Volunteer, Advocate, Trekker.

As I've said before, it's almost like President Obama is one by one tackling every campaign promise and really every political opinion I've ever had since day one. Admittedly, it took this pretty easy to fix one a while before it was addressed - but late is better than never. Homeland Security Ditching "Color Threat System" Or even better, here's the CNN blog of " Why the Color System never made any sense in the first place ." I have personally on at least one occasion written to Secretary Napolitano asking the Department of Homeland Security remove the system, back in 2009. Lol, I occasionally get the urge to write to people or things like that. A few weeks ago I wrote to PayPal telling them I support their efforts to distance themselves from WikiLeaks, even if it got their website attacked a few times. Picture of the Day: A news article called this the next product of "the Cult of Sarah Palin." A comic book called "Steampunk Pa...

So I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on my blog before or not, but lately when I get REALLY bored (this started at the start of Winter Break) I'm making a Harry Potter textbook. The problem is writing a book takes a really long time, especially when your trying to use a non-fiction style of writing, and SUPER especially if you want a lot of pictures.  (Source for that image) As I've mentioned before, I LOVE things that make my favorite fictions seem more realistic (a Lumiere replica candlestick? A wand from Harry Potter? The Charmed Book of Shadows? Star Trek props, you get the idea.) Well, I'd totally want a custom printed book made to look like a textbook from Harry Potter! That'd be so cool! And the easiest way to get one? Write one. PSH, not so much. The real easiest way would probably be just design a custom dust cover and put if over a textbook. But that would be boring, I want to be able to flip through pages and read magic things from the POV of...

What are, phrases that really annoy me? So Angela put up a Facebook status about the Xbox going Redring, so I google/Wikipedia-ed it . I've determined Xbox 360s suck. I have never particularly wanted one, but now I for certainly don't want one. The studies Wikipedia cites (key word: CITES) says they screw up up to 60% of the time because of errors in construction. WTF? But I do want a Playstation... but not a PS3. They suck too . So I was wondering what the progress on making a PS4 was, and I found this beauty: Aaaah, OMG I WANT IT! It is so very beautiful. Regrettably, I don't think Sony themselves actually designed it -- some Australian did. But if Sony knew what was good for them, they would come up with the technology to make this possible and sell it because I WAANT IT SO badly :'( Song of the Day: "Secrets" by OneRepublic . I do love the strings at the start of this though. Watching the video now, I can't seem to figure out the plot. But I ...

Good morning followers and random googlers, because I have a quota of about 10 blogs a month I like to hit (and I'm sadly failing) I thought I'd share some interesting tidbits about my mornings, and food. My morning: shower, go to the normal websites to check for updates (Facebook, my Akron email) usually liking or commenting on one or two things; go to HGTV Dream Home.com and register for my Vermont ski lodge which I'm going to win -- because it has a guest "dorm" bedroom for 8 people, and a fireplace next to the hot tub, and "microwave oven drawers" in the Kitchen, and its pretty much all around awesome. Check Wikipedia and CNN news [Politics] , gotta be aware of whats going on each morning. Check my blogs I follow - most of which come from "Secretary Clinton" (about the daily appointments of the Secretary) and "The Life Diplomatic" (a blog of a guy's first assignment in the Foreign Service.) Both incredibly interesting, I ...

Pffahahahaha, so I discovered this new searchbar tool that raises money every time you search for something for the Martin Luther King jr. memorial in Washington D.C. Downloaded it, and what better way to test it than to search for myself? A search for AJHalliwell obviously brought up this blog, and other websites, (you can't use google btw -- only Yahoo) but I found a poem I apparently wrote in 12th grade! Ahahaha. We were studying the Odyssey, and poetry (or something) and apparently I'd submitted this to Quizzilla and forgotten about it COMPLETELY. (Hermes, you see, was one of my favorite of the ancient greek gods.) Hermes Created by AJHalliwell Tuesday, March 06, 2007 Before reading the Odyssey in English, we were given a worksheet to learn the important greek gods. To make this easier, we all picked a greek god and added our pictures. While looking for good things about Hermes, I randomly felt like rhyming! With wing’ed sandals and staff in hand I fly and delive...

Well Ladies and Gents, it's the first Friday of Spring semester - and do you know what that means? Tomorrow I take one of the final major-est tests of my college career. The Praxis II: PLT, I need to pass this and one other test to become a licensed teacher (not to mention student teach, take more classes, honors project, etc.) And it's this Saturday morning. o.o I'm a little tense about it, I wouldn't say worried is the word - but as for any test, I could've studied more. This one is basically on the psychology of students, what-to-do in situations kind of things. I've heard its pretty easy but I'm not gonna let that lull me into a false sense of security. But I'm not gonna let it bring my life to a halt either. The next Praxis (which is in my content area, Social Studies) is about a month from now. (Wish my luck on both!) I need to pass both to student teach, so I've alotted myself some time between now and Spring 2012. Well, I've slept i...

Well today was the first day of the new semester! I had to wake up at 6 AM!!! X_X let me remind the world that I am in no way a morning person, I am completely a night person, or like an afternoon person. But NOT a morning person. So waking up was kind of a pain, but eh. My first class was "Inst. Tech (Social Studies)" with Larry, who's AWESOME. He is really the coolest guy ever and I absolutely wish I could teach like him, but I feel like part of it is the years of experience and his retiree-esque nature. My favorite part about his class was he mentioned he plans to use the survey I put together with the College of Education's Student Success Task Force with the class as an example of student civic involvement! Next I had Freshmen-level Intro to Sociology x_x blah. That, was boring. The teacher was pretty entertaining for a professor, but it was all the kind of humor designed to keep a freshman's attention and to be honest I feel like I've advanced beyon...

Just got back from my ASG Winter retreat, where we went over what we did in Fall, what we hope to do in Spring, elections, and a bunch of other stuff. That was 10am - 3pm, so now I'm trying to figure out what I need to get done before school starts Monday. But first, Newsflash: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona has been shot in the head in a shooting at a constituent meeting in Tuscon. A Democrat representing Arizona's 8th district (which does not contain any major cities, but does border Mexico) in the U.S. House of Representative, she was narrowly named the winner in the 2010 election ahead of a uber-conservative Tea Partier named one of the Tea Bagger's top 10 people with a future or something (criticized Sarah Palin for not being conservative enough o.O) One of Rep. Giffords' notable efforts is to increase solar power-usage, here with some University of Arizona students. If it turns out the Tea Baggers did this, that is so inhuman and pathetic I...