April 22 is Earth Day! 

There are things everyone can do to go a little bit more green. Small steps around the board will translate into great strides. Remember the movie Wall-E? Let's not let that happen to our world. 

Happy April 19th, everyone, and Happy Birthday to my lovely Nana. 

It's that time of the year again where I begin to thaw out and my thoughts start revolving more and more around that summer sun. Today I will entertain myself with a list of everything that I love about the summertime. 

1. The beach

2. The ocean

3. Long days

4. Long nights

5. Marylous Coffee

6. Tanning

7. Friends

8. Camping

9. Prince Edward Island

10. Cows ice cream 

11. Brehauts

12. No shoes

13. Country music

14. Concerts

15. The ice cream man

16. Crop tops

17. Flip flops

18. Cloud watching

19. Starfish

20. Family

21. Fourth of July

22. NO HOMEWORK

23. Sleeping in

24. Warm wind

25. The sound of the waves

26. Exploring

27. Summer rain

28. Thunderstorms 

29. Long drives

30. Beach hair

31. My father's cooking

32. Bright colors

33. Sunglasses

34. Cookouts

35. Serenity 

The list goes on and on. I love just about everything about summer aside from the mosquitoes and no-seeums.  21 days until freedom. 

Now that's journalism. Look at that dedication. #Cantstopwontstop. 

It was just another day in the field for reporter Toya Chiba when he was swept away by the tsunami that hit Japan in April. Chiba was reportedly pulled by rushing waters into the Owatari River. A little water wasn't enough to stop Chiba. In the face of disaster, Chiba continued snapping photos. How many people could you find in this world  who would be caught in the middle of a flash flood taking photographs? Probably one. Toya Chiba, everyone. Screw the camera, I would have been stuck to the top of that white car like a starfish. Chiba survived the incident with a few scars. Despite his heroic efforts, the photos he took that day didn't even have a chance; his camera had water damage. Go figure. The effort was there, though, and that should count. Somebody give this guy a raise. 

Free Rice

Join Now!

Click to join my group 'Fire and Rice' at Freerice.com. The website collaborates though the World Food Programme to help put an end to world hunger.

Here is how it works:
There are six categories to play including: Art, English, Chemistry, Geography, Language, and Math. When users select a category, they are asked to answer sets of questions pertaining to the subject they selected. For ever correct answer, Freerice.com donates 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme. And though 10 grains of rice seems a small donation, those grains sure add up!

I put 'Fire and Rice' together on March 16, 2011. There are 16 members in my group. We have a combined donation of 342,290 grains of rice to date. The top donators have contributed about 40,000,000 grains of rice per unit. 


This website just goes to show how the internet is revolutionizing, well, mostly everything. Just look at how easy it is today to collaborate with people all across the world; solving world hunger from the comfort of your computer chair! What else can be accomplished? Where else can we go? The door is left wide open, and there is no ceiling. This new internet age is just starting to bloom. 

4/11

Did anyone else hear rumors that it was going to be 80 degrees and sunny today? I was ready for a beach day. I only have myself to blame for my frustration, all it took was the words 'sunny and warm' to get the beach day idea stuck in my head. I was not going to re-check the weather,  I am far too stubborn to accept the reality good news like that would change! 

I wish our weather reporters were more like Ollie Williams. He always tells it like it is.

Anywhere

If I could be anywhere in the world right now, I would be in Prince Edward Island. This whole 'grey skies and cold weather' thing Rhode Island has going on isn't cutting it for me.

Just Wondering

I have always been intrigued by the origin of communication. I have frequently thought back to that first conversation-like exchange of man, deciding that words, no longer grunts and hand motions would be used for communication. It must have been an excruciating process trying to teach a whole community a consistently spoken language. It is fascinating how countries landed on different systems of dialogue; different languages, different accents, pronounciations, etc. This thought led me to another thought; is there such thing as a natural language? Crying and laughing are two completely pure processes. So, then, is there a natural way of speaking that is unprocessed from the influence of location and learning from repetition of hearing? This is a hard question to ask, because one could never learn to speak without hearing someone else's words, that have technically been processed through location. I thought about singing. Singing is as natural as it gets. According to Wikipedia, "Singing is the act of producing musical  sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm." Have you ever listened to the Spice Girls? The Beatles? (Probably the better reference.) Both of these groups have members with British accents, though when they start to sing that accent disappears. Could this possibly mean that the American accent is the most natural of all? Just a thought...

3-2-13

3-2-13


Three wins, two ties, and thirteen losses. That was the record of my 2010 soccer season at Rhode Island. With a team loaded with talent, how could this be? With each frustrating loss, the drama on our team escalated. 

My team has had many struggles in the past...on the field, off the field, you name it, we’ve struggled through it. One of the most glaring problems that we have had is a lack of leadership. This lack of leadership has translated into an unsuccessful past fall season. At the end of the season, our team received a new coach. This coach has addressed the leadership problem, and has formed a leadership group of ten girls who will be a foundation for leadership throughout the team. With this new leadership group, I am left to answer the question, “What really is leadership, and why is it so essential?”  So I turned to the dictionary. 


Leadership
-noun
1.The act of leading a group or organization of people


Too vague. After careful thought, I put together the definition of a leader that I have formed over years of playing soccer.

First and foremost, I would describe a leader as an individual whose every unselfish action benefits a group that is greater than him or herself. Leaders are confident. Their actions are never forced. A leader doesn’t think, “Wow, I really worked hard today.” A leader always works hard. They have that inner drive that is solely second nature. Great leaders are supported. They create a network of people around themselves who want to work for them.  A leader can balance on the thin line between friendship and integrity. Good leaders instill trust in their teammates. People can talk to leaders about whatever their concerns may be. On the field, leaders are vocal. They are encouraging without being offensive. Leaders motivate. As essential as communication is on the soccer field, actions speak just as loud. Leaders bring teams together. They create a sense of the word  “team.” On a true team, not only are you playing for yourself, you are playing for every single one of your teammates. Leadership is essential for any team. A teams without a sense of leadership is misguided, and will not be as successful.

Our new coach has already given us an air of confidence. We are starting from scratch, learning the foundations of what it means to be on a team. We are fixing the parts of the machine that were broken last year. I do not have a doubt that we will be winning games next season. Lots of games. Winning games starts with gaining leadership, so here’s to the 2011 fall season.