Happy Thanksgiving - A Blog Dedicated to Taryn Scane

Hello, happy Thanksgiving to all! Last night I spent the night at my sister’s house. It was fun. I really had a fun time. I had fun while I was there. So yeah, it was fun. That is the point. I showed her my blog and she thought it was funny, so I dedicate this blog to Taryn Scane.

I went to bed last night, got up this morning, excited for football and turkey. My sister’s boyfriend took us home this morning at about 11:30. It was a fun car ride home. When we got home we had cinnamon rolls (we do every major holiday). I started to watch the Lions play, they looked good, when it was 7-0. After about half an hour or so I left in disgust. The Lions are bad, there is no other way to say it.

At about 2:00 we went to my grandparents house. I went in gave everybody my handshakes, hugs, and kisses, then went downstairs to get my butt kicked in FIFA 10 by my cousin. I saw my cousin had a big MLB jar. He saw me staring at it and opened it. It was filled with rice. Rice. A jar of rice. He told me to try to get my hand to the bottom. I thought it would be pretty easy, it’s rice, uncooked rice, no liquids. I put my hand in and it was extremely hard. I asked him why he had it, he simply said: “baseball.”

I felt stupid. My cousin was picked along with 6 others in a camp in Florida out of 1,000 kids to come back once a month to train for baseball with the Doyle brothers. In case you didn’t know, the Doyle brothers were 3 brother’s who all played in the MLB back in the 70’s.

After what seemed like endless hours of being beat in FIFA, it was dinner. I had some turkey, of course, and some other good food. To drink, I started out with Cherry Coke, finished that and my cousin wanted me to try some of his protein powder that you mix with milk. He put some of the powder in a glass, added milk, closed the lid, and shook the jar. He plays pitcher, strong arms, I imagined it was shaken up enough. He had protein because the Doyle bros. wanted him to have it, good reason. I came back to the table in what looked to be chocolate milk, tried it, and swallowed it without choking. It was good.

I gobbled up my chicken and went back downstairs to lose again but not in FIFA. This time I lost in MLB 09 the Show. After about 17 1/2 innings of play and a Home Run Derby, We went home. I got the new iPod Nano last Friday and was flipping through radio stations on it, stopping at each one. There was nothing good on so I put it down and stared out the window.

When we got home, I fed my dogs, sat down on my computer, and wrote this blog that is dedicated to Taryn Scane.

We are the RPF and this is a Debate

Yesterday, on November 19, 2009, we had a debate about the Rwandan genocide. Our group consisted of Jake Mulka and me, Brendan Webberly. We represented the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF.) Jake did most of the talking but he brought up very good points and asked great questions. One group that got nailed was the MRND. They got blasted with questions about their radio stations that they set up. I think Jake was getting very mad when groups did not yield on our group.

Mr. Fielder told us the day before to ask most of our questions to Juvenal Habyarimana and the MRND. We did this and they seemed to expect the questions, but the MRND just brought up that they were just informing the Hutu people. I think our group defended other groups’ questions fairly well. Another group that did a good job was France. Heather Monaham did a good job answering and firing back great questions. She is a very good debater. Some groups I do not think had enough time to talk. These groups include the Rwandan Armed Forces, Juvenal Habyarimana, and the Interahamwe. These groups did not have enough time to speak. I don’t know if this was good or bad.

In the debate, I was rather quiet. I could not think of anything good to say, and when I did, Jake was the first one to actually say it. I don’t mind it; I just wish I would have spoke up a little more. It was not boring for me, it was actually exciting. I liked it when two great debaters go against each other discussing a great topic. It was a great time and I bet no one wanted to leave. I do think however that some people were not having fun.

Our group, the RPF, probably spoke the most. Jake constantly had one finger up. I had one finger up a couple of times so people might yield to our group. I wish I had done this more, but what’s done is done. I think that, overall, I did an okay job and I needed to speak up more. I never thought our group would do as good as we did, I was pleased with how well our group did in this debate, Jake spoke a lot which cancelled out me not talking. I am glad I wasn’t in a group with extremely quiet people. All in all, I think Jake and I did great in the debate.

Ralph Waldo Emerson is Wrong!

I do not agree with Emerson’s argument in “The American Scholar.”

Emerson says people only know what they are trained to do and nothing else. I think because we have an educational system with many classes, people are learning many different things. People learn something new every day in every class. My older brother is majoring in public affairs, but he is getting good grades in chemistry. Chemistry has nothing to do with public affairs. So he is learning more than what his future job requires him to do. He also says that people are becoming less intelligent. I disagree with this because teachers learn more things every year. Mrs. Skoronski has been teaching biology for many years, and just learned this year that plants only use 3% of the sunlight they receive. This proves Emerson wrong.

Emerson also says that people have individual jobs and only know what they are trained to do. This is not true. More people are taking 2 jobs and more people are working more hours. More married couples are working who have kids. For example, my sister’s boyfriend works at a supermarket and as a car mechanic. He is doing two completely different jobs and works seven days a week. Many people start out working for a store or shop, and then later take the job in a company. If the person does not move on in life, then Emerson would be correct, but most people do move passed a minimum wage paying job. This again proves Emerson wrong.

I do not however think that what Ralph Waldo Emerson believes in. I do believe in individualism, self-trust and self-reliance. I believe that no individual person is the same in any way as another person, and I believe that people need to trust that they are different. People also should believe in themselves to succeed.

In conclusion, Ralph Waldo Emerson is very smart, but I do not agree with him. The only thing I believe is true in “The American Scholar,” is that people are not as smart as they used to be. For example, when Albert Einstein invented nuclear energy, he did it by himself. Today, we would need a giant team to create nuclear energy (not to mention billions of dollars) if Einstein never did it for us. As crazy as this sounds, technology has improved immensely since the world’s greatest inventions were made, and people have not made very many great inventions.