My Final Project

Here is My Final Project!!!

My Favorite Project

The "Perfect" Computer

I have many ideas on how I would create my "Perfect" computer. I would like it if the computer was tuned in to my voice commands. I think that would be really cool and convenient. I would also like it if future computers had the feature of being as lightweight and as small as a pen. I can imagine how the computers of the future could be that small and have a projector that would show the screen and keyboard. The computers would be "virtual" and also be lightweight. I think that these features would make playing and browsing using a computer more enjoyable.

Baseball

I have always enjoyed watching the New York Yankees on the television. I have never seen them play in person, but I hope to in the future. My grandparents are great Yankee fans. My Nana even prides herself as being a true Yankee fan for the past fifty years! My favorite batter is certainly Derek Jeter. He is a great hitter and fun player to watch. My favorite pitcher is Mariano Rivera. He is a great relief pitcher and I like seeing him save a game. Even though I have not seen a Yankee game in person, I have seen a Chief's game at O'Brien Stadium. My favorite part of going to the game was the suspense of wondering who was going to win it. I also enjoyed eating food from the concession stand.

Childhood Impact

I remember when my greatgrandmother and greatgrandfather died and that has left a great impact on me.This was my first experience with death and I was only about eight years old at the time. Our family decided to drive to New York to go to the funeral. My greatgrandma had stomach cancer and greatgrampa had a stroke. They both went into the nursing home at the same day. Before this event, they both lived extremely independent and healthy lives. My grandmother was only in the nursing home for a short period of time before she died. My greatgrandpa, however, was not the same after the stroke. He had lost a good deal of memory and he lived in the nursing home for a few years before he eventually died from another stroke.
These two events changed my perspective concerning life and death. I now know that I must live my life to the fullest extent. The recent death of a family friend has helped me appreciate more the preciousness of life and my place in it. I will always remember what I have lost over the years, but also what I have gained from the experiences of my past.

The Mummy Music

Hello again!! I like this cool music...

No post would be complete without the Mummy Music.....

Movie Clip

Here is a trailer to my favorite movie: The Mummy!!!!!!!!

Leprechauns

I have never really understood why Leprechauns always had to carry around a pot of gold. Wouldn't it just be easier to carry a large sum of money in a wallet or a credit card? What even confuses me more is that Leprechauns

are rumored to give that pot of gold to you if you catch them. How hard could it be to catch a two foot tall midgit that hauls around a pot of gold? That is where the story changes depending on who you ask. Some people believe that the pot of gold magically appears when you capture the Leprechaun while others insist that he simply carries the pot of gold around with him all the time. Personally, I think the the Irish made up the story of Leprechauns because they had a floundering tourist industry. But whichever situation is true, you sure won't see me sulking at the end of rainbows. I have more important uses of my time, like figuring out where in the North Pole Santa Clause lives....

St. Patrick Day

I am really looking forward to St. Patrick's Day. One reason why I am looking forward to St. Patrick's Day is that we get a day off school. I am planning to do several school assignments during that day in order to get ahead. Another reason why I am looking forward to St. Patrick's day is that my family is planning to something that day. I am not sure exactly what we are doing that day; my parents told me that it is supposed to be a surprise. I think we are probably going to Chicago like last year. I would really like to go see the White Sox stadium.

Bucket List

Here is a list of the top twenty-five things that I would like to do before I die(or happen after I die):
1. Write a best-selling book series
2. To be remembered for being who I am today
3. Go to England
4. Be on The Late Night Show with Jay Leno
5. Sky dive
6. Go on an Africa Safari
7. Go to a good college
8. Write a script for a television show
9. Start a family
10. Become a profession square dancer (ya right, just joking)
11. See the Great Pyramids
12. Own a large house
13. Become a philanthropist (5-cent word of the day)
14. Own a yacht
15. Run a marathon
16. Have a major television special about me after my death
17. Join a bowling league
18. Sing karaoke at a bar
19. Go snorkeling in a shipwreck
20. Go to the Olympics
21. Ride in a hot air balloon
22. Race in a sports car
23. See The Great Barrier Reef
24. Go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans
25. See the New York Yankees win the World Series

The Olympics So Far

Our family has been watching a lot of the Olmpics these last few weeks and I have enjoyed watching them so far. My favorite events to watch have been the skiing and snowboarding competitions. I enjoyed seeing Linsey Vonn get the gold metal in her skiing competition. I only recently tried to ski and I found it extremely difficult. I fell down many times and I even found it hard to get my ski boot on when I first started. It is very hard to imagine doing skiing at over fifty or sixty miles-per-hour.

I also watched Shaun White get a gold metal in the half-pike snowboarding competition. I think it is amazing how he gained so much air-time without looking like he put that much effort in it. I can now fully appreciate why the expectations on him were so high going in to the Olympics.

Lent

This year I decided to give up on my current hobby of drinking coffee. I think I probably drink coffee far too much and it would be a good,though slightly hard, much needed change.

I think that God is pleased at where I am right now. I know that I still have a lot to learn about myself and my faith. However, I know that the first step in order to achieve holiness is to remember how much you have to learn.

I think that modesty would be something that I would be "graded" on. I think that modesty is very important especially if you are taking more difficult classes. I try to show modesty and compassion to everyone. I believe that that sort of belief will help me far more in later life then just getting good grades. I am not saying that grades are not important. What I am saying is that I do not think it should be the primary focus in anyone's life. God should come first, then your friends, and finally yourself. I find it extremely annoying when people try to compare me with others. I think that some types of competitions are unnecessary and redundant. People should focus more on bettering themselves, both intellectually and spiritually, and stop comparing themselves to others. The only thing that really matters in the end is how we have treated each other and what we have given back to humanity. Okay, now I will get off my soap box.......

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day has always been exciting for me. My family and I always do something fun together. This Valentine's Day we are going to watch the new movie that just came out: Peter Jackson And The Olympians: The Lighting Thief. I think that Valentine's Day is about spending time with the most important people in your life. My dad usually surprises my mom with a several cool presents. Some times this surprise is forgetting to give her a card! Despite the fact that our extended family does not live close to Illinois, holidays are still fun in my family. I hope that you all have a good Valentine's Day!!!

Super Bowl Sunday

I enjoyed watching the football game. I did not think that the commercials were as good as some years. In that category I was slightly disappointed. I was also disappointed with the halftime show. I did not think that the band played very well or was even in tune with the music at all. But in the overall playing level by both teams, I was pleased. Both teams seemed to be playing hard and the game was very close. I was rooting for the Saints the entire time. I only lost faith in them once slightly when they did not get that one touchdown. I threw small party at my house to whom I only invited one person. I enjoy hanging out with this person and playing ping-pong with him. So, overall, my Super Bowl Sunday was very memorable in a good way.

Snow Day

My snow day was alright considering the circumstances. I wish that the teachers did not assign as much work to do for the snow day. It's hard enough to shovel your driveway and that of my elderly neighbor's, do the extra work, and do several errands that I did with my family. I would prefer an extra day in June then a snow day that is more like a work day. What is also annoying is that I, assuming that there would be school tomorrow, did not bring home all the necessary notebooks. Also, I almost forgot to look online for one of my classes. I did the assignment, but I almost emailed it to my teacher late. I think that there should be more that just one free day each year. I also believe that there should be at least three days worked into the schedule next year in order to keep my sanity along with the sanity of my fellow classmates. I think that the online assignments should at least have several days before they are due in case you forget to do it on the snow day. I think a snow day should just be about snow and sleeping late.

My Olympic Expectations

I think that the Olympics should be the best of the best included in each country around the world. It should also be about be about the competition and not about politics. The Olympics would probable not be as much fun to watch if the competition had too many amateurs competing in it. I also think that the Olympic committee should be more watchful concerning cheating. They should make sure that all competitors are not taking any drags that are unfairly giving them the edge over their opponents. I think that this type of abuse, and many others, probably happens all too often enough when it comes time for the Olympic Games. Their policy of no cheating should be zero tolerance.
My favorite Olympic sport is skiing. I enjoy watching the racers race down the hill and get the flags. I like the unpredictably that comes with the races and I always root for someone. Many times I even root for the underdog. I even tried skiing last week and it was as invigorating as I imagined. I hope to go on many more skiing trips in the future.

Winter Doldrums

I think that Notre Dame should allow sweatshirts in class. The sweatshirts that they do allow are not sufficient to keep me from being cold. I have already tried them on several times and found that they do not stop me from being cold. The East hallway seems to be the coldest. Another solution to this problem would be if Notre Dame turned up the heat all around the school. This courtesy would be very much appropriated by myself and my sister (and probably many of my peers) both of which are very cold during the schooldays.
Another thing that would make this January better would be if the weather warmed up. I do not like bitterly cold weather. The type of weather that I prefer the best ids in between cold and warm weather.

The Grammys

I do not follow the Grammys at all but I certainly have a favorite song and movie.
My favorite movie this year would have to be Star Trek. I think it deserves Best Picture. They should also give Best Actor to Zachary Quinto (who played Spock in the movie). Quinto played a very convincing role and that award would be well deserved. This movie also deserves the Best Picture award. The sound and visual effects in the movie were also very good and convincing.

The plot also flowed smoothly and good jokes were also included.
My favorite song would certainly be "You Found Me" by The Fray. The song is very touching and the vocals are great. The lyrics also reflect the music well. I love the genre of light rock music that The Fray plays so very well.

Web 2.0

Here are three Web 2.0 tools that I found:
These are to be used with Firefox

Forecastfox 0.9.10.1-- tells the weather, had radar screen, this program even has international weather

Show Anchors 2.-- this application anchors a website or article and makes it easy to email that website or article to another person.

Groowe Search Toolbar 1.6.5-- Helps a person use more than one search engine at a time. Easy to use. sites include Google , Yahoo, Amazon, EBay, Ask, , Facebook, Wikipedia, and others.

The Website I got this information is: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=&cat=1%2C22&advancedsearch=1&as=1&appid=1&lver=3.5&atype=0&pp=20&pid=3&sort=&lup=

Overall Impressions

My overall impression for this class have been very positive. I enjoy the peaceful atmosphere. I like that there are several people that I know that take it with me. I talk to them quite a bit before class begins. Of course, I don't iChat anyone during this class. We are all learning technology together and it is very interesting.This has been a very educating class. I like learning how to work Macs since I do not know how to work them very well. I have learned more about Macs in these two weeks then over the last sixteen years. I look forward to this class each and every day.

Laptop Computers

I am looking forward to the computers next year. I look forward to being able to check the internet anytime I want. I do not think that there will be too many differences in the classes that I am taking this year compared to next year. It doesn't seem like their teaching strategy would change that much over one year. I think that most of the Junior and Seniors teachers will not make their classes awkward for the people that do not have laptops. I think that some students will use this as an opportunity to not do their schoolwork and fool around. Others,however, will see this as an opportunity to explore their world around them and maybe get more work done then they could do without the laptops.

Welcome to My Blog!!

Hello everyone!! My name is Chris and this is my blog. I am currently a sophomore at Notre Dame. I am about six feet tall and have short brown hair. I enjoy the life I am living now and have several hobbies. I enjoy hanging out with my friend and writing stories. I also like playing soccer. I am planning to do track in the spring. This semester I was involved in ping-pong club and Tae Kwon Do. I am currently a second degree black belt. I am hoping to become a third degree black belt before I graduate from high school. I have a great life!