Anything in the whole wide UNIVERSE

Blogs, Blogging, Bloggers, this all has been too much fun. This whole blogging experience had really made an impact on my life.  First of all, when I was in the United States of America in my middle school, we never did anything like this. The closest thing we did we did for a class on the computers was actually in computers class and we used some random applications which I had absolutely no idea how to use. I was never really close and knoledgable with the whole computers thing, but now in Costa Rica with my teacher Ms. Rumford, she has taught me a lot about everything.

At first we did Wikispaces which was kind of sun, but also a way to get closer to the computer.

Anyways, Wikispaces is not what this is about. Edublogs is. At first, I just thought that a blog was a place where people come to write and that is all. I never really thought of blogs in general to be as cool as I found out. I would always see blogs from famous people and never think that I could make one myself, but Ms. Rumford made it easy.

When I first herd from my teacher of the idea of an Edublog, I was completely ready for the idea of a blog. This only because we could write about anything we wanted to. I mean think about, you have your own website and you can write anything in the whole entire universe (my blog name), and the best thing is that she doesn’t grade you on quality but quantity. I totally love this teaching way because it really gives me freedom on what to write about knowing that I will not get a grade on what I write and if it is good or bad, just making sure we shared our feelings to the world. That is also another reason I like Edublogs is because everyone in the whole entire world can view your very own site.

Well, I am very thankful to have the oppurtunity to do experience this. Thank you so much Ms. Rumford and I might be blogging again.

I have tried to stay away from this subject and not write about it, but I can’t. I am kind of lost with ideas on what to write about and I feel like I can really put some voice into this post entry. So how am I broken? Basketball is the answer. No, I did not break a leg or arm, but the game on Wednesday the 28th of May, kind of broke me down. This game was the finals of the ACTION tournement that we played for our school. This final game was my first and last at the middle school I attend. I was not very emotional before the game and just thought about it as just another game. However, I time grew on me and the tip off was getting more intense minute by minute.

In spanish class was kind of exciting, but also worrying. Spanish was my class before I would get let out to the blue court with red and white lines for basketball and volleyball. In spanish class, with a bunch of tiny 5th graders, we had to make a gadget the we could use for school in the future. All I could think about was making some kind of basketball or gadget that would automatically make you win a sports game. This said because our last game against our rivals MBS was an overtime thriller in which we won by one point.

I shot my hand for the ball and felt the rock in my hands. In the first quarter, playing point gaurd, I stole the ball from their point and was on my way. I could feel the sweat and deep long breaths pounding against me and back off. I was on my way to about half court when I felt the tug and pull of one of their players on me and my jersey. I did’t panic, no, but I got furious. With the stakes so high, I jumped, yelled, and pushed everyone off of me. I knew from this moment that the adrenalin in my small little 5’2″ body were not going to give up, but it had just started to begin. The game continued and CDS (my school) were playing horrible. None of our shots would even have the courage to fall through the orange and white hoops. We were down, and down bad. Bad meaning about 22-11 in a middle school game. We have never been down before like we were then. During the season, we sufferd 6 and 8 point defeats in leads but always rebounded back to win those games. Down 22-11 with no one making shots we used to and our best shooter 0 for 9, our heads were down like we just lost the game.

The whistle blew for half time, and I was a certified mad man. I was mad and angry that we were getting killed in this game because I knew we are/were better then them and we should be winning. I needed to calm myself down the athletic director told me so I chugged a whole bottle of water and went back on the court for shoot-around time. I was surprised that I started to feel and get into my groove right before the half started by draining a few long shots, so I kand of had a good feeling, but nothing over the defecit we were in.

Third quarter was pretty much the same, depressing.

The fouth qaurter was magic, kind of. We were hitting on all cylinders and were on fire. Starting off we had great defense using a one-three-one sag zone defense and shut down their monster and shooter. On the other side of the court, our shooter started the run with a three pointer (first of the game) and then we fed him the ball a few more times and he shot them down with ste up shots and off balanced one foot shots in the corner. We were doing, making our run, a 20-2 run that was. I have never been in this situation and I could definantly feel the adrenalin now. We were leading MBS 33-27. Whoof, it went downhill from there. With shots no going down and our defense struggling, and a couple of inexperienced playes, we found our self doen 34-33 with ten seconds left. As they brought the ball up the court, our defense stood, but immaturaty showed off. Right when our player got the pall at half court, he looked up at the clock and saw 4.3 seconds left. Never being in this situation, he chucked up an airball, and felt miserable doing it. Going out of bounds with 1.4 seconds left, we were caught, stuck and depressed. MBS called a timeout and got the ball for an inbounds play . We played man to man and it payed off doing so. Our red hot shooter stole the ball and took a bonce and shot a half court shot. As I looked up, I thought no way, then all of a sudden, it hit the backboard then jingled off of the rim and fell to the right, going staright doen to the floor, not hitting anything. Longest second of my life, we lost. Why? Why did it have to end this way? I felt the tingle in my feet and knew that we lost. I had no feelings after that because I couldn’t, I couldn’t get into my own mind. I was broken.

If you have not seen one second of it, 24 is the most intense and addicting show in the whole wide entire Universe. This show consists of action packed scenes, sentimental, and just flat out “I do not know how to explain it. it is just the best show ever”. But why? Why is this show so addicting just because it has sad and action packed scenes? Well, yeah a lot of other shows could be action packed, but it is not just the action, it is the editing, topic, and actors and writing. First of all, the topic always starts on terrorism but then moves to terrorism, kidnapping or other international problems. And the reason why the subject is so intense, is because the editing is absolutely amazing. For some reason they cut off the episode or go to commercial break just when something important is going to happen. For example in season four (out of six seasons), the editor cut the episode and went to commercial break right when the CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) was about to raid a room with a terroist and hostage inside the room. This obviously makes all viewers urinate in their pants and then see the words, “Toyota Sale at Your nearest dealer. Get there now and pay 0% finance or get 2000 dollars cash back on any purchase”. And since no one wants to miss what happens, they do not even change the channel in case they missed anything. What a great job by the editor. Even with cuts in commercials, the writer and editor come together for the big finale, the end of the episode. For example in season four again, the writer and editor come to an agreement to cut the episode when they find a connection to the terrorist and the connection says, “I’m not telling you anything.” Then bam, a black screen with counting numbers to the next hour (next show). Another big addicting point is at the end of each season. The last saeson, they had the main character Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) is depressed because he can not see his girl friend and the last shot is him looking over a rocky cliff. So what is going to happen? We don’t know. And how are we going to find out? We are basically forced by addiction to watch the next season, which will lead to another season and another and another. Eventually they will have to stop and that will bring me to a depressing feeling looking over a rocky cliff. So I guess the addiction to 24 is kind of like crack-head to crack. One second has changed my life and it can do the same with you. Season seven is coming up in January 2009, so watch it if, just watch it.

P.S……Tony Almeida was Jack Bauer’s best friend and co-worker. In season four, Jack refers to Tony as the only one he can trust. How weird? I am addicted, I need to watch it…

TIN-TIN is a great wonderful comic. This is not a sort of comic that is one line in the Sunday morning comic page, but a sequal to many comic books. TIN-TIN is a comic book that involves a little boy named Tin-Tin and he goes on adventures with many characters including a dog named Snowy and a sort of gaurdian named Captian Haddok, and also the dectectives, The Thompsons and a intelegent Profesor Calculas. These characters appear in all twenty-four albums of Georges Remi. Georges Remi was a writer for a magazine called Le Petit Vingtieme and made his TIN-TIN debut there in french. His first couple of stories he wrote, he let his imagination roam free, making fun things and games. However, in 1934, a young chinese student came to him and challenged him to write well-researched story with facts about his writing. He clearly accomplished that in his stories. Although his comics are serious and very drmatic, they are comics and they are funny. These comics are very old, but very well written. they started in 1929 and ended in 1986.

Tin-Tin is a very young boy aged from 16-18 and created to be a perfect boy thae Remi wanted. He wanted a hero that people ages 7-77 could releate too. And by reading the books myself, I am pretty sure i can relate to a hero like him. His little sidekick, a dog anmed Snowy, originated from Remi’s girlfriend who was always there for him. Snowy takes major roles in many stories if it is biting someones behind or giving Tin-Tin advice (they talk to each other). Tin-Tin’s gaurdian, Captain Haddok, is probably the comedian of the book. His temper controls who is is in the Tin-Tin family with his famous line, “Blistering Barnacles”. Other then his temper, he is a well-rounded man who knows his way around costal towns and the sea.

Now nering its 80th aniversery, Tin-Tin general audience (8-12 year olds) are getting more active with the sequals and the company is doing well.

Thank you Tintin.com for the information.

Yes, I actually am Superman. Superman is real, and there are many different kinds of Supermen. And for some reason, all of them seem to be at Turubi Park in Costa Rica all standing on the same platform, waiting their turn to take off. Just kidding, just kidding. But really, I actually did fly in the air at Turubari Park in Costa Rica. At this park, there was an activity called, Superman. What they do is, harnest you up to a big cable, and fly you across a river/forest between mountains for 800 meters.When I first had the choice on what to do at the park, I had a debatable one. The choices were Superman or a Canopy Tour (the  last choice was horseback riding, but no one in the class chose that). A canopy tour is a bunch of little ziplines over a bunch of trees, and I already told you what the superman zipline was. At first, I was leaning twoards the tour because there were more than one rides and the superman ride only had one big one. On the other hand, I have already done the conopy tour about 5 times and never have attempted the superman and probably never will in the future. So at the end, you probably guessed it, I chose the superman tour because I have never done it before.When I got to the park, I had mixed feelings. First I was absolutely pumped to be doing this, but on the contrary, I was a bit scared because of the hight. A lot of students were afraid of the height so I guess I was one of them too. After scouting the trip across mountains out on the ground and on a model, I made my way up to the take-off platform. Once we got up, we were put into big, gigantic vests that totally, no doubt covered my whole tiny body. When I had the vest on my limbs, I felt really confident for some reason. I really don’t know why, but I felt like I already did this activity a thousand times before. That all changed when it was my turn. When it was my turn, yes I did back down. Not once, but three times I let people go in front of me because I was so frightened. Most of my fear came when my classmates went before me and dissapeared into the green of the trees. I knew I could not be scared like this any longer so I went up, prayed, and layed belly-down on the cushion like bench. Once they hooked me up to the ever-so-long wire, they did it. Yes they did, they did it. They pulled the “bench” from under me, and I just went BIZURK. I started screaming because it was really scary. It was like one of those times where everything you do feels like dust and you feel sick and lightheaded (which probably only happens to me so don’t worry if you have never experienced that feeling). Then they pushed me and I started screaming high pitch sounds, explicit words and said, “I’M DOIN’ IT MOM!!!”. The whole rest of the time in the air I was screaming, until I could see the end platform…then I started super screaming. Before we went on, the guide told us that there was going to be a red flaf at the end to tell us to slow down (I did not hear the “to slow down” part), so when I saw the platform with no red flag, I started freaking out, I started flapping my arms because I didn’t know what to do and looked like a totall lunatic. When I hit the end padded “bench”, I felt a relief and a tear (from the wind). I was happy.This has been a great experience and everybody should fly in the sky.

On Saturday the 26 and Sunday the 27 of April, the National Football League(NFL) held their annual league draft. To me, this is a huge event that I must watch. I am a emotional and dramatic fan of the NFL(especiallly the Denver Broncos). I always thought that this event was always, from the begining, was a huge national TV show. I then learned the weekend of the draft, that I was completely wrong. The whole week before the draft, I was on  espn.com, si.com, nfl.com, denverbronos.com, and many other sights looking for all I could fine on the draft because it was an annual TV event that all of my family watched every year. I know, this sounds ridiculous, but I guess the NFL draft is an adiiction. I mean, you always say, “I am going to watch these number of picks”, but the next thing you know, you are stuck there watching the whole first two rounds to see trades, and anaylisis. Well, this is what happends to me. Unfortunantly for me, I had a lot of homework that weekend so my time was very limited for the viewing of the addicting event. Well, what ever. While I was searching nfl.com, I ran into a video with the history of the draft. It turns out that the first drafts were just small business meeting. I was completely stunned when I saw/heard this. They then said that gradually, people started getting a little interested, then TV companies, and the next thing you know, you have around one million people watching a person go up every ten minutes to say a name and position. Then between the next ten minutes, you have a bunch of men talk about the player. The same thing goes around for 5 hours on the first day and around 5 on the second. But on the second day, you don’t have the person go up, all you do is see the selection on the bottom of the screen, but don’t worry you still have 5 gown men talk about it. I always think that the draft could eaither make or break a team. I am wrong. Last year, the Patriots were 16-0 in the regular season. If they had only one or two picks, I would bet that they would still be projected to win the AFC (American Football Conference). Also, when I was getting psyched for the daft, my dad would just walk in on me and laugh. I obviously asked why and he said, “What are you doing?” I said, “Gettin’ ready for the draft.” Then he would laugh some more. He then told that about 20 years ago, this wasn’t even a huge event like it is now. I am prending the whole entire day watching the daft and doing homework. He asks why don’t you go outside. And I say something like, I can’t, too much homework. Fifteen minutes later, he walks in and I am still watching and he asks how is the homework going? I blantly blurt out good (still watching the TV). He then marches upstairs laughing on his way to go watch the draft.  After I found out all of this, I could not believe that it was once just a regular old business meeting.

I am originally from the United Sates of America and lived all my first 12 years of my life in the suburbs of Washington D.C, Potomac. I now live in Costa Rica on the outskirts of the capital San Jose. There are many differances and similarities between the two places. Let me give you some backround information about Potomac. Potomac is located about 30 minutes on a lucky non-trafic day from D.C. On a regular, normal day, it is probably a 45-1 hour drive there. This town is considered a very wealthy town and I guess it is. The population is around 45,000 people with many schools both public and private. Where I live now, in Escazu, Costa Rica, it is a very small town from the capital San Jose. To get to the capital, it probably will take 30 min to an hour because of horrible roads and traffic. This town is not very touristy but there are some ex-pats that retired here or just visiting. Escazu has a population of 13,426.The change is pretty drmatic when you move.

 Let’s start with food. Food is better in Costa Rica in some places and also weaker then the states in others. There are some good Costa Rican meals that you can never get rid of I guess. On the other hand, your American food you are looking for is not here. In the states you could get some great food, but not that much of a variety. I guess I adapted to it poorly but now I am getting the hang of it. When I arrived in Costa Rica this past year, my diet was very limited. Every morning I popped in some chocolate waffles, took them out and ate them for my breakfast. Some days I would go out and get bagels or my parents would make muffins or pancakes and all that stuff. This opposed to having 2 bowls of cereal everyday and a waffle. I guess the reason why I did not fufill the cereal thing in Costa Rica is probably for two reasons. Number 1: I was used to skim milk and the only skim milk they have in Costa Rica is in boxes and some times come out brown. Number 2: The Maid. Our maid (since everyone in Costa Rica probably has one) was a bit (a lot) overweight and would come every morning and just ruined my apetite every morning.  Nowadays I am getting used to the taste of 2% milk and no have my two bowls of cereal every morning. I will talk about lunch later because it involves school. Dinner…WHOA… Let just my mom is not the best of cooks. In Potomac, they had a life-saving company called Let’s Dish.  My mom would go every month and get meals that she knows our picky family would eat. So food in Potomac was cool and good. Not in Cosat Rica. My mom is American so she does not know how to cook all these Costa Rican meals, and we don’t have a maid (which we fired) to make food for us. This was not good. We started out eating home-made burritos, waffles and junk like that for dinner. My mom knew we needed a change and she got one… Now we have a meat all week. This can vary from fish, chicken, to beef/steak/ribs (stuff like that). I am not the biggest fan of the beef stuff so i was not very happy. The other day while I was at the bookstore, I found a cookbook (OMG THANK YOU) and gave it to my mom to buy. We are on a new road with new food so I guess it is looking optimistic.

Second thing I guess I want to talk about is school. WOW, big big big differnece here. Lets just say nothing very little is the same..well kind of. My school in the states was not that big, but in the compared to my Costa Rica private school. In the states, I went to a public school with about 1,000 or more people in grade 6,7,and 8. In my Costa Rican school, in grade 5,6, 7, 8 there are around 300 people in the middle school. There were 350 people in my grade last year in the states. Big Difference. Because of the grade population difference, the social “system” is very different too. The school I went to last year had a bunch of groups and so called “cliqus”. Some people really hated each other because of stuff that I really never understood. I mean, it is kind of hard 350 all be friends with everyone. For example, when I went back to the states for winter break, and I was chilling with a friend. We were bored and looked at prior year-book, and went through all 350 people that studied at our school last year. Yea, you guessed it, I didn’t recongnize about 30 people. I guess this isn’t that bad, but still that is like almost my whole entire grade here in Costa Rica. Speaking of Costa Rica, everyone is friends with everyone, or is based around that system. I now know everyone in my grade and other grades too. Now, the school ciriculum is still the same here and there because my school in Costa Rica runs on an American ciriculum. Classes are I guess the same. Some teachers are strict but nice, others are a bit more laid back and nice, and some are just different…In the states, I guess it was the same thhing with all of that “kind of teacher” stuff. There are a lot of different stuff I can do too. For instance, I am now in a Podcast which is really fun. The podcast’s name is CDS News just in case you want to look it up on iTunes. On the other hand, I gave up something by moving from the states to Costa Rica, chinese. I have been taking the chinese languege ever since I was a kindagardener. I was getting pretty good at it, but then we moved to Costa Rica and I abosolutely lost it all.  Here and there im am fine with the school difference, not to say it could help my chances in to getting into a good college.

Um where to next? Food, School, People. O my. I forgot about my favorite sport and worst part of the move, soccer. Now you would would think that the soccer here in Costa Rica would be a lot better, I did too, but it’s not like that. In my opinion, soccer from Potomac, Maryland is overall better than the soccer here. I feel a lot better playing soccer with my teams in the states than here in Santa Ana/Escazu. In Potomac, I played on three teams. I first played on my club team called Potomac Real. I also played on my state team, Maryland, and also on the youth acedemy team from D.C United. My schedual was pretty hectic with practices and games everyday except Thursday. The practices were long and very well organized. The soccer was great and since I liked it so much. I guess my passion is, soccer. Here in Costa Rica, I play on one team only and I guess it is fine. I practice three days a week and sometimes a game on Sunday with my new team AC Millan. No it is not the AC Millan but a branch. I believe that player for player, talent for talent, soccer is a lot better in the states. There are great people that play the game very well, but overall, the most important reasoning for this is coaching. Just, I don’t know, I guess it is so so much more organized in Potomac than all of Costa Rica. Other than that, I think that if Costa Rica had the coaching from the states, it will be awesome. This is obviously the worst part about the move for me, and probably the whole family since everyone lover the game of “futbol” (sorry about the tilde).

There are so so much more changes between Potomac, Maryland and Escazu, Costa Rica. If you want more, than come down/up/side to Costa rica. I personally liked the move, but it really took something away from me, soccer. If I had everything in Costa Rica with the American soccer, that wold be “livin’ the life”.

The past Wednesday, April 16th, was the year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting. No, I do not go to Virginia Tech or a college, but that is still a very tragic event. Please join me and many others in saying a prayer for those who lost their ones and anyone who has suffered. Thank you, and pray for the Hokies and others.

On behalf of me, myself and I, I am anouncing the retirement of the topic of my blog site, Billy Madison. I am stuck and do not know what to write about. I feel like this topic is too narrow and not broad enogh for me to elaborate on it. To me, I did everything I could about the movie. I wrote about the plot, how I got introduced to my liking, backround information about the cast and crew, and why I like the movie. What else is there too write about? If you have an idea, please coment on this and share your ideas with me. Thank you. I think part of why I can not write about this topic so deeply is because of the content of the movie. The content is inapropriate for edublogs and insulting in some cases. Because of standards, I can not share my favorite scene and other scenes and elaborate on them.I will change immediatly, so please let me hear you.I will have the topic that some other people have, anything or anything that interest me or passion. Basically something along those lines about anything I really feel like at the moment. As I look at other people’s blog in my class, I see them writing about anything they really want to write about. I want would like to share anything I want and not have a certain topic which I have to stay in touch with to make my blog look as “professional” as possible. I am not a procarstinator and always have to have everything done and look nice. I guess it is just in me. If I change my topic to a very very broad topic, I will be able to blog about a lot of stuff becase anything fits under the catagory, anything. Below is my resent and final blogs about Billy Madison. if you would like to read them, the password is: password.So, so long and blog soon.