Clocks cause car crashes?

A few weeks ago when we all had to set our clocks back, a thought occurred to me. Do more accidents happen on the days that we set our clocks forwards/backwards? It would be interesting to see the comparison between the day prior and the day of. We change our clocks so infrequently, so hardly anyone has the process memorized. I know I fiddled around with my car's clock for a few seconds. On those two days a year, a large percentage of people take their focus away from driving and instead change their clocks.

This is one of the mysteries of life, I guess.

Random recipes

When I was living on my own during my summer on co-op, I discovered that cooking really isn't that hard. As long as you're paying attention and using the right ingredients, you won't mess up too much. I then went on the South Beach diet and learned more healthy recipes. Recipes often call for some bizarre ingredient or spice that I don't feel like buying, so I've often left them out or substituted with usually good results.

As apparent from my last post, I plan on posting some recipes every now and then. All of them don't require many ingredients or much preparation time. Their initial recipes come from a variety of sources (family, websites, books, etc.), but I modified the recipe when I made it, so the modified version is what you'll see.

Broccoli and cheese soup

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chopped green pepper (or more)
  
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (or more)
  
• 2 tbsp margarine
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 4 oz shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 pkg frozen, chopped broccoli (usually in a cube)
  

Directions:

1. Sautee the green pepper and onion with the margarine in a pot large enough for all of this stuff. (You could sautee them in a separate pan, but hey, this makes for less cleaning afterwards.)
2. After they've been sauteed, add the giant cube of broccoli, the cream of chicken soup, and the milk.
3. Bring the mixture to a boil so that the broccoli will melt apart faster. Keep poking it with the spoon to help it along.
   
4. Once the broccoli is broken up, let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes. Keep stirring every now and then so the stuff at the bottom doesn't cake up and burn.
5. After that 20 minutes, add the cheddar cheese and mix it in. It shouldn't take too long for that to melt.
6. The soup should be done! If the broccoli doesn't seem too soft, keep heating the soup until it is. Or if you don't mind chewing, just leave it.
   

Blogging about blogging

I first registered this domain in highschool, back when I had first "learned" Photoshop and wanted to start up a site to show off my "skills". It then evolved into a portfolio to show some of my freelance works. And then when I went away to college, I changed it into a blog.

My freshman year happened to fall during the 2004 election. So naturally, most of my writings were about the election and the campaigning leading up to the election. After the election, I didn't have much to talk about, so the blog somewhat died. Last year, I designed my own PHP/MySQL blogging system, so I used that for a few days, and then the blog died again.

Then recently, when a few friends started blogging again, I figured I should start again too. However, I refused (and still refuse) to resort to simply writing about my day. "Today my sock had a hole in it. Then I ate dinner." Instead, I wanted a place to put down all of my thoughts on various topics. I've been known for my theories, and I figured I might as well write them down.

Writing them down has been harder than I originally thought. While I've debated and discussed numerous ideas, trying to write them down in a clear and concise format is difficult, and I always feel like I don't get my entire point across.

So now I plan on expanding the various topics covered on this blog, because I don't want to see it die. I hate blogging about blogging, so I hope this post will be the last of its kind. In the future, I might just jot down some thoughts instead of being so selective. Let's see how that goes...

Six years

Six years ago, I was a sophomore in high school waiting in the hallway for chemistry class. A teacher came down the hall, rambling about bombs and buildings. The school made the decision to not let the students watch the events unfold on TV, so I didn't even know most of the details until I arrived home.

Today, NBC was showing 2 hours of its 2001 broadcast. It really showed the chaos and the struggle for the news reporters to get clarification on everything going on around them. It's unbelievable that it could go from a freak accident, to a planned terrorist attack, to the complete destruction of two buildings, all in a matter of 2 hours.

What I found most depressing was the sight of news reporters just a few blocks from Ground Zero reporting live and interviewing witnesses. Dust was still floating around everywhere, and very few people were wearing air masks. Now, there are more and more stories about first responders having very negative side affects from breathing in that debris. I wonder how those news reporters (and everyone else I saw) are doing today?

At what point do the yearly services for horrific events end? How many years must pass for people to go about their day as normal, without even remembering what happened years ago? I think it's sad that a lot of important days in United States history are forgotten. I think the attacks of 9/11 should always be commemorated, but I'm afraid that one day, it will also be forgotten.

September 11th, 2001 showed that the United States is vulnerable. And it also showed that the country can come together in times of crisis. I hope we never forget that six years ago, we weren't a divided country, but rather a country full of citizens willing to help anyone who needed help.

Being smart is cool

Throughout grade school and high school, there is a constant struggle for students to reach the level of "cool". Cool kids are the most popular. They hang out together at recess, knowing that everyone wishes that they could join their little circle. The other students, the outsiders, strive to become one of them by any means necessary. While school is meant to be a place for learning, it's actually become a place for social ranks.

Some would say that a child's desire to be "cool" is not a good thing. And right now, it isn't. Kids will drop whatever is important in order to get one step closer to being with the cool kids. If it means begging their parents for new Nike shoes, they'll do it. If it means taking up smoking, they'll do it. These bad aspects of "cool" can go away, however, because... I have a theory that could forever revolutionize the way the student social structure works.

The qualities of a "cool" kid is directly linked to what society currently values. Not listening to authority is popular. Partying is popular. Sports are popular. Think about some of the highest paid occupations. Professional athletes are high up on that list. All kids are influenced by the world around them, and the ones that aspire to be "cool" try to do what they consider is popular. And thus, here's where my theory comes into play. If it was suddenly popular to be smart, doing well in school would suddenly become a "cool" thing, and the public education problem would solve itself.

Picture this. All the cool kids are standing around, talking about how they stayed up late studying so that they could ace their spelling quiz. In the back of their minds, they all have a fear that they will be ostracized if their grades start to drop. They wouldn't want to be considered stupid now, would they? Once you attain the status of "cool", it's pretty easy to lose it.

Meanwhile, the other students glance over at the cool kids, wishing that they, too, could be as smart as them. "Maybe if I study more," they think. "Then I can be cool!" Suddenly, those who wish they could be cool are working harder in school, getting better grades all in the hope that they will become popular.

This sounds pretty far-fetched, but look at the way the system works now. Think of what schools and society value the most. I consider athletes in school to be the most recognized individuals. In my high school, at least, the athletes got all of the attention. They had awards banquets every quarter. The awards assembly for academic honors got cut. When it came time to announce scholarship recipients, the athletes took home thousands of dollars more than the average good student. Parents readily sign up their children for softball and soccer, but then fail to help their children with homework after school. Parents will go to the store to purchase expensive new shoes for their child, but won't take them to the local museums.

That's right, parents play a huge role in all of this as well. Most parents have a desire to help their child attain the level of "cool". If it means spending more money on shoes or letting their child stay out later, it will all be worth it in the long run. Children also look up to their parents. So if they see that their parents want them to attain the "cool" status, they will be more encouraged to work towards that goal. If parents suddenly wanted their child to be smart, they would begin to buy more books, help them with their homework, and get more involved with the school. Heck, they wouldn't want to be the reason why their child isn't "cool", right?!

In my experience, being smart right now is actually the most "uncool" quality you could possess. I've had friends who missed questions on tests on purpose just so they wouldn't be viewed as smart. Dozens of times, my peers would attempt to ridicule me about doing well in school. "Getting straight A's again?" they'd say as they passed me in the hallway. Clearly, going from smart being classified as "uncool" to "cool" is a huge leap, but at least it will be in the right direction.

If smarts were to become "cool", society would change for the better. Our failing public school systems would see improved test scores. More students would graduate high school with a good education. More students would receive scholarships to go to college, and the American workforce would be more educated than it's ever been. Other changes would also probably take place, like a decrease in murders and a decrease in poverty.

Ironically, this entire social structure won't matter after high school graduation. No one in the real world will care if you were previously "cool" or not. But the knowledge learned in those 12 or 13 years of school is incredibly important, so even if this is all just one big ploy to get kids to do well in school, I think it's worth it.

I have to go work on some homework now, instead of attending Thirsty Thursday. Good thing I'm content with where I stand on the social ladder!

Armless aliens

I believe the human imagination has been very restricted when it comes to thinking of life on other planets. Most "sightings" of intergalactic travelers feature little green men with big heads that walk around just like us. We're surrounded by animals that are all somewhat similar to us. For instance, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals all have two legs, two arms, and two eyes. Since we're surrounded by so much similarity, it's not surprising that we aren't open to the idea of life looking different.

Think of how long it took for earth's superior life forms, humans, to evolve. Throughout those millions of years, there were a lot of different directions that could have been taken. Since the changes in evolution essentially happens by chance, the final outcome could have been quite different. So to assume that another planet's superior life form also has two arms, two legs, and two eyes is a bad assumption. Since other planets aren't exactly like earth, they would have different influences on the evolutionary process. Because of this, the life forms would vary from earth's.

I'm not just talking about limbs here, though. Sure, other life forms might have three legs, one eye, etc. But even our concepts of legs and eyes are skewed. What if other life forms are not even remotely similar to us? If we saw them, we might not even recognize them as being alive. We are the way that we are because of millions of years of random mutations in DNA, resulting in a life form most fit for survival. With a different climate, atmosphere, elements, etc. to work with, we could have ended up looking completely different.

I wish I could describe what other life forms might look like, but simply trying to describe them is using my knowledge of how life works here on earth. They might not even be carbon-based or breath oxygen. For all we know, other life forms could be living amongst us right now. And actually, some scientists believe just that. What if all boulders were actually living things? It would seem pretty bizarre, but if we weren't capable of recognizing the characteristics that makes them "alive", would we ever really know?

Well, I'm off to go play with my pet rock.