Outside The Box

MDW (memorial day weekend)

2010-05-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

This is a weekend to remember those who have died for our country. Also, it is for those who were injured or even fought for our freedom. It is a weekend in which people celebrate the freedoms they take advantage of everyday. This is also an awesome weekend. This weekend was especially awesome for me because it is my first weekend with my license. I'm having so much more fun now that I can do basically anything I want. The freedom is overwhelming. On friday I went to hang out with friends in Meadow Creek for a while. Then I went to hang out with some more friends on Alexandria by the library. Then I drove to Colts neck to hang out with some more of my friends. Oh and I also went to Five Guys right after school and Mondello's for dinner. I am so independent now. Saturday was awesome too! I went to my cousins house in Marlboro. We went in his pool and off roading. It is crazy, but thats why I love having a truck. I like to have some crazy fun everyonce in a while. On sunday I went paintballing until four. I went with a big group of people so it was tons of fun. Paintballing is great because I get such a huge adrenaline rush. I'm actually really good. In order to be good at paintball you have to be fearless. Soetimes to help my team get a quick lead I will commit "suicide". No, I don't actually die. What I do is just run right off the start right at the other team and try to surprise as many people as I can and get out as many people as I can. I usually get between 3 and 5 people before I get shot out myself. I also went to a party later that night. It was a barbecque at my friend Brandon's house. We played basketball and grilled and played other game. I went home around 12 o'clock and passed out. Moday was awesome end to my MDW. I woke up around ten and drove down to pier village in Long Branch. Its really nice down there. I met my friends at the beach and then we went jet skiing. It was really cool because they put me on the back of the jet ski and tried to throw me off. I came really close to falling off several times, but thankfully I held on, just barely! Then I came home and grilled with my mom. Some of my friends were supposed to come over, but then a monsoon hit out of nowhere. It was nuts!!! I could'nt see out my window. This weekend is also a sign that school is coming to an end. Finals are beginnig and the work is stopping. I cannot wait for summer. This was like a preview of how amzing my summer is going to be. God Bless America and memorial day weekend lol.

The Train Keeps Rollin', Even Without All It's Steam

2010-05-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

Although the Yankees are off to a great start finishing the month of April with a 16-8 record and only second to the Devil Rays, they are not yet at full potential. Yesterday they scored their highest run total so far, 12. This is a shocker to most sports annalists due to the Yankees impenetrable lineup, starting with Jeter and ending with Gardner with people like Texeira, Rodriguez, and Cano in the middle. Some of the star players such as Nick Johnson, Mark Texeira and Curtis Granderson are not produceing. However the team has certainly picked them upo. A few surprises have sparked this year. I am very impressed with Brett Gardner. This is his first year starting almost everyday and he has been nothing short of phenominal. His homer in yesterdays game was his first, however, he is not a power hitter, he hits for average. And with his above .300 batting average he is definately doing his job.I am speechless when it come to Robinson Cano. He is leading the team in batting average, home runs, rbi's and he even has the highest batting average in all of baseball. Cano has always been a solid hitter just coming in second to Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins two years straight for the batting title. However, this years performance is the best hes every done; he is definately fitting into that five spot in the lineup. Pitching, starting pitching is phenominal for the yankees this year. Phil Hughes is shining as the Yankees hoped he eventually would. CC is consistently winning and putting up great numbers as he always does. And Andy Pettite is having one of the best years of his entire career. A.J. Burnett has turned it up a notch as well. Last year he was up around 100 pitches in a game around the 6th inning. However now he is throwing a ton more strikes ans is lasting 8 inning with the same pitch total. There' only one problem lurking in the Yankees rotation, Javier Vasquez. He is despicable. He has only one win this season and has an ERA of over 9.00. He just can not find the rythym he had last season as a cy young contender. I hope to God that he poicks up. He has just been moved behind Hughes in the rotation. I think this will give him some more time and less stress so he can work on his delivery. Now to the bullpen. Despite Mariano's 0.00 ERA the bullpen is trash. They are blowing some games. Damaso Marte has not been getting out the lefties he usually makes fools out of and David Robertson is not coming up clutch like he did in the playoffs last year. I think the Yankees need more depth in their bullpen. I think they should acquire at least two more pitchers, maybe one hard throwing righty and a good strike out pitching lefty. However despite the dissapointments on the Yankees, who seem to be recooperating they are still performing better than the rest.

Obama's Bracket

2010-03-22T17:14:00.001-07:00

Every year around this time college basketball hosts the national championship tournament. It is called March Madness. So far there have been a lot of surprising upsets thus far. Especially the game in which the overall number one seed lost to a "cinderella" team. And, surprisingly, Cornell, the first Ivy League school to make it this far since princeton in I believe 1988 its progressing strongly. A cool thing about this tournament is that President Obama is participating in a bracket. A bracket is a prediction of which teams will advance ultimately to the championship game. Obama has consistently participated in such events for quite some time. It is not that surprising due to the fact that he played basketball in school. It is however getting a lot of attention. He played it safe for the most part picking 1 and 2 seeds advancing to the elite eight, what can you expect he has to play it safe, he is the president! He is doing pretty well with his choices thus far, however with the many upsets that have occurred im sure he wont win his competition.

Spring Break

2010-03-21T22:37:00.000-07:00

I cant wait, spring break is sooooooo close. It's going to be a blast. And this year it is 17 days long!!!!! I cant believe it. The first week of my break is going to be spent partying in DR (Dominican Republic). I'm going with a bunch of friends this time for a change. For the most part I only go on vacation with my family. I know I am going to have a great time there. I cant wait to get rid of this terrible weather, besides this weekend, that we have had. I want to sit on the beach with a nice drink in my hand just chilling, relaxing, and maybe sleeping. Then when I get home I want to go paintballing "and maybe, god willing, meet some cute girls. And they can meet my motha. And hopefully they will get along because no one fights with my motha." LOL u have to watch that video or you wont understand that. However the only bad thing is this week coming up is going to be the longest week of my entire life.

2012

2010-03-08T18:49:00.000-08:00

Personally, I think it is ridiculous that people actually belive that the world is coming to an end. There has been an increased amount of paranoid people around me. I hear it all the time now. In physics we were learning about planetary motion and the rest of the galaxies. I am aware of all of the disasters occuring like the recent earthquake in Haiti, but the world is not coming to an end for millions of years! The earth is attracted to the sun and moves closer and closer to it every second. However this movement is so slight that it can barely even be measured yearly. The only way that the world will really come to an end is when the Sun becomes a black hole. A black hole forms when a star (like the sun) becomes so massive by attracting to much mass that it collapses due to its own immense gravity. Till then, which is sooooooooo long from now i am not worried about the world's sudden end. So what if there are alot of disasters occuring? I bet that the people of Italy thought the worl was coming to an end when Mt. Vesuvius erupted. Even recently the Tsunami and earthquake and everything else, they all occur in different times during history. There is no reason for a hysteria.

Ineresting Psychology Project

2010-02-23T19:04:00.000-08:00

This past week in psychology we were learning about drugs. You know like the abuse and affects and all that bologna. Then we started watching these episodes of the show Intervention. These shows are about addicts and how the drug has affected them and others surroundiong them. Also getting the drug abuser to stop. The assignment linked to these movies, yes we did not get off free of course, was a 5-10 minute skit of an intervention. My group chose to choose our addict to be an alchoholic. And of course I had to be the addict. The thing is I actually had fun! Basically our group just made like a big improv with no scripts and It came out to be really good. I was the funniest because I would stumble over things and slur my words and everyone laughed. The best part was when I refused to participate in the make believe intervention. I stormed away (other side of room) and got into my car (rolling chair) and as I backed away i smashed into a pole (the wall). After that I decided to intervene and our skit was over. Achoholim is serious however and shouldnt be taken lightly, only sometimes :).

SAT, Junior Year, Now College?

2010-02-23T18:59:00.000-08:00

Well as any other student in the 11th grade they are juggling alot of responibilities. These responibilities for me are the SAT's on March 13, the hardest school year of my life, and extra curricular activities. Now my mom decided to go back to college. Basically this means I have to handle my moms college courses as well. Talk about a busy life! I am swamped with homework every night whether it be for the SAT or regular schoolwork and now on top of that I have a business project for my moms business class. How fun! Oh and on top of that I have to begin to study for my History AP exam and HSPAs. So basically I have no life.

It better not snow!

2010-02-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

Finally the 2 feet of snow we had for weeks now is finally disapearing. Finally some rain!!!!! I can finally walk outside without ruining a pair of shoes or jeans. BUT... I heard today that snow is on its way. And alot of it, kill me please. The only part I enjoy about the snow is missing school. However i feel that is not worth not being able to do so many activities. For example I love to ride my quads with my friends and cousins but it is not fun when there is too much snow to go over 10 mph. What I hate the most abuot the snow is SHOVELING!!! I hate shoveling and I have to do it everytime that it snows more than 3 inches. It is back breaking work that makes my whole body hurt the next day. I don not just have to shovel my driveway I have to shovel an entire school in Old Bridge. It is a pain in the butt. I pray to God that this snow stays as rain.

Facebook

2010-02-22T18:30:00.000-08:00

What is facebook for? I think it is completely unecessary , but yet I use it too. It is not needed for anything. You can communicate with friends with your cell phone, which everyone has. Yet I am on it as I write this blog, why? It gives away informaton that you would not normally tell to 2,000 people or however many friends you have... sry i was side tracked by facebook and lost my train of thought. Well, for example I know when everyone of my friends begins or ends a relationship just by looking on the home page's live feed. Yet, most of these people would not tell me if i asked them who they were having a "complicated" relationship with. Also many people put personal information like phone numbers, which I stupidly did yesterday when I got my new phone. Anyone can recieve this information! For example I would not want some random guy/girl to start texting me if they see my number. That could get annoying! Literally there is nothing useful that Facebook does but either get you in trouble or annoyed, yet it can be classified as an addiction.

Olympic tradgedy :(

2010-02-15T12:54:00.000-08:00

Before the Winter Olympics and Vancouver began an ice luger died during the practice rounds. The Republic of Georgia lost their luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in one of the most dangerous sports. The ice luge in the Olympics consists of men speeding down an ice track on their backs. They scorch down these tracks at around 80 mph! These speeds easily kill an unprotected proffesional. As Nodar slid down the track he lifted off the ground and went airborne slamming into an unprotected light support. The luge at Vancouver is questioned by many of the lugers to be the most dangerous course in the world. However as the Olympics usually does, triumphed over the tradgedy as the Georgian lugers came to the track with a huge applause causing millions to be teary eyed. The Olympics are truly an amazing event that brings the worl together forgetting differences they share. To learn more of this tradgedy visit this link.

The Defending Champs

2010-02-15T12:12:00.000-08:00

After last years valiant ride to Championship, the Yankees have a lot of expectations to live up to. With an outstanding record of over 100 wins and of course the World Series title, the Yankees still needed some changes however. They need to complete their outfield, pitching rotation and bullpen. Last year the Yankees had many older players that were past optimal performance. Also, there are many free agents that the Yankees had on their team; Melky Cabrera, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, and others. So far all of these people have been signed to other teams except Johnny Damon. However Yankees made the move to acquire a Cy Young contender of last year Javier Vasquez and a young spark and great player Curtis Granderson. The pitching rotation is almost complete with 4 definate starters and the question of whether to start Joba or Hughes. In my opinion i would move Joba to the Bullpen because he throws a significant 4-5 mph faster and has tons of energy when he comes out in the latter innings. Hughes is more calm and I feel he could last a solid 6 innings. These moves would create the solid pithching staff the yankees need to repeat their success. one other extremely debatable topic is the outfield. Brett Gardener was a bench player who usually filled in as an outfielder and pinch runner for either the injured or slower players. I feel he has earned his spot in the outfield. He is a solid defender with humongous speed. I believe he and Granderson would be solid center fielders but the question is which one? Though they both are lightining fast I believe the Yankees should put Gardener in center moving Granderson to left field. But, that is only two of the three outfielders. I think the Yanks need to resign Damon to put in right field to complete the outfield. All of these men are fast and would cover the entire outfield with ease preventing alot of the gap shots that really hurt the team. Finally I think it was such a smart move to acquire Nick johnson and put huim in the DH spot. He gets onbase nearly half his art bat either with his keen understanding of the strike zone or his .300 batting average. The yankees really have a shot to repeat as their history has shown with this strong offensive and defensive lineup.

What a Weekend!

2010-02-08T16:48:00.000-08:00

This weekend was full of ups and downs for me. I started off getting into a big fight with my mom for no reason. As a result of that she kicked me out of the house. She allowed me back today thankfully (still dont know what I did wrong). Then the big snowstorm hit giving us a little less than a foot throughout the freehold area. I had absolutely no fun because I am committed to plowing Car Sandburg Middle School in Old Bridge. I make 15 dollars an hour though, so it's worth it. I made around 120$ which looked great in my hands. However, I was in sooooooooo much pain. Starting at my feet, I had to use my cousins snow boots because I slept over. He is 1.5 sizes smaller than me so my toes are on fire. Then, from bending over and lifting piles of snow, my back is excrutiating. To top it all off, my arms feel like jelly because I went to the gym after my work was done. Then Superbowl Sunday came rolling in. Every year my whole family comes over to watch the game and make some friendly bets. I won 5$ to start off the game by betting my uncle on the coin toss. Then I bet my cousin 10$ that the Saints would win, they did. But most of all I won the final score bet for a football pool in which I won 500$$$!!! I was jumping for joy. What a rollercoaster ride of a weekend.

Federici's Pizza

2010-02-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

mmmmmmmmm... I would say about once a week I visit my favorite Italian restaurant for a nice pizza pie. It is delicious. I get the same thing every time. the people in the restaurant know me by name and I know them by name as well. I order a large pie peperoni garlic and extra cheese. Those word make me hungry. Sometimes I get a canoli for desert if I have room. Usually I'm stuffed with pizza. It is thin crust and jiucy. I eat about 4-5 slices each time. I love this place. I heard that the rest of their italian food is good to. But I am dedicated to this pizza. Unless you have been there you need to try it to experience the joy i feel. It is a great enviroment too. I feel at home in there and the pizza, ugh I can not stop talking about it. I love it love it love it. Try it! It is on main street in freehold boro right on the street. It has been running for decades and it gets better everytime i go. It has even won awards for the best pizza in new jersey for several years. mmmmmmmm...

SAT Tudor

2010-02-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

Probably the most inconsiderate people in the world. Not only do I have a new marking period on my hands with tons of homework, I have 2 and a half hours of SAT homework. This stuff is not a breeze either. This is hard work and these people make it look so easy. Some of the questions take me a few minutes to answer. The funny part is that on the real test you do not have those few minutes. I had a section in my last test that only allowed me 10 minutes to answer 14 questions! Not only do I have to do the sections I have to make a vocabulary list. The essays, dont even get me started. They are sooooo annoying. They are the most random topics and some are impossible to think of solid examples for. My Tudor tells me that I need to cite an example from a book in every essay because books are a plus for the scorers. Im actually doing very well though scoring well over the 600's in the writing and reading sections. I am exceptional in the math sections scoring well over the 700's. I can not wait to get my SAT's over with I am almost 100% ready to take the test and I am one of the few people who is not afraid or nervous to take this test. It is important, I know, that is all i hear now. However, what is the worst thing that can happen. I do not get a sufficient score and I take the test again.

Football is Coming to an End

2010-02-01T14:09:00.000-08:00

Im so sad that my second favorite sport has only one weekend to go. And unfortunately my two favorite teams, the Jets and Vikings will not be playing as I had hoped. I was really let down by the Jets' poor performance in the second half of the game. They were doing so well with the superbowl in their hands. Then the big bad colts came along with big shot peyton manning and stole there chance rifght from their hands. So I was upset but still with hope that my second favorite team the Vikings would overcome the red hot Saints. But with an overtime feild goal victory all my happiness was flushed down the toilet. Now this coming sunday, once again, I will be watching two teams that I dont care for in the Superbowl. I hope the Saints win because they never won the superbowl before. One thing im happy about is that in less than two months from now my favorite sport baseball will start up. I love the yeankees! I was at the World Series last year. They took home the title of world champions and with new additions to the roster I think they can defend it.

Let's Talk About Stress

2010-01-25T14:57:00.000-08:00

So much is going on nowadays. First I have to deal with the midterms, tomorrow I have to spend an hour with my SAT tudor, and my mom decided it would be the perfect time for her to go back to college. She is trying to get her degree for accounting through brookdale because she consistently complains about how she should be getting paid more for what she does. At first I pushed her to try to do what she wanted. But, now that she has achieved i realized this is not what I want. I realized this when she asked me "Can you do some of my work, ill pay you?". haha. So on top of my stressful junior year in which I am trying my hardest to succeed in is going to be even harder. I need to prioritize, set my goals and try to put less important things to the side. This year depicts my future and a lot of weight is on my shoulder. This actually reminds me of eminems song, though he is not such a role model this song is inspiring, "Soldier" (1:00 into the song, the chorus).

Is any celebrity death a real tradgedy?

2009-12-22T19:01:00.001-08:00

In the past year a lot of famous people have passed on. At first the entire country seemed to be in shock. for example when Heath Ledger died. However later on i stopped feeling bad for them because every single death seems to be drug related somehow. The newest celebrity death was that of Brittany Murphy at just 32 years old! It is very unfortunate but now there are drug questions involved. The true reason for death will not be found for weeks. The autopsy still has to be performed. It is said she collapsed in the shower and had a heart attack. This case will be on the news for weeks. the most major recent celebrity death was that of michael jackson. He was a great entertainer and many people were very downtrodden. I felt sorry for him too until they started to bring up drug issues. i just dont get it. These people have everything they want and they waste their lives on drugs. I think they are just a bunch of idiot!

Why Jets why?

2009-12-22T11:54:00.000-08:00

With a unusual promising start to the season the Jets were leading the division with a 3-0 record. The team looked so strong. I dont know what happened to them. All of the sudden they began to loose. Sunday was theyre last shot to make it too the playoffs. The opening drive looked promising with a bomb to Edwards. But that's all the got. Unfortunately the Atlanta Falcons came out on top 10-7 crushing the long waiting Jet fans hope. Maybe next year!

Snow, snow and more snow

2009-12-22T11:49:00.001-08:00

Last thursday I was told and incredible thing. Snow was on the way and lots of it, and estimated 12-18"! So, on saturday morning my dad called me and asked if I wasnted to help him plow the snow at a school. I said yes because the pay was 15$ an hour. I thought, how long could it take, maybe 4 hours. No, it took 10 hours. Shoveling is some back breaking work too. Thank God we had no school monday or else I would have passed out in every class. I did make alot of good money though.

Whats the deal with Tiger?

2009-12-15T14:50:00.000-08:00

All i've been hearing for the past month now is, did you hear about Tiger Woods? Honestly, who cares? It's not like half of famous people in the country cheat on their spouse. It is nothing new. The more people that come out and say they had an affair with hime the more people are going to criticize him. I'm almost positive that if any random woman was to say that they had and affair with Tiger Woods the whole world would believe him. I kind of feel bad for him. He doesn't even want to play golf anymore. This incident is ruining his life and it is so ccommon in society that i think it shouldn't be such a big deal. What he did was wrong but give him a break. He works so hard to please everyone and if he needs to get away from it all let him. Reall, who cares anymore leave him alone.

Disney Land... with a bunch of 12 yr old cheerleaders

2009-12-14T12:24:00.000-08:00

Ok so Disney is supposed to be this big fun thing that everyone has to go to in their life. Well I can tell you right now its not worth wasting a week of your life. Sure there are a few good things there, some rides are fun and some food is good. However after the second day there, when I already finished everything I wanted to do, I felt like i was being dragged everywhere. After spending five days in Guantanamo Bay (Disney), i came to the conclusion that i will never go back. It is too much walking for nothing. You walk about 5 miles every day to go on 3 rides and eat a little junk food. Plus the food they had there was so weird! I went to one concession stand and the only things that were on the menu were milk, a giant turkey leg, and a pretzel with cream cheese in the middle. So I had to walk to another stand, see where I'm going with this walking thing. Then back at the hotel, a tiny box, the beds were small enough for just one person so sleeping was hard. The pool was about 3 football fields away and the buffet, junk, was a little further. If your parents ever want to go to Disney say "NO".

2009-12-06T16:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had our first snowstorm of the year in Jersey. It wasn't much but it did serve some extra fun my way. I went to my cousins house and we drove our quads in the snow, or slush I should say. It was a blast riding on thin ice and sliding through the snow. The only thing bad to come out of it is now I have a cold probably from getting soaking wet in 30 degree weather. Sometimes I act like an idiot. I have a project to do in school tomorrow and tuesday, I have another project that is due this friday, and I am leaving for Florida tuesday night. I am going to have a bad week when I get back.

Why did you make me eat that?

2009-11-29T19:32:00.000-08:00

Tonight I went to a Russian restaurant with a couple of my friends for one of my friends birthday. Let me tell you they have some exotic foods at these places. When I sat down platters began to roll out. I saw things like raw salmon and tuna and some raw thin sliced red meat. Thankfully I saw something cooked come out so I pounced on that. The second dish was chicken so I was fine with that. Then we had this weird cake for desert. I'm a pretty picky eater and my friends are aware of that. So they told me to try things falsely telling me what the food actually is. The appetizer I ate was actually cow tongue. The main course of chicken was actually duck. That cake was made from cream cheese ( I like butter on my food not cream cheese). The food was surprisingly tasty but if I had knowledge of what foods were coming out I would not have had the same experience and I am glad I tried new things.