Winter is here

Winter seems to have arrived early this year.  I can’t believe how much snow we have gotten so far and it’s not officially winter until tomorrow!  I had hopes of going to Florida over the holidays, but I am going to forget about that dream for awhile!  I have read that Florida has had some of its coldest weather in years.  I also read that the lows have been in the 20’s there and the highs were only in the upper 40’s.  I guess they are having a below normal temperatures there, too!

I think during our semester break that I will get prepared for classes by hunting down books and picking up supplies that I might need for then.  Other than that, I my try going ice fishing.  I’m sure with these cold temps that we have been getting that the ice is pretty thick by now.  I will be also watching the Badgers on News Years Day when they are playing in the Rose Bowl.  That will be fun to watch, just as long as I’m too hung over from New Years Eve!

This blog will be short but to the point!  I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Oceans 14

           I saw on TV this morning that the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas was robbed by a man driving a motorcycle.  He came in the high roller section and at gun point held up the casino.  The police said he got away with 1.5 million dollars in gambling chips.  Some of these chips are worth up to $25,000 a piece!  It will be interesting to see how this robber will try to get money for these chips.  The casino already said that the expensive gambling chips have micro-chips imbedded into the gambling chips so that they can locate them.  I wonder if they can tell where the chips are right now.

        I was thinking about the mental lapse of the security there.  You watch TV shows and there always seems to be an eye in the sky at all of the casinos and shouldn’t there have been some security in there to stop this robber?  All he did was go inside the casino dressed in motorcycle gear and helmet, robbed the casino, and ran out and left on his motorcycle.  You would have thought Las Vegas cops would have been on his tail as soon as he left the casino, but they must not have been notified, either.

        I think that I would be thinking on getting a new security department if that was all the best the Bellagio’s security could handle the robbery.  I know if I was one of the high rollers that was in the casino and saw someone robbing the place and didn’t see any kind of security there to help that I would go to another casino who would watch the place!

What's Up With the Bomb Threats?

I had my Written Communications class last Thursday morning and I thought it would be just a regular school day.  I was wrong!  There were police all over the Coleman building and there were students standing around across the street from the building.  I was wondering in my head what was going on here?  I started to talk to some of the students that were next to me and they said something had happened in the Coleman building and that they had evacuated the whole building at around 9:00 a.m.

I got tired of standing around, so I figured I go over to the library and kill some time there.  I was surprised to see that the library was packed full.  I didn't want to be there, so I was going to get a bite to eat over at the cafeteria.  There were tons of people leaving the cafeteria building and that also surprised me.  I started chatting with some ladies that were standing there and asked them if the cafe was busy.  The ladies said it was packed with people who were evacuated from the Coleman building.  They also said there was a bomb threat at the Coleman building.  Word was that someone wrote that they were going to blow up the building in one of the bathroom stalls.  Of course in my sick mind I was thinking maybe the wrote down that they had explosive diarrhea!

Thank God there was not a real bomb in school and that we were all able to go to class within a couple hours of that scare.  Business as usual!  No bomb threat slows down WTC students!  Amen!

Teddy Roosevelt, 1906 Nobel Peace Prize Winner

In the years of 1904 and 1905, there was a war between Russia and Japan due to conflicts over land rights to Manchuria.  Several thousand of soldiers were killed on both sides.  Many nations were scared to bring a peaceful end to this war.  In this essay, you will find out that one man was not afraid to help stop this war and in helping to bring an end. This man was awarded the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize.  His name is Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt.

Back in the start of the 20^th century, the United States was expanding its claims on the  islands such of Hawaii and the Philippines.  The U.S. was already precarious over foreign lands taking over lands not far from these U.S. lands.  So even at this early time we were keeping a close eye on other imperialist countries invading smaller and/or weak countries, especially the country of China.

Teddy Roosevelt became president in 1901 with the assassination of President McKinley.  At this time, our country was already heavily committed to Eastern Asia.  Our exports to China and Japan were double those of South America.  Two of our biggest traders and investors over in eastern Asia was Standard Oil and a railroad construction syndicate ran by J.P. Morgan.  These 2 companies held a lot of power in the U.S. back then.

The problem started when the Manchu dynasty, which ran the political system in China for many years, was dying off and this left China vulnerable for a hostile takeover.  The country of Russia saw this as an opportunity to grab the weakest parts of China, which was Manchuria.

Manchuria was a large buyer of goods and was a valuable shipping point to the east.  Russia did take control of Manchuria in 1902 and almost immediately stopped trade with Europe, the United States and Japan.  This infuriated Roosevelt and he felt like something needs to be done with the Russians.  A lot of people were on Roosevelt’s side, but nobody really wanted to go to war with Russia based on just the Manchurian takeover.

This made Teddy think long and hard.  Who else could help the U.S. with the problem over in Manchuria?  He talked with German, a major power back then.  They didn’t want to get involved.  He also asked France and Great Britain for help, but they refused.  The last country he asked for help was Japan.  Japan was happy to get our backing over Russia, so they signed a treaty with the U.S. called the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902.  This pretty much stated that if one country got into a war, the other country would protect it from other hostile countries.

1902 and 1903 went by and Russia kept Manchuria’s ports blocked off.  By the time 1904 rolled around, specifically February, Japan did what Roosevelt wanted to do and that was attack Russia.  Japan torpedoed the Russian fleet at Port Arthur.  After this action, both Russia and Japan were at war and they had many battles, especially naval.  Over the course of a year, Japan had crushed the Russian navy in the Pacific and had also beaten them at Port Arthur and Mukden.

Many people around the world were now worried that Japan would have a strangle-hold over Manchuria and might try to be imperialistic like Russia.  Roosevelt was not too worried about Japan, and actually was thankful they had booted Russia out of China!  It was even stated that he liked Japan enough that if any other country would interfere with Japan’s battle with Russia that he would bring in the U.S. to fight, too.  With the world wanting to bring an end to this war, Roosevelt felt the pressure to bring on a compromise to stop the fighting.

Starting in late 1904, he was having talks to both ambassadors about coming to a truce.  Stunning his cabinet, Roosevelt skipped the regular protocol of secretaries doing the work and actually talked personally to both sides involved.  This led to a much quicker response from both sides.  Also helping matters was the fact both sides were seriously close to financial collapse due to the fighting.

So both sides were ready to work out peace.  In the summer of 1905, both sides and Roosevelt met at Portsmouth, NH for the peace settlement.  Russia had to give up its entire railroad system in Manchuria to Japan and they had to also give up Port Arthur, which was the largest shipping point in Manchuria.  Japan was not allowed control over Manchuria itself.  Manchuria was actually given back to China to rule.

Russia was happy, because they didn’t have to give up any other land and Japan was happy because they were able to trade and run the railroads in Manchuria.  The U.S. was happy because we didn’t have to go to war to get what we needed done, which was to kick Russia out of Manchuria.  We also had it set up that both countries were still close enough to keep the other in line in case something would happen like this in the future and we got our eastern China trade back.  Manchuria would be freely trading to all countries as it had done in the past.

As a result of his roll to resolve the war, Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906.

Dancing With the Stars

I usually don't watch Dancing With the Stars, but I do know that most people that participate in the show usually have some kind of talent, or start out inexperienced and get much better during the duration of the show.  This years show, which is still in progress, has had quite a few different personalities on it.  There are sports figures, actors and actresses, singers, reality show personalities, and there is Bristol Palen.

I really couldn't see where she fit in this equation.  She is none of the above, and has very little talent except for having babies.  There are usually some talented dancing done by some of the stars right from the beginning of the show.  There are also some mediocre dancing done by alot of the other personalities.  I think it is one of those things that you either have it or not. 

This year started out that way when David Hasselhoff, The Situation, and other personalities got voted off the show.  It's kind of like American Idol where you see some of the less talented people in the bunch get kicked to the curb right away.  I started to watch the show this year, because I disliked The Situation.  He lasted a few shows and finally he was booted off.  As I kept watching, I was wondering why Bristol Palen wasn't also booted too.  She danced like a mannequin out there and showed very little emotion and charisma.  This kept my attention on the show.

All of a sudden, I started to watch very good dancers with really high scores get booted and Bristol stayed on the show.  I couldn't figure this out right away......then it came to me!  Her mother, Sarah, is really popular with the Republican crowd and this could be one way of showing her their loyalty by voting for her daughter if she was a good dancer or not.  I am not the only person that feels this way, Jimmy Kimmel has said many times that he thinks the Republicans are all voting for Bristol, just like it was an election. 

She is now in the final show which airs on November 23.  She just knocked out Brandy, the singer, which shocked most of the people who are on the show.  Brandy scored a perfect 30 points and Bristol received a 23.  To an extent, it almost seems like the show is rigged.  My sister told me this morning that the show is having a recount of the audience votes.  It seems that they feel that computer votes were tampered with, as to fixing the actual votes received.  This story keeps getting darker and darker, like Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal.

Both Sarah and Bristol Palen deny having anything to do with the voting.  let's see if this is true!

The Cruise From Hell

I really thought this was an interesting story.  I think everyone heard about the Carnival cruise ship "Splendor" floating out in the Pacific Ocean without power last week.  There was a fire on board the ship that fried out all of the electronics on board.  That happened on Monday, the day after it left the dock in California.  It took two tug boats to bring back the dead ship in the water.  While they were out of power, the people on board had to suffer without lights, running water, no refrigeration, no AC or heat, and other essentials that normal people take for granted. 
While researching the things that went on board, I read a blog that the Carnival's Senior Cruise Director wrote during this time of crisis.  I laughed at his sense of humor about the goings on during that time.  Here is the funniest part of his blog:  "I don't smell of roses at the best of times, but as the laundry is not working and I only have 2 pair of underpants I smell like Paris on a hot summer's day.....That's Paris the city not Paris the ......person."
It was also stated during this time that quite a few of the passengers were singing Gilligan Island type songs comparing their cruise to the SS Minnow's 3 hour cruise.
I thought it was admirable that the passengers and the cruise director had a comical look over a strange and somewhat harsh situation.  John Heald, the cruise director did say that some of the people on board did call the voyage "The Cruise From Hell."

Final Revision: The Day the Music Died

It was a normal day in 1980; High School was in progress, I was working part-time in a grocery store after school, and life seemed perfectly normal.  There was something different happening in my life, though.  One of my favorite singers just came out with a new album and I had just purchased his single the week before.  I will give you a hint; he was a former Beatle.  I was really excited that he had put out some new music for the first time in five years.  Also, there were rumors that he might get back in the studio to work with his old band.  The former Beatle was John Lennon and the date was December 8^th, 1980.

The single I had just purchased was “(Just Like) Starting Over.  I really liked this song because it seemed so different than the music that was popular while John’s career was in hiatus.  Disco had ruled the charts for several years up to this time.  I was not a fan of Disco at all!  To me it was mindless dribble with a boring beat.  It needed to die a quick death and some of the new music like new wave and Punk were going to help kill it off!

I was beginning to like some of this new music.  The Punk music had anger and emotional lyrics while new wave had cool music and interesting lyrics.  To me, these were the baby groups coming from the Beatles and their solo careers.  The Fab Four and especially John were going to come back together again and really put the stake into the heart of Disco!

That day I had my regular senior classes and I had my after school job stocking shelves at the local I.G.A.

When I was finished work, I cruised around in my car playing my new cassette player that I had recently installed.  I was listening to Devo’s “Whip It”, Gary Numan’s “Cars” and of course some Beatles music and John’s latest songs.  To me, around this time, life seemed to be hectic and out of control, especially it being my last year in high school and preparing for college, but I would put in some cool music, especially John’s new stuff that it made me feel like the future would be a breeze!

That night my family and I watched some TV after supper.  Then at 8 pm, Monday Night Football came on.  My mother wasn’t a big fan of football, so she would go read a book.  My father was a huge fan of football and would watch every Monday Night game.  I would usually watch the Monday night game with Dad, but tonight the game was showcasing two AFC teams.  My favorite team was the Green Bay Packers, and I liked the NFC, but I really didn’t care for the AFC teams.  So I would sporadically watch the game, while I was also listening to some new records I had just picked up the following weeks.

During this time most people played their music on record players.  It was the old standard and the music was pretty outstanding back then, especially the bass!  I wasn’t a big punk fan, but I did like a few of the new wave groups.  There was Billy Joel’s “Glass House” album that I had, and Hall and Oates “Voices” too and of course I was spinning John’s new single, too.  His album just came out and I was saving money to buy that to add to my record collection, too!  The future looked very bright and I was feeling that the end of 1980 was bringing a great end to a weak musical decade!

Around 10:30 that night, I was getting ready to hit the sack and I wanted to find out the score of the game before I went to bed, so I went out into the living room to see how the game was going.  While I was waiting for the score, Howard Cosell who was one of the announcers for the game said he had an important announcement that the former Beatle John Lennon had been shot and killed in front of his apartment in New York.  I just stared at the TV and I was in total shock.  My mind was screaming, “This couldn’t be happening!”  I raced to my bedroom and turned in my radio to see if Cosell was wrong.  The 11:00 news came on and the first thing they announced was exactly what was on the TV a half hour earlier.  I was really confused.  These facts would not leave my brain.  All I could think of is why would someone kill John Lennon?  I didn’t know if I wanted to cry or just smash something in anger.  He never hurt anyone and he put out the greatest music in my lifetime.  I found out the next day that his killer was Mark David Chapman, a former fan that was psychotic and felt like he needed to kill him.  Then I thought, “Great, some crazy guy who should have been locked up murders John”.  That’s the first time in my life where I felt that anything can happen.

I spent quite a bit of time feeling kind of lost and a bit depressed.  There were so many memorials on TV about his murder and about how so many people were upset by it.  I think it must have felt the same way when John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King was murdered.  On Christmas, my oldest sister gave me the John Lennon album that I wanted earlier in the month for a Christmas gift.  I would have loved receiving this gift earlier, but after what had happened, I didn’t really feel like listening to it.  I smiled and thanked my sister for the present, but deep inside I knew I didn’t want it.  I waited until the next day to play it and the songs were upbeat and full of love.  I listened to it once and put it away into my collection never to play it again.

The hardest part of being a big fan of a musical artist is when you think so much of them for such a long period and all of a sudden they are gone forever, it leaves a huge void in you.  This was something I haven’t had to experience before, almost like a death in the family.

From all of this, I knew I had to move on and pick myself up.  I started to listen to more and more of the new music that came out.  Disco did die off completely, which did make me feel better and it seemed like there were a lot of new bands coming out that would fill the void left from John’s death.  I matured a lot that summer.  I was getting ready to go to college and go see new people; big changes for me!

I started opening up to new music; although it won’t replace John’s music, they did influence me!  I glad I was able to do this and I will never forget how John’s music inspired me! 

Every so often, I will remember that day in my life and think of the good times and bad.  Then I think that I never really got the song “American Pie” until John Lennon was murdered.  I guess I felt the same way that the fans of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper felt in 1959 when their plane crashed and ended their brilliant careers.

Looking back at this time, I can now see John Lennon was to my generation as the members of the flight in 1959 were to the 1950’s.