Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Gonna Write A Song

Alas, for the first time have I come across this situation. My presence on two swim teams has now caused for me to have two meets on the same day. Of course, my loyalty remains more so with my high school team. But then again, I do enjoy swimming for the Y with less pressure.
Now, to my faithful readers, you may be wondering, "What in the name of Jupiter he going to do?"
Don't worry though, because I would reply, "I have a plan" and yes, I would in fact tilt my head when I say that for italicizing effects.
To continue the conversation, "Whatever shall you do?"
"Ah Ha! By the sheer force of coincidence it seems that my meets start at different times."
I have gotten lucky as to have a 11:00am start time for my high school meet. While it shall hopefully end by 2:00pm at the very latest, that means I should be able to make my other meet by 3:00pm, only missing the mixed medley relay due to the large amount of events there shall be.
I honestly do not know how I shall fare. I have never had to pull two meets in one day so maybe I'll find some Zen zone that will propel me to some success or I shall face crushing defeat by exhaustion, either way it will be fun. My only sadness lies in the fact I will be missing the relay because I tend to get the Fly leg which I really do love.
And good news, for my fellow seniors as well as myself. We have reached 150 days till graduation, give or take depending on the school. Also, this past Saturday was the typical deadline for college applications. There is something about the relief of knowing no matter what happens from here on out, it is out of your hands to decide really what to do. Second semester is almost upon us and whatever happens is what happens. So I guess, just run with it.

Now I've heard this song on the radio at least a couple of times, but as most music heard on the radio, it just slips into the back on my mind. But today, by the good graces of those at iTunes, the video was placed on the free downloads page. Which made me decided to watch it. To my amazement, NINJAS! Its not that I have anything great to say about the song. It is slightly catchy and I do like the sound of it. Plus I kinda like the cream colored electric played by the lead singer but would never buy one. But because of the NINJAS! I had to post it.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Two-sday

Finally, today in physics class, I was able to shoot off my catapult. Despite leaving my catapult in class before the winter break, now with school having resumed, we did the measurements. My catapult was able to fling the ping-pong ball a distance of sixteen feet. Maybe not much, but I do know that it was my catapult that I built on my own.
Swim practice resumed today for both my high school team and my Y team. Having a two week break made it hard to get back into the routine but it did end up feeling good. Of course, my masochistic side was happy as various abdomen regiments and push ups were added, the pain can feel really good.
I received an awesome addition to my couple of stickers placed on the rear window of my car. First off was the one stating, "Instant swimmer, just add water." Also, I received another saying, "Its not how fast you swim, its not how far you swim, its how far you swim fast." Of course that was a tribute more so to a distance swimmer, but the motivational level did make it necessary to add it as well.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

His Name Is Mango

Today, I had an amazing day doing something I never saw myself doing before. It was just really cool. With my group we visited Crystal River in Florida. While there, we snorkled and swam with the manatees. There was something spiritual about these creatures as they calmly move around. My favorite moment was when a calf swam by me pretty much begging to be petted. But along came its mother out of nowhere scaring me, but it was just comforting knowing that these fascinating mammals trusted me and that I could trust them, it was beautiful. I would never trade this memory for anything. Oh and by the way, the picture is my super cute and amazing girlfriend Sarah, holding a stuffed manatee

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Now Thats An Amazing Girl

Tis the season, for the awesome thing known to students as winter break. As of now, classes are let out for me for two wonderful weeks, which was extended by a Thursday and Friday due to snowfall.
Now people typically celebrate this time of year with Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or none at all. But no matter what you celebrate, those still in the education system get to enjoy this break.
Do what you want with it, or nothing at all. For this break is what you choose of it, because it is just that, a break. For myself, I've decided to dedicate most of my time to watch tv, play online games, and just plain chilling. But I'm not totally squandering it as next week I'll shall be spending time down in Florida visiting NASA and swimming with some Manatees, or so thats the plan.
I guess I could bring about a little update of my swimming. My Y swim season ended earlier this month for the first session, but I'll be back for the second session because I do enjoy the laid back style I can take, the awesome coach, and just kidding around with the young-ins. I did end the season with a bang, pulling personal records in the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 fly, with blue ribbons as well.
Sadly, my swim team for high school hasn't been doing to well. Its though being a ten man team and competing with larger schools that have better chances. But we did take a victory and as of now our record stands 1 win to 4 losses.
I guess otherwise, thats most of whats been going on in my life, swimming and chilling.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Trekking Forward

Once again, I realize it has been to long of a time between my posts. Although I may not entirely be too busy, I just get distracted by life and neglect other areas. But here I am now, and I do wish a Happy Thanksgiving to those who read now.
Now on to some good news, my high school swim team had its tryouts the other week, and once again, I made it. We shall see how my final season goes, but I am excited for my first meet, next Friday.
And now, my main event, another physics assignment. I do enjoy the more hands on portion of physics and I really like this project. Simply put, I was to design and build a small catapult.

Rather than use the typical crossbar that most catapults use to transfer the inertia of the swinging arm to the flying object, I decided to use rope on the rear end. The purpose of this was to prevent cracking from the wood on wood contact.

I feel that my process was a success, and now my next step is to increase the force by purchasing shorter bungee chords. I don't know how it will fare compared to my other classmates, but its still pretty cool.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Fight Of Your Life

The point of the assignment was to find a new way to protect objects during shipping. This is for my physics class and since I was lazy I decided socks. The concept itself is simple, take two eggs and keep them from breaking during a fifteen foot drop in a shoebox, added challenge:a quart size bag of dirt. I dont know how well they shall fare but I wish my two eggs good luck this Thursday.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

What'cha See?

Today, I took a huge step forward in my list, but did not exactly cross anything off. In the realm of learning to play guitar, my teacher decided to allow us to play a song we wanted to play, with other people in the class if we so wanted to. Originally I was thinking playing Tom Petty's Free Falling, because it was a song I've already learned to play and really only playing.
But I decided I wanted a challenge. Part of me wasn't interested in the sole act of playing by myself so I joined up with my friend Matthew, who is actually in the band, Hardly Endangered. Playing with the lead guitarist of a famous band within my school was a little advantage, but I knew it would be fun to do so. Keeping it simple, he took lead vocals and while I we were both playing the same part of the song, I sang back up for the chorus.
Of course, the song, I know we both have fun performing it, and as we played Nickelback's This Afternoon, it all came together with some form of unison. Although all the mistakes were on my part, they came at good enough times that the song flowed without any true hitches. I could get used to this performing thing.