What Skiing Means to Me

     Last week, I read a blog where the person wrote about an activity they really enjoyed: skiing. This inspired me to profess my own love for the sport. So here it goes.

     I would say that my experiences with skiing are much different from those of  a typical kid here at RMHS. For many, skiing is a fun hobby that usually happens once or twice a winter. For me, it is a sport and a lifestyle. I started skiing when I was 2 and a half, and I basically haven't stopped. My family drives up to North Conway, NH every weekend in  the winter, two and a half hours each way. I would ski every Saturday and Sunday in an organized group with an instructor;  and since 5th grade, I have been involved in ski racing.

     So what does ski racing entail? a lot. First off, you wake up early. On a good day, I sleep in until 7am. Sometimes on race days, I get to wake up as early as 4:30am to drive to mountains all over NH. Most days go from 8-3, where I run practice courses set up by our coaches. There have been days where I have only skied one trail the entire day! At the end of most days my feet ache, my back hurts, and I usually have bruises from hitting gates. You're probably thinking right now why do I even do this?

     Well for one, I like it. I really like it. I love skiing and I have come to love racing and training. It has become such a big part of my life that I couldn't imagine my winters without it. Of course, this lifestyle requires sacrifices. I rarely spend winter weekends or vacations down in Reading. This means that I'm away from friends and basically life in Reading for most of the winter. But luckily I have developed a second life in NH and have made many close friends from skiing.

     Now although I do train an exorbitant number of hours each weekend, I know that I'm not making it to the Olympics or anything. But I realized something while I was free skiing with some cousins at Loon Mountain last weekend. I may be an average racer, but I am still a fantastic skier. And over the years of hard work, I have developed the technique and skill that gives me the confidence to ski anywhere and everywhere in the world. This may be my last year in the racing program, but I know I have a lot of skiing left to do. 

Football Psychology

     So this week saw the end to the Patriot’s season. I know for a fact that I am not the only one around here who’s pissed off. This was supposed to the year; after everything that happened to the Patriots organization, and especially Tom Brady, in the past 12 months, the time was absolutely perfect to show up the NFL and win the fifth ring. This year more than ever it felt like us against the world, the timing felt right. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen. I won’t say much about the game itself, but I will say I think even myself and a few friends could’ve gotten to Tom Brady with the horrific performance we witnessed from the offensive line. Anyways, like always, the people on Boston sports radio stations had plenty to talk about this week. There are always conflicting opinions and a few crazy caller who present some hilariously ridiculous theories and ideas. But I have never heard a caller being called out on using defense mechanisms-until this week.

      I think it was Tuesday, some random Boston sports fan called in to add his two cents. While most people let all their anger out on the phone and scream about how the refs were unfair and that the NFL will never let the Patriots win again, this man was rather composed. He said that initially he was incredibly upset over the loss. But now that it’s over, he realizes it’s ok we lost because the Panthers would have killed us, just like they are going to destroy the Broncos in two weeks’ time. And without missing a beat, the host on the show called out his use of the defense mechanism of rationalization. I was stunned. He specifically said “defense mechanism” and “rationalization”. It was very unexpected and I was certainly impressed.

     Defense mechanisms are used to cope with subconscious trauma or conflict, and any time the Patriots loose is definitely a traumatic event. Everybody deals with it in their own way, but in the spirit of good ol’ Bill Belichick, we’re on to next season!! 

A Ridiculous Lottery Meme (and How People Will Blindly Follow "Good" Ideas)

           This week we witnessed the drawing of the largest Powerball jackpot in United States history.  In total, 635 million tickets were sold in the hopes of taking home the $1.58 BILLION jackpot. I am sure that I was not the only one who spent this week wishfully dreaming of the infinite ways all that money could be spent. We can get so caught up in our rich fantasies that we often forget that the odds of winning, 1 in 292,000,000, are ridiculously improbable. Just for a comparison, you are more likely to died from a vending machine accident(1 in 112 million). Nevertheless, we are still allowed to dream; and that is what makes the lottery so successful. It's always fun to think of what it would be like to instantly win big. And in this technological age we live in today, many took to social media with their thoughts on the lottery. Amongst the several annoying "I will split my winnings with everyone who shares this picture" posts, this picture appeared in my newsfeed:

                Now at first glance this may seem like a genuine idea to solve the very serious issue of poverty in the country. The lottery is a lot of money and it could be used in better ways. I get that. Unfortunately I have a big problem with this post. IT IS COMPLETELY WRONG!!!

               

                First off, the math itself is actually incorrect! $1.2 billion divided by 300,000,000 Americans is not $4.33 million per person. As a matter of fact, it is only $4.33; just a slight difference. Giving everyone in America 4 bucks would be nice, but it is not the same as $4,000,000! How much would it cost to actually give everybody $4 million? $1,200,000,000,000,000! (that’s $1.2 quadrillion by the way.) So yeah, just a little different.

                Additionally, if ridiculously incorrect math isn't enough to discredit this post, giving everybody $4 million would not solve poverty to the extent that many people think it would. Sure everybody would be $4 million richer, but costs of goods would also increase to adjust to the economic status of the country. While it might make a slight difference, it would not signify the end of poverty forever.

                This post was shared all over Facebook and other social media sites. Some of its popularity was the result of the glaring mathematical error, but there were also many people who shared it to express their support for this idea. For me, this was an example of how many people can be so blind when it comes to supporting a good cause. There are many people in America that read that, saw "$4.33 million per person" and "poverty solved!", and instantly supported it and share it with the #ShareThis. Solving poverty is without a doubt a serious issue, but it becomes a problem when people start supporting outrageous ideas without understanding the details and costs behind them. It is socially accepted that equality and helping others is the right thing to do. Not a bad thing either. However, this leads many uninformed people to blindly follow ideas and plans simply to support "the right thing to do". A theoretical idea that supports these socially accepted values will gain great amounts of support. Unfortunately, not every supporter of this amazing plan will take the time to actually understand the details and costs of the idea. The idea might not necessarily be a horrible one, and it probably supports an important issue. But just like with the wonderful lottery idea, giving everybody what they want might actually cost a lot more than people tell you.  

The Prospectivism of Good and Bad

                I suppose it is an idea that has always been in the back of my head, but something I didn't really think about until today: Early American freedom fighters like the Sons of Liberty were actually just terrorists. Of course that's not the way we were taught it. I still remember learning about the American Revolution as a young third grader. We were always told that the early American leaders were brave heroes that stood up to the tyranny of the British Empire. The only reason we are taught with this bias is because we actually won. But consider how the American Revolution would've been perceived if we had lost. America would most likely still be under the control of the British; and us, as young English citizens, would probably learn how the Revolution was merely a rag-tag group of terrorists that attempted to oppose the peace and order of the Empire. Events like the Boston Tea Party would not be regarded as acts of heroism, but instead as petty acts of terrorism.

                It was our exploration of Irish history in English class that inspired this provoking thought. During the Irish War of Independence, the IRA were considered a terrorist group that used guerilla warfare to defeat the British. The only other time I had heard the term "guerilla warfare" was during our studying of the American Revolution. Just like the IRA, the Sons of Liberty and other early American "heroes" were nothing more than terrorists in the eyes of the British. It is such as strange concept to grasp because we, as Americans, have always thought of ourselves as "the good guys". But if you were French, Spanish, Russian, or especially British at the time of the American Revolution, you probably would've seen the American Colonists as "the bad guys". 

                So while writing this, I have been quietly applying this idea to Star Wars. I am a huge Star Wars fan (I've seen the new movie twice already), and I'm sure there are many of you reading this are fans too. What's not to love? Though the prequels were not great, the 3 originals are classics. The heroic adventures of the brave rebel alliance and Luke Skywalker against the oppressive Galactic Empire, right? However when you think about it, we only see it that way because the bias of the movie is told through our rebel "heroes".  You have to remember that the majority of people in the galaxy are part of the Empire. Even if they disagree with, or are possibly ignorant to, the dark ways in which the Empire works, you can't argue that the Empire doesn't bring order and structure to the galaxy. So take yourself out of the plot of the movies and just be part of the universe; chances are, you are impartial to, or even support the Empire(like 99% of everyone in the galaxy). Now if you think from that perspective, the rebel alliance is nothing more than a terrorist organization that seeks to destroy your accepted way of life! For the majority of the galaxy, the destruction of the death star was seen as a horrific act of terrorism, much like 9/11, not the heroic event that was portrayed in the movie. Sorry if this has ruined Star Wars a little.

                The overarching idea of these three examples- who we see as "good guys" and who we see as "bad guys", whether in real life or the movies, is all a matter of perspective and the bias of the side your see it from. 

One Quesiton and a lot of Advice

This weekend was filled with holiday excitement. We had the annual Christmas party on my mom's side on Saturday night, and then all of my dad's family at our house earlier today. It was wonderful to see so much of my family; Some I had seen as late as this Thanksgiving, but for others, the last time we saw each other was last Christmas. Of course the only thing anybody seemed to ask me was "where are you going to college?". If I had a dollar for every time I was asked that question, I think I might have enough money to afford an application fees. At one point I considered just gathering everyone together, allowing me to only give the college speech just once. Right now I have no idea where I'm going, in fact, I haven't even submitted all of my applications yet! I found it even hard to come up with an answer to the question, " well what's your top choice?". I don't know. I really like a lot of the places I've applied to and that's why I've applied to them.

But through my many conversations with adults who have gone through the whole college thing and older cousins currently in college, I came away with a lot of advice. Everybody I talked to had to add their two cents from their college experience. Although some of the tips were rather trivial, I did leave the parties with some really sound advice. The first pointer was that there are no bad decisions. Every place I could get into is a great school, and I will most likely be happy at any of them. The other, more important piece of advice came from my older cousin who is currently a sophomore at RIT. He told me the most important thing is to pick classes and only do things that are interesting to you. He said from personal experience that he has taken some classes just because they were supposed to be easy. Unfortunately, they turned out to be pretty demanding, and overall, were just not fun.  Although I did get pretty tired of talking about my college plans, it was really great to talk to so many people who went through the same thing I am going through right now. 

Two Weeks

     In exactly two weeks time, I will be sitting around the living room with my family with the tree fully illuminated, watching Christmas classics as we do every Christmas eve. I always look forward to the holiday season and everything that comes with it. Although getting into "the Christmas spirit", is merely a saying, the season really does have a physical and emotional effect on our society. However, with only two weeks left until the big day itself, I have found it difficult to get into the spirit. There are a number of reasons that contribute to my lack of holiday cheer.

     The first is the weather. It does not feel nor look like the classic New England Christmas that I have come to expect. For me, it still feels like October and November, and I still see people raking leaves. For the past couple weeks the average temperature has been around 50 degrees. I haven't even bothered taking out my winter coat yet. Another big problem with the weather is the lack of snow. Now obviously I wish we had snow for other reasons, (SKIING!), but for me, Christmas needs snow. It is so strange to drive around and see Christmas decorations and lights with no snow around them. I hate driving past houses with elaborate cheerful holiday decorations, only to be ruined by the barren, and quite frankly, dead lawn. I know it's pretty cliché, but I am really hoping for "a white Christmas".

     The other big reason I'm not in the holiday spirit is simply, college applications. I've doing a lot of the same for the past month and a half now, and I can honestly say, I'm pretty sick of it. The monotony of writing essays, sending scores, doing this and that over and over is starting to get to me. Last weekend we put up and decorated our tree, a great holiday tradition right? In our house it is typically a fun thing that we take the time to enjoy together. This year is was about a 30 minute break in between doing things for college. Luckily I am almost done with everything, so I can get back to enjoying the "most wonderful time of the year"!.       

FIFA

There are many shocking events that occur so frequently in our society that when we hear about them, we aren't as nearly surprised as we should be. This week, 16 more FIFA officials were criminal charged. This is part of a now 92 count indictment, including charges of racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud, and corruption. And we're not talking about a slipping a couple of ones under the table kind of bribes, these bribes add up to hundreds of MILLIONS of dollars! Now you think that this sort of thing should be incredibly shocking right, the only thing is that this has happened before! Last May, the FBI lead a raid on the FIFA headquarters, obtained serious evidence, and arrest a number of high ranking officials. It was one of those things that everybody knew, and it was only a matter of time until someone put this corrupt organization in its place. At this point, they are a comically transparent organization. A "non-profit" with over $ 1,000,000,000 in the bank. Even their selections for future world cup destinations are ridiculous. The only logical explanation for the 2022 World Cup being in Qatar is bribery, because while else would anyone actually want to play soccer in desserts where civilization barely exists at the moments. There are stadium that are scheduled to be built in places that don’t even exist yet. If anyone hasn't seen the John Oliver segment on how ridiculous FIFA really is, I would highly encourage it. He perfectly exposes all the crap that FIFA tries to pull. My personal favorite was how he called out Jack Warner, the former FIFA VP of CONCACAF. Warner publically came out saying that it was the US that was corrupt not FIFA. To prove his point, he presented an article that claimed the US forced FIFA to give them a special 2015 World Cup. Sounds crazy, right? Warner, remember a very high ranking FIFA official, was quoting an article directly from "The Onion". This is just one of many outrageous things that have happened within FIFA over the last year or so. I can't wait to see what they try next.