Fast and furious and grinding

We’ve all seen the movies with amazing drivers. The peel off in a cloud of smoke, pull sharp maneuvers, drift through corners, all while going at high speeds. It makes you want to become a stunt driver when you grow up, no matter what age you actually happen to be. But in most cases, there’s a little fact that’s overlooked. 

Sometimes, the driver is actually shifting. This means that he or she is driving a manual car, a near unheard of thing here in the U.S. While manual transmission cars are quite common in Europe, the same does not ring true in America. I see this as due to American laziness and the initial difficulty to learn to drive a manual car. 

A manual car differs from an automatic transmission car in who has to shift the gears. In automatic cars, the car itself senses when the revolutions per minute get too high and it needs to change to a larger gear as to not potentially damage the gears and/or engine. In a manual transmission vehicle, the driver controls when the transmission changes gears, using what is called a clutch and a gear shift. The driver pushes in the clutch, a pedal, using their left foot. This disengages the spinning engine from the spinning wheels and allows the driver to shift to a different gear. The driver then moves the gear shift to a different position, changing which gear will be engaged once the driver lets out the clutch. (If this doesn't make sense to you, just Google it, there are much better explanations out there than mine.)

That is part of the reason that learning to drive a manual car is so difficult. You have to let out the clutch and give the engine just enough gas so that the gears catch correctly on the engine. It is most difficult to get started from a stop, which might be why many choose to not drive a manual. It tends to be very frustrating at the beginning. However, once you master first gear, the others come easily. 

There are some benefits to driving a manual transmission vehicle. One is its gas mileage. Most manuals can be more gas efficient than their automatic counterparts, due to numerous factors, one factor being that automatics require more power to operate the mechanisms that automatically shift gears. 

Many people decide to drive a manual simply because it is more fun. Since you get to control the gear shifts, you can keep the transmission on a smaller gear for longer, allowing the car to accelerate more quickly than an automatic could. While it may not be a smart way to drive, it does make driving more fun. 

Either way, a manual car essentially works the same way an automatic does. It will get you to your destination the same as an automatic, it may just get you there at a different rate or with more “work” from you. Personally though, I find that manuals are more fun, and make driving a more enjoyable experience.

Let them eat cake

No, actually, don’t. 

As of late, more and more schools and school districts are switching to healthier foods, removing junk foods from vending machines, and encouraging healthy eating. 

If you go to most schools now, you won’t be able to buy a soda. All carbonated beverages have been removed and you can now choose from healthier choices, such as water, sports drinks, milk, and tea. If you want a snack from the vending machines, you can choose from whole grain snacks, baked chips instead of however they normally do them, or rice based products. Many schools also limit food during lunch, like at mine. Desert is only served once a week and the number of sides you can get is limited. Some elementary schools will have a staff member check the snack that a student brings to make sure it’s healthy.

Some may say that the school or school district should not have control over this aspect of the students’ lives. However, this is a very beneficial thing. 

Most students do not buy groceries and make meals for themselves. It’s usually the parents’ responsibility to do that. This gives the student little to no control over their meal. But since they attend school, they do get to decide what they eat for lunch and for high schoolers, what they eat as a snack. 

By only giving students a healthy choice for meals and snacks, this could impact their future habits. If they’re only around unhealthy food, then they’re more likely to continue those habits once they become independent. By exposing students to healthier options, this could potentially lead to more sound choices and an overall healthier population. 

One argument against this deals with staff members checking elementary students’ snacks. Many say that they cannot afford to buy healthy snacks for their children and must resort to unhealthy snacks such as Doritos. I find that hard to believe when one bag of Doritos costs from $2.50 to $3.50 and a bag of apples can cost the exact same, if not less. So that argument is clearly invalid. Having staff “ok” snacks could also encourage parents to buy more healthy food for their families. 

So while many think the educational branch is overstepping its limitations, they are really just trying to encourage good habits. This will hopefully promote a healthier America and increase the overall health of our population. 

To see the other side of the argument,  visit http://finleysawesomeblog.blogspot.com/.

They killed the cat!

I know I said I don’t often watch movies. But a friend suggested I watch “The Boondock Saints.”  So I did. 

I very vaguely knew what the movie was about, thanks to that friend’s raving about the movie. I knew it involved Irish men shooting guns and killing people. But other than that, I was in the dark. 

The movie started off in a Catholic church. Odd way to start a movie about killing. But I suppose it was a way to humanize and define the characters. We see the main characters, Connor and Murphy MacManus, two Irish brothers, praying and leaving the church. That’s when the fun begins. 

We see our first fight within the first few minutes. 

However, these brothers kill with a higher motive. They act as self-directed vigilantes, killing men they deem bad.  Then their friend from the Italian mafia joins in, both helping and hindering their pursuits.

The characters are fabulous. The force you to form an opinion of them, which helps to connect with them better.

The brothers charm you from the start. Clever quips, funny retorts, they both amuse and make you admire them. Then their “virtue” makes you respect them while their shooter-hero side makes you wish you were as cool as them. The MacManus brothers were easily my favorite characters.

Their Italian friend, Rocco, on the other hand, was a little harder to like. Toward the beginning, he was just the clumsy henchman of the mafia. As he decides to think more independently, though he becomes a stronger character, he kind of becomes more of a jerk. But while he wasn’t a favorite character, you could fell the brothers’ love for him. They viewed him as a brother and deeply cared for him. He and the brothers made him memorable.

We also meet Paul Smecker, an FBI agent sent to investigate the organized crime deaths. He turns out to be a surprisingly likeable character. Despite being the antagonist, he is amusing and adds light to the movie. He makes you laugh, yet shows the other side, the side where the MacManus’ are the bad guys. He doesn’t, however, make you join his side of the story. You can like him and see him as the bad guy. 

I do have one complaint though. I really think they could’ve used the “f-word” a little more.

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. -Aristotle

For the longest time, I’ve been in love with quotes. I remember that it probably started in seventh grade, in my engineering technology class. For some reason, we had to make a poster with a quote on it. I really had no idea what to put at that point in life, so I probably Googled “quotes.” The one I found is still my favorite. It’s from Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers.” 

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all...”

It’s only the first line of the poem, but I’m sure I will never forget it. When I found it, I suppose that in my little seventh grade mind, it was just some pretty words. And they are beautiful words. But they also have astounding meaning. I don’t think I can explain my thinking very clearly on why I find it so lovely. This quote in particular is simply poetic, musical; it is light. 

While this is a quote from a poem, I even more love quotes of what people have said. It’s like a snapshot of what someone was thinking at one time. Quotes tend to be deep and to just imagine what was going through someone’s head when they said it is simply fascinating. What made them say that? What situation prompted them think that way? It’s a little window into someone’s mind, letting you get a glimpse of their inner workings. 

Of course, it calls for a specific type of quote. There’s a huge difference between “I mowed the grass today,” and “The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” (Eleanor Roosevelt) The quote has to have meaning, the speaker must be trying to get a point across, and they must be trying to teach you something. 

So if you ever want a quick snippet of wisdom, try looking for some quotes. You may never know how much one sentence can change your way of thinking.

There ain't no rest for the wicked

We’re now finishing up the third week of school. Labor Day has passed, summer has unofficially ended, and we’re starting to get into the swing of things. Teachers are getting back in their game and students are getting back into the habit of late to bed, early to rise. 

This is one thing that has always frustrated me about school. Modern science recommends that teenagers get around nine hours of sleep. And during the summer, most teens get that much sleep, despite staying up until one in the morning. However, once school starts, things change. Even if a teen was fully dedicated to getting that much sleep, doing so and succeeding in school would be near impossible.

At school, students are encouraged to get involved in sports, clubs, extracurricular activities, and challenging classes. However, if a student was to do all this, they would for sure be lacking in sleep. 

I’ll first start with sports. School sponsored sports, and non-school sponsored sports, will often have practices daily, lasting at least one hour. Then add on the likelihood of having at least one game or competition a week and we see the availability of the student to participate in other things decreasing. 

 Clubs will also have the same effects as sports, although not usually quite the impact. But depending on how involved in said club a student wants to be can change how much time is needed to devote to it.

Now for extracurricular activities. Be it show choir, band, orchestra, drama, or some other activity, each takes up a large chunk of a student’s time after regular school hours end. Practices after school, performances, individual practices; all consume a lot of time. 

Lastly, I would like to point out the emphasis on taking challenging classes, be they advanced or Advanced Placement. These classes often require much time to be devoted to either studying the material or completing homework assignments. Often times, teachers will say that they assign about an hour of homework each night. Considering most students take six classes, that could mean up to six hours of homework.

Now, let’s say a student is in one sport, one extracurricular, and is taking three AP classes. That student would likely have a two hour of practice after school. It is now five o’clock. That student may go home to eat dinner, but will most likely have to return to school for the practice for the extracurricular activity, which could last as long as three hours. That student would likely get home around nine. If said student went to bed immediately when he or she got home, in order to get the suggested nine hours of sleep, that student would have to get up at six. 

However, our student is in three AP classes. That means it is around eleven o’clock when he or she is able to go to bed. Now, to get the full nine hours, the student would have to sleep until eight. Funny, that’s when school starts. 

I didn’t even go into working, but it would take no less than a miracle to allow a student to work as well as be involved in school and get the advised amount of sleep. 

Our schools demand involvement and then berate students when they don’t get enough sleep, causing their performance level to drop. It’s a vicious cycle that repeats itself until you graduate. That is of course, unless you’re attending college. Then you get four more years of sleep deprivation.

School's out for summer

In the United States, most public schools run on the traditional schedule with three-ish months off for summer break and the rest devoted to schooling, minus holiday breaks and weekends. However, as of recently, many have been questioning the effectiveness of this system. 

The traditional schooling system began to allow children to help on the farm during the summer months, when crops were being grown, and during some of the harvest season. This was beneficial to both the families, who needed more workers, and the children, who would likely grow up to work on their own farms.

Many are arguing that since most children no longer are needed to work on the farms, it would be best to switch to a year-round schooling system, as many other countries already have. Most students forget some of the previous year’s schooling and a period of review is often needed before new material can be taught. 

Those people who argue for year-round schooling fail to see that even though the circumstances have changed, the three months away from school are still beneficial to students. 

Firstly, the summer months are often when many students, mainly high school students, find jobs and work. This not only supplies them with an income that they can use to begin taking care of themselves (such as buying their own clothing,) but it also provides them with experience on what a working environment might be like in the future. Students learn many valuable lessons through having a job, including responsibility, time management, money management, and perseverance (if they don’t like the job much.) 

Summer also gives students the chance to relax. Many older people remember school as easy. However, at the time, I can assure you that they thought it tedious as well. Especially nowadays, classes are difficult. Even over breaks, students are guaranteed to have some piece of homework due the day that they come back. This can be extremely stressful, due partially to our tendency to procrastinate, as us kids always do. Over all, students need time to relax. Our work follows us home, unlike many professions or jobs that adults have. 

Lastly, summer is an important time for families. Many plan numerous summer vacations, to either distant locations or to visit family who do not live nearby. While this is not a necessity, many families would be unhappy with the inconvenience and it would be more difficult to arrange trips.

I do think that year-round school would have benefits. However, I believe that the traditional school system we currently use is well sufficient enough. Long summers will always be beneficial to students and adults.

To see the other side of the argument, visit http://finleysawesomeblog.blogspot.com/.