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.

Choice Blog

My choice blog for this week I have chosen to write about a recent game of Madden between Brian Stoldt and I. Brian plays as the Miami Dolphins and I am the New York Jets, but the teams have been drafted through a fantasy draft. Some of Brian’s top players include Calvin Johnson, Ben Roethlisberger, Jimmy Graham, and Ahmad Bradshaw. As you may have noticed, Brian’s only top players are at the skill positions, and his offensive line is a joke, which partly contributes to me whooping him every time we play, including twice last season, and in the playoffs, and more recently last night in week two of the regular season. The New York Jets, on the other hand have built their team around a young youthful offensive line, which is really the motor that runs the team. They have balance throughout their entire, which is a direct tribute to their head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, special teams coach, and general manager, yours truly, Mike Steffan.  In order to be successful in Madden, you must be willing to take some chances and risks every now and then, even if that means going for it on 4^th and 2 from your 8 yard line. You can either get stuffed, and put your defense in a deep hole,  with their backs against the wall, or you can exploit Brian Stoldt’s lack of defensive coordinating skills, and break a 92 yard touchdown run, much like I did last night.  Team Stoldt had a few choice words for team Steffan after that particular run, and even threatened to quit the franchise. Regardless of what he may say of threaten to do, I’m 2 and 0, and he is 1 and 1, and still remains in the franchise. Team Stoldt talks a big game, but when it matters most, he doesn’t perform. Nuff said.  

Resolution

This past year, I thought long and hard about a new year’s resolution, and finally decided that I would give up one of my favorite and most beloved foods, ice cream. As we all know, I used to have a little bit of a weight problem, and giving up ice cream was a big step in the right direction to a healthy lifestyle. After ice cream came chicken wings, pizza, candy and all of that good stuff. Add that with all of the offseason football training I was doing at the time, and I found myself in the best shape of my life, and have yet to eat ice cream in over a year now.  Now, with this new year finally upon us, I have once again taken some time to think up a good resolution, and have come to a decision. For the year 2012, my goal is to get less angry when I lose on Xbox, and try to control my anger a little bit better.  Over the past 5 years of owning that popular gaming system, I have been through 5 controllers, 8 headsets, and two different rechargeable battery packs. Let’s just say, I have a bit of an anger management issue. This change, if successful, l will not only save me money, but it my entire family and neighborhood will no longer have to put up with the sudden shrieks, groans, and smashes, which is always a good thing. I plan on doing this by when I feel a spurt of anger coming on, by setting my controller down on my bed peacefully, and leaving my room ASAP before I can get ahold of any of my belongings to squeeze or smash. Then I will take a walk downstairs, grab a glass of water, and just get away from it all.

Winter Break

My holiday break for the most part was pretty laid back. I mostly stayed home at night, and played xbox late into the night. The latest I was up was 5 o clock am playing Madden. I then went on to sleep in the following day until 2pm, and I felt like a lazy slob the rest of the day. I hate that feeling, but that’s pretty much just how Christmas break goes.  Last Thursday however, I joined Brian Stoldt and some friends, and we spent a couple hours in the new indoor trampoline center, Skyzone. I was a bit apprehensive at first when I walked through the front doors to find 9 and 10 year old boys and girls as far as thee I could see, but that feeling quickly vanished as the activities began. There were trampolines on all of the floors and walls to bounce off, and a giant foam pit, which was one of my favorite parts. You would get a running start on the trampolines, stomp as hard as you can, and thrust yourself through the air, and do twists and flips as you crash the foam below. The jumping part was really fun, but you had to pay a price getting out, because there is nothing to grab on to, and if you had short legs, like Nick Foss did, it was even more difficult. But besides the foam pit there was my personal favorite aspect, and that was the dodge ball. Dodge ball is fun enough on a gym floor, but put it on trampolines, and then you get greatness. I was able to showcase my surprising elusiveness and agility, and was one of, if not the best at dodging. Scratch that, I was the best dodger. Brian Stoldt never got me out. Nuff said.  

Time Era

If there were one time period that I could return to, it would probably have to be the 1920’s.The 20’s seemed to me like they were a pretty happenin’ time to be living in America. First and foremost, the best part of the 20’s in my opinion was the music. I like the fast paced jazz and swing music, because it is really good to dance to, and we all know that I sure love to dance, which brings me into my next reason. The Charleston was the big dance of that decade, and is something that seems like it would be a lot of fun to do.  Also, cars were brand new in toe 20’s, and if you had one, man were you cool. The 1920’s were also a time where women started to become more and more racy and exciting, which must have made it fun to be a man in that decade. You could pick these women up in tour new hip cars, and take them to dance parties where you would do the Charleston, while listening to jazz music in the car ride to the dance. That sounds like the perfect scenario to me. Everything that I find appealing about the twenties can be recognized in one simple evening on the town. But besides the music, cars, dances, and girls, baseball was also a pretty big deal and was on the up rise. Players like Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron were in the prime of their careers, making history that would withstand the test of time until this very day, right before everyone’s eyes. Knowing that these athletes would turn out to be some of the best players in the history of baseball, I would make bets on them and do everything possible to get an autograph.

Choice Blog

For this choice blog, I would like to write about one of the happiest moments of my life. Spring 2006, as the Buffalo Sabres were in the midst of e legitimate Stanley cup championship run, they found themselves in playing a game 6 at home against the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes. The entire city was buzzing all week long in anticipation of the game, and tickets were impossible to come by. I had never wanted to go to any particular sporting event so badly. I tried winning them on the radio, collecting coins to buy them, and I even tried convincing my friend Ryan who is a season ticket holder to take me along. None of which were successful, and I as crushed. I thought I as going to have to watch the biggest game of the season on my tv, but thankfully I as wrong. Around 4oclock my mom strolled through the door with some wonderful news for myself, and some terrible news for my sister who wanted to go to the game as well. She first called my sister into the kitchen, and all I heard was faint whispering, capped off with a shriek, as my sister stormed off to her bedroom in tears. My sister couldn’t attend the game as she had a soccer game, ha ha ha. I, on the other hand was then informed that my mother, by some crazy stretch of imagination, somehow got tickets from someone at work, and was that we were using them. The scenario couldn’t have been more perfect. While I was attending the biggest game of the year, Sarah, wasn’t. to make a long story short, the Sabres brought the game to overtime, and Daniel Briere got loose in front of the net, and slipped the rebound past Cam Ward o send the series to game seven. It was amazing, and was something I will remember for the rest of my life.

Interview

I had distinct pleasure of interviewing the Bulldogs very own, Emily Zuchoski. Emily is actually a pretty interesting person that has many different and unique interests. Some of which include shopping and ice skating. She likes to do these activities on the weekend and when she is not in school. She is also an avid country listener, and told me that Luke Bryan is her favorite of all. She’s also a big hockey fan, and likes to follow the Buffalo Sabres very closely. Her favorite movie is Miracle, which tells the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that overcame impossible odds to achieve a goal that nobody gave them a chance of doing, and winning the gold medal. It really is a great movie, and is an instant classic for any sports fan. One television program that she particularly enjoys watching is Man Vs. Food. This really surprised me, because she just doesn’t strike me as a Man Vs. Food type person, but I guess looks can be deceiving. Emily has a favorite food as well. Mashed potatoes, but it doesn’t just end there. She prefers zero gravy, and likes to douse it with butter, bacon, and ranch dressing. It’s like taking mashed potatoes to the next level, and I love it. When it comes to school, Emily is a huge fan of psychology and sociology, with Mr. Cayea. Her absolute least favorite subject however is science in general. One person that Emily looks up to is Sarah Palin. Emily wants to be just like Sarah when she is older, and believes that Sarah should be the next president of the United States of America. So, as you can see, Emily is a very unique and interesting person that we all have the distinct pleasure of sharing a classroom with every other day.