J4 Choice

For this choice blog, I am going to write about my planes for the upcoming February break. For tonight, I plan on going home and watching the Sabres vs. Canadiens game.  The Sabres are pretty much toast as far as their playoff lives are concerned, but being the optimistic person that I am, I’m going to stick with them to the very end. After the game, I’m probably going to sit around and play xbox or something until 11:45 when I go to play hockey at holiday rinks in Depew. It’s been awhile since I’ve laced up the skates, so I’m really looking forward to it. Even though I really enjoy playing, I am not all that good, but it should be fun, especially if Brian comes with us. After hockey ends around 2am we’ll probably head over to Denney’s or some other late night diner to cap off the night. Saturday is probably just going to be a chillax day, as I’m going to be extremely tired and sore from hockey. As far as the week is concerned, I’m open to pretty much anything, as I don’t have any plans, which is alright. Next Saturday is going to be a night with “the guys.” My good friend Mason is taking us all out to Duffs for his birthday.  Something about the scenario just doesn’t seem right to me, as it is his birthday, yet he is treating all of his friends to wings, but hey, I’m not complaining. After we eat we’ll probably all head back to one of our houses to hangout for the rest of the night. And finally, Sunday. Everybody’s least favorite day of break. Sunday will be filled with sweatpants, television, and chemistry homework. Oh joy. I also plan on watching the Sabres game that day.

J1 hero

When I think of a hero, many different people come to mind. A couple of which include my father, Batman, and Superman. I look at all of these people and I think, “Wow, I really want to be like them one day.” However, when it comes to football, there are many NFL players that I look up to and try to model my game around, which I would consider heroes. Two of which include Bills offensive lineman Eric Wood, and nose tackle, Kyle Williams. Wood is a nasty, smash mouth football player that is just a real team first guy, which I really like about him. You don’t hear him say much, but his play on the field speaks for itself, which I really like about him. He doesn’t talk, he just plays.  Kyle Williams, on the other hand, plays a very similar style as Wood. He gets no credit for the work he does, but without him plugging it up in the middle, the defense is useless. Another aspect of William’s game that I idolize is that he had to work for everything that he has got. He came into the league as a late round draft pick, and not much was expected out of his NFL career. He was undersized, and overlooked by everyone. But he didn’t listen to any of the critics, he just kept constantly outworked the man across from him, which led him to an elite group of defensive lineman in the NFL. This is the aspect of my game I have tried the most to mimic. I have always just tried to work harder than the man across from me, regardless of my skill set or size in comparison. I think that it will be essential for me to continue following in the footsteps of these heroes of mine if I want to have a successful collegiate football career.

J1

When I think back to grades K-5, many great teachers come to mind. Mrs. Schimia, Mrs. Bridge, and Mrs. Stoldt, to name a few.  However, along with the good, there were also a few bad, who shall not be named at this point in time. But without a doubt, my favorite teacher for this time frame was my 4^th grade teacher, Mrs. Leon. Mrs. Leon was an exciting and energetic teacher who truly loves her job.  She incorporated hands on and engaging activities into her curriculum which was my favorite part. Any teacher that thinks she is going to sit and teach a class full of fourth graders for 8 hours straight is out of their mind. You need to get them involved, and Mrs. Leon was the master at just that. Another reason that I was so particularly fond of Mrs. Leon was because she was beyond patient in putting up with the mischief and nonsense that my friends and I would cause. She didn’t get frustrated and scream and holler, but rather handled the annoying problems that my elementary school buddies and I so frequently caused like a professional, which is something that even as a child you can respect and want to obey.  Mrs. Leon had a very exuberant and comical personality. I remember the one time she came into school dressed up as Abraham Lincoln on his birthday as a fun way to teach us about his life. Nothing beats a teacher that really just likes to have fun with her students. Also, we used to have dance parties every other Friday as a way to get us up and moving around, instead of just sitting and doing nothing. She also let us listen to our Walkman’s when we had recess on free time, which I really loved.

L2

Being the happy, upbeat, and just overall good person that I am, it usually takes a lot to make me angry. Also, I am an extremely competitive person, who doesn’t take losing well, and this is something that I really should make a point of working on because it isn’t a good trait to carry with you throughout life. Therefore, losing in general is the one single thing that makes me the most angry.  Whether it’s losing in a videogame, a pick-up game of hockey with my friends, or a drill in football practice, it just really, for lack of a better term, “grinds my gears.”  This often leads to broken controllers, wars of words, and shoving matches with my teammates. And although this is a problem of mine, I also see it as a gift, and I try to make the most out of it. If you hate to lose as much as I do, you try to do everything that you possibly can to make it so that you don’t lose. You have to hate losing more than you love winning, which is how I am. I am happy if the Sabres win a game, but if they lose, I am absolutely furious. Which leads me to my next point. One thing that I need to work on is not getting so fired up and angry over things that I can’t control, like the Sabres or Bills. And when things don’t go in their favor, I need to stop, take a second, and just chill out. And when I get scored on with 1.5 seconds left in NHL 12, I just need to set my controller down, and take a walk downstairs. If I could learn to control my anger over losing, I would be just about perfect.  

L1

Throughout all of the Super Bowl’s that I’ve ever watched, there are a few that stick out in my mind. From the Buccaneers spanking the Raiders in 2002, to the back and forth shootout between Carolina and New England in 2004, there have been some great ones in my lifetime.  However, being the diehard Bills fan that I am, none come close to the Giants Patriots matchup in 2008. The Patriots were looking to put the cherry on top of their ice cream sundae of a season. After shattering records and putting up videogame like numbers all season long, nobody thought that the Giants had a chance in this one, and that the Pats would cruise to a 19-0 undefeated season. It was an epic story of the underdog, and it made for an instant classic. I remember watching this game with Joe and Nick Foss in their basement with a sheet pizza and 50 wings all to ourselves. I can recall sitting on the edge of my seat for the 3^rd down conversion that the Giants need to keep their game winning drive alive. I distinctly remember seeing Richard Seymour simply absorb Eli Manning, and seeing Manning somehow get out of his grasp, and find David Tyree across the middle who pinned the ball against the top of his helmet to haul it in. That was about a 20 second rollercoaster of emotion that I will never forget. Sheer terror to pure elation, which is what sports are all about. The Giants went on to find Plaxico Burress in the corner of the end zone to cap off one of the most remarkable drives in Super Bowl history. The second he came down with that ball the entire basement of the three of us simply exploded into a shoving match filled with high fives and hugs. I remember being tackled by over the cough and being hurled onto the floor by Nick during all of the excitement. Unless the Bills someday win the Super Bowl, I don’t think that any game will close to this one.

K4

In the fourth picture, there is an open window shown with the curtains flowing in the wind. There are also seagulls pictured on the walls in the background.  The setting seems to be extremely calm and tranquil, as it is, but only a matter of minutes earlier, this calm scene was a tornado of fury and rage.  Dan B had been playing his X-Box in his room all day, as he was in a tournament on NHL 12. He brought down the mighty Dent in triple overtime and finally moved on to the final round.   Dan approached the game with the calm intensity that was necessary to win. He knew what had to be done, he had to somehow find a way to bring down the one and only, Robin Williams. So many had courageously attempted this fete, yet none ever succeeded. He was just too good. The game started off slow, both teams just feeling each other out. Both players waiting for the other to make a mistake. Finally, Robin slipped behind his own net with Steve Montador, and Dan jumped on the opportunity like a hyena on raw hamburger. He buried the disk of vulcanized rubber so in the back of the twine so fast, it made Robin’s head spin. This lone goal was able to stand as the only marker until there were only 30 seconds left in the third period.  Anything that Robin tried was swiftly denied in a freakish defensive effort from Dan. Finally with only 2 seconds, and the faceoff in Robin’s zone at the opposite end of the rink, Dan prematurely figured that the game was over.  But just as the puck was dropped, Robin moved Zdeno Chara up to the faceoff circle to take the draw, he didn’t even make an attempt at the draw, he just slapped it as hard as he could down the ice, and caught Dan’s goalie off guard. But the worst part of all was, the score keeper accidentally mistook this game of hockey for a game of football after Robin’s goal and counted it as 6 points. Some say the game was rigged, and I think they may have a point. Either way, Dan went on to lose the game, and his entire X-Box console went out the window, and smashed on the sidewalk outside his house. Dan then went downstairs to have an egg salad sandwich to get his mind off the big loss.

K1

In the second picture, the man shown is named Edmond, and he is very unhappy. First of all, he is upset at the fact that the delivery guy got his order wrong. He ordered a tuna fish sub with black olives, yet received a tuna fish sub with green olives.  The second reason why he is upset is because when he called the restaurant back to change his order, his phone cord was chewed in half by a small baby Hermit Crab named Nelson Bonaroo the third. Nelson gets sick pleasure out of chewing people’s phone cords, but it appears that this time his dastardly deeds are finally going to catch up to him.  In the picture he’s in the middle of a mad dash from Edmond, because quite frankly, Edmond has had enough.  But not only does he want to smash Nelson for chewing his phone cord, but Edmond has a little something more in mind. Edmond made a deal with the colored man that lives in his attic named Roger, that if he brought Nelson to him, dead or alive, then he would single handedly buy for Edmond, Ferngully : The Last Rainforest. Many may not know this, but Ferngully has secretly been Edmond's favorite movie for as long as he can remember, but he has always been too embarrassed to buy it because his everybody would make fun of him for it.  So we now have a man who has not only been deprived of his precious black olives for the evening, but hasn’t seen Ferngully, his favorite movie since he was just a boy. So as you might imagine, he really wants to catch that hermit crab. However, just as Edmond finally cornered the little devil, the biggest swing of the story occurred. For, there never really was a Hermit Crab named Nelson, instead it was a naked Robin Williams who had been causing all of the mischief.  The award winning actor smiled, sipped a glass of Tang, and everyone died.

K3

In the picture shown, there is a mysterious boat approaching a dock. Though it may appear to be so, this is no ordinary boat. This is a magical boat that travels all over the world handing out grape flavored popsicles to those who it feels worthy. The two young men shown in the picture are both ready to show who deserves the popsicle more, and can’t wait to get under way. As the ship approaches the dock, they learn that their first task is to see who can name off every president in the history of the United States the fastest. Dennis, the boy shown on the left wins this one because he got a 100 in history. The next task is to see who can hold their breath the longest. The man on the right, Desmond, wins this one by a landslide, as he got a 98 in breath holding class in school, and also had a bachelor’s degree in lung capacity management.  And now for the final test, the one for all the marbles. Name off as many Robin Williams films as you can in one minute.  Desmond gets off to a quick start, and he is on a roll. He has movie after movie rolling off the tip of his tongue, and his breath management degree allows him to name them without breathing, but Dennis isn’t ready to give in just yet. The two are neck and neck down to the last second, and at the end, both end the competition with 14 movies. A dead tie. Sudden death overtime is the only tiebreaker for this one.  The competition is to see who can blink the hardest, something that Dennis had been practicing for in anticipation of this contest. The blinks are recorded by using a Blinkascope invented by Sir. Heinz Nehnehberg of Erightville.  Just as the contest comes to an end, the two hear a blood curdling screech. Before the two of them can even open their eyes, they feel a pinch at their lower left but cheeks. Next thing they know,they have been turned into tootsie rolls and are eaten by Robin Williams.

K2

                In the second picture, the sleeping boy is named Ken. Ken is a lonely kid who doesn’t have many friends and he lives in the magical world of Kokiri Forest. Kokiri forest is located on the outksirts of the royal kingdom known as Hyrule, who contains all inhabitants from the Gorons of the red mountains to the Zoras of lake Hylia. Little does Ken know, but he has been chosen by the queen Zelda to be the boy to save the kingdom from the dark lord Ganondorf. The blimp of light you see in the picture isn’t just any old blimp, but it is the fairy, Navy who has been sent to him to guide him on his quest. Kens first obstacle lies within the Great Deku Tree of Kokiri forest, where he must obtain one of three spiritual stones needed to open the door of time, where he can then claim the master sword and travel through timje to stop the evil lord Ganondorf from ever opening the sacred door and getting control of the triforce which gives him absolute power. Ken will gain the next two spiritual stones by defeating the monsters and evils within Dodongos Cavern, and Lord Jabu- Jabu’s belly. After Ken travels 7 years into the future, he will need to defeat 7 dark lords in order to free the guardians of the sacred realm so that they can shut the door from Ganondorf, so that he never is able to take the triforce. And then finally, after freeing all of the spirits, Ken must take down the dark lord Ganondorf for good. He travels to the top of his tower and strikes him with his light arrows, which temporarily impairs the evil mastermind, then repeatedly strikes him with THE legendary master sword. And after this is all said and done, Ken saves the princess of Hyrule, and locks Ganondorf in the sacred realm forever. But finally when it was all said and done, the evil lord turned out to be none other than Robin Williams with a crockpot on his head, and everyone died.