Building a physics model in class

We are building a physics model in class. It is one of those chain reaction machines. The kind that one movement activates another function to accomplish another thing. We are using marbles, rolling down a ramp to hit another marble and eventually have one to cross the finish line. This is made out of paper tubes, and other things, all that can be gotten from one's house. Our project has many restrictions like time limit, trials, success, size and complexity. The project is 2 1/2 weeks long.

Computer viruses

Computer viruses have been running rampart these days, infecting every program that is in their way. One of the most malicious things is Spyware, a program that enters a computer through downloads or email and covertly steals personal information and passwords from the unlucky user of the computer. There have been many legitimate programs out there to search and destroy, but most of them are just trial versions and require that the user buy the full version to get complete security. And many people have done so and computer viruses aren’t attacking them anytime soon. This brings up yet another problem. Rogue programs. A little while back, I was getting sick of McAfee telling me to get a Windows security system. So I went on the Internet and downloaded a Spyware eliminator called Spyware Guard 2009. This was a big mistake on my part because not only did it send false messages to my desktop telling me to get the full version of the product, or the computer would be overrun, but it also sent Spyware programs into my computer, eventually slowing it down to crashing point. I reinstalled the system and restored it to factory condition and lo and behold, the “security system” redownloaded itself. I had no other choice. I went on the Internet again to get a program that erases Malware like this rogue program and it did the job. The program was gone. A few programs for people to avoid are the following: Anti-Virus Gold (not to be confused with the legitimate program AVG), Spyware Guard 2009/2008, Spyware Sheriff, and others.

St. Patrick ’s Day

Today is St. Patrick ’s Day. This day is here to commemorate the Saint from millennia ago who converted hundreds of thousands of people into Christianity. He was born in Wales, captured by the Vikings and sent to Ireland as a slave. On night, he heard God talking to him in his sleep, telling him to escape at all costs. He escaped and started a strange way of being a missionary. He would walk right into another religious sect ruled by their chieftain and start to preach. Once, the chieftain captured him and was about to kill him, when he bestowed pity on him, gave him money and his own church. In 664 A.D. he became a saint. He spent the rest of his life preaching. In the 1800’s, during the potato famine, millions of Irish immigrants came to the United States, where they continued to go about their customs. On St. Patrick ’s Day, they marched in a parade of over 15000 people. The politicians were dazzled and decided to march with them. After a few years, St. Patrick ’s Day was integrated into American Culture and here we are today, on the several thousandth anniversary of that celebration. Curiously, today is also the same day as the British Evacuation from Dorchester Heights during the revolutionary war.

Stress

Stress is a very dangerous thing. It can lead to depression, uninhibited emotions and loss of control. It makes people have less and less control over their own actions and causes irrational thinking and horrible repercussions.

Stress can come from a variety of areas like overwork, perpetual insults and irritation, loss of sleep, peer pressure and others. The best way to deal with stress is to relax and take things one step at a time, eliminating the root of the problem, and if new problems pop up, resolve them immediately. Also try to take some time off. Distract yourself with other things if the stress is too bad and always continue to control your breathing.

A poem: The Flood

Part 1

The moon shines upon a shadowy sea
The water ripples
The wind howls
The ocean trembles

A wave breaks upon the darkened shore
A few more follow.
A tranquil ocean suddenly turns into
A raging storm

Storm clouds gather on the cold horizon
Streams of rain sprinkle down
Spray of silvery splinters
Sprinkles turn into showers

Water collects along the shoreline
Waves start crashing
Washing up the sandy plain
Wading through the land

Part 2

The collecting water turns into more than a puddle
It turns into a lake on shore
The water steadily rises
And flows further inshore

The buildup increases at an incredible rate
Five feet, ten feet, then twenty feet deep
It rushes toward the shore, a mighty monster
Picking up trees and wreaking havoc far and wide
Suddenly the supporter of life turns into death
The water consumes everything leaving nothing behind
An unstoppable force. Unyielding, invincible.
A vortex

Villages, trees, cars and buses
Buildings three stories tall
Nothing could resist its almighty force
It played with its victims, all succumbing to its mind numbing advancement

Throwing things aside with ease
Whirlpools dragging things down
The freezing wind adding a cold factor
When will it ever end?

It didn’t end
It raged on swallowing up the countryside in a raging wave
The greatest flood of all time
A rising dragon

It seemed it was all over
A whole country, submerged, freezing
The island gone
Swallowed by the void

Part 3

A beam of light came down from the heavens
Shining through the dismal stormclouds
A beacon, a sign
The water started to melt away

Twenty feet, ten feet, five feet
Then nothing
Nothing
All
Was
Silent

As the tough survivors came down from the hills and mountains
An amazing sight met their eyes
Their cities and towns and houses
All gone

All that was left was…
A paradise
Trees and rolling plains
Lands of purity

The flood had come and gone washing everything away
Rendering the earth anew
It had destroyed them
But it had saved them

A poem

A powerful weapon in the hands of many
At the beginning, I thought
A poem, big deal, a piece of literature, a piece of writing
Words on paper
A plain sight to see
But that’s all I saw, a plain sight.
Nothing deep, nothing special
I was too
Too
Too shortsighted
Too deaf
Too blind
Too impaired
To see
To see the power behind literature
So powerful that it couldn’t be overwhelmed
Poems are a language.
They are motion
They inspire
They manipulate
To understand, you must truly understand yourself
To interpret
You must understand
And to understand
You must know one thing
Things aren’t what they always think
So to understand
Is to take a step
Forward in life.

The Boston Massacre

Today is the day of the Boston Massacre. Over 230 years ago there were protesters against the british empire in New England. I’m sure you know the story. A group of British Soldiers fired upon a crowd of protesting mobbers. They were beaten with clubs and words, lobster shells and snowballs were being thrown at the british soldiers, but they stood there with their orders of neutrality. Finally, when a colonist approached a british soldier with a club, the soldier had no choice. They had no schoice but to fire in self defense, soon other soldiers were firing. No one knows if the captain gave the order to fire or not, but in either case, the pandemonium had ensued, there was chaos everywhere. Boston was soon buzzing with the news of the killings. Propaganda artists during the time like James Otis, Sam Adams and Paul Revere renamed this killing as a massacre in a bid to lower the public image of the british. The argument went on for a long time and involved a trial in which John Adams, the second president went against his own brother, Sam Adams to help soldiers. Its still in debate whether the soldiers were ordered to fire or did just from self defense.

A voice from a child

Being forced to do something on a regular basis that one does not like to do, want to do or even cares about, is no way to get things accomplished. Quality, not quantity is what really matters. If someone is forced to do something that they are not comfortable with on a regular basis, the quality of their work takes a nose dive. What some people most understand is others feel pain too. They are not to be treated like machines that will obey every command the others give out. So some respect, give them some slack, allow them to relax and then ask them to do something.