconds, but then it got old, kind of fast. "Whacked Off." Yup, we get it, no need to reiterate seven times for us. Thanks. Otherwise, the first times they did each joke were really funny. Just put the main characters into your mind as if you were a child, and they were your parents, that's what I did, and I liked it quite a bit. Another quick gripe I had about this film was the beginning, the initiation of them getting into trouble. It was kind of cliche. It's been done before, and I'm pretty sure the director has seen North by Northwest, so they probably knew they were ripping it off. The side characters are a lot of fun though. James Franco and Mila Kunis are in the film for about 10 minutes, and James Franco shines for all 10 of them. Maybe I'm biased, he is one of my favorite actors.

I also talked about a similarity. What? You ask. Well, in Thelma and Louise, they end up doing something that gets them in trouble, and then trouble follows them for the rest of the movie, and it seems to bring no happiness until the end for them, much like in Date Night. I guess that was the only similarity, but I guess that might be another reason to dock Date Night. I am seeing a couple of things that they kind of ripped off.

Either way, they are both good movies. Thelma and Louise may be a quite a bit greater, but Date Night is a pretty good film too, in it's own right.

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Spring Break is also coming up in a few weeks. Something came up in my journalism class today too, so a lot of stuff got moved around, meaning I now, aside from Monday of next week and the few days of studying I'll need to do before it, have quite a bit of free time going into, and during Spring Break.

Part of the reason I'm studying film as a minor is because I think it is a great link to cultures from all around the world. Some films teach us about a culture, and some films can even bring change around in a culture, regardless, I think it needs to be noted that if studied in-depth enough, film can be just as useful as any textbook.

So, over Spring Break, I want to continue to grow my knowledge of film. In this short side-post I'd just like to quickly ask any of my readers to leave a comment, and let me know about some of your favorite movies, especially ones that are on Netflix available for instant viewing (but you can tell me other films you love as well). If I haven't seen it, I'll look into it, maybe watch it, and if I do watch it I'll probably end up talking about it, and reviewing it in my blog.

Thanks in advance for any of your comments, and thanks again for reading. Every page view I see in my stats really means a lot to me. Trust me, I look at my blog stats well over 10 times a day, just ask Rachel if you want proof. She'll tell you. I think she may get kind of annoyed! :-P

Bye everyone!

Helpful People All Around Me.

Hello!

Tomorrow I have an article due for my journalism class, and I've been extremely stressed out by it. It's been hard to find information, and for the longest time I didn't even know what I wanted to write it about. Finally I decided I would write it on a former teacher at the college, and since I've done that I've also asked some people for help.

My friend Molly, who works at the University Chronicle, was the first of the helpful people. Last night I said something to her about my assignment and she actually set aside her own time to help me look through the archives of old newspapers. I really appreciate the fact that she's taking time out of her day to help me with a project that should've been done about a week ago. Thanks Molly!

My girlfriend has also been very helpful. Last night I was super stressed out and she calmed me down and then we sat and watched the news. She helped me realize that I will still be able to get this done if I let it wait until today, because I really wasn't going to find any information at 10 p.m. at night. Thanks Rachel!

And today I e-mailed the library to ask them how to get a hold of a biography file on Helen Hill, they directed my to the archivist, and he pulled out the box with the files and set up an appointment for 12:30 p.m. today. Thank you archivist and library reference desk!

I'm assuming that since I have all of these helpful people around me, everyone else has helpful people around them too. You just might not notice it at first. So, if you get stressed out about something, ask someone for help, and they might put you in the right direction. Ask me about something, I'm here if you want me. I don't know what I could help you with, but it'd definitely be worth a try.

Thanks a lot for reading! As always, leave comments!

Tangled!

Hello!

Last night Rachel and I saw Tangled together at the Atwood Theater. The movie was a lot of fun, and we both really enjoyed it! I seem to be enjoying films a lot more lately than I normally do, which is probably a good thing, considering the fact that film is my minor!

Without giving away too much I'd just like to point out, right off the bat, that the story almost plays out exactly like Hercules. I guess by this time maybe it's hard for Disney to come up with new directions for their stories, and I'm letting this slide since Hercules is one of my favorite Disney movies, and Tangled had characters that made the movie worth watching.

My favorite of those characters was Maximus. A horse that takes pride in being a horse for the guard of the kingdom that the story centers around in Tangled. He's great! The fights between him and Flynn are hilarious, and Maximus has very human-like qualities. In fact, he has almost every quality of one of the royal guard from the film, except for he is smart, he can't talk, and he is a horse.

Overall, Rachel and I really enjoyed this film. It was funny, it had plenty of "aww" moments, and all of the characters were extremely likable. And while it did play out a lot like Hercules, that may have made me love it even more.

Also, there was a preview for a new Disney movie coming up called Prom. Neither Rachel nor myself knew what to think about this. It definitely doesn't look anything at all like something Disney has made before. I guess at least they are getting new ideas, but this one may be a little far out of the water, especially for a Disney movie! Check out the trailer for yourself if you want to see what I am talking about!

Thanks for reading everyone! As always, leave comments!

Birth Control Weekend! + Power Outage!

Hello everyone!

I was going to write last night when Rachel and I got back from babysitting my nephews, but we were both tired and just wanted to go to bed, so I'll write about it now! :-)

We spent the weekend at my brother's house babysitting my 3-year-old and my 1-year-old nephews and it was crazy.

Kash is constantly moving, and while he is very cute, he is a lot to handle. If you pick him up, you can't expect to put him down any time soon, because the second you put him on his bum, he'll cry. However, if you are carrying him, you have to be moving, or he'll kick and throw his arms and try to break free. He needs to make up his mind!

Conner, on the other hand, is very random with his actions. He is also moving around a lot, always begging for you to play with him, which is alright, until he insists on punching you and throwing things at you, then it's time for a time-out. When he is good though, Conner is a lot of fun. Conner loves watching movies and in the two days we were there we watched Star Wars IV-VI, Ponyo, My Neighbor Totoro, and Planet 51. I also got in my fair share of Batman movies and cartoons, because he absolutely loves anything to do with Batman. He runs around in Batman pajamas with a cape on too!

Rachel...
Is not one of my nephews! She is my girlfriend, whom I've already talked about a few times. I am extremely thankful I had her with for the two days we were there this weekend, because she is so great with the kids. We also devised a plan on Saturday morning at 6:45, when we first woke up, for one of us to take a nap while Kash slept in the morning, and the other could take a nap while Kash slept in the afternoon, and it worked like a charm! We both felt great for the rest of the day, and we both had tons of fun. I must also admit that Rachel is definitely a better babysitter than myself. She plays with the kids, cuddles with them when they cry, she's great at changing diapers, and she is the best at laying down the law! I expect her to be a great mom someday!

On that note, I'll make sure to point out that that "someday" will not be someday soon. This weekend was definitely eye-opening. While we weren't planning on having children anytime soon, since we're both in college, it really just helps us reaffirm that we don't want them at all. Rachel liked Kash whenever he woke up from naps, because he'd be really cuddly, but otherwise, we wanted nothing to do with having children. So, Kash and Conner, thank you for being our free birth control!

I'd also like to take this paragraph to thank my parents.
Mom, Dad, thank you for coming up a day early to babysit so Rachel and I could go home today. It was nice. Thanks!

I'd just like to share one last quote on this part of the post from Conner, it goes like this.

Me: "Conner, you smell like maple syrup."
Conner: "Who is Maple Syrup?"

Oh joy! :-)

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Now, today, we had a power outage in St. Cloud. It sucks, and Excel Energy said they'd have the power back up by 1:15 p.m. It is now 2:21 p.m. and we are sitting in Caribou, because they have power and the Internet here, all the way across town!

We aren't really sure why the power went out, but it may have something to do with the wind. It's super windy here right now, and eventually it should start snowing. There was supposed to be a huge blizzard hitting us today, but it missed us so far, and it's gone south. I'm banking on no morning classes tomorrow, since my professor is from Blaine, and the Twin Cities metro area is supposed to get hit really hard, and apparently already has been hit quite a bit.

That's all I've got for today! I think I'll watch a movie on my Netflix. I had kind of planned on sitting around and playing video games all day, but I guess not!

Thanks for reading! Leave comments as always!*

*If you want something to comment about, here's a list of topics.

1. Good movies that are on Netflix to watch during a snow day.
2. Stories of your times babysitting.
3. Stories of power outages that you've been through.

Why Hate?

Welcome again to my blog everyone!

If you're getting sick of me writing so frequently, get over it! I love this! Don't hate! (And if you think my writing is really bad, leave a comment! I hope to be a writer for the rest of my life, so every word I type onto these pages is practice for me, always hoping to become a better writer!)

Tonight Rachel and I watched the movie American History X. It was a LOT to take in. There were parts where I grabbed Rachel and asked if I should cover her eyes, basically subliminally saying that I wanted my eyes covered, but I didn't want to do it by myself. It was one of those moments. I just had to see what happened!

Hopefully, without giving too much away, I can give you a synopsis. The movie is broken into two through black and white scenes, and color ones. The black and white are all flashbacks, telling the story of Derek and how he got the way he is, while the color ones tell us what is going on right at that moment with Derek, now that he is out of prison, with his brother, who has followed Derek's lifestyle, and the members of the group of skinheads that Derek helped to create. We see change in the characters in the movie, and we look at others wishing for it.

This movie is a loaded one. It shoots it's message at you like a bullet moving at 100 miles-per-hour. It's extremely powerful, and has a very strong message. That message is that hate isn't worth anyone's time. We all live lives that are too short, and we shouldn't waste our time hating others, especially not groups of others because of some shallow, stereotypical belief that we have.

Rachel and I wanted to see this film as soon as we talked about it in our ethnic studies class. About half of the class had seen it, and loved it, and they loved it for a great reason. It is really tough to swallow, but it truly is a moving film. If you haven't seen it yet, don't waste your time any longer. Check it out! I know I regret putting it off as it sat there on the desk for the last week, because I just didn't have the time, or I thought I had better things to do.

As always, I ask that you leave comments, and this time, please tell me some of the movies that you have all seen that come with a loaded message. A movie that truly changed the way you think about life.

Thanks again for reading everyone! Have a great night!

Double Indemnity, Any Others Like it?

Hello everyone!

The other day in my film studies class we watched the film Double Indemnity. I've never really watched any classic films that I have really enjoyed from before the 1950s, but this movie really did it for me!

The movie's plot goes something like this (From Netflix):

"Smitten insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) plots the perfect murder with femme fatale client Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck): staging her husband's "accidental" death to collect double indemnity on his life insurance and absconding with the loot. But before their scheme can pay off, the lethal duo must first get past a crafty claims investigator (Edward G. Robinson) who senses something isn't kosher."

 At first I thought it was going to be kind of boring, but as soon as the movie started, I was hooked. Walter Neff tells his story from the top down. It starts at the ending, and he retraces his steps. I thought that was a really interesting way to do the film, and despite the fact that you seem to think you know the ending, it really added a lot of mystery to the film!

My friend James and I also quickly discussed while we were watching the movie that we both believed it would be a good film to show in a philosophy class, because of Edward G. Robinson's character. He plays a detective style character (even though he is an insurance agent), and he deduces the crimes that happened, it's really funny how he does it, and speaking of things I loved about this movie, Edward G. Robinson was one of them!

I really loved this movie, and I was just wondering if any of my readers have seen any other Noir style movies, or if they've seen any other movies with Billy Wilder as the director, that they've really enjoyed. I've also seen Some Like It Hot, which is another Billy Wilder film, and I loved that one as well. If you could suggest movies for me, I'd love it! Just leave a comment. Neo-Noir films can also be thrown in any lists of movies anyone gives me! Feel free to recommend movies that starred Edward G. Robinson as well. He really made that movie great!

Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer:
I realize I can check Netflix/IMDB if I want more information on these people, and just watch their movies, or look up Noir films on either one, but I want to find out YOUR opinions! I'll also make more blog posts about these films if I find anymore I love!

To Write Love on Her Arms.

Hey, Howdy, Hey everyone!

Tonight I went to see Jamie Tworkowski on campus. Jamie is the leader of the To Write Love on Her Arms initiative. Listening to him speak kind of gave me the motivation to want to reach out more. I feel motivated to go and talk to people I've never met, and make new friends.

I believe Jamie taught us all a valuable lesson tonight. Aside from telling us the story of why he started his non-profit organization, he also gave the listeners a message about how we can make a difference in our own lives. While Jamie's organization listens to people's problems and responds to them, they can't help everyone, as much as they'd like to try.

So here I go, asking anyone who doesn't know me as a friend already, to please, send me a message. I'd LOVE to talk to you sometime. And you can trust me when I say I'm not just doing this so I can feel like I've actually done something with my life, I want to actually make new friends. If you want a close friend, hit me up. I've got time for you. I can guarantee it! Send me a message on Facebook, let's hang out, whatever, if you go to my school and just want someone to talk to, let me know. Let's go to Garvey sometime!

And if you feel like you have no one to talk to, because no one can understand your problems when it comes to depression, I'm sorry to inform you that I don't know how you feel. I can tell you right now though, that I'll be there to listen if you need me!

Also, Jamie had the singer from Sleeping at Last start off his presentation. He was a really funny guy, and he really appreciated the applause. The thing is though, he definitely deserved it. Go and check out their music, he had an amazing voice, and I bet he would love to add one more fan to their fanbase!

And in case you were wondering how I did earlier today in the Soul Calibur IV tournament, which no one probably is, the tournament never happened because not enough people showed up, but I got to meet some nice new people and the four of us just hung out for an hour and a half taking turns playing the game together. I think I might check out there club in the future as well. Who doesn't want to join a club that hangs out from 5 p.m. to midnight every Monday just playing video games? Heck yeah!

If there is anything else anyone wants said about Jamie's talk tonight, just add it in the comments, and if you'd like to know more about Jamie's initiative, Click Here!

I'll leave you with a quoted paragraph from the initiative's website:

"You were created to love and be loved.  You were meant to live life in relationship with other people, to know and be known. You need to know that your story is important and that you're part of a bigger story.  You need to know that your life matters."

Thanks for reading, and please continue to invite your friends, and check out my blog regularly! I've had quite a few page views over the past few days and I want to let you all know that it makes me feel very good! THANK YOU!

I'm Pumped for Today!

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is having a good day! I sure am. I woke up this morning and went to class, excited to hand in my work, mainly because I already know I'm going to get an A on it. You see, A grades are automatically assigned to any work that is turned in that gets published in a newspaper...

The story I wrote for this morning will be in next week's University Chronicle!!!

I'm so pumped! It feels so great knowing that people will be reading something I wrote, and it feels great knowing that the editors thought it would be good enough to be put into their paper!

As for the rest of my day today, other than being excited in anticipation for Monday's paper to be released, I got to spend some nice time relaxing with my wonderful girlfriend! We took a nice nap after our morning class, and snuggled the morning away! After that I went to give blood, and all went well.

Today is a great day! :-)

Let's just hope it gets even better. I'm going to enter a Soul Calibur IV tournament on campus later today. $3 is the entry fee, and gift certificates are rewarded to the top fighters! I'm hoping to do well. If anyone wants to add me on Xbox Live, my username is StealthStallion. If you want to play some Soul Calibur, I'm up for it! Especially for the next two hours, while I train!

I also wanted to say, if anyone has any blogs that they want to have people know about, just leave a comment in my post. I don't mind your advertising at all. It's always nice knowing you have more readers, and I'll definitely respect anyone's wish to put their blog into my blog list, as long as it's appropriate! Also, send people my way too! Readers make me happy!

Have a great day everyone! Don't forget to leave comments!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hey everyone,

Today is Valentine's Day. Do I know the history of it? Nope! Do I have any amazing Valentine's Day stories? Nope! But can I share with you a post about the girl I love the most? YOU BET!

Rachel, Sally, and Me!

I have this girlfriend. Her name is Rachel. I love her more than anything!

Rachel is smarter than anyone you know. She astounds me sometimes with her love of researching things that may affect her. If she thinks there is something wrong with her, WebMD, here she comes! If she wants to create an argument on animal rights, she'll read a book on it, and then when you start an argument on animal rights that you'll claim she started (everyone does this to her, I swear), she'll come right back at you, and tell you why you should shut up!

Rachel is prettier than anyone I know! Her eyes are beautiful and greener than emeralds. She has a smile brighter than the light towards Heaven. She is skinny and has a gorgeous body. She has wonderful brown hair, and her nose is absolutely perfect.


Rachel is so much fun to spend time with. We watch movies together, we play games together, we read together, we go out to eat together. Rachel and I are like two peas in a pod! Just try to separate us!*

Rachel's family is another thing I love. My whole life I've wanted a girlfriend, and the one thing I've been scared of the most, is getting a girlfriend that has terrifying parents. Sure, the first time meeting them had me shaking, but since then, I feel like I've made two new best friends. Her brother is my homie too! We be tight!

Sometimes I come up with crazy dreams, but the nice thing about Rachel is, she always puts up with it.
"Hey Rach, I'm gonna join the NBA!"**
"Yeah you are! I can't wait to cheer you on from courtside!"

"Hey Rach, I'm going to write a book by July 4th, so that I will be able to come see you whenever I want, and I won't have to work at Wal-Mart!"***
"That sounds so wonderful!"

I love you Rachel, so much, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being my first and only ever girlfriend. You rock my world, and I can't wait to marry you someday, and have babies of course! And then we can read them the Kiss the Cow book!

Thanks for reading everyone!

*Actually, please don't!
**I'm AWFUL at basketball!
***I never actually wrote a book by July 4th. Someday I plan on writing a book though!

Kiss the Cow!

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to tell you all about this cute little children's book I got Rachel for Valentine's Day. It's called Kiss the Cow.

Rachel was having a bad night after a slew of incidents that came right around the midnight hour, and to make sure she felt better, I read the book for her. I read it in my softest possible voice, and then, a short way through the story I realized I would have to do something else!

So I sang the lines in the book!

This made Rachel very happy!

The book is about a woman with a ton of kids and she uses one cow to supply them with all of their food. The main character, Annalisa (whom we changed the name of to Rachel for our reading experience), was determined to milk the cow by herself. So she went to milk the cow, and then the next day, the cow wouldn't give anymore milk.

This was a really cute story, and it was a nice little way of telling your kids that if someone does something nice for you, it's always nice to return a favor!

So if you're looking for a way to get your girlfriend to say "Aww!" this Valentine's Day. Feel free to pick up this book. Read it to her too. Get snuggled up, and ask her to turn the pages. She'll feel like a kid again, and I know mine really appreciated the opportunity to feel very loved after a long night of stressful events.

And in case you were wondering, this would also be a very good book for your little sons and daughters.

Thanks for reading!

Blog #WHAT?

Alright, I'm sorry everyone. I know I've started a new blog like once a month for the last few months, and they've all died, such as my workout blog, which by the way, has not been going well over the last few days, and after weighing myself again, in case anyone was wondering, I'm right back up to 242, where I started.

The inspiration for this blog comes from my little circle of blogging friends that seems to be growing more every week or two. Now my buddy Garrett has a blog too, which our blogging circle to like five people now! I'll post links to all of their blogs at the end of this post, please check them out, and please leave comments on their blogs as well, so they know they are being read. We all love knowing there are people out there that care about us!

Now, instead of like always where I make my first post an introduction to myself, and then say I'll post again soon, I'm actually going to post about my life recently.

I've been going through a very tough time the last few months since I lost my job. I think the reasoning behind why I lost my job was absolutely ridiculous. It gets very hard to live with yourself thinking you're doing something so right, and then when you're done, you lose your job, because apparently, even though you didn't know it, you did something wrong as well. It's been messing with my mind since December, and I just haven't been very happy.

I want to dedicate this paragraph to my girlfriend. Rachel, I'm sorry for being a pain your side for the last few months. I'm extremely thankful that I have you to stand by me, and I'm so glad that you've chosen to stick with me for the last year. Thanks for everything. You're my world, and I'm so happy I have you. I love you so much!

As those fifteen people that saw my last blog also know, I'm trying to lose weight. I've been going swimming once a week, and I try to work out at least three or four times. It's nice having my friends Kenny and Kyle too, because they are always there Mondays and Wednesdays to play basketball with me, and they put up with the fact that I REALLY suck!

Then I have friends like my old residents, the people I miss more than anything in my life right now. Guys, I'm sorry I went and got fired on you, I feel like I've let you down, and I hope I still get a million more chances in my life to hang out with you again. Jared, call me up more often, going to the concert and hanging out was fun last night! Mike, Billy, Wade, Jake, if any of you guys ever read this, I miss you guys so much. You four were so funny and you totally made living on that side of the hall way better than the other side (even though Billy was actually on the other side). Luke and David, you two crack me up as well, let's hang out more often too. Luke, get back on your feet and get another girlfriend so we can take them on more double dates, those make Rachel happy! Patrick, I want to thank you a lot as well, because I feel like in the time since I've lost my job you were the one I've grown closest to. I haven't seen you a lot in the past few weeks, but we need to hang out more often, and I really hope I can find a job soon so I can live with you and Kyle and John next Summer/School Year, that'd be SICK! Pat, thanks for being there for me buddy!

Also, if anyone knows of job openings in the St. Cloud area, please hook me up, because I need one, pronto. My funds are quickly diminishing!

Thanks for reading guys. Leave comments, I'd love to hear from all of you, tell your friends to start reading as well please, because it's really nice seeing lots of comments and lots of page views!

P.s.

- Alyssa Wolf's Blog

- Garrett Grenier's Blog

- Jamiella and Alyssa's Co-Written Blog

- Jason Tham's Blog

- Sarah Decowski's Blog