Senator Kennedy

I have never been extremely interested in politics, to the extent of until the last election in which I was able to vote I had basically no interest in it and did not care. The name Kennedy is almost synonomous with politics, the extent of my knowledge of the Kennedy's was that a couple of them were shot and the whole family was involved in the government. That being said all I can't tell you what Senator Ted Kennedy has done over his tenure as a Senator. I have heard he stood up for a lot of reform and such things and that he has also killed someone and never served any time. Most of that happened before I was born or even in elementary school, so I am not here to debate and rant on those things.

I got on KCRG.com and read their story which was very good and respectful (I believe it was an AP story). Sadly I scrolled down and looked at the comments expecting some people to be saying RIP and such things, those people were there however they were in the minority. The majority of the people were saying things about how he killed some girl and never served time and that he never really did anything. I understand all that he is a politician, a public figure not everyone is going to like him. However there were several more people that took it to the next level and talked about wanting the video that accompanied the story to be a video of him "swirling around the toilet and taking his last breath and get sucked down into hell" or something very close to that. This just completely DISGUSTS me! Are you searious? How sick and demented do you have to be to take pleasure in watching ANYBODY die!? You people are absolutely disgusting and one of the reasons why our culture is so messed up. Grow up!

I am praying for the Kennedy family for all they have been through and for these sick people. GO CYCLONES!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Studying?

School has started again and of course this means studying and doing homework. So far it's not too bad...however it's only the second day of school. I am supposed to be doing some reading on the United State Constitution to discuss in my Political Science class tomorrow, not very exciting so I am delaying that. Other than that everything is going very well.

Marching band is going tremendously well and I can't wait for next Thursday (September 3rd) for our first game against NDSU. So far we have all of our pregame show on the field and half of our first half time show. The excitement is building as we start a new era in Cyclone football! I have also decided to change the name of my blog to "True and Valiant" my favorite words in the Iowa State alma mater "The Bells of Iowa State".

I am still taking opinions and such on the podcast that a friend and I may be starting. Other than that I hope everyone including all my friends are having a great start to the school year, if you haven't started yet safe travels and good luck to everyone, I want to see you on Labor day weekend! GO CYCLONES!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Summer is...

Coming to an end. In just eight days I move in and band camp starts. However I have already been in Ames for almost a week now, even though I have been going back and forth from home, the farm, and Ankeny. I normally wouldn't do this much driving and traveling but...I have not gotten less than 31mpg on a tank and the highest I have gotten is 42mpg, for some reason I have started to like driving more. Anywho, football practice is going well and they team shows a lot of promise for better days to come in Cyclone football, not to mention the entire athletics department.

I was going to update with a rant on the Marion Police Department...but it was summer and I got busy and forgot, now I have decided it wasn't a very good rant and is no longer relevant. I promise to have more rant's though.

A friend and I have somewhat decided to start a podcast where basically you can e-mail us with basically anything you want to hear us talk about/discuss/hear our point of view and we will. We have not yet decided on a name or anything so I will let you know when we do that and when we start. Does this sound good or interesting? Something you would want to listen too? let me know please! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Vacation Update 2

Okay so as you can see from the previous post I am writing this on the way back from my trip to Colorado. This one was with my family. Last year my mom and dad went out to Estes Park for a week while I was in school and my sister was working. They loved it and we decided to go back this year. We stayed at a friend’s condo in Estes; right behind the condo was fall’s river. If you have ever been to the mountains their rivers are the sizes of our creeks with (depending on the time of year) maybe five times the water flow.
We were set to leave on Saturday afternoon after my sister got off work, well I woke up with a sore throat went to the doctor and was told I probably had strep throat. We decided to not leave until Sunday morning and drove all the way out that day. I had been to the west side of the Rockies before for white water rafting; I fell in love with the Estes area immediately. In case you don’t know Estes Park is right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, needless to say it is an absolutely beautiful area; again if you have never been there GO!
The park has some amazing hikes for any level of fitness, however I do highly suggest going in the morning before the trails get too crowded especially if you love the outdoors and the peacefulness, my dad and I went for hikes three days and were there around 8 and it was perfect. Friday morning my dad and I went fly fishing in the park as well. We hired a guide from a local shop and it was a great experience, he was very helpful and taught us how to properly fly fish. I only caught two fish (a brown, and a greenback cut throat) and my dad caught a cut throat but didn’t know it and it got away. The rivers were quite hard to fish due to the warm weather they have had lately that is rapidly melting the snow melt from higher up in the mountains and glaciers; they have also had an abnormally high amount of rain which raised the rivers even higher and faster. My mom and sister went on a horseback ride Friday morning as well and said it was great.
Downtown Estes Park is an old style with a bunch of different shops and stuff. There are also several great restraunts ranging from American, to Chinese, to Italian. There is also a river walk through downtown along the falls and then the Big Thompson Rivers which meet in downtown. I was able to take a lot of pictures on my phone and parents camera which I will put on facebook when I get the chance.
We left Estes on Friday afternoon and went down to Loveland for the night and stayed with my mom’s aunt and uncle. We went out to dinner to with my mom’s cousins and their family, I didn’t even know these people existed so that was kind of awkward and weird. We are now on our way back (I am writing this on Saturday afternoon the 27th as we get into Iowa).
I will have another update later this week on some rants I have so look for that one. Have a great week! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Vacation Update 1

Sorry it has taken so long to update this. Summer has been amazing and I have been very busy. Since school has gotten out I have started to work two jobs, one doing some light construction/handyman stuff with a guy, and another delivering meals on wheels for the Witwer Senior Center, both have their positives and negatives. I have also started to donate plasma every once in a while, of course I am also interning in the KCRG weather lab again this summer.

My first trip took me to Florida to surprise my girlfriend. Her father approached me a few months ago and asked if I would be able to fly down to Florida to see her. He was doing this as part of her graduation present and bought my plane tickets. The opportunity was enough for me to accept but then I got to fly! I had never been on a commercial plane until this trip, I have been on many smaller private planes like my uncles Beech Craft Bonanza V-Tail. If any of you really know me you know that I love to fly, I was very excited for the trip and the flight.

When I got down there her dad (who bought the tickets) went to Tampa Intl. to pick me up…I was at St. Pete Clear Water. Oh well it was a funny start to an awesome trip. We met up with her and the rest of her family at Universal Studios in Orlando, she was in the bathroom at the time so I just sat down, needless to say when she saw me she was very surprised and started to cry (if you are either of our friends on facebook you can see the pictures there). The rest of that day and the next was spent at Universal, surprisingly I enjoyed even the stuff I don’t like (such as the doctor seuss stuff). Since I was only able to be there for basically two days we went to Cocoa Beach the next morning for a few hours before she took me to the airport to fly home.

If you have never been to Florida or the Orlando area GO! I love the warm muggy weather and crazy afternoon storms that pop up rain for an hour and it’s gone.

As you can see from the title of this blog this trip was not the end of my summer travels. My next update probably sometime Monday or Tuesday I will talk about my trip to Colorado (which I am actually writing this on my way back from…Nebraska is boring). I hope the rest of your weekend is great!!! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Right or Murder...

I was just watching the news and saw a story on a Minnesota teen that has a form of cancer, his parents will not allow him to take chemo therapy. They claim that it will most likely kill him and he has a better chance of living taking another form of treatment advocated by religious groups. His mother and him have now disappeared, they were last seen at a court ordered x-ray, which showed that the tumor had grown. The court has also issued an arrest warrant for his mother.

This caused me to think, should the court get involved in the treatment of a child, is it the parents and child's right to decide how to get treatment even if it's rather unproven. Or is it murder for them to choose the route that they believe will cure him, even though doctors say it wont. This is not the first time this has happened, I do not know the results of those but I will do some research and let you know.

What are your thoughts on this? Should the Court get involved and force him to take chemo? Please leave comments or e-mail me at jbcook89@gmail.com. GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!

Rain rain...

Go away! I need money! So my main job this summer is doing some handyman type stuff, which we obviously cant work outside in the rain, so I don't get to work and don't get paid. I am calling Biolife today though, I can sit and play on the interwebs while they drain my blood out of me and pump it back in.

School is done finally, I am sorry for not updating this the last couple of weeks it was kind of intense. It's done and I have all of my grades back and they were good, I am also now off academic warning which makes me very happy. I love being home and not going to school for the first time in eleven months, but I do miss ISU and my friends there. Not to mention only 104 days until the first football game!!!

I don't have much to say, so leave comments or something for me to rant about or talk about. Hav a great weekend!!! GO STATE!!! GOD BLESS!!!