Ponderings

So I've been following the Little League World Series lately. I watched the only team from Kentucky get annihilated by Chula Vista, California, 16-1 (who coicidentally is playing the championship game today, which I am undoubtedly going to watch). As I was watching this game, I began to think. Why is it that some parts of the world are so amazingly stacked in every aspect of everything?

In our nation, we have California and New York who single-handedly run our nation's economy. Globally, Japan, China, and all the other "Made-in's" are over almost every facet of toys, clothing, vehicles, and industries in general. It is illegal to have monopolies in this world, yet these places shadily monopolize their countrys' funding.

I don't know why this allowed, but I also don't know if I'm just a rambling fool. It does seem as if the United Nations or some other global agency or domestic affairs office could at least say something about this, but who is to say? All I know is I hope California loses to Chinese Tai-Pei today, because the size of California's team makes it highly unfair for almost anyone to contend with.

Go China!

Dakota

Analyzing Literature: The Pointlessness of Disecting Literary Works

Over the past two years, which coincidentally have been my high school years, my teachers have progressively enforced the fact that knowing how to critique literary works is essential for college when you must do this all the time, and so have made me and the rest of my rag-tag classmates toil through the agony. What I don't understand is why colleges do this in the first place. I mean honestly, why analyze things that are not meant to be analyzed? Literature is made for enjoyment and enlightenment, among other things. When authors compose works, they have no intention of making people scrutinize their works. They may entertain thoughts about what this symbol means, how this conclusion could be bettered, etc., but it seems as if those mastered in the art of literary criticism have begun a tradition of futile babbling and quite frankly, tried to show off their prowess a little too much.

WHERE WOULD THIS WORLD BE IF NOT FOR LITERARY CRITICISM!? It's impossible to tell, but I'd guess there'd be less jobs - mainly the meaningless professions that involve wholly this fruitlessness.

Dakota

P.S. If anyone is following this blog, please comment. I'd like to hear your opinions.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

My friend Marley just gave me a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup that she won from an activity called vocabulary cubes we just did. She assured me that she didn't poison it, so the euphoria began. I slowly ripped open the wrapper, ejected the chocolatey trophy from its shell, and stared it for a good two seconds. In that moment I realized - this is the soul mate to my taste buds. I never have believed in love at first sight, but love at first taste must be real. I sunk my teeth into the most amazing, most wholesome treat ever invented by man. It was like a waterfall of decadence cascading over my teeth and down my esophagus.

And now I must take the time to thank the man/woman that summoned this heavenly candy from the heavens. You are by far the greatest person I haven't had the pleasure of talking to.

Dakota

Fantasy Football League

So on August 8, I started a fantasy football league. I persuaded four of my friends to join, and then I had to make it open to anyone on ESPN.com because we needed ten league members to join. Five other unknown people joined, and we drafted players that night. Two of my friends (Brody Thomas and Joseph Payne) and two of the unknown people couldn't make the draft so the computer automatically picked their players based on who was the highest ranked player available once their time to pick came around.

Once the draft was over, I was evaluating everyone's rosters and I came to a conclusion. It seemed as if the people that didn't draft drafted better teams than the ones who actually did the analyzing of available players and the scrambling to decide who to choose in the last ten seconds of their ninety-second pick slot. This kind of miffed me. What angered me even more was the fact that I set up the entire league, toiled for a strenuous, never-ending ten minutes and I got the very last pick per round in the draft. That prompted a very weak class of runningbacks by the time my pick came around, and runningbacks are the meat and potatoes of fantasy league scoring.

Post-draft, I'm watching trades between other players, the players they drop and the ones they pick up from waivers, and dealing and trading my own players to perfect my roster as well. In fact, just yesterday, I picked up Brett Favre who just twenty minutes before signed a two year, twenty-five million dollar contract with the Minnesota Vikings. The season's looking like anyone's game right now, although I'd have to say that Jeff Sumner and Joseph Payne probably have an edge over the rest of the competition. I guess we'll find out in a short fourteen weeks!

Dakota

The Extradition of John Woolley

As an eighth grader at Burns Middle School, I was introduced to the man that I would come to call, "The Woolley Mammoth." I was on the academic team there and we were presently in the middle of a quick recall match against Pikeville when a white-haired, grizzly man comes walking in with a mug. "Sorry, sorry, our match just finished," he said. From that moment on, I began receiving the most absurd amount of papers and study materials from this man I hadn't even met yet.

The beginning of my freshman year was the first time I met him. He seemed to be a very nice guy. I came to realize that this was not always the case, especially when our quick recall team was losing or one of us missed a question he believed "we [had gone] over at least a hundred times." He would become very angry and occasionally cuss out loud to us. I'd never seen a man get so enthralled in the art that we call quick recalling.

Then it came time to go to ACE camp (aka. nerd camp) during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year. I found out in the midst of this camp that my coach of only one year had been fired. He had apparently slept in the same bed with Nick Miller, another student on the team, which was, as we would come to find out, illegal.

The one year I spent with this man changed me in a way that only he could change me in. And now he is gone, and I must accept the fact that he will no longer be coaching me but the fickle Owensboro High School Academic Team. As I write this, I reflect on whether I truly appreciated this man's contribution to my teen-hood memories, or I just find them genuinely hilarious. A great man he may be, a woolley mammoth he will always be.

Dakota

P.S. Wanna know more about the dude, drop me a comment. I'll get into the juicy stuff.

First 3 Days

Okay, this is my first blog, so I'm not really sure how it works as of yet. I hope with practice I'll get better! So uh....yeah, just started back to school on Wednesday. It's pretty cool I guess. I would have to say the classes I'm going to enjoy the most this year are biology and U.S. history, but that's just because Mr. Bates and Mr. Fuller are pretty much amazing. The classes I'm probably going to enjoy the least are spanish and sadly the class I am writing this blog for, English. Can't tell you how wonderfully great it is that it's Friday - these three days have been the ones that try men's souls. So yep, signing off for now, 'bout to go home and RELAX! Peace out.

Dakota