Monday, March 30, 2009

Got Milk?

I love some of these Got Milk commercials. This one is probably the funniest of them.


My Spring Break

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I was a last minute alternate to attend a Youth Leadership conference in Washington, D.C., and I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity.

The bus ride there would have been pretty boring if we hadn't stopped at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania. I had never been there before. Pretty interesting place. I highly recommend everyone go there once in their life. Hershey, Pennsylvania is where the Hershey Chocolate company is located. They have a park to go along with the factory, etc. Cool place.

Once we arrived in D.C., we checked into the hotel. They made each of us room with students we didn't know from across the United States. Strange enough, one of my roomates was one of my Facebook gaming friends. We had never met in person until that moment. So that was a bit of a special moment. Super guy. A bit more wild and crazy than me, but it was okay. He kept things lively at the hotel.

The conference itself was somewhat boring. But then, aren't most seminars and conferences boring? Most of the leadership things they taught at the seminar I had already learned from the Saints of America. So nothing was really new to me. Perhaps the best thing of the whole week was making lots of new friends. So if you see my number of friends jump up on Facebook, you now know why.

There were really two highlights to the trip for me.

The first, I met a real nice girl named Elle, though real name is Ellen. We first met at the hotel swimming pool. I really didn't pay any attention to her at first glance. But later I kept catching her looking my direction. Now I'm not the type to make the first move, so it took a while but finally she came over and introduced herself. Now she isn't a "10" but I'd say a nice 6 or 7. Long blond hair, gorgeous blue eyes, kind of average body, but a killer personality and charm. After about 20 minutes sitting on the edge of the pool and talking with her, I knew I was in trouble, I was falling in love. We spent a lot of time together during the week. And the last night was kind of special, if you know what I mean. ;^)

The second highlight was meeting President Obama. He was very interested in teens, education, and listened to our concerns. He didn't brush us off with canned answers, but sat down with us and spent a good hour talking with us and telling us things he hoped he could do to address the issues we presented. Believe me, this was a spur of the moment thing so I wasn't real prepared to ask him questions, but I managed to toss a couple good questions at him. To be honest, I was not an Obama fan before the election. I thought he was just another typical politician playing the race card to get into office. FAR FROM IT. He is the real deal. He is very concerned about our country. He wants to change things. And he has a lot of ideas. He truly seemed like a President who is going to push Congress and the Senate to pass into law his ideas for change. I hope my Senator sends me the picture of me with President Obama, shaking hands. If so, I'll post it on here and on Facebook. It was a moment that I consider one of my biggest and best moments in life so far.

The trip back really hurt. All I could think about was the girl I had met. She called me last night about 10pm, the moment I had gotten home. We talked for two hours. I can tell she really misses me already, and I feel the same. I know we are both in love, but a long distance relationship is going to be hard. After all she is from Nashua, New Hampshire, and I'm in Columbus, Ohio. We promised to write weekly. We both have pay as you go on cell phone, so we agreed we can't be calling all the time. She is pretty smart and understanding. We do think alike which is really wild.

When I got home, my mom noticed something different about me too. She asked if I was all right. I seemed "aloof". I told her I had met a special girl. So my mom sat down with me and had that special talk about sex and relationships.

Overall a pretty great week though. Met President Obama, met a super nice girl that I'm in love with, and met tons of great new friends.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

When Friends need help!

A friends house burned down last night. Caylor Johnson and family are now homeless and without any possessions. Fortunately, no one was home when it burned down. Caylor was spending the night with friends, and his parents were visiting relatives in Florida. It was determined that it was an electrical fire that began from faulty wiring.

Caylor called his parents this morning and they are rushing back to Ohio. Many friends are already beginning to raise money and donate clothing and other necessities to help the family get back on their feet. They did not have homeowners insurance because they couldn't afford the monthly expense.

It's friends who help friends in time of need. And many of us have stepped up to help out Caylor. Please keep Caylor and his family in your prayers.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Big Government Big Spending

Columbus City Council announced yesterday that they will be increasing the local income tax rate by .25% which equates to about $150 per person over a year. While that doesn't seem like much, lets consider this..... The State of Ohio also wants to raise the income tax rate by about the same percentage. Now you are talking about $350 per person a year. Then our federal and state government is about to increase the gas tax by 50 cents a gallon. And many states are increasing taxes on tobacco products and other luxury goods.

When you put all of these things together, the Ohio Taxpayer could be paying almost $1500 more a year in all these increased taxes. (from Citizens For Ohio advocate group). This could mean a married couple could see an increase of almost $2500.

The idea of getting our economy is to put money into the taxpayers hands, not take more away.

Experts say today's high school students who are going to want to go to college won't be able to because scholarships are drying up and student loans are getting harder and harder to get. Most will have to work through college, but guess what, unemployment is at its highest rate since 1983 and projected to reach almost 10% nationally! I was out looking for a summer job and no one is hiring. The usual places for teen summer work aren't offering jobs this year. Most say it is because their priority is to give these jobs to unemployed adults who need the job to support their families.

This country is about to return to the 70's. You hear how an economy and social events are circular, history repeats itself. Many experts say we are about to return to the 70's era where families live in communes, citizens protest the government and war (as in Iraq currently), and long hair and tye dye is the craze.

Woohoo! Bring back Woodstock!