Outside reading

I recently watched the Christmas Shoes which is a story about a little boy that wants to buy a pair of shoes for his dying mom, Maggie Andrews and about a lawyer , Robert Layton, who is a workaholic trying to repair his marriage. Its really about two separate stories until the end when the families get meshed together by fate. The Christmas shoes does a good job telling the magic of Christmas and whats its really about. Christmas isn't about what you get and how much of it you get but that its about what you give and spending time with the ones you love. I think this movie has a really good message because the lawyer,Robert, took everything he had for granted until he saw the little boy try to buy the shoes for his mom but didn't have enough money so Robert gave him enough money to get the shoes. This good deed taught Robert that the littlest of things can make a big difference in someones life. It also taught him that the holidays are about spending time with loved ones and not about making tons of money. After fate brought this little boy into his life to teach him a lesson, Robert made changes in his life to become a better person and be with his family more. I think this movie is a great holiday movie with a good moral and also a great life lesson in general.

Outside reading

"Dogs are miracles with paws."Susan Kennedy. I have grown up with dogs my whole life and they really can do wonderful things. One of my dogs ,chance,that I have had since I was six is close to passing away and this quote had made me realize how much he is a part of my life and how much I love him. Chance is a black lab with a white star on his chest. My whole family believes that the star is there because he loves to be in the spot light. If you are petting another dog or doing something near him he will bark and bark until you pay attention to him. One of his favorite things is cake at birthday parites, when we sing the birthday song he will bark along to it. He does such a great job barking along that we reward him with a slice of cake afterwards. Dogs may not be able to talk or help around the house but they are such great companions that those things really dont matter, what matters is having them in your life. I believe that everyone deserves to have an animal in their life because they honestly are miracles with paws.

Outside reading

I recently read an article intitled "Facebook Users With Lots of Friends More Likely To Be Narcissists " where researchers looked at how the amount of friends a Facebook user has is coorilated with there sense of self importance. The researchers had hypothesized that users with a large amount of Facebook friends, usually over 1,000 would have a much higher degree of self importance and an inflated self image, compared to users that did not have as many Facebook friends. The researchers were right; those with a higher amount of Facebook friends were a lot more likely to be narcissistic than those with less Facebook friends. They interviewed there test subjects and studied there Facebook pages to come to this conclusion. I also have a facebook but i would not consider myself a narcissists because i feel facebook is a place to connect with friends not a place to boast about popularity. People blur the line between reality and the virtual world on facebook. There is no way you could look at someones profile and know what is really going on in their life because facebook allows poeple to candy coat the truth and make their lives look great by posting picture and videos that reflect that. I disagree that you should be considered a narcissist by what your profile reflects, it should be judged on your real life actions not virtual actions.

Outside reading

The article that I read is called The Myth of the Scholarship from the Star Tribune today, Sunday December 14. It is the first article in a three part series. I thought this article was very interesting because people are always talking about kids getting scholarships for athletics to college, but few people know the real story behind these scholarships. And, the real story is that most of these athletes just get a little money not a entire college scholarship. I thought that was interesting because in the article it says that many people believe that if a college is interested in you coming to play a sport for them that they pay your entire college costs. This article goes on to explain that this is just not true. The article highlights the reality of college sports scholarships and the exact number of how many are available and says that over 60 percent of college NCAA players do not receive any scholarship money at all. I thought the article was very interesting because whenever you hear about someone playing a sport in college then you assume that their entire tution is being covered by an athletic scholarship. I think it is good for parents and students to know that this is just not true with some of the less popular sports like baseball. The article said that talking about scholarships is similar to people talking about their salaries so that people never really get to know what other people are getting.

Outside reading

Today I read an article in the Pioneer press about a family that lives in Hugo who lives will never be the same. The dad is a dentists that was diagnosed with lymphoma and two months after that devastating news they found out the mom has a fatal disease called ALS which means amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Its really scary because both of these diseases are fatal. The mom has a quick progression of ALS and is paralyzed from the neck down. The dad has a two stem cell transplants and they find out in a month if the most recent one actually worked. These parents have two kids who are know twelve and fourteen who live with their grandmother in Edina. They held a benefit Sunday night for the family to raise money for medical bills. They are currently living on the generosity of family and friends because the parents have no way of making an income because they are so sick. My family has chosen to make a donation to help them during this holiday season if anyone else would like to make one the contact information is Houston Benefit Fund, 4700 Clark Ave., White Bear Lake, MN 55110

Outside reading

For my outside reading tonight im going to summarize a book i recently read. The Book i read is called Beach Blondes by Katherine Applegate. Summer Smith is just a normal girl that is from minnesota who goes to live with her cousin and aunt in their huge masion in Florida for the summer. Summers life in Minnesota is pretty normal and low key, she has a best friend named Jennifer Crosby whom she tells everyhing to , a crush on a boy that doesnt even know she exists and school work that seems endless. When summer arrives in Florida eveything seems to change. She ends up meeting three boys, Adam, Diver and Seth and making new friends. The only bad thing about being in Florida is that her aunt is an author so she travels a lot and is gone for most of the summer and she doesn't really get along with her cousin , Diana, but she learns how to deal with her and stay out of her way so they don't fight. Summer didn't realize how much three months could change her until she got back. She can't wait until next summer to come back and make new memoies and friends.

Outside reading

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning but anyone can start today and make a new ending.". I think this quote by Maria Robbinson is very real and inspirational. To me this quote means that no matter how many mistakes one has made or things one has done in life that they regret, one can always start over fresh. Starting a new chapter in life doesn't mean erasing the past, it means forgetting about the bad times and learning to accept the things that happened and the things that are unchangeable. A person can not go back in time and change things that didn't work out the way they wanted to or things that they regret. A person can however decide to change and live their life in a new way. There is always a new day and a chance to change.