Random Topics

Math and Life

2005-08-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

The two are becoming one... I probably worked on math for about 8 hours yesterday, and I've worked on it for about 3-4 hours today, significantly less but I still have a little more to do.

I find it interesting that many people dislike math. I can totally see why, but I find it very interesting. You can wordclear someone intensely on their math and they won't get any better or faster... because you can't learn something without a purpose for it. If it doesn't interest you, you won't learn it.

I don't even have a definite use for it, but I thoroughly enjoy it. I've been flying through my math, I'm on the last Algebra & Trig course, and then I just have Solid Geometry and Calculus and I'm done for highschool atleast.

Anyways, on to other things.

I found that writing up O/Ws, which I hadn't done til about a month ago, greatly increase your power, or so it seems to be. I wrote up a few pages of O/W's at school on cycles that I hadn't completed that I said I would. Well, I had a target that was nearly two day's targets (a lot in math) and I made that target. I still have 2-3 more hours tonight and I only have 1 step to make my target on math, which I already did but found out I did slightly wrong, so I can quickly fix.

I also am doing my reading, which I did look upon with great distate. It was going through the history of Anglo-Saxtons. I now look at it with ease, realizing that I can read it very quickly, and get on to Beowolf and Canterbury Tales.

Well, that's about it.

Oh, one more thing, I heard a riddle today, which I figured out, it's simply incredible. If you have the answer, be content with it. You will know it is the right answer. If you're unsure, I doubt it is right but you can e-mail/reply to this and I will tell you whether it is. I won't tell you the answer:

There was an old sultan who had to decide who to give his power to. He had three sons - triplets. He decided he would give his rule to the smartest of the three, so they could run the kingdom best (obviously).

In the night he went and put a red dot on each of his son's forheads. The next day he called his sons to him. He said, "Whoever gets my second question right first gets the throne."

He said, "If you can see a red dot on one of your brother's forheads, raise you arm." All three raised their ams.

He then said, "If you are sure you have a red dot on your head, raise your hand and tell me why you are sure."

After about two seconds, one raises his hand and told the answer.
----------------------------
What is the answer?

A few poems

2005-07-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would share a few poems which I particularly enjoy.

OF BEAUTY AND DUTY

by: Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

WO ladies to the summit of my mind
Have clomb, to hold an argument of love.
The one has wisdom with her from above,
For every noblest virtue well designed:
The other, beauty's tempting power refined
And the high charm of perfect grace approve:
And I, as my sweet Master's will doth move,
At feet of both their favors am reclined.
Beauty and Duty in my soul keep strife,
At question if the heart such course can take
And 'twixt the two ladies hold its love complete.
The fount of gentle speech yields answer meet,
That Beauty may be loved for gladness sake,
And Duty in the lofty ends of life.

About this next one, it's called the Desiderata, there apparantly is some confusion about it's coming to be found, if you want more data on it go here: http://www.fleurdelis.com/desiderata.htm

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Written by a friend of mine, though an incomplete version he had to shorten it to enter it in a competition, and I don't have the original.

Thy awayness hath come and that I see,
Yet mine hath just gone free,
So I agree with thee,
Our talking was just not meant to be.
Yet the pain and agony,
Have just proven to be,
For gone are thee,
And so I see.
Yet unfortunately,
From the powers that be,
It is clear to see,
That now away I must be.
Now the yells of agony,
Are not there to be,
For gone is me,
And so are thee.

And who I be, is Geoffrey, for as you see, I am me.

And one more by Geoffrey:

To Class of '05

Steadily shining, glistening bright,
A steadfast flame held through the night,
Fiercely burning in spite of cold and storm,
Leading the way with unwavering form.

This flame you see and feel within,
Is lying deep beneath your skin,
You've lit this light within your heart,
And you have followed it from the start.

Your goals, your hopes, your steadfast dreams,
Are all contained in this firelight's beams,
Your purpose, your plans, are all aligned
To the burning flame of your life defined.

This kindled light you hold within
Has led you from what once had been
The years of work and toil and strife,
Which led you to his point in life.

Now from here, that light will lead,
Ahead in the dark, guiding your deeds,
Holding your actions true to your goals,
Forming your character, defining your roles.

Follow that light, follow it true,
For that's the light that urges you,
To follow your dreams, to kindle your fire,
To continue to strive for your desire.

Studying, love or hate?

2005-07-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

After having a revelation early today, I found it very odd that people could actually dislike studying. No, I'm not talking about a subject, such as history or math, I mean, plain and simply studying.

The reason why someone studies is to gain knowledge about a subject, which in turn gives him more control and responsibility over them (KRC Triangle). It is making you, as a person, or being, more powerful. If you study sailing you can much more knowledge on sailing, and you can know the dangers and safeties of sailing, the way to actually sail, and you know how control over that aspect. It makes you more powerful.

Yet, in the modern world, many people hate studying. To those of you who hate certain subjects - totally understood, I know exactly what you mean. If a subject has no use to you, why study it? It won't be of use, therefore it won't be giving you more power and is just a waste of your time.

But hate studying? That, in other words, is hating your ability to make you stronger. Now I understand many people have MUs, but I know people with the studytech who hate studying. I also understand that its hard to learn a subject without mass, so it definitely depends on the method of studying whether you enjoy it or not.

The ability to study, to learn, to grasp data and be able to apply it, to know data, is simply incredible. It can make one a master over a subject. You simply have to find something you like, and be able to have hands on with the subject. Lets say you have 3 hours to study, a good method would be to study the theory (the reading, writing, whatever) for 1 1/2 hours, while the other 1 1/2 hours, you just mess around with whatever it is. If you're studying sailing, then you could go around and do different things with the boat, applying what you learned so far, for the other time, so that you get a good feel for it. If you're studying computers, mess around the computer for half the time.

You can learn that you will love studying, as long as its not all theory or all practical. It should be an even balance between the two. Once again, you have to have use for the subject, or enjoy it, don't take some subject that you can't have a use for or enjoy, it will be torture. Trust me, I know.

-Kerry

Absence

2005-07-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

Wow! I totally forgot about this, I apologize to all, until a friend reminded me the other day.

Well, life has definitely moved on. I think the last thing mentioned the soccer season, so I will pick it up from there.

Our Soccer season was undefeated in our leage, then we went on to play off's, where we lost in the second round. We were, however, very proud to who we lost to. If I'm correct, we were the only ones who scored a point on the team in the play offs, and they ended up going through all the rounds to the finals and winning. At half time it was 2-1, their lead, we lost it in the second half pretty bad though, 6-1. I think we could have had a chance, morale being the cause, if we had made a point right after we made the 1, which we almost did, just a slight miss. If we had done that, our morale would have been EXTREMELY high, and theirs would have been VERY low.

They were better plays, though. No doubt about it, they had much more skill, we may have had more determination, but it wasn't enough to cut it with our low morale. Anyways, moving on, that was a great soccer season, and hopefully this year it will be better.

Now, I have gotten my permit, and hopefully I will start to get my driving this week. I've had it about 5-6 months and no driving, but I don't think it will be a problem, just have to confront getting the money for the driver, as its become more and more apparent. That should happen this week... :)

As far as school, I'm about to start Algebra and Trigonomotry III, the one where I actually learn trig, and loving math, I think it will be a great experience.

I just finished reading Atlas Shrugged (by Ayn Rand) and The Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter). Both were incredible, in very different ways. I'll start with the HP book because I think it's shorter.

It is simply incredible, she (author) has set the book so it can have many more after it, or have a really nice finish with one more. What she did in the end, seemed unbelievable, like it couldn't happen, I won't say what, but it was very awe inspiring. I was talking to a few who were coming up with the idea that it didn't really happen, I think it did, but I don't want to ruin it for whoever hasn't read it, though I would love to tell my theory on the matter to all of you who have :).

Atlas Shrugged, wow, *takes a deep breath*. It is indescribable, it's a very long book (1069 pages), and very deep. It goes over Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, or a form of capitalism and anti socialism. I admit, it's a bit strong, but she brings up point after point, and so many of them are true! She goes over welfare, and the biggest thing of all, the rewarding of the downstats and penalizing the upstats, the stealing of money from the good money makers to keep the unworthy alive. It's a great book, I mean, simply incredible, I highly recommend it to anyone. I warn you the first 70 pages or so are boring, but it speeds up, once you know what's happening :).

I guess that's all for now, I will be doing more regular updates, about more current things, and daily events.

-Kerry

School

2004-09-14T23:01:00.000-07:00

Wow, I feel like Form 7 has really begun.

I started school last tuesday (the 7th). I have been piling on homework, non-stop. I have 6 course slots a week, which takes up much of my time, I have driver's school which I'm attending which takes up even more time, and I have homework on top of it.

I am, however, glad to be back. Our soccer team is starting to come together, which is a lot of fun. I'm doing algebra, and I managed to program some functions into my new graphing calculator, which makes everything a lot easier. The main thing is Lit Sem and Current Events, having to do a research for our Lit Sem on the Victorian Era and read 48 pages or so of David Copperfield, and Current Events we are having a debate on whether or not the US should go into Sudan to stop the genecide.

Well, thought I should give an update, have to go now. :)

-Kerry

Life

2004-08-11T19:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't done a post in a while, so this might be a long one.

Well, after I went to Missouri, the following week I went to CCV (Camp Cherry Valley), a valley on Katalina Island. CCV is a Boy Scout camp. A friend of mine, now an Alumni as well as an Eagle Scout, decided to work there for the Summer. So I went with a few friends to visit him!

We went on a Friday morning, which was prefect because the boyscouts were leaving the next day so we could just go around with the staff. Most of the staff there were Mormons, and they were all awesome people. We did some kayaking, some sailing, some archery, and a few other big things. We also, among ourselves, did some dancing, and a mine tour. It was a greatttt memory, so much fun involved!

On the ride home, we were all sunburned (I laugh now that I look back on it) and we were all quite cranky but was rather amusing.

Well that's that.

I got involved in school once more after I got back from Missouri. One of these things was reading The Sea-Wolf by Jack London. At first it was going kind of slow, not really interesting. It picked up after I got a little further into it. I can't believe how intriguing the story is, and the greatness of the story is astounding. A lot of it is based on real experiences and none of it is unrealistic.

I am also doing Algebra and Trignomotry 1, which isn't the easiest. I, however, like math and am enjoying it for the most part. I also know it will be very useful when I'm programming in the future.

As for other events, a friend of mine had his 15th Suprize Birthday Party last Saturday. His family had incredible hospitality, letting anyone they want sleep over (a very long party) and they gave everyone T-Shirts (I happen to be wearing one as we speak.) We got to go swimming, Paddle Ball (if you don't know what this is, you should research it a bit under "Paddel Ball" its a very fun sport, though it's not widely known in the US), watch movies, play computer games, it was awesome.

Aside from that, I've also been on my M1 course. This is the first course I've gotten to use a meter! Which also means that it's the first time that I've had to go through the E-Meter Drills. If you've done these yourself, I ask you to remember the first time you went through them, wasn't that easy was it? It's lots of fun through, and we have a three-way twinship (or triship?) and its going very well.

Well, that's the update!

-Kerry

Missouri

2004-07-05T21:02:00.000-07:00

I'm back.

A little bit over two weeks ago I had decided that I wanted to go help Applied Scholastics When I had decided, I hadn't the faintest clue of what it would entail.

I first got there on a Saturday at about 5 PM. Well we immediately started working til 10, with a 1/2 break in between. I had been thinking we were going to be doing 9 hour days or so, so this was quite a surprize. I learned that we had 15 hour days (7AM-10PM) with 2 hours of breaks inbetween.

So, I started the next morning pretty tired, but got through most of it. First thing we (I came with three friends) did was finish white-gloving the house we had started on the day before, which only took a couple of hours. We were then handed over to a couple of guys, whom were to become good friends. They tought us how to polish floors, which let me tell you, has a lot more to it than the eye sees.

We used buffers, which were quite hard to control at first, always shooting off in either one direction or other. However, we soon got the hang of it, and ended up doing it for another week in a half. I won't go into detail because that would bore you to a great extent.

However, I will tell a bit about what other things we did after hours. I discovered, that near everyone else there that we were worked with were great people. They were all very uptone and always willing to help you. I gained so many friends, we could joke around with our seniors and our equals. We started having fun with our work, listening to music and just getting to know each other.

And then, we finally finished the bally floors. We were then put on more fun projects, like we had to move 25 tons of rock in one day, that was probably the most tiring, all the guys' arms were dead by the end of the day, and then we continued to play 2 hours of hacky sack after we were off, so next day we were really tired. The next day, we had to seal the floors (not quite done), and the fumes were so strong we had to get gas masks because we were getting head aches and getting delirius. Well, in the afternoon we went and got to level ground and then sod it for 10 hours. Phew, that took a while, but the product that we had when we were done was well worth it, it looked so awesome!!!

We then had to put some mulch on it the next day, and do valve tags. That was a very interesting day, had to stand at the top of 10 foot ladders, through the ceiling to put little tags around valves, which wasn't the easiest thing to do, but it was fun. I made myself a chain and put it around my wrist, which I later found out was a bad idea because I couldn't get it off, and it was made out of brass, which contains copper. And if you don't know, copper turns your skin green. I got it off at 5 AM the next morning, right before I went to the airport.

Anyways, it was an awesome trip, I made many new friends, which I plan to hang out with in the future, and it helped me get credits for school as well as help a good cause, what else could one ask for?

-Kerry

Weekend

2004-06-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

Wow, end of school! YAY!

Here's how my weekend has gone:

Friday: Pretty much a normal school day until 3:00, then we had our Awards Ceremony. Here many of my fellow students, including myself received awards for various activities. They also had graduates of the various forms that had completed in the last two weeks, which let me tell you, was quite a bit.

Then, the following day, we had our Commencement, where all the graduates (that were now going to leave the school) were given their diplomas. We had estimated about 500 people (we only have about 280 in our school) to show up for this commencement, which is how many seats we provided for. We underestimated by quite a bit, I'm guessing about 700 people arrived.

We had a very well-known guest speaker, Tom Cruise. He gave one of the best speeches I have ever heard about education, it was directed towards the graduates but it could be applied to everyone present.

He was followed with the speech each of our 12 present graduates gave. They were all great speeches, have immense depth and meaning behind each. One could tell the accomplishments gained from the school they had just completed.

Well, after this was all over, I quickly went with some friends to one of my other friend's show. This took place in Hollywood, called the Rock Theatre. It was so awesome, lots of good dance numbers as well as soloists (like my friend.)

However, since it was only 11 at night, we decided we'd go to a birthday party. That was interesting for me because I didn't know the "birthday boy" but got to know him there, even though the party had ended half an hour before.

Once this was done, and night was still young ;), we went over to my friends house and swam in his pool and sat next to a firepit once that was done. Most of my friends decided to leave at about 2:30, and I decided I was going to sleep over.

The following day, I woke up, ironically, pretty early (8:00). I watched pulp fiction for the first time, I knew I had been missing out so I thought I'd finally catch up with the crowd. I loved the movie, 'twas incredible.

I then returned to my house, and discovered, to my enjoyment that iw as going to be picked up an 1 1/2hrs later to go have a late lunch with some friends. So I got picked up, at about 4:00. We then traveled across the valley because the driver of the car, a friend, thought he forgot his keys at a worksite in which he worked earlier that day. When I got there, I was amazed, the owners were Russian, and they had a totally different style house and furniture from the average. It was a huge house; it was going to have a pool in the back yard.

Well, he didn't find his keys but it was pretty fun to to see the house (he later discovered his keys somewhere else.)

We then went to Hollywood, to eat our lunch. It was really funny, it was a new shopping mall, and the directions on the walls weren't totally correct, and we were all starving and we couldn't find the restaurants for a bit. We did, however, find them in the end. We hung out around there for 2 hours, while we were waiting for an event's time to approach.

We left at about 7, and got to the Larchmont, I think its called in Hollywood, where we were going to see a battle of the bands. A band from our schoolw as playing and we were going to support them. We listened to their music, but quickly left when the next band came on. I don't understand how people could like their type of music, I think it's classified as "black metal" or "death metal", while he yelled in a demonic voice for 45 minutes. Then came to the voting, we all yelled very loudly, and the demonic-voiced-band and our band got into the finals. However, the other won, which I don't understand at all. Unless, perhaps, the announcer was scared he wouldn't live if he chose ours, the other crowd was quite rough, most wearing black leather, many very big.

We left shortly after, and returned to my friend's house once more. And that is my weekend.

-Kerry

First Prom

2004-06-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

Wow. My first prom was incredible. I heard from my friends who were there that it was the best they had gone to. We had it last friday night at the Odyssey, located in Granada Hills.

It started out great, all my greatest friends and I were all seated at table #7 (Lucky number 7 ). We had dinner, and we all danced with out partners for a bit. Then, we went through one of the prom traditions, which is for the next-year-graduates to read a Shakespearean quote that suited the current graduates. Some many great quotes were chosen, some short some long, all were good. Then, two of my friends had written a program for the graduates. I wish I had a copy of it, I'd post it here, it was incredible.

After that, we danced for a while, and we were informed of an interesting dilemma. There was a single road that goes to the Odyssey, and there is a hotel earlier on the road. Well, someone apparantly was holding some people hostage and threatening to kill himself as well. So, we were told we couldn't go until it was handled. This ment that we continued to dance until 12:30, when they finally handled the situation.

Now that the "Prom" was over, we decided to go to an after prom party at my friends house. This was also great fun, lots of people went into the pool and jacuse (I have no idea how to spell that word.) Several of us went to a firepit and sat around talking. However, since it was getting late, people started dropping off fore a while, until there were four of us left at about 2 in the morning. We sat chatting until 5:50 or so when a friend of ours had to go.

The whole thing was incredibly fun and I can't wait til the next!

-Kerry

Interesting Data

2004-05-21T23:05:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have heard of the beheading of Nick Berg. Well, I have some interesting news; I don't think it was done by the Iraqis. I made a presentation that I'm supposed to show for my current events, I'm going to write it here. Sorry for any bad grammer/spelling, I haven't proofread it yet.

"Nick Berg

My presentation is on Nick Berg; Nick Berg was the one who was beheaded on May 11. The US Government told us that it was the Iraqis that did it, and that Zaraqawi, one of the leaders of Al Qaeda, was the one who did the actual be heading. I think, however, that it was not the Iraqis, but the CIA instead.
Here are several reasons why I believe this:

1. Zaraqawi, the alleged murderer, cannot have been the one in the video. There are several reports that he was missing one or both of his legs, not letting him move easily nor stand easily. There are also many reports that they found him dead when the US bombed one of the cities in Iraq. In the video, the man who does the beheading can move very easily.

Zaraqawi is from Jordan, Iraq. Jordanians have a very distinct accent that the Arabic culture can distinguish. All the Iraqis asked to watch the video have said that it was not a Jordanian accent. Once again, this means that it cannot be Zaraqawi.

2. In the video, right before the beheading, the speaker reads a long speech off of two paper’s. The US says they refer to the Al Qaeda, which it does not. In an interview of a CNN Sr. Editor for Arab Affairs . This is a short clip of the interview:

O’BRIEN is the interviewer, NASR is the interviewee.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, now one final thought here. You did a very careful translation of your own, of the statement. And in it, you see no reference to al Qaeda. And yet the official U.S. government translation does. Explain how that happened.

NASR: Oh, I find it very interesting, because out of the blue, there is a mention of al Qaeda on the U.S. government translation. It says: "Does al Qaeda need any further excuses?" Any speaker of the Arabic language is going to notice a difference between the words al Qaeda, which means “the base,” and al qaed, which means “the one sitting, doing nothing.”

My translation says: “Is there any excuse for the one who sits down and does nothing?” Basically they're telling people, you have no excuse for not doing anything, for not acting and defending Islam and so forth. Whereas the U.S. government translation has this factual error, I'm sure it's an honest mistake, but basically it sort of adds al Qaeda to the statement, which is not on the statement.”

With this error out of the question, that means the al Qaeda have not been mentioned at all and is in no way related to terrorists through the transcript.

3. It was reported that Bergs body was found on Monday, over the weekend. This is a bit confusing, since it refers to both Monday and over the weekend. However, if it was found over the weekend, then how could the murder have taken place on Monday, May 11th?

4. Berg is wearing a Guatanamo prison suit in the video. He had been arrested falsely in Iraq, which explains this suit. His father had called them and told them he was arrested falsely, and he was released the next day. If this were true, how is it that he is still wearing it once captured by the prisoners? He was either handed to another group, or for an unknown reason he remained in those clothes after he was released and captures by the “terrorists.”

5. This video supposedly took place on May 11th, 1:36-1:37. The video was aired at 6:30 that night, here is what they had to get done in that time. They had to do the actual execution. If the body wasn’t found out over the weekend, which would make the whole thing false, then it was found later that day. They then alerted the rest of the family of what had taken place. The video was then urgently brought to Congress, who was in session, and viewed by them. Then, they showed it that evening. Remember, this video was supposed to have taken place in Iraq, I don’t think it is possible for all this to have taken place in one day.

6. Here are some mistakes about the video itself:

Nick Berg sits in a chair and states his name and family members. The chair was identified as the same type of chair that is the standard at the Abu Ghraib prison.

The whole video is out of focus.

The time is in American numerals, not Arabic numerals.

All of the terrorists in the group were rather big, if you look for a rather big Iraqi you’ll be searching for some time.

The terrorists had very white hands, probably whiter than mine, which you don’t find an Iraqi with.

The mannerisms of all the terrorists were American. Shifting hands with the gun quickly, turning different ways, as we do from boredom.

The weapons that they were using were supposedly AK-47’s, the standard Iraqi weapon. These weapons were discovered to be Gilal’s, an improved version of the AK-47 that the Israelis made, not the Iraqis. The Iraqi terrorists nearly universally use AK-47s.

Nick Berg does not move throughout the whole video, except when pushed from behind, he never blinks either.

When they say the final words of the message they read, shrieks can be heard. Berg’s mouth does not move at all. The screams were very high pitched, and were identified to be a women’s. The video editing was done very poorly as well, having the screams at the wrong moments.

When they do the decapitation, the man does it with a knife. If you’ve ever tried to cut through muscle, bone and flesh of any animal you know it is not very easy. They did the decapitation in about 10-15 seconds, and no blood spurted anywhere. More than one doctor have said that he was dead before the decapitation took place.

The decapitator was wearing a golden ring. He was supposed to be Zaraqawi. This is prohibited in Islamic law.

7. Now, the reason why the CIA is likely to have done it. There has been three reported deaths in the US prisons in Iraq. They had all undergone interrogation. When the autopsy took place on the first body, they found that several of his ribs were broken and had been beaten severely. The CIA clamed that when they were handed the prisoner he was in this condition, the Army denied this immediately.

The second one died also after the CIA interrogated him. The CIA claims he died several days after their interrogation.

The third died after a severe beating as well. The CIA denies all three of these deaths.

8. Now, if it were the CIA, why would they have done it? It just happens to be that on May 10th, Bush had the lowest popularity vote he had had since he started campaigning, 42%. Why would this help his rating? He had started the war in Iraq, and if this story were believed it would prove him right. It shows that the Iraqis are insufficient to rule on their own. Many people evidently believed this because his popularity has now gone up to 48%."

Glendale Paint-Out

2004-05-16T21:47:00.000-07:00

Well this is my first actual Blog I've ever done, so here it is:

I went to an interesting paint-out in Glendale last Saturday. A whole bunch of different groups and sponsors came and did volunteer work to clean up graffiti and trash around Glendale. I was amazed to see 750 people showing up on their own volition to help. I was part of the Way to Happiness group, with a lot of friends from my school.

Strangely, it seems like it might be a lot of work and not appeasing to one's interest. It was one of the funnest things I had done with a while, some of my friends got in paint wars; one was covered from his neck to his knees in different colored paint.

Glendale does this once a year, it should be a lot of fun next year as well.

-Kerry