The Guardian Unlimited has an article about two British students who are spending eight weeks traveling around America breaking our dumbest laws. Dumblaws.com, which is where they found out about most of these laws, has some doozies. Check them out if you get the chance.
I put a link to kottke.org in my side bar. If you haven’t already heard, Jason Kottke has decided to become a full time blogger, but he’s not taking ad support. Instead he is using a micropatron model. The whole idea is a throw back to the Renaissance when artists had all their bills paid by art patrons, who in turn, got to keep their art. This is a little different. Instead of just one patron who pays all the bills, he is wanting to get many micropatrons who pay small amounts, $30 is recomended, to help pay his support for one year, and instead of letting only his patrons access his art, he is giving the public access. He’s only taking support for the next three weeks, and after that he will focus on blogging. I’m thinking of donating, and you should too. This is a great idea and I hope that it works out for him.
I got two more free iTunes downloads. I’m also combining this givaway with my Gmail giveaway. Send me an email and I’ll give you a download and an invite, unless you specify that you only want one or the other.
Disclaimer:
I’ve never used iTunes, and can’t be held responsible for anything that happens to you involving iTunes, including them ripping you off.
I drink a bottle of Pepsi almost everyday at school. Since Pepsi started giving away free iTunes downloads I have won a grand total of two free downloads, but my computer is running Windows 98. iTunes needs at least 2000 or XP, so I can’t use my downloads. If anybody wants to get some free and legal music drop me an email at jmweirick@gmail.com and I’ll send you the codes. Limit one per person.
For those of you who don’t follow PenguinBoy’s blog, his wife has a golf ball sized mass on her stomach, which isn’t good, but when she went in for a CAT scan they found that her ovary was swollen to the size of an orange. Please keep her in your prayers.
I got bored with my old template so I decided to change it. What do you think?
Muralist Ed Stross was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 2 years probation, and $500 fine for a mural he painted on the outside of his building. This is just sad.
The second in my essay doubleshot.
Difficulties are something everybody encounters. At some point in life everybody meets a problem that seems too difficult to handle. While everybody has them, how someone reacts to them is what truly determines how difficult they actually are.
Some will immediately say that circumstances, not reaction, are responsible for determining the difficulty of a situation. They are simply mistaken. Circumstances can only have so much influence, because they are, in fact, circumstantial. A circumstance can be avoided, it can be changed, and, in some cases, it is brought about only by someone’s reaction to other difficulties. If a person reacts to a difficulty by assuming that he cannot fix it, then the difficulty will only get worse as it continues to fester and grow unabated. If someone reacts with an attitude of being able to conquer any difficulty, he is more likely to succeed in removing the difficulty from his life, as he will attack it head on and go straight for the root of the problem.
It is true that, no matter what someone’s reaction, he can’t control the reactions of others, which can make the situation even worse. This is a good argument, but it misses a very important point. Others reactions are, whether a person admits it or not, influenced greatly by someone else’s reaction and attitude. People are naturally inclined to take on the attitudes of those near them. As the illustration goes, if several lightly positive people are put in a room with one strongly negative person, by the end of the day the entire room will be negative. Conversely, if several lightly negative people are put in a room with one strongly positive person, by the end of the day the entire room will be positive. If the individuals care for their own reaction, the rest will follow suit.
Even with the effects of reaction on others and the difficulty, those effects mean nothing without the last effect of reaction. This most important reaction is whether or not someone chooses to rely on God to carry him through his difficulties. The best thing someone can do is to ask God for help, because He is the only one capable of changing everything.
Reactions are the most important thing in determining how difficult a situation is. No matter what someone faces in life, his reactions are what make the difference. Not circumstances. Not people.
I got an essay doubleshot for you. First is the essay that I wrote for History, then later I’m going to put up te essay I wrote for English. Before I give you the first essay I should give a little background info. We just finished discussing the Civil War, and during the discussion my teacher had been trying to give us examples of the “human face of war”, these were various instances showing what people went through during the war. On the test she gave us the essay, “Describe the human face of war.” This was my responce, enjoy!
Was has no human face. It drags men along helplessly forcing them to either slaughter their brothers, or be slaughtered themselves. It causes loved ones to be lost, families to be broken, and lives of survivors to be destroyed. In some cases, as in the South, it causes those not on the battlefield to face starvation and shotages of clothing and basic necessities of life. War has no human face, and this war was no different.
Two good things happened yesterday. First, we had a snow day. Second, I got my cell phone back. The guy who I lent it to talked Verzion into knocking $1,300 dollars off his bill and waiving the reconnect fee.
I’m going to be posting an essay later today that I wrote for History class, so keep an eye out for it.
