>_< Revisiting September 11

What were you doing when you first heard about the 9/11 terrorist attacks? For me, it was a long time ago. Hard to believe how much exactly, but it has been now a little over a 8 years. 8 long years have gone buy (that's pretty much two different schools - middle school to high school or elementary school to middle school... its long) and if you forgive my belated post then I'd enjoy sharing with the scarce number of readers I have what exactly I was doing when during the September 11th attack.

A nice day I recall. The warmth of summer still radiating through the air, and the subtle breeze of fall dancing its way through the medium. Sitting in my algebra class in 7th grade when you entered the room i was over to the left, back when desks were clustered into 5's so you were always sitting by your friends. This is where it gets a little blurry. I remember my teacher, Mrs. Dye informing us that something bad has happened and I didn't quite understand what it was.

I ran out after school, I believe algebra was my last class, and there my mom was waiting to pick me up. When I got into the car, the radio was on Z100 playing recordings of people who witnessed the attack. I asked my mother what was going on and she said the World Trade Center was attacked. I wasn't familiar with the United States then, she could've EASILY said the Twin Towers. Anyway, being the curios boy I was I asked my mother for more details. Truthfully though I wasn't paying attention, I just didn't want it to seem like i didn't care.

When I got home, my mother immediately turned on the TV, where literally almost EVERY STATION was covering the attack. And then I saw the images. I didn't where the twin towers were... but they were on my TV, on fire, smoke, and they finally collapsed, right there in front of my face. And this is where it may get a little un-patriotic.

I didn't care. Don't get me wrong, it was a tragic accident and I send my condolences to everyone who was affected by that attack. I was not one of those people. I didn't know anyone near there, anyone who worked there, but plenty of people who witnessed it. Point is, I didn't understand... and so I didn't care.

The next school day people came in with stories about how there families were all affected by the attack. Everyone felt remorse for one another. I had no story. I felt so left out. The way the situation played out, it made it seem like I had no remorse for the victims. But I was still young-ish and I was still fairly new to the country and it's society. About 7 years I've been there but I haven't done much traveling or studying about the major buildings in New York. I was only aware of the towns around me, maybe as far down to Atlantic City.

Now I understand. September 11, 2001 was a terrible day for a lot of people. And I want everyone who finishes reading this post to give a moment of silence to everyone involved on the attack. Hopefully by now their wounds are healed, or at least doing a lot better than before.

ta ta kids

>_< The Blind Mind

A question for the ages. It's been going around for as long as I can recall, and it's time to settle this matter by making an approach myself... and of course doing a little research. Let's delve into the mind of a human that is blind. Of course I am no expert myself but some information tossed your way is better than nothing at all, yes?

Blindness is a condition involving the absence of visual perception due to neurological of physiological circumstances. Some people are blind from birth, some lose their sight as a child, and others lose their site as they grow old. For the sake of simplicity, I will only be covering TOTAL BLINDESS, in which the human in question has no perception of light. Yes, many people are partially blind... but that's a whole different realm. You can become blind in many different ways: chemical imbalance, poisoning, physical harm, genetic defects, etc. If you really want an idea of blindness i suppose you can close your eyes real tight and put your hand over them. You know what it's like to see darkness all the time.

I digress. Back to the question in question. If persay a child is born blind, how does the whole dreaming come into play? What do they see? What can they dream about?

It turns out my guess and the actual facts are right. Humans dream based on experiences and things they have seen and felt with all five senses. So when one get's taken away, dreams have no choice but to work with what they've got. When a person who has been blind all their life goes to sleep and dreams, he/she will only have auditory dreams. That's exactly right, they dream in sound. Kind of like listening to a radio when you fall asleep. Or when you fall asleep in class but you still manage to pay attention. No? Just me? Ok then.

OH BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO LOSE THEIR SIGHT as they live life? The brain extracts dreams, again, based on experience by the senses. Chances are, if a person who lost their sight at an early stage in life, they could only dream of what they could see before losing their vision.

When asked this question to a person who has been blind since a young age:

"Yes, blind people do dream. What they see in their dreams depends on how much they could ever see. If someone has been totally blind since birth, they only have auditory dreams. If someone such as I, has had a measure of sight, then that person dreams with that measure of sight. I still dream as though I can see, colors included. For people I've met since, their faces are just blurs or how I imagine they look. To me, someone like my mother looks forever 30. "

In Conclusion: suffice it to say, blind people do dream. They dream based on what they've seen, heard, felt, smelled, tasted. Though no one will ever really know i suppose... i mean it's not like blind people don't have an imagination right?

ta ta kids

>_< Your Groin and You

In my absence I have become very active. So active that many parts of me have become sore. But that's all in the spirit of hard work. Just recently however, during my workout, I pulled my groin. The pain? fine at first... simply excruciating a couple days later. So let's solve this mystery once and for all... let's get to know your groin.

VERY BRIEF OVERVIEW:
Your groin muscle is just one of the muscles in a bigger group of muscles called the adductor muscles. Other muscles in this group include the gracilis, pectineus, and adductor longus. All these muscles originate from the pubic bones and are inserted into the posterior surface of the femur. The muscles work powerfully when, in a running action, the foot leaves the ground and begins to swing, and the leg rotates outward in relation to the hip.

THINK YOU PULLED YOURS?
Pulled groins are ranged in Grades I to III, from mild discomfort to extreme discomfort. When a muscle is strained, the muscle is stretched too far. Less severe strains pull the muscle beyond their normal excursion. More severe strains tear the muscle fibers, and can even cause a complete tear of the muscle. Most commonly, groin pulls are minor tears of some muscle fibers, but the bulk of the muscle tissue remains intact. When you pull your groin, you might experience swelling and difficulty lifting your legs and/or walking.

TREAT IT!
Treating a pulled groin muscle is simple. Ice the area for about 15 minutes on and off for the first 48 hours. After that you're ready to use some heat remedies such as muscle rub, hot oils, etc. The best thing to do of course is to give that muscle some rest. Over time you can start using it again, but for the love of god don't overdo it. A pulled groin can take about 2-4 weeks to heal, depending on how well you take care of it and how fast your body naturally heals. It doesn't hurt to take some pain killers also.

In Conclusion: Stretch before any strenuous exercise that involves your inner thighs (crunches, heavy lifting, running, jumping) A pulled groin can hurt a lot. Trust me. Always see a doctor if it doesn't get better.

ta ta kids

>_< Class... Online?

So this semester I've decided to be a little daring. Religions of the World is a class that was offered online. I thought to myself, "what could be easier than taking a course without actually leaving the comfort of my own dorm?" Well, for those who are academically vigilant and very organized with their lives, it's a smart idea. For those who who've got a false sense of hope or a very opaque determination like me... it can become very irritating. So let's take a look at some pro's and con's for online classes.

The Pros:

In an online class, you don't have to travel everywhere through sick weather or be late to class because of traffic or a late shuttle bus. Also, you can work at your own pace. Do your homework whenever you want, wherever you want. Really that is the biggest pro... an online class is just much more convenient than a regular class.

For my online class I guess, the tests are also online. Which means basically it's open resources test. Now I'm not encouraging cheating but every professor who teaches an online class really knows what's going on. My professor said to me that even if we tried to google answers for the test, you'd run out of time. So study and treat it like a normal test. If it's as close to a test as she says it is, I'll leave google for another test. But the open notes and book are great too.

The Cons:

If you don't have a lot of determination and discipline you'll most likely fall behind. Make sure you do everything on time, when you can do it and fully understand it. A class is a class and even though it's online you are still dishing out the money to pay for a grade that's basically easy to get if you just work hard and discipline yourself. The biggest problem with an online class is that you can sometimes be in an environment where learning isn't at its best. You're no longer in a classroom but in your room or somewhere else where a tv, friends, or video could be. Just make sure you can stay focused.

It's easy to forget about an online class so don't forget.

In conclusion: Just try to remember that you're taking this class and you payed a lot of money for it. So do yourself a favor and ace it becasue you can't really do bad in a class unless you're a lazy bum. So g et out there and use our technology to thefullest.

ta ta kids