last one for the year

So this is going to be kind of a wired one. Starting out I am going to speak about music and the different types one person can like.

The traditional types of music are becoming less important as the earth grows "smaller" We will be starting out with the most basic of the traditional types of music in the US. These are just my preference but what I look for in a country singer is a story telling, My favorite band for this genre of music is the Zac Brown Band, Here is an example of their work and the story that I am looking for. (Colder Weather) (While she is walking away)

The second in this list is rock, there is classic rock, ACDC, alternative rock, Linkin Park, Christian Rock, Relient K, and so much more. Click the links to see what I like.

The last thing that I am going to add to this is the fact that the sound of normal music is changing. With the addition of technology to the mix the "1980's" sound is coming back in the way of techno and dubstep. I have started getting into this and would like to let you see some of the things that I am talking about. This first video is something that I find interesting. It is a person who is teaching about the universe and put it to a song. Let me know what you think about that one and The Island by Pendulum. I like them so maybe I just introduced you to new types of music!

Hope you had a good semester, enjoy the rest of your college career!

There is a bit of human kindness in the world.

This story proves that there is a bit of kindness left in America. Recently a man passed away in California. If you didn't know him you would not know why he left $262,000 to a school in Smalltown Missouri. The truth of the matter though is that Mr. Wisehart grew up in Sheldon, Missouri and attended school there. With the economy the way it is many schools are receiving cuts because state governments and federal government can no longer support them. This donation will help Sheldon schools ease off the financial burden.

I think that it is nice to see someone thinking about the next generation when they are trying to decide what they are going to do with their money. I personally know a co-worker that attended Sheldon Schools and I do not know what my life would be like if I hadn't have met her.

I know that this is a small entry but I thought that it is something that I would rant on in a good way this week. To read the full story click here!

Tuition Hike

I read today where Missouri Southern State University Board of Governors approved a tuition and fee hike . This comes at a time when most students are having a hard time just trying to find the money to make the tuition or student loans and gas to get to class. According to a local news agency, the MSSU Board of Governors approved a hike which will raise in-state tuition by just under $6.50 a credit hour making instate tuition $169.48 per credit hour. 6.50 an hour may not seem like much but compare that to what most minimum wage is ($7.25) and that is only a $0.75 difference for a paycheck. Now look at how many hours is required for a two year and four year degree, minimum. That is a lot of money that students don't necessarily have and may not be able to count on Government Assistance.

I say that it is time that the directors know what I think. You want to start making money, appeal to the students. Lower you tuition rates that will appeal to more people who want to attend college. Lowering the tuition rate will decrease the income but if you stop spending money on building needless things such as signs to announce the sports complex and focus that money instead on upkeep that is money that you can eliminate from tuition. I think that if you focus your money on upkeep and not on frivolousness cosmetics of sports cosmetics you will be able to save money while not having to increase spending of your students.

Of course if you want to help out you are more than welcome to by making a donation to MSSU, you can do this by following this link to their website!

Weather photos

This is going to be the short post for the week, I was thinking just now about the wild weather and how it would be awesome to get a one in a million shot. Then as I was thinking about it I remembered how much danger those who go for the awesome shots are placed in. To get the perfect shot, you have to be out in the storm. I mean check out this image.



That would be an awesome shot to get, however they are next to a storm when massive lightning strikes are going on. Click on the link above to visit the site that I found that picture on. I own the rights to none of these pictures and give credit to the websites that I have located them on.

April Showers bring May Flowers....

Sever weather season, feels like we just went through this not to long ago, oh wait we did. Well anyhow it is the season to keep an eye on the sky and an ear to the TV. I just thought that you should know that. No playing golf when a sever thunderstorm warning is out, why? Because electricity must first be discharged into a point of impact before the thunder can roar. Nothing like a metal golf club to say " I am a target." But while I may be scenically, let us not forget those brave men and women of Emergency Services who must drive around in the middle of the storm and rescue people and answer weather related calls. Let us not forget that they put their lives in danger driving through that 4 inches of running water so that they can respond to an emergency medical call. Let us thank them!

Last week was National Telecommunications Week. This week is set aside to honor those in all fields of dispatching. We in law enforcement use it to honor the men and women who handle the stressful calls, not just from citizens, but from our officers too. When you call 911 and think that the operator sounds like they don't care, try to remember that they are staying calm for you. They are staying calm so that you have hope. For every time something goes wrong we are the ones to know about it.

To my fellow emergency dispatchers BE PROUD IN WHAT YOU DO! Be proud to work in this field and tell people that you are an emergency dispatcher. Tell them how many agencies you handle and that you know how to get response to their home if needed!

This is kind of a weird rant I know, but I felt as if I just needed to show pride in my work! Hope you all stay safe this weekend through the wild weather!

Busy week.

Again, it has been a busy week here in my small town. I have made the decision to start a small business in photography as well as keep a full time job and attend school as a full time student. I have no idea what is in store for me for the next few months but I wish that my life would work its way and make up its mind so I know what I need to do. But that would be to simple would it not?

Our paper was due this week, Missouri Southern switched its email provider on us and guess what, I had to send my paper in on my work email because the schools email would not let me send it out.

I am hoping that the weekends start slowing down, but the weeks go by in a hurry. I know this is a short entry but I am having summeritis and cant wait to stop typing. Read the blog entry below this for more information on my new business venture.

Starting a business.

If you followed my blog last week, I was trying to decide if I wanted to start a business or not. We I believe that I have decided to go ahead and start the Photography business while having a full time job and full time student and just adding an internship during the summer to that. Well there is going to be a lot of things that I need to do to start this business. One of the most expensive and time consuming things about photography is the equipment. First off there is Photoshop. Now there are competing brands that are not Adobe, and while they are fine for some people, I am wanting to get Photoshop. To see the price for Photoshop click here. Next comes the lights and reflectors that are needed when taking pictures of people. When you are in a studio setting you need a light source that makes the light in the image consistent. When working with nature you sometime only have the sun to work with. When that happens you get reflectors. Sometimes when you are starting up a business like I am doing you have to put some money down on but you can find some good buys on ebay.com. That is what I am doing looking for my lighting through ebay.

Before you can actually begin selling your services you must first register your name through the Missouri Secretary of State's office as well as get a tax Id from the federal and state levels. In my town you must also get a county and city business license.

Next you have to design you paper work, charges for the service and prints, design receipts and create a way to keep track of the money you make for taxes. This is where it is good to have a friend that is good with accounting.

After all that is said and done then you can start charging people for the services that you have done. If you all want to check out my work go to facebook and search for ZMD Designs. If you like the type of work I do like my facebook page and let me know on this blog post also.

Have a good Easter weekend all!

Creation of a business.

So I spent most of my spring break thinking about creating a photography business. Saturday I spent two hours taking over 200 pictures for the first set of Portraits that I  have every done. Most of these turned out great but I did see some areas that I need to work on.

I enjoy taking pictures, it is relaxing and you can preserve a moment in history. There are so many awesome things that you can do in photography too such as painting with light, editing the picture and alot more however I think that Photography is becoming like the music industry. In music you do not see very many of the new artist that do not clean up their voice with technology so that when they sing live they do not sound like they do on the album. Well in my opinion we are doing that with photography too. We are editing the way that people look to much. It is my goal, if I do start this business to keep the pictures natural with as little editing as possible. This first set of senior pictures that I have taken have showed me how easy it is with some people to not have to edit pictures.

The thing that is slowing me down though is the fact that you have to do so much work and legal studies to even know where to being. First you have to register your name with the Missouri Secretary of State's office, then you have to file for tax ID and some other things. This is a huge gamble when you don't know how much of a call you are going to have. I mean lets face it, Lamar is in SW Missouri, not that far from KC, Springfield, and Joplin. Even in Lamar I know of at least 4 professional full time photographers and that is not counting the people who travel to KC and Springfield to get it taken. I just don't know if I should take that gamble.

I would like to hear what you all have to say. Listen to a voice of reason outside of those that I know are just trying to help me but be nice about it. Thanks in advance for your help!

This weeks top stories in my opinion :)

1. Baseball is almost here. I am sitting here trying to think about what to right on this assignment. So I got this idea that I would do a Its almost here one and then the linked piece would be about things that I thought were important this week. So hear goes.

It is the end of March and that means that Baseball is almost hear. I got a new (for me) camera this semester, its a DSLR and I am wanting to try it out. So I was thinking that since MLB is about to start up and Kansas City is not to far away I may try to catch a game and see how well my camera takes pictures of the sport. So hear is the really important part, pricing. What does it cost to get a good seat at Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium? For a good seat against the Yankiees or the Cardinals (which are the two games that I wouldn't mind seeing) cost about $55/person for the dugout seats and then less the farther you get from it. To me that is a good price. I am willing to drive to see a good game against two teams that are really well known. Also Kansas City is hosting the 2012 All Star Game. That would be a game that I would love to see but you can expect that the prices for that will be expensive! That game will be played July 10th in Kansas City, Missouri.

2.  Everyone has heard about the Meaga Millions drawing that the lottery has been doing this week. The next drawing is for $600+ Million dollars. This is a large amount. According to yahoo, the chances of someone winning this amount are 1 in 176 Million. What I would do to be that one person who won! Is it worth that dollar per chance to win? I guess that is up to the person spending the dollar to win. In my opinion it is your money to spend how you see fit. Just don't waste all of your money on it.  Yahoo also list five reason why you don't want to win the mega millions jackpot. Check it out on this link.  A lot of these reasons are a very real threat and have a good deal of reason behind them. So think hard before you choose because you may regret it.

So those are my stories that I wanted to link on. Have a good weekend all!

So close...

Just a few more hours until I do not have to worry about anything from school or work to bother me. Oh yea, thats right I took a vacation at work during my spring break so that I can just sit back, relax, and write two papers. Yes, I am a procrastinator, I have yet to do the 3rd paper for this class and I have a primary source paper due the Monday classes start back up. What can I say, I like to feel free while I can only to have my hopes dashed as I do work during my breaks. But am I the only one? No I don't think so. A lot of people a procrastinators like myself. So while I enjoy the first few day's of my week off I will try not to think about what is going on in the world of school work.

I know that that is a kind of small entry on this week but it is just about a half hour before spring break officially beings for all of us.

Have a great and safe spring break all!

Where was winter?

I think that we can all agree that while we had some cold days this last winter, it was nothing like the norm. With just one snow storm that interrupted schools across the area I don't think that the winter was that bad. With that being said I want to pose another question. Where has spring gone? While we have yet to get into the stormy season, spring is already upon us and the trees are in full bloom. Temps are in early summer temps though. Click on this link to see average temps for this area and what has actually been recorded. Right now we are running about 10 degrees above average. Now those temps are not bad right now but think about mid-summer when the average temps are in the upper 90's to lower 100's and add the ten degrees on to that. Hopefully that will not happen but if it does expect me to stay inside most of the time.

For us staying here in Missouri on spring break, it looks like it may get a little bumpy with the weather. The Weather Channel is calling for possibly sever storms on Monday. If this happens (which I hope it does not,) please remember to be responsible and keep you and your family safe.

While we may be having storms next week we are not the only ones. On the national forecast it looks as if the US is in for a kind of stormy week. Check out the written version here.

Have a safe spring break and watch for weather!

Photography...

One way to keep sane is by having hobbies. I have a few different hobbies such as riding a long with deputies, reading, building model aircraft and taking pictures. By far the most expensive hobby that I have is photography. The reason it is so expensive is because a good SLR camera cost money.

SLR stands for Single Reflex Lens. SLR's are expensive because they can do a lot with the different functions of a camera. Not to long ago I acquired an SLR. It is an older model Canon but it works for me. I love taking pictures with this type of camera because I can do much more with the different lenses and zooms, depth of field, and focus. Recently I was outside taking photos in just the moonlight and they were turning out well. I was even able to capture the Big Dipper.

 The reason that I use this intro is because I want to show you a couple of things that I want to eventually try out. My ultimate goal is to go to the National Parks and take pictures there and start a business secondary to my career choice.

One of the things that I want to try out is called Time Lapse Photography. Time lapse photography is where you take a whole bunch of pictures from the same place with time in between them. Sometimes this is accomplished by taking a picture every 26 seconds for a couple of hours. Sometimes you have to take a picture for longer times. For an example of a fun way to do time lapse photography with a friend click on this link.

One site that one of my instructors told me about this year is awesome. He does a lot of time lapse photography and they look awesome. Check out his website at 599productions.com. He has a few different types of time lapse and my favorite would happen to be the one with the night sky.

But for right now until I get to the point where I know what I am doing, I am going to stick to doing photography like the one above. If you have a Facebook account you can look at my photos by one of the following links. Even if you don't have a Facebook you should be able to look at some of these pictures.

Night Life Album
Fall 2011 Album
Photography

Taking pictures of Nature is a good stress releaver. When nature is working with you that is. Animals and even the plants have a mind of their own it seems. I like to head out in the middle of nowhere and find a good image that I think I can make look a certain way. By the time I get the picture taken it normally looks close to what I had in mind.
Let me know what you think. Have a good weekend!

Changing of the Seasons

Well it is the end of the first week of March. Just one more week until spring break. As yo may have noticed the day is getting longer and the night is getting shorter. The stars are changing position in the night sky and it is warmer. In my life this is getting to be the busy season. With the change of the seasons from the colder to the warmer more people will be going out and about at later times. This leads to more calls being placed with the Sheriff' Office. Not that that is a bad thing it just leads to me doing more work.

I am looking forward to the warmer months because that means that I can stay out longer and do more things after work. With the ending of school for the semester that means I will not have to go straight home from work to sleep but will be able to hang out with some of my friends.

Of course the main thing that is not good about the seasons changing is the weather. With the seasons changing the weather swings hugely to where the colder weather that is leaving collides with the warmer air pushing the colder air out. This of course creates the storms that lead to the sever weather that is so prevalent in the Midwest.

So why the rainy season is good and the warmer weather is nice, the change of the seasonal weather change is not good.

So we will see how long we can have a good spring without the sever weather.

Have a good weekend you all!

Spring Break 2012

So spring break is just around the corner, literally. By the end of next week I will be flying to hang out with a friend in the Capital. I can't believe how difficult it has been to look at tickets and see the prices, I do not remember having this much difficulty last year looking up prices. Of course there are sites like southwest.com, kayak.com, and travolocity.com. But this doesn't really help when you are looking for a price for a flight that is less than a week away.

On a side note is it just me or have airline prices gone up way to much. Why do you think that airlines are going out of business? It is because they have hiked up the prices way to much and no one is really wanting to spend that much money on a trip. I know I am really double thinking about going on my trip.

This just really annoys me, I mean how can you make money if your to uptight to realize that your target can't afford your product. Learn from others mistakes before you make the same mistake and go out of business.

Well I am going to try and think about what I am going to do wish me luck.

Help or no help.

My rant for this week is over the helpfulness of people.

I am irritated, I have been since last night when I was out at Walmart. While I was walking around the store with my Grandma I noticed that someone who was in one of those electric carts had dropped something and could not get it. Instead of directly going out of my way for maybe a minute to see if I could help him I hesitated because I did not want to insult him. This rant is more out of annoyance on my part and the fact that we can no longer freely offer to help without feeling like a jerk.

I have always been taught to be nice to people, to treat them like you wanted to be treated and to always be respectful. Yesterday showed me that while doing so I am now unable to inquire if someone needs help because I feel as if I am insulting them. While I do want to help I am not wanting to insult them. I guess I just do not know how to approach the subject.

By the time I made up my mind the other night, someone else had already stepped in and helped the guy pick up what he dropped. That made me feel like the lowest man on the earth. I don't know what to think about this. Is it just me being over critical or what?

Let me know your thoughts

Relationships with pets.

I was thinking today how everyone creates a relationship with their pet. The way you are reading this you are thinking "yea, they need to have good relations with them." That is not what I am talking about though. We label everything now-a-days. Look at Facebook, you can "like" everything on there, I am sure we would misuse the word love on Facebook if we could. This labeling has gone overboard. When I say we are creating relationships with our pets we are making them a child. How many times have you called a pets owner "mom" or "dad" when talking to that pet? I mean listen sometimes how much we talk to a pet like it is a human. Now don't get me wrong, I love pets. I work with two dogs, and have one in the family, and I do it too. In fact it was me doing this that got me to thinking about this.

The Boston Globe recently release the most common animal names of 2011. Leading the pack (forgive the pun) in the dogs was a base off of pop culture. For dogs the leading name was Bella from the Twilight Saga. Check out the link to see the top names for 2011.

That is about all I have to say for this one, I know it is short but I think my Stars one makes up for it. Have a good week everyone!

Stars

Stars, specks of exploding gasses thousand of miles away from earth that make the darkness of night bearable. Winter is my favorite season. Let me explain my self. During the summer months the humidity in the atmosphere along with the long-range radiation that the earth gives off makes a haze that makes it difficult to go star gazing or planet watching. Winter is my favorite season because no matter how mild the season is or how frigged a night is you can, on a clear night, see the sharpness of the night sky in all its beauty.

I live in a small town. I do not envy those who live in the city, they are missing out on something wondrous. You might be thinking "This guy is weird, why is he talking about stars." What I want to know is have you ever been to a quite place with little light except that coming from the night sky on a moonless night? It is a different type of peaceful. Imagine yourself laying in the short grass of a field watching the night sky go by. Seeing the shooting stars next to a friend or a lover while the breeze blows through the country side. I get to live this vision whenever I get the chance.

There are places all throughout Missouri that are State owned and therefore available to the public during certain seasons. One such of these places is Prairie State Park in Liberal, Missouri. Do you remember the song Home on the Range? Well there is a part in it that says "where the buffalo roam..." In this state park, you may actually see buffalo roaming. There is also a camping area and walking trails, but the best feature of this spot is in the middle of a clear night laying looking into the heavens a specks of light that brings out the childish imagination of everyone of us.

How cool it would have been to have lived in the age of the Greeks or the Romans. Looking into the night sky and seeing it so clearly with no noise or lights to take away from the peaceful research. To have your mind connect the dots and see images and stories play out in the night sky. To have your myths live on as long as man could see the expanse of the universe. In some ways, night is more magical than day.

So yes I like winter, night and the sky. If you are stressed, take a break. Drive a few minutes to your local state park and lie down and watch the world rotate for a while. You will be glad you did.

Let me know what you think.

Week 5

This has been a fairly good week. It has gone by quickly as all weeks do when you have both work and school. Next week will be even better as I have three test on Monday, no school on Wednesday or Friday. Not having to drive those two days is going to save me some gas. Mid-term and Spring Break are just around the corner and I can't wait. To not have to drive for five days and plus I took off some time from work so I will be able to spend some time with my friends and family.

I was notified today of the requirements that are needed to pass the physical portion of the testing process for the MSHP. WOW, they are quite tough. I am hoping that I will be able to do it. The next two weeks I am afraid are going to be the toughest two weeks stress wise for a while.

That is really all I can think about saying today. It is time to up the ante and work out a little harder. I should not have taken those two days off of working out. Have a good weekend all!

Gas Prices (linked)

Have you ever noticed that one week you see gas at a certain price and you think "Wow, that is way to high," and then a few weeks later you are saying that you wished that the price of gas would go back to that price? Well I had that thought today.

I think this is what a lot of people are going to be saying soon. ABC says that some people could see up to $5/gallon gas during the summer time. If this happens, we will be seeing a lot of people walking and riding bikes. What I want to know is why we let the price keep going up. The last time it was this high was in 1981. By the late 1990's gas was under $1.50 for a nation wide average. Why is it that we are letting them hike the price of gas up. People keep saying that they are looking for alternative flues. LOOK HARDER. The electric hybrids that are out on the market today still require gas unless you plan to only drive for like two blocks a day. That is not a reliable alternate. I drive about 60 miles daily to get back and forth to school. I put about two tank fulls of gas in my car per week. Right now that is costing me about $80 dollars. I will not be able to afford college if gas goes up any further. Not only will I not be able to attend the classes that I am paying for, people are not going to be able to eat because the gas prices will be hiking up the prices for food.

A good result of this is we may see more farmers selling their meat locally while local butchers and farmers sell the fresh produce at local stores. I can see a trend developing where communities in America become closer knit. Where business booms in the local market because people are not going to be wanting to spend the extra gas and money to go out of town to shop. I say welcome back 1960's style shopping, before wal-mart and industrialized shopping. Welcome back to the flourishing of small town communities.

If gas continues to go up, I hope that the local markets grow. I also hope that industry takes a hint and tries harder to locate another way to travel that will not rely on something so trivial as oil. There are ways out there, I just know it. But for the time being I am going to invest in a bike and ride that around my local town.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this matter.

My Favorite Movie Series

For those of you who don't know me (which is really all of you) my favorite series in both written and visual form is Star Wars (TM). This series just makes me relaxed.You can sit down with a book a read if for hours and see the words come to life. The main thing that I like about the Star Wars series is that it is fiction. I mean this to say, it is written to entertain not because it actually happened.

In 1999 George Lucas release the first move in the pre-queal of the saga. Episode one which introduces the story of Anikin Skywalker and Obi-wan (Ben) Kenobi. This week, Lucas Arts re-released that movie in a 3D version of it.

I like this movie so I think I am going to go see it in 3D and compare it to the blu ray release that I bought in October.

Now you know a little bit more about me. Yes, I am a "star wars" nerd. I have a huge collection of the books and all the movies on Blu Ray (I bought the moves before I bought the Blu Ray). I can't wait to see what the next series is going to be after they finish the book series that I am reading now (last book comes out in March.)

Let me know if you Like Star Wars. If you do maybe we will talk!

Vacation or no vacation, that is the question! (linked piece)

It has been another horribly long week for me. Between school work and working out I am super exhausted. I honestly cannot wait for the next long break. I am already beginning to count down until the semesters end! I have been trying to decide on where to go for vacation this year. Some of the choices are with my close friends, others are just places I would like to take a camera and go take pictures for the entire trip. Of course if I do that,  I am going to invest in a SLR camera.

My decision on where to go is a hard one. It also depends on who is wanting to go with me and how much money I have saved up at the time. If my friends are going with me, I was thinking about either going to one of the Caribbean Islands or Florida and would probably just invest in an underwater housing unit for my current camera so that I could go snorkeling out in the bays. I love photography if you can't tell. If my friends do not go with me than the whole beach thing is out of the question. I would go to either Montana, Northern California in the Redwood Forrest, or to Yellowstone National Park. These would be ideal because I love to take pictures of nature. Nature is there for you, unless you are dealing with animals nature stays still for the most part so that you can compose the image the way you want. For me this is perfect because I feel as if I can paint a picture for you when I do not have the best artistic abilities in painting. Designing photos relaxes me. But to go to these places and take these pictures it takes money and a good camera.

SLR or Single Reflex Cameras are a really good camera that you can do a lot with. I got interested in SLR when I was a senior in High School and was taking a lot of pictures for the yearbook. I am currently taking a course in Crime Scene Photography this semester and we are learning a lot about the manual and other functions of an SLR. I like the fact that you can not only create the setting in manual, but you can also focus on what you want to. You can have the image focused on a small item in a huge frame or you can have the entire frame in focus.

SLR cameras are expensive. So I will need to search for something that I like. Both times that I have used an SLR for long periods of time they have been "Canon Rebels." I like the way that you change the settings and how the camera works. The average camera is about $500. That is just for the camera, not the lenses or memory cards and such. They do often have package deals that you can get.I am going to be looking for these package deals that way I can get more bang for my buck but still know it is reliable.

This post is lengthy because I am trying to talk myself into taking a break and going on a vacation. I am writing down my thoughts because reading it makes me fell as if who wrote it down knows what they are talking about. Yes, that means that I am trying to boost my self confidence while talking myself into taking a break

The cold hard facts about working out.

As you may read in the other post from today, I have put my application in to be accepted to the next class of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. In order to do this I will need to get into better shape in the next month before the application process and the test starts in two weeks. This post is more than just an assignment to me. I am going to return here to read the cold hard facts about what I have to change in my life. This  means that I will be having to work out on a regular basis and lose a lot of weight. Good news it that this gives me a goal and a push to stop procrastinating and do something about it in the next month. If this information helps you please let me know, because you comment may just be the one that helps me not quit. 

I am a number, a statistic. I am obese, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website  over 33% of all Americans are obese. In Missouri that number is 30% as of 2010. I am part of that number. In order to change that I have to change my life style meaning that I have to cut out a whole bunch of foods and drinks. I made a major step by cutting out the pop in my life on January 1st, however that is not the extent to what I have to do. Now I love my pasta and carbs as much as anyone around me does, but those are one of the things that has to go. I have asked my friend to help me, and as much as his help pains me, he has cut my diet down to the basic goodies. This is officially my first day on this new diet and I will tell you the truth, it's harder than I thought it would be and I cheated a little. 

While I will continue to do this tough eat healthy no things that I love diet and exercise until my legs want to succeed from the rest of my body lifestyle change, I can honestly say that if and when I stick with it, I will feel great for accomplishing it and being able to (hopefully) pass the first part of the application process. I will also be able to count myself no longer as part of the Missouri and American obese population.

This will make it easier for me to stick to the diet, according to the McDonald's website, just one McDouble has 390 calories of which 170 were from fat, 19 grams of fat, 33 grams of carbohydrates, and 920 milligrams of sodium. That is just ONE McDouble. When the recommended daily intake is around 2000 calories and just the burger for your meal is 390 of those, that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for stuff like steak and salad or something along those lines. Especially if you are like me and like to eat more than one of those small burgers.

I know that this post is going to help me, but I hope it also helps you. Feel free to leave comments on this post!

Center for Disease Control and Prevention website: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html
Accessed on: February 3, 2012

McDonald's Website: http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/getnutrition/nutritionfacts.pdf

Accessed on: February 3, 2012

This weeks rant.

This week has been one for the record books. What with the major life style changes and life altering career choices that I have had to make this week I am ready for a break, and that not even including the college work!

I do not believe the high schools  prepare you for college now a days. Yes, they teach you how to  do math or science,but they do not prepare you for the "real world" aspect of it. The decisions you make in college will forever affect your life, weather they be positive or negative. This week I took a major step in my career life by applying for the Highway Patrol. In doing so I have a deadline to get into shape and test (in one month!) This led me to making the decision to alter my life choices in how I eat and exercise as well as decide not to drop this semester classes. While I am happy that I sent the application I also created a whole lot of positive stress in that I now have so many days to cut the fat out of my life and apply my self to getting in the Patrol. If I survive this next month I know I will be able to survive the rest of the application process. While the decision to alter my life choices was not an easy one I am glad to say that I have a lot of  people backing me up, and that will allow me to continue on this path.

I know that is not really a rant but it is what I accomplished this week. You will notice that the linked part of this week is going to be for me. This will allow me to look at it and keep to my goal for the month. If you have any suggestions please let me know for that would be awesome!

Read this story!

According to GMA on Yahoo, two teens in Utah have been arrested for allegedly plotting to bomb their school this week. This all comes from a student stepping forward when she received texts from one of her friends which made her concerned. One student has been identified and the others name has been released only due to him being a minor. The students had detailed maps of the school including the security system and cameras. One student even went to Columbine in Colorado to learn more. If the student had not stepped forward there could have been a large loss of life.

First of all, props to the student who notified officials,we all know that that was not the easiest thing to do. Now moving on to the others. You may think that you are brilliant for planning to do this, but in reality you are no better than the dirt we walk on. I understand that people may hurt you but that is no reason to go on a killing spree. Talk it out, do not use violence. This could have turned out worse for you because a number of things in your plan could have back fired or not worked. I am glad that your friend had the guts to go to the police with the information, she is a true hero and a life saver.

It irritates me that so many kids are turning to violence now. It seems to me that the morals of this world are going down the drain. Parents used to teach children to resort to violence only as a last resort and to talk it out first. Something is telling me that as a society we just don't put enough training into our kids anymore. What I want to know is how these kids could have gotten hold of the schematics to the security system and planned it without anyone knowing. I think there needs to be a review done on this schools security.

Read the story and let me know what you think.

Small Town Mayor pulls over state trooper...

This is a short article, but I still find it funny. A mayor of small town Norway, SC was pulled over by a state trooper, according to policeone.com After the trooper cleared the Traffic Stop with the mayor, he himself was pulled over by the mayor. The mayor claims that he was justified in acting as the towns "chief constable."

While it is true that some small town mayors have the power of "chief constable" that doesn't mean that they have the right nor the power to pull someone over. This is why officers of the law HAVE to be certified. I do not know all the facts about this case as the story was literally just a paragraph long but it doesn't seem to me that the mayor needs to be in that position from much longer.

Read the story and let me know what you think.

Intro...

Hello all,

My name is Zachary Dykes, and I am a sophomore. This blog is what I used in English 101 to this course so if you want to read some of my rants feel free to. I am a CJ major and am working at a local Sheriff's Department full time while going to school full time. If you need anything from a classmate point of view, just email me. I hope to have a great semester.