- Sail around the world
- Build a Go-Kart
- Become a gourmet chef
- Get a pilots license
- Ski pillow lines in canada
- Heli ski in Alaska
- Sky diving
- Buy a water jetpack
- Own my own house
- Travel to every continent
- Be on a gameshow
- Have 1,000 blog views
- Paint something worth hanging in my house
- Finish an Iron Man
- Keep a pair of shoes clean for over a year
- Write a computer program
- Eat a $1000 meal
- Play real life fruit ninja
Monday, December 17, 2012
Bucket List
Graham's Bucket list
Monday, November 5, 2012
No one makes it to the presidential ballot without being a good candidate. The president makes tough decisions every day under the toughest scrutiny of the public. It is impossible that they could please everyone. This being said, while Mitt Romney is a very sharp and bright individual, we can do better for our country. Re electing President Obama would be electing more American Jobs, better education for our children, a more practical healthcare system, and a more smoothly functioning government. Re Electing President Obama would be a benefit for the vast majority of the public.
It is undisputed that we as Americans are in a job crisis. O ver the past three years President Obama has been able to decrease the unemployment ratio in this country by 2.1%. That is what we need more of. Additionally, President Obama is against outsourcing jobs overseas. He knows that it is necessary for the people of America to go back to work in order for the economy to get back on track. “my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed.” - Barack Obama. On the other hand, Mitt Romney is more concerned with the short term success and doesn’t plan on doing anything about the problem with shipping jobs overseas. "I'm not happy exporting jobs but we must move ahead in technology and patents.” - Mitt Romney. Bringing jobs back to the US will in no way inhibit the development of technology or patents. It could only be a boost for our economy.
That is just one example of President Obama making the smarter decision. Another example of this is Obama stating that using marijuana strictly for legal purposes should be allowed under strict regulation. Mitt Romney’s reasoning is that marijuana is dangerous and there are better alternatives, when there are many times more deaths due to other (acceptable) pain medications than there are due to marijuana.
When talking about same sex marriage, president Obama once again has the right idea. Romney stated that the best way to raise a child is with a mother and a father. Personally I know multiple same sex couples who have raised or are raising a child who is perfectly happy and successful. Laws should not be put into place based on personal or religious views, and President Obama understands that.
There are countless more issues where Mitt Romney falls Just short of Obama. And in the end you aren’t voting for someone because of their opinion on a few issues, you vote for them because they have good logic and reasoning, and because they can do what is best for America. Barack Obama is and will be this person. Vote President Obama for a second term!
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Between a Rock and a Hard Place.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place is the self written story by Aron Ralston. It goes into much depth about his near death experience, and how he overcame his situation by doing what most people cannot imagine.
The story starts out with Ralston mountaineering through Canyonlands with the intent to hike Blue John Canyon, and be back before dark. Blue John is one of many narrow slot canyons in Southern Utah that requires the highest level of skill. This journey would be a dangerous one for a small group of skilled mountaineers, but Ralston made the mistake of going by himself. And as if that weren't bad enough, he didn't tell anyone where he was going.
As he makes his way to the canyon, he meets two girls going the opposite direction who try to talk him into heading back and going to a party with them. He insists that he wants to finish his journey and that he would try to make the party later. Those girls would be the only people who actually knew where he was going, except that they weren't really expecting him to be at the party, and therefor weren't surprised when he didn't show up.
When he was no more than a couple hours away from his truck, his plan fell apart. He was climbing over a rock that was wedged in the the canyon, when it rolled and fell. He said that all he could think about was not getting hit on the head. It never occurred that he needed to worry about his arm. But he did. His arm was stuck under a boulder that weighed roughly 1000 pounds. At first he tried to pull it out but it was clearly stuck. He yelled for help but it was already getting late on a Sunday night and the chances of someone walking by were almost impossible. In his panic, he guzzled and spilled about half of his remain water.
Over the next couple days, Ralston tried breaking away the rock, calling for help, and even rigging a hoist system with his climbing gear, but all to no avail. But at least he could sit down in his harness. He had a camera and video camera that he used to record final words to his family and friends. His expectation was to die in that canyon. He didn't even want to think about what needed to be done. After a couple more days, he started losing his mind and hallucinating because of the dehydration. He started seeing images of what he wanted his future to look like, and realized that he couldn't give up.
His large knife was dull from chipping at the rock, but he still had a smaller blade in his multi tool. Try to imagine cutting off your own arm with a dull secondary blade from a chinese multi tool. Now imagine that while standing in an awkward position and without having anything to drink for four days. He should have already died. The arm was mostly dead, except for the nerve on his forearm. Plus he had to break two bones.
After he cut himself free he was able to make it out of the canyon and find some other hikers who ran and got help. Ralston was picked up by a helicopter and brought to a hospital where he almost died in critical care. He did survive though and he still enjoys the outdoors with his prosthetic arm and hopefully a buddy at all times.
This book especially appealed to me because I love being in the outdoors and I enjoy both hiking and rock climbing. This book, aside from being a good story, can provide some priceless info and a very important warning to anyone who is into recreation. On the other hand I think that it would also appeal to people who aren't familiar with the outdoors just because of the shock and disbelief that it would bring them. I also enjoyed this book because of the way the voice changes. In the first half of the book, Ralston uses a very "matter of fact", "this is what happened" kind of approach. This changes to a more unrealistic almost spiritual style when he is describing his hallucinations and starts touching on topics like the meaning of life, and his purpose. A third aspect of the book that I liked was how Ralston was so honest in his writing. I didn't get the feeling that he was trying to build himself up to be a hero or anything like that. He always pointed out his mistakes and mentioned dumb things that should have been done differently. His purpose wasn't to make himself a millionaire or to get famous off of his unfortunate experience. He had a good story to tell and he wrote about it as a lesson to others which, I think, gives him a lot of credibility.
On a side note, I have seen the movie, (127 hours) and they actually did a very nice job of holding the story true to the book. Even details like how the party he was invited to was Scooby Doo themed came through in the movie.
The story starts out with Ralston mountaineering through Canyonlands with the intent to hike Blue John Canyon, and be back before dark. Blue John is one of many narrow slot canyons in Southern Utah that requires the highest level of skill. This journey would be a dangerous one for a small group of skilled mountaineers, but Ralston made the mistake of going by himself. And as if that weren't bad enough, he didn't tell anyone where he was going.
As he makes his way to the canyon, he meets two girls going the opposite direction who try to talk him into heading back and going to a party with them. He insists that he wants to finish his journey and that he would try to make the party later. Those girls would be the only people who actually knew where he was going, except that they weren't really expecting him to be at the party, and therefor weren't surprised when he didn't show up.
Over the next couple days, Ralston tried breaking away the rock, calling for help, and even rigging a hoist system with his climbing gear, but all to no avail. But at least he could sit down in his harness. He had a camera and video camera that he used to record final words to his family and friends. His expectation was to die in that canyon. He didn't even want to think about what needed to be done. After a couple more days, he started losing his mind and hallucinating because of the dehydration. He started seeing images of what he wanted his future to look like, and realized that he couldn't give up.
His large knife was dull from chipping at the rock, but he still had a smaller blade in his multi tool. Try to imagine cutting off your own arm with a dull secondary blade from a chinese multi tool. Now imagine that while standing in an awkward position and without having anything to drink for four days. He should have already died. The arm was mostly dead, except for the nerve on his forearm. Plus he had to break two bones.
After he cut himself free he was able to make it out of the canyon and find some other hikers who ran and got help. Ralston was picked up by a helicopter and brought to a hospital where he almost died in critical care. He did survive though and he still enjoys the outdoors with his prosthetic arm and hopefully a buddy at all times.
This book especially appealed to me because I love being in the outdoors and I enjoy both hiking and rock climbing. This book, aside from being a good story, can provide some priceless info and a very important warning to anyone who is into recreation. On the other hand I think that it would also appeal to people who aren't familiar with the outdoors just because of the shock and disbelief that it would bring them. I also enjoyed this book because of the way the voice changes. In the first half of the book, Ralston uses a very "matter of fact", "this is what happened" kind of approach. This changes to a more unrealistic almost spiritual style when he is describing his hallucinations and starts touching on topics like the meaning of life, and his purpose. A third aspect of the book that I liked was how Ralston was so honest in his writing. I didn't get the feeling that he was trying to build himself up to be a hero or anything like that. He always pointed out his mistakes and mentioned dumb things that should have been done differently. His purpose wasn't to make himself a millionaire or to get famous off of his unfortunate experience. He had a good story to tell and he wrote about it as a lesson to others which, I think, gives him a lot of credibility.
On a side note, I have seen the movie, (127 hours) and they actually did a very nice job of holding the story true to the book. Even details like how the party he was invited to was Scooby Doo themed came through in the movie.
Enjoyment
|
Weight
|
Well Written
|
Weight
|
Holds Attention
|
Weight
|
Length
|
Weight
|
Difficulty
|
Weight
|
Storyline
|
Weight
|
7
|
3
|
6
|
2
|
6
|
2
|
9
|
1
|
9
|
2
|
8
|
2
|
Points
|
Points
|
Points
|
Points
|
Points
|
Points
|
||||||
21
|
12
|
12
|
9
|
18
|
16
|
||||||
Total Points
|
Score
|
Official Review
|
|||||||||
88/120
|
73.33%
|
C
|
C
|
Friday, September 21, 2012
Favorite Book
When you ask someone to write about their favorite book, they will at least think, if not say, that is like a parent choosing their favorite kid. I can't say I can relate. My situation is similar to a seven year old trying to choose their favorite vegetable. I am not saying that I have never enjoyed a book, it is just not as daunting of a decision.
I am a person who likes math and science, and cannot connect easily with language, history, religion, and other things of that order. That is why my greatest reading experience is surprising to me, and I still cannot figure out why I enjoyed it so much. My all time favorite books were from the "Percy Jackson and The Olympians" series by Rick Riordan. A book all about a teenage kid (half kid, half god) who is living in Greek Mythology.
Before I read the first book, The Lightning Thief, I had a decent background on Greek Mythology just from watching movies and tv shows. I was completely blown away reading about all these great stories coming to life in the same world that I live in, to a kid my age. It is the same kind of feeling you get as a kid when you see a picture of a brachiosaurus next to a human, or when you learn how long it takes light to travel around the world. Just picture your middle school teacher going from an old man in a wheelchair to a centaur. What a great thing as a kid. This book just about kept me in a state of disbelief the entire time.There is never more than a few pages without an unexpected twist. It is like watching a riveting tv show (Breaking Bad is a personal favorite.) where each chapter is an episode and leaves you with a thousand unanswered questioned, then when the book is over it is even more of a cliff hanger, like the end of a season on tv. Then you have to wait for the next book, of which there were five. It is obvious that this works with more people than just myself because there are over 1.2 million copies sold of just the first book.
In addition to being a great story, this book is written so that a middle schooler can read and comprehend it without too much struggle. And as a slower reader, that is a key quality in a book. It is organized in a very easy to follow way while having several switching points of view. Riordan used this to throw you into the action and right when something big was about to happen, he would switch to another character to update on them. For me that made the books very hard to put down.
After writing the last book, The Last Olympian, there was a movie made about the books. Now I know that everyone is different, but I personally don't like a movie that butchers a great story to try and fit almost 2,000 pages into 2 hours. Not to mention that it is very challenging to take a story like this and not make it cheesy. I would say to watch the trailer and go no further.
I am a person who likes math and science, and cannot connect easily with language, history, religion, and other things of that order. That is why my greatest reading experience is surprising to me, and I still cannot figure out why I enjoyed it so much. My all time favorite books were from the "Percy Jackson and The Olympians" series by Rick Riordan. A book all about a teenage kid (half kid, half god) who is living in Greek Mythology.
Before I read the first book, The Lightning Thief, I had a decent background on Greek Mythology just from watching movies and tv shows. I was completely blown away reading about all these great stories coming to life in the same world that I live in, to a kid my age. It is the same kind of feeling you get as a kid when you see a picture of a brachiosaurus next to a human, or when you learn how long it takes light to travel around the world. Just picture your middle school teacher going from an old man in a wheelchair to a centaur. What a great thing as a kid. This book just about kept me in a state of disbelief the entire time.There is never more than a few pages without an unexpected twist. It is like watching a riveting tv show (Breaking Bad is a personal favorite.) where each chapter is an episode and leaves you with a thousand unanswered questioned, then when the book is over it is even more of a cliff hanger, like the end of a season on tv. Then you have to wait for the next book, of which there were five. It is obvious that this works with more people than just myself because there are over 1.2 million copies sold of just the first book.In addition to being a great story, this book is written so that a middle schooler can read and comprehend it without too much struggle. And as a slower reader, that is a key quality in a book. It is organized in a very easy to follow way while having several switching points of view. Riordan used this to throw you into the action and right when something big was about to happen, he would switch to another character to update on them. For me that made the books very hard to put down.
After writing the last book, The Last Olympian, there was a movie made about the books. Now I know that everyone is different, but I personally don't like a movie that butchers a great story to try and fit almost 2,000 pages into 2 hours. Not to mention that it is very challenging to take a story like this and not make it cheesy. I would say to watch the trailer and go no further.
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