BTD5

BTD5. Or, as some people call it “Bloons Tower Defense 5.” This game is absolutely, super addicting to me! I love this game, but I tend to spend hours upon hours just playing this game! I really like what they did with this new version of the bloons tower defense series. This one, the fifth one now, has had some very extreme changes since the first time I started playing this series back at bloons tower defense one! There has been some major changes to the towers. There are now like these pirate ships for when there are water areas on some of the new maps. The upgrades for these towers have changed too. There is now an aircraft carrier ship on one of the high upgrades. This tower tends to throw out tiny planes that shoot out a lot of darts! Also, take into effect that these towers are “monkey” towers, which I think is pretty cute! Another tower that this series has added is the flying ace. This is basically just a single aircraft that circles the map in a figure eight pattern. This, I think is super cool being that I am a pilot! I love planes, no doubt about that! This aircraft, when it’s fully upgraded, can shoot a constant beam, mix of bombs and darts dirrectly to the beginning start of the line of balloons! This comes in handy when you get higher in levels. They can also spy out the camo balloons. One other tower that they have added that I think is really cool is the Monkey Engineers! These guys are really cool, I think. They can build up sentry guns that help shoot down more balloons. This comes in handy because you don’t have to pay for the sentry guns to be built so then you can build up you cash a little easier and be able to buy better towers to throw onto the map.

The Bible

The Holy Bible. I could go on for days talking about this, but for time purposes, I’m only going to touch on a few things. I have only been following God for, well almost a year now, come this summer. Since then, I have grown so much in His love and teachings! It has completely changed my life forever. Once I found Him and chose to walk with Him, I have been changed for good! I used to think that there wasn’t a God nor heaven or hell! I used to just think that we wake up, go to work to earn as much money as we can earn, spend what we can, then die after like eighty years and that was life. Boy, was I wrong! God opened my eyes! It was like I was seeing for the very first time! I found that God was the one that I was searching for all along I just didn’t know what I was looking for. I had been looking for something to fill the void in my chest with broken relationships, smoking, drinking, pornography, etc. Then I knew God, and everything changed. I felt like all of those things aren’t nearly important as He is! I found that they were only a crutch to get out of my biggest fear of being alone! But the fact is, we are NEVER alone! God is always there for us at every moment of the day! No matter who you are or what you have done in your life, God is there for you, loves you whole heartedly and will always forgive you! It may not seem like He could ever possibly forgive you even if you sinned like crazy and continue to, but God will always forgive you! He will also give you strength to keep moving forward in His word along His perfect path that He has laid out for you! You may be sinning every day, but through all things impossible with man are possible through God! He is our source of strength in the day that only He can give!

Choir Solos

Solos. They are probably one of my bigger fears. I don’t even know if I would call it a fear. I would just call it nerves. I get nervous just thinking about trying out for a solo! I had recently just began trying out for solos being that this is my senior year of high school and I think I should have at tried out for a solo. I had never even tried out for a solo before in my life! Then, just the other day, I had stood up in front of my whole choir of about ninty students and tried out for the solo. I was pretty nervous. I had a ton of verbrato in my voice since I was like shaking from so much nerves and could barely stand. I thought I had done pretty good other than just being nervous so now all I have to do is wait. Although, we only have another week before contest, so they will probably pick out soloists within the next couple days. Maybe even tomorrow!  Choir has become a very important thing to me. I absolutely love to sing! I have been singing since fifth grade and I have grown so far in my vocals! I had gone all through freshman year without joining choir due to the lack of interest of other members that had moved on to something else and it just wasn’t all that fun when I was the only guy in the choir. Then sophomore year comes around and I had joined every choir that my school offered and I had grown so much in my vocals in just that year. Then I came to Kennedy High School and learning from Mr. Zieglar, has just been a fascinating experience! Through him I have been able to learn a lot of stuff and become better in my techniques and musical style changing!

Bible Camp

 

Bible Camp. Going into bible camp last summer with one of my friends, I was thinking, “Wow, this is probably just going to be a big group of black women praisin’ Jesus!” I was so mistaken! When we reached Red Culture, we had gotten into our dorms and there was a pool and there was great food and awesome people to talk to and get to know and a zip line, etc. There was a ton of stuff to do. The first night, all of that stuff was fun, don’t get me wrong, but once we had our first time in the sanctuary and started to just worship God, I was experiencing life for the first time, it felt like! I had gone years thinking that all we did every day was just get up, go to work, come home sit in our rooms thinking until we fell asleep, then do it all again the next day and continue to do that until we are six feet under. I had absolutely no output on life, especially when a few months before this was the second time I had overdosed thinking that life was pointless for me. The first time should have killed me but the second time should have killed me three times over, but somebody wanted me to pull through and live and that would be God! I finally felt like I knew from that time in the sanctuary, that God is alive and that there is a heaven and a hell, that God was the one there for me in my darkest moments and I didn’t even realize it. There’s no other explanation than that for me to have survived those suicide attempt, especially the second one since I had only gone to bed that night and woke up the next day, completely healthy and fine! Truly a miracle in my eyes! Since then I have chosen to walk along with God and worship him and follow him. He is true love and only he can give you strength! For years, I had been looking for love through broken relationships and felt empty and lost and hurt and had no strength at all since all I did was try to do everything myself. Being that I never had my parents around, I was used to doing everything myself and helping myself out through rough times but when all that pain and hurt kept building up, I came to a point that there was no way that I would have been able to keep going if God hadn’t led me to go with my friend to go to this bible camp and realize that God is alive. Everything has a purpose to God’s perfect plan and for me, going to that camp and meeting Lori and the Tillman’s was all part of that plan. Without them, I probably would have fallen right back to who I was and not be fighting to build a relationship with God. It’s coming up on a year now since that week of bible camp and since then, with my walk with God, I have fought through pornography, alcohol, smoking, weed, and depression. Slowly but surely, each one of those has become less and less important to me because I feel like there is no need for them. They were a crutch to fill that void in my heart when that void is filled up now with the love of God. He is true love and that’s what I’ve always been  searching for and now, all I want is Him! All I want to do is worship Him! Those other things were just extremely temporary fixes to the emptiness in my heart and I don’t need them. They actually make me feel worse because they hinder my connection with God. Since the week that I was saved, all I have wanted to do was just worship God for all that He does for me and what He continues to do for me regardless of my past and also, show Him to all the people who don’t know Him. I want people to experience exactly what I have experienced with God and what He can do for all of us if we just choose to put Him first! I think that is exactly why God has put me through all this pain and hurt in my life so far is exactly for that reason, to show all the other people that are going through the same things, for me to show them that I have been through the same things and know that there is a way out of the seemingly endless pit of darkness and pain. Since then I have been saying, “God is good.. No, God is Great!”

Talent Shows

 

Talent Shows. Okay, so I just got back from a talent show this afternoon and I absolutely loved it! I had gone down in order to see one of my friends that I had met at bible camp last summer. We have stayed in touch since then and have grown to be best friends and also some feelings for one another. But, in the mean time we are staying as just friends because neither of us are ready for a relationship. In the mean time though, what I was getting at, is that I really enjoy talent shows. I had forgotten how much I really enjoyed them. My biggest fear though is nerves but then again, who doesn’t ever have nerves before they get up on stage in front of a group of people? My biggest fear though is when the crowd is small. I somehow do better when the crowds are a lot bigger. Because, for me, when the crowds are smaller, it seems like I can feel everybody staring right at me and it makes me that much more nervous. Although, when the crowd is much larger, I don’t feel like I can feel everybody staring at me and it is easier for me to just look up over all of them and keep the show going. Tonight at the talent show, I could see myself on stage again. I was really itching to go up there and just start singing a song. I love to sing and just the memory of being up on stage and doing what I love to do and just singing for a group of people is just the best feeling in the world to me. My directors have always called it “chills.” Like when you get chills down your spine after a performance that you know was really well performed and you just nailed it and can feel like you have been successful at something and just enjoying and going with the flow of the music.

Born Into Brothels

Born Into Brothels. This was a documentary that we had watched in class a few weeks ago. I thought this documentary was very interesting. This was not the typical documentary that we normally watch. This was more viewed on the children in India. These children are born into the brothels of India. Their parents are all drug dealers or addicts, prostitutes, and just over all, not proper parents for these children. Because these children were born where they were born, in society they are looked down up and looked at as “dirty” or “impure.” Because society views them like this, the photographer, Auntie Zana, had a very difficult time getting these children where she wanted them to be. Zana had worked very hard to get these children into proper schooling at a boarding school. Most of the schools wouldn’t take any of the children though. When she finally found a school that would take them in and educate them, Zana had to go through a ton of paperwork and health testing on the children. All the children had to be blood tested for HIV and they all had to have birth certificates and a ton of other paperwork was needed. This process did not just happen over night. This had taken the good part of a year! I think what Auntie Zana did was amazing because she had said in this film that these children will never get out of the brothels and have a healthy normal life until they get a proper education and are able to get a proper job and career started. Otherwise, by the time they grow to be about fourteen or sixteen, they jump right into the “line.” They call it the “line” because it is their line of work and they live in the Red Light District of India. One other thing that I thought was really cool about what Zana was doing was to get these children interested in the arts. What she had done to keep this going was to have a class of photography just for the students so that they can use their imaginations and express themselves more clearly.

Pancheros

Pancheros. Just yesterday my principal, Dr. W, had come into my AP Economics class to talk about all the students that were planning on going to the AP testing centers this coming May so that they can earn college credit. In the middle of her conversation she had been talking about lunch time for those specific AP test taking students in May. She had given the possiblities of heading to maybe Hy-Vee for their chinese or Arby’s or even maybe Pancheros. Shortly after her presentation, just about when class was going to get over, I had texted my brother and his girlfriend to see if they wanted to go out to Pancheros for supper. My brother sent me back a message saying, “surah,” and his girlfriend sent me a message saying, “I’m already eating there for lunch with some friends today. Sorry brah.” I was pretty excited after that since my brother and I don’t get to hang out that much anymore, just the two of us. So, I get home and start watching my show, “Teen Wold,” and my brother is home playing some of his Call of Duty Black Ops 2. Later that night we decide that we will head out to Pancheros for supper since we were getting hungry and my brother wanted me to drive since he was a little low on gas. We had a little miss communication when he asked if I could pay for his or if he should just go ask grandma for some cash. I told him he should ask grandma but then he only got money for himself and I thought it was just implied that he would grab money for me too! Oh well, right? So, anyways, we end up getting to Pancheros and both my brother and I order our burritos. I get to the end of the line to where I pay for my burrito and then I head out the door, only to realize that I’m walking out empty handed. I run back into the restaurant to grab my burrito very embarrassed and then I go and eat my delicious burrito. I was a little upset because they made me pay another dollar for their mistake of adding one too many scoops of guacamole. It was still a very delicious burrito though, let me tell you!

Shaving

Shaving. There is sort of a relief to shaving. You get this sense of cleanliness and smoothness. For me at least, I get a sense of being handsome and awesome because I don’t look as scruffy and dirty anymore. Just yesterday I had decided to shave off my beard that I was attempting to grow out. I didn’t like the look of it. I thought it made me look a little bit too old and like I didn’t have any self respect. I thought that it was also a little too spotty and not as thick and full as I would have liked it to be. I am definitely one of those guys who likes to be smooth shaven and look very proper  and takes a lot of care in the way he looks. I did end up keeping my soul patch though. I thought that it gives me a sort of character to myself. Like when you see me at a glance, you just know it’s me because of my character. But why do people always try to go out and look awesome and beautiful and handsome? What is the purpose of beauty? In my experience, I do my best to look good when I am in a relationship or am looking for a relationship. It is a way for the male’s instinct to kick on and do it’s best to look fantastic for a female that he chooses to be with. Like that male primal instinct or animal nature. We all want to be attractive to someone they like or have a crush on. We all have this sense of sexual desire and try to look sexy and appealing. Sexual desire is just in our nature and what drives some of us that can’t control it very well. Otherwise, the rest of us just try to stay attractive for our spouse and to have some self respect and to the people around us for person hygiene.

Dharavi Slums

Dharavi. Just yesterday, in my world humanities class, we had watched a very short little video over the Dharavi slums. This was just the voice of Dan McDougall speaking his journalistic piece that he wrote to go along with a bunch of pictures that he had taken when he was down in the Dharavi slums writting about what happens in this massive slum. His voice was written into words on this website here. Dharavi is Asia’s biggest slum, holding over a million residents within. Dharavi is not only massive but also prosperous, according to Dan McDougall. Aproximately $1 billion US dollars is produced by the people of Dharavi. Dharavi is the heart of Mumbai. It is set within the dead center of this major city of high sky scrapers and other tall buildings. The government of Mumbai had tried many times to make Dharavi a New Shanghai. They tried to force all of the residents in areas of Dharavi by police force. Then they destroyed the area to start on their construction of the New Shanghai. The main reason that these Dharavi slum dwellers are so prosperous is because they have learned to be basically human recyclers. They have their own little economy of their own. The Dharavi people have been recycling soap from local hotels that they melt down and remold to reuse and resell to the other dwellers. They also have been recycling non-used engine oil. Even children take up these jobs in order to keep up with just trying to survive with sellings up to their quota. I thought of this place as “hell.” Most outsiders think of Dharavi and most other slums as “hell” but when McDougall had gone through Dharavi, he saw that it was like most other places, just quite a bit different outlook on things. People of Dharavi think of it as home and yet there may be horrible conditions for everybody such as hard labor, sewage coming up from the ground, and solid waste everywhere, this is still their home and their community. These people, if they make about two hundred British pounds a month from their recycling jobs, they are considered wealthy in the Dharavi community.

Community

Community. What is the first thing that you think of when somebody says community? I think of like a gathering. Maybe something like a group of people or a function that is meant to gather a group of people together. I am planning on going to the University of Dubuque as an Aviation major and they recently did something that I thought was really cool and something that I had never seen any other college do before. They had started up Facebook pages. These pages have like all of the new incoming freshman to their university and anybody who is planning on going to the University of Dubuque can get onto this page that they have set up on Facebook and start chatting and networking to get to know all of your fellow classmates and roommates and major buddies that you’ll be having for the next four years or so. I thought this was neat because this is definitely a community in my eyes. This is one central location where a group of students that are just like me that are about to graduate from their high schools in May just like me and will be flying around the airports of Iowa working on getting into a well loved and paid career of their choice! I have been asking a lot of questions on their page too. I had asked who all the Aviation majors will be so I could start networking with them and getting to know who they are and what they like to do for fun or work. I also was wondering who I needed to get a hold of for  their work study program too. I had introduced myself to everybody when I first joined the page. It’s sort of the way you get in on the page. You just let everybody know who you are and what you like to do and then hopefully once classes start up in the middle of August come next fall, it will be a lot easier to converse with the people we have been talking to on this page for the past six months!