“Blogging” this was a term that I heard but something I have never done before.  So in the beginning I was a little nervous when I found out that we had to do it once a week.  I did not know what it entailed, how to do it, how to sign up for it or anything that it dealt with.  I did not know that people could write comments on what you wrote about and in the beginning that also made me a little nervous!  I was afraid that people would disagree with my opinion or that I would not defend my opinion strongly enough.  Once I got going and after I wrote my first blog, I realized that it was not that big of a deal and that it was easier then most assignments because I could write about anything I wanted.  After my first couple of blog’s I actually started to like it because of the comments.  People read what I wrote and decided they liked it enough to give me their own in put on it.   There were some that I liked more than others and some that I spent a lot more time on researching and led me into a different direction than I entially thought I would be taking.  I tried to write about things that I thought the class could learn from, or would enjoy reading about, there were some that did and others that didn’t.  As I found out, that is all part of the blogging world, and I put “my” opinion in things weather the people like it or not.  If they did they told me and if they didn’t they had the option to tell me so too!

My most favorite blog that I wrote was, stress it seemed to affect a lot of people and a lot (including myself)  did not really know what it could do to you!  I learned a lot on this topic and actually spent about two hours reading about it and going to different sites to see if they all said the same thing or not.  I think that stress is something that all people suffer at one time or another, if not all of the time and I feel that this site could help show what it really can lead to!  There are a lot of different things that can help lower this, but there are some (like vacation) that we would like to instead of others!  Well I hope if you were to only read one of my blogs, that it would be this one, because everyone could learn something on this site.

Caffeine was another site that I liked and that I thought a lot of the class would appreciate, and hopefully learn from!  Most ( if not all) of us, drink something with caffeine in it.  Coffee is my personal down fall, but I know people that drink soda all day everyday and don’t ever drink water and only drink milk in cereal.  Well, that is bad!  I definately did not realize what this stuff could do to you and now that I know, I have been trying to cut down on the amount of coffee that I do drink.

I also liked my nascar blog, though no one commented on it.  This is one of my favorite thing to watch on t.v.  Obviously people do not feel the same.  When I tell people that I really like to watch this and I don’t watch because my boyfriend and my dad watch it they don’t understand because they don’t understand how watching cars go around a track could be fun!  Well they are only going 150 miles per hour!  HELLO right there is a thrill even if there was only one car on the track, but when there is forty something, it is even better!  The wrecks (as long as no one gets hurt)  are awesome!  I liked this so much because I like it! If anyone who read it and did not know anything about nascar, I think that they would’ve learned something. I thought that I would’ve gotten at least one comment!, but I still liked it and will probably blog about this topic in the future.

Those were my three personal favorites two because I learned the most on those sites and one just because it is a hobby of mine.  There were some of my blogs that others liked better than NASCAR (acoording to their comments, or lack there of) but this was my choice because it’s enjoyable to me!

One thing that I have always wanted and eventually will do is, adopt-a-puppy but I think that I probably should have wrote about something a little more educating.  I showed a picture of what dog that I would have adopted and that led to the sight to view other puppies, but that is not something that would necessarily peak everyone’s interest, like my NASCAR site, but I like nascar everyday, I don’t have a puppy yet, so I can’t like it everyday.  (Yet)  I should have wrote about the history of dogs, or something other than just the pointof adopting one.  I guess this was just one of my blogs that was fun, instead of educational.

There were a lot of class mates blogs that caught my attention, some more than others.  I liked the current event blogs over the media blogs, I think there were certain blogs and class converstaions that peeked most of our attention.   The blogs that I chose to comment on were about current events, that is one thing that blogging helped me keep up on.  There were numerous blogs that I liked, but three of my favorites were, Maria’s, Lacy’s, and Helen’s,  all for the reason that they all could (Global Warming), did (the Albany county drunk) and may (Concrete Angel), affect me if they have not already.

Global-warming-and-national-security, written by Maria, was one of my favorite!  This is a huge topic and there are a lot of people that don’t truly understand what it is doing!  There was only one comment left ( it wasn’t me), but I think that when we talked about it in class, there were a lot of people left in shock.  The movie that Al Gore put out was amazing! I watched it last semester in Physical Geology with Mrs. Smith (great class too), and that is where I first learned what a problem this really is!  Congrats to Maria on opening our eyes to this!

Another blog post that I liked written by Lacy’s,  a-drunk-and-stealing-albany-county-man because it was personal to me  and she didn’t know it when she wrote it, on her site I wrote; “I know him, well not him diretly but his wife and children! I went to school with his four kids! One was in my grade and his sister was on my cheerleading squad! The rest of the family is extremely fun! I like them a lot! This is one of those families that eveybosy loves! I heard that the daughter(now away at college) is extremely embarrassed! To my knowledge the family had no idea this was even going on! I feel bad for them and just hope that our community does not punish the rest fo the famly for their fathers mistakes! Shannon M” I’m glad that she wrote how she felt because she was being honest, I probably would agree with her if I didn’t know the rest of his family!

Another discussion starter that surferchick23 wrote about and than blogged about was about that song “Concrete Angel”, many of us in the class are perspiring the education feild and I think that this was one of the most eduational blogs for all of us.  I also think that it scared all of us too because the teacher in the song didn’t do anything, and someday that same thing could happen to us if we don’t question things as much as we should!  I commented on this and I said: “Your dicussion starter was very good! People know that this is a problem obviously a music video was done on it! But also as it says “the world forgot” and “the teacher sees but she doesn’t ask” and “the neighbors hear but they turn out the lights” that won’t help any one! People are afraid to say anything because they don’t want to get in trouble! but if you save a child’s life what trouble are you going to get into? I hope this helps all of us aspiring teacher’s! If anything else we can contact social services “annoymously” and just have them keep an eye on the child or children. Just think about if you were the concrete angles neighbor and you woke up to the sirens of the ambulance and saw her in the body bag! How bad would you feel if you turned out the lights instead of calling the police! Those sirens could be from you and could’ve saved her life! This is a big problem and I don’t think many of us realize because we have’nt seen it and we haven’t been in the situation!”  There were 5 total comments to this, but I think when she did her discussion starter, we all said something! 

Well I guess this is what I liked most about bloggung, there were a few here and there that I did not like, and more that I would have commented on but never got the time too.  Blogging definately kept me up to dates on current events and what people thought.  I liked the fact that we could speak our mind and diagree with someone and what they wrote, though I agreed with all of those that I wrote about, and those that I did not like I chose not to write on them.  Overall, I liked this experience and could see myself blogging again in the future, especially when I have questions when I am a teacher!

Hopefully this will help someone in the class someday!  It’s obvioulsy about businesses, and let me tell you now it is HARD!  It seems like everything you have to do is a 10 step process.  I never thought that is would be as hard as it really is, and this is just the beginning. School is a business, most of us here want to some day become a teacher, therfore we will work for a business.  You may know someone that own’s a business, most of us work and therefore that’s a business.  Anyway, my boyfriend is trying to start a business and I never realized exactly how dificult this is!  I thought about after I teach for a few years to open a daycare.  I have always wanted to but with everything you have to do the insurace alone would be half of what I would make!  but we’ll see mabey i’ll be inspired again in a few years!  Well he  wants to start a truck driving business!  So I decided to do a little research on this because so far he has not had the best luck.  Monday we went to 4 different places to see if he could get some start up money so in case anything happens he has some pety money to use (hopefully it won’t!!!) Any way I went on and found a few sites that were helpful entrepreneur.com and businessnation.com but the most helpful (that I found) was THIS it has a guide that shows you what sort of steps you would have to take.  There are some things that not all businesses would need to do, and some that they would have to and aren’t there.  So just as a heads up for your future you may want to keep some of these websites in the back of your head~!  It can be very rewarding, once everything is established, but right now it is hard and very SRESSFULL!!!  But someday I hope to look back and think all of this work was worth it!

Well it is that time of year for us college students to feel extreme stress with the over load of work that we have to do for school.  Not to mention the other things that cause stress in our daily lives, lack of sleep, our jobs, boyfriends/girlfriends, summer planning, and everything else!  Well I know that after today, working all morning on my Hummer paper-speaking of which I am not done with yet!  But anyway, I found a website that I hope will help all of us.    This  website can help describe what sort of stress that you may suffer from, I didn’t think I would be very interested until I read further into it.  I didn’t read through the whole thing but there were a few points that affect me that I read more closely.  It tells you that there are two different types of stress that people can suffer from, acute and chronic.  Acute stress comes from things like, noise, crowding, isolation, hunger and danger. I didn’t realize what stress could do to you.  I know when I get overly stressed my immune system gets low and therfore I get sick!  Other than that there wasn’t anything else that I could think of that stress could due to me.  Well I was wrong, it can lead to many more problems.  Stress can also come out in areas such as, your heart, lung, mouth, throat, immune system and skin!  With a lot of stress the above things can become chronically over or under activated That is a lot!  Those are just places that acute stress can effect.  It actually can lead to heart disease or a stroke!  Stress too may cause extreme anxiety and depression.  Though it has not been found to lead to cancer, but it has been seen to cause tumor growth.  It can screw up your digestive system as well which aggrevates the large intestine which can cause diarrhea, constipation, cramping, bloating, or painful burning.  They say that stress can lead to intensifying weight gain, diabetes,  pain (muscular and joint or headaches),  sleep probelms (what’s that?), sexual problems like, inablilty for women to orgasm or temporary impotense in men,  intensify PMS (like it’s not bad enough?).  Well it also claims to reduce memory, concentration and learning by 20%-50%, well isn’t that just great for all of the end of the semester things that we have to remember to do, and concentrate on the up and coming tests that we all have to take!   Well that is just about the Acute stress factors, I honeslty don’t even want to go into the Chronic  stress problems.  By realizing what Stress can do to me, I think that I am going to enjoy me vacation that much more and NOT stress about next semester!  Any way now I get to go and put myself through some more stress and try and finish my Hummer paper! 

Well when reading another artilce about the Viginia Tech massacre, I came across a neat article about the amount of women that have recently been buying guns.   This article shows that 6.3 million women participate in gun sports.   This is a 50% increase from 1999.  That is a lot!  Especially that it is just women.  I found this article very interesting because I hunt, my mom hunts, my step mom hunts, and occasionally my step sister hunts too!  Every opening day, of gun season for deer, we all go out!  We sit in a tree stand from about 5:30 in the morning until about 11:30 when we get down for about an hour to two hours and eat lunch, and walk around because we get figitty in the tree stand for that long!  It is a lot of fun if hunting appeals to you.  I grew up around guns, hunting and most important the safety of them!  I think that no matter if you hunt or not that you should learn something about gun safety!  This article also stated that there were $285 million worth of guns sold to women alone!  This did not include the accessories.  There is a lot of accessories when it comes to hunting, there are the thermals(long johns), heavy socks, then the outer wear, hats, gloves, jackets, boots, orange (something you wear has to be orange when walking to and from your stand to try and prevent accidents, ammunition, a pack to put your “stuff” in.  My pack usually consists of, a thermos full of coffee (I know I just wrote about it and it’s bad but I can’t help it!), warmers (to put in your boots and gloves), binoculars, a box of ammo (hopefully I wouldn’t need more then one shell-but you never know), tissues because it is so cold your nose and eyes usually run the whole time, and usually a snack of some sort, like a granola bar.  Now that was just me this year, I did not have to buy any of these accessories because I wore my dad’s.  Though I do know some other women that hunt, and they all have things that are theirs and fit them!  Now that we have seen how much you have to have to hunt, how many of these women truly know how to clean, load, and shoot a gun?  I doubt half of them that have guns know how to do these things-no offense to those of you that might!  But I had to attend a hunters safety class to get a license.  If I were to buy a gun, I would need two forms of i.d., they would have to run a background check, and have my name registered to that gun.  For me that would be no big deal because I am legal, I would keep my gun in a gun case with a lock, and keep my ammo in another safe spot.  In Virgina, they don’t have as strict of laws when it comes to buying a gun.  That is the states fault.  In New York it usually takes  weeks for you to obtain a fire arm.  i feel that that should be the way in every state!  It is not fair for those of us that do do everything legal-we should not  have to suffer for others stupidity!  If states had strict yet reasonable laws and restirctions, people still may get the fire arms but is would be safer for all of us for the ones who do decide to do it legally!  We have the right to bear arms, and personally I do and I always will.  Someday when I have my own house, and live by myself, I will own a gun LEGALLY! and I will hunt with it LEGALLY and I hope that these anti-gun people realize that I will use it to feed me, and my family.  A deer can feed a family for weeks!  Not to mention that the hunt itself is so much FUN!  The feeling and afreniline that enters your body is like nothing else!  You have to be there to feel it!  Anyway,  I agree with the people that want stricter laws on gun control, but looking at New York state, there laws are sufficient, and no matter what they think about they have to realize that if people want soemthing bad enough they will get it no matter what!  Guns are smuggled into  this country all the time!  Would you rather know who has these guns and where they are, rather then being so assinin and trying to get rid of all of them, because I hate to tell you but that is NOT going to happen!

Don’t talk to me before I have my coffee in the morning or your jumping into dangerous territory!  I think I am in trouble when it comes to caffeine!  It’s now 10:00 and I have been up since 6:00 and I am still drinking coffee!  If any of you have two cups of coffee a day, I suggest that you take a look! caffeine- can do much more then just wake you up!  On average you can consume 250mg. filtered coffee has 110-150, so if you have two cups your done!  Or we can go to starbucks and get one grande (16 ounces) and get our fill in one cup!  One grande has 500 mg.! Oh yeah caffeine can also lead to excess nervousness, irritability, insomnia, dizziness, extreme fatigue, headaches, heartburn, anxiety, hypertension, palpitations. Who wants a cup!?!  For a check up at the doctor’s I told them I have heartburn often, and they told me that I should have a maxinum of two cups of coffee a day! I also get headaches if I don’t drink enough! So I think I am screwed! The article mentioned a detox book to help you stop the addiction!  It’s not all bad but there are more negatives then positives, but they are increase in metabolism, temporary increase in mental clarity, respiration rates and muscular coordination.  This is until your body gets sort of immune to it and you need more to get what you want out of it!  With me, I can drink a cup right before bed and still it won’t keep me up!  When you intake to much your body gets out of whack and it can lead to withdrawls! ( I think that is why I am so cranky in the morning!) You don’t realize it, it’s a daily part of your life, you do it everyday!  But can you stop with out the side effects?  It gives you more negative side effects then positiv so is it really worth it?  Oh yeah did i mention it is now 10:45 and I am still drinking coffee!  Caffeine can also be found in sodas and chocolate!  Just to get your attention! Hope you enjoy it “ex-large light and sweet~!”

Many of us have boyfriends or girlfriends, and even if you don’t this may help for the next one.  There are some things that are common sense, but there are little glitches to them.  This article gives helpful tips on making your relationshhips better.  If you sit down and read it, you may help yourself in your relationship.  It tells you, to listen when they talk, but shut the t.v. off and look into their eyes.  O.k. now that you have heard what they wanted to say, act apon it!  What is the sense of even listening if your not goig to act on it?  Yes it seems like common sense but honestly how many of us do something about it!?!  O.k. mabey you do but I don’t.  Anyway another thing is stop nagging!  I do this one a lot!  I don’t always mean it but I don’t realize it until he tells me or I take a breath and think about what I’m “bitching” about!  Seriously a lot of the thing I “bitch” about are not that important.  Some things I know I won’t get over but more then half of them are stupid!   Spending more time together can be easier said then done though.  They said to Make a date and stick with it, put it on the calender for the feeling of commitment.  This is true for me as well, we say were going to do a lot of things, but either it gets to late, something else comes up, or “we will tomorrow” o.k. it’s tomorrow and we still haven’t.  Making plans are important if you stick to them.  I feel that when people are in a long-term relationship they get stuck in a sort of rut and don’t get out of it as much as they should.  They get stuck doing the same thing day after day, week after week.  It’s time for change!  That is why I can’t wait until we go on vacation!  The daily days stress cathces up with you between school, friends, working, and the relationship people need a break!  The last part of the article said you should touch more because “it shows you care”.  Yeah thats true but it the right places please!  P.D.A. (public display of affection) can be GROSS!  Anyway I hope you liked this and most of all I hope you apply it to your relationships to help yourself!

Though I don’t think any of us are married, this too can help our relationships!

http://www.webmd.aol.com/sex-relationships/guide/happy-marriage-no-nitpicking 

Well today is the eleventh of April you have four days to read this, file and fix your records to save you money!  If you have already sent them in, then you may want to remeber these things or write them down!  As students, we can save a lot more then I knew about!  We can save on tution, expenses and if you have children, on child care as well!  This site will show you the top thirteen over looked tax reductions!  Take a look, HELLO it’s FREE money!  I didn’t realize that you could put those on your reduction, but apparently you can and I missed out for this year!  If anything else copy this and save it for next year!  If you have someone who does your taxes you may want to ask them about these, or bring it to them so you can have more reductions!  For those of us that are going to be teachers they an educators expense, which is $250, yes I realize we should expect to put out more then that, but they will give you that much back.  COLLEGE STUDENTS we can get back up to $4000!  If you are independent from your parents you can recieve $2500!  Due to the interest on your loans!  If you did anything for charity in your own personal vehicle you can get 14 cents a mile!  So that means we get paid to donate our time!  That give some incentive for those that do not donate their time!  Once again 18 cents a mile for anyone who has to move more then 50 miles for their first job!  Also the tolls and parking fees!  Any military officers can get money for meetings, eating, and if necessary half or the boarding (for sleeping over)!  With child care expenses it’s the best because you get credit, meaning you get money off if you end up oweing money.  Though I am not promoting any of us to have children that aren’t ready (this is for the future!)!  We have heard enough about the abandoned babies! Anyway do yourself a favor, and check this out!  You can deduct a lot of things that most pass over!

WOW!  There were three cases of “abanoned babies in a farm town of only 7,300.  One was found then eleven months later two more were found within a two block radius.  Personally I agree that this is not just a coincidence.  The DNA proves that the three were almost certainly born to the same mother!  I find this to be abou t the most disgusting article I’ve done yet!  The officials on this case are willing to pay $5,000 to anyone in the community that can help find the parents.  They want to find the mother because htye believe that she is in a physical or mental state of dnager!  Well that seems a little obvious!  This state (along with 46 others) also has a policy that you can give up your child (legally abandon) within 72 hours of birth without any question asked!  In 2001 there were 182 babies delivered to these safe zones (emergency rooms, fire station, and other safe havens).  If you have this option as a mother, knowing you will not be ridiculed or have to answer any questions, why would you leave a newborn on a park bench or in the back of a pick-up truck?  When the little boy was found he had a body temperature of 85 degrees!  The other one of three died due to the exposure (of cold temperatures) and the coroner found that she was alive for less than a day.  The investigation mentions something about the wanted mother “could” face criminal charges!  They are more worried about her doing it again then anything else!  Yes I think this is important but, what about the babies!  This mother gets away with abandoning two of them and killing the other!  Yes I feel bad for her if she was raped, but if you were raped three times in this short of a time period, I think you have to realize it’s a problem and it may be something that you are doing!  Two of these babies are wards of the state now, which is much better then not even getting the chance for life! Check this out to see the sticker a lady made.  I truly hope they find the mother and put her in jail and get her help because the only one’s that are losing out are the babies!

As college students frequently use alcohol and drugs, I found this site to be VERY interesting! I smoke (cigarette’s) and drink, on average once every two weeks or so.  So when I saw this I wanted to know more.  Studies show that out of all hospital visits tabacco causes 40% of these visits, and alcohol is more than half!  Though I did not agree with the article when it said that these “socially accepted drugs should be regulated” I believe that it is a choice!  If you chose to get drunk and get in trouble then it is your own fault!  It stated that ecstacy and marajuana should be legal because they are less harmful!  I also disagree with that!  As far as I know alcohol and marajuana have the same impact when it comes to lowering your reaction time!  I don’t think they should be legal either because then not only would we have drunk people all over we would have stoned people too?!? How does that make sense!  Anyway I thought it was very interesting to find out that studies found alcohol and cigarettes to be so harrmful and I wanted to inform you! http://health.aol.com/news/story/_a/alcohol-worse-than-drugs-study-finds/n20070323035209990011?cid=474 will show you a more about the things people do on an everyday basis without knowing what it really does!

In 2002, a women from my area went missing or was kidnapped, Audrey May Herron.  For a very long time she was all over the news, there were flyers with rewards, people searched (in very large numbers), and she was never found.  I thought about this because she had a husband and children that think about her everyday!  Things have slowly seemed to stop, there are no more search’s (because it’s been so long) and there are no more posters!  However, each summer people from all over some to participate in a motorcycle run for her support!  When I searched about it there are four under there most wanted in the Albany area.   http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/fo/alwanted.htm, shows pictures and gives descriptions about them.  I think that it would be a big relief to her family and friends if someday they could find her!  I encourage any participation in trying to find these missing people!  You should at least take a look at the website and see if you know any of these people or have any information about them!  I’m assume that their families would appreciate it especially if you have any info!