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I am so pissed off at everything right now, and right before finals week I get so much more shit dumped on me, and it is completely unfair. I got a possession ticket the day after Chit-fest at 11:00 on Sunday night. Ok I can deal with this, after all it is the law. The thing that is killing me right now is that I went to court this morning at 8:30, and sat there until after noon for them to give me a continuance, and that I have to return in a week to pay my fine. This is just tedious bullshit, but it’s what I get for breaking the law. On top of this, my friends and I have to meet with the school authorities. Today my friend got back and told me how the meeting went. The guy who was supposed to discuss what happened turned out to be an interrogator. He called out my friend for being a liar and threatened him with severe consequences. He wants to find out who the dealer is, but the problem is, we don’t know him, and we’re not pulling our other friend into it. Since he didn’t give up a name, he is threatening to press distribution charges on my friend, and I don’t even know how that is legal. All we did was sit in the middle of the night, not hurting anybody, and we get all of this stress and treated like criminals when we are trying to keep focused on finals. This is so un-just, especially after 100 cops stood by Chit-fest and watched thousands of underage drinkers get annihilated and did nothing about it, but my and I just sitting smoking at the amp when nobody is around must be the real problem. F*** this country, super pissed off.

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            I cannot wait for the summer. It has been a beautiful weekend at home for Memorial Day, and it is just a taste of what life will be like in two weeks when we are all done with our finals. This weekend we cooked out and had family ad friends over, and it was a great time. I slammed on some delicious food, and it was even better because I am so sick of eating campus food. When the nights wound down and all of the old people went to bed, my friends and I went to a party at another one of my friends named Paul. His parents were gone for the whole weekend, and it was a strait banger. I saw so many people that I haven’t seen in so long, and I can’t wait until I am home for good. After partying for two nights ad having a blast with everybody, I woke up today and headed to my aunt’s new apartment complex to go swimming. I swam a bit a laid down by the pool all day, just soaking up the sun. It felt so good to relax for a few hours and lay there like a slug. In the summer I plan to do this all of the time. I will also have a job, thank god, because I spent every penny that I made over last summer, and now that the year is winding down, I am super broke. It will be nice to have my own income again, no matter how small.

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If I were to be born in a different time period, my first choice would be the mid 1950’s. The main reason for this is because of the music that was made in that time period. I would love more than anything to be able to see Led Zeppelin play live at the age that I am at now, along with Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. I hate the concerts that I have to settle for today. I like to go to tribute bands like Zoso and Wish You Were Here, but watching some of the legends play live in their prime would be so amazing. I would love to live in a time that didn’t revolve around technology so much, and everything was more personal. I hate what social networking has done to actual socializing, and I wish I lived in a time where that wasn’t the case. I would like to live in a time when there wasn’t surveillance cameras filming you everywhere you go, a time when the government couldn’t track your exact location because of a cell phone, and a time when people had actual privacy. Most of all I want to live in this era because of the crazy partying that went on, I mean we party today, but I would like to party how they did in the 80s, I’ve heard some awesome stories. I really hate the time period that we live in now. It has some great aspects about it,  but I wish life was more simple like it used to be.

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            I know I already blogged about Hawaii for a vacation that meant a lot for us, but besides the best vacation, it is by far my favorite place to be. I only spent two short weeks there, but I am already ready to move out there as soon as I can. I haven’t ever been somewhere that comes close to Hawaii. I have never enjoyed myself somewhere more than I did in Hawaii. The place is absolutely breathtaking. Everywhere we went there was something amazing to look at. So much jaw dropping scenery surrounded us wherever we were. I can’t decide what my favorite part about Hawaii is, because there is too much to love. I hope one day when I move out there, I can see all of the islands, since I have only been to Oahu. The mountains were so awesome and they were filled with the craziest looking plants. I want to go hiking even deeper into the mountains, and possibly see some of the inactive volcanoes. I would also like to see some of the wildlife in the mountains. One place that I didn’t get to go to that I really wanted to see was the Black Sand Beach. It is just a beach with volcano ash instead of sand. I have heard that it is a great sight to see. I could spend the rest of my life exploring all the Hawaii has to offer, and I would never get sick of it. 

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            I am enrolled in the College of Engineering here at The Ohio State University, but my major is technically undecided. Currently I am pursuing an Electrical and Computer Engineering degree, and I plan to apply for that major in the winter quarter of next year. I have not always wanted to be an engineer, but since I have been here that has been by far my most appealing option, mainly due to the fact that it is such a lucrative field. The main reason why I chose engineering is because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I have always been very good at math. I can’t wait until I am done with all my prerequisites so I can get into some real engineering classes. I have always been curious to how people can do so many things on a computer, such as hack the Playstation network and steal information. It is amazing the capability of a computer, and even more impressive what people can use them to create. I am very excited to learn how to command programs to do what I want, to learn how to build electrical circuits, and everything else that I don’t know about engineering. I really want to specialize in electrical engineering and learn how to build my own amps and guitars. I like the idea of working with speakers and engineering sounds systems to my personal preferences. I plan on making this a hobby of mine once I learn how to do it. 

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            If I could meet any famous person in the work, it would definitely be Jimmy Page, the lead guitarist for Led Zeppelin, debatably the most genius song-writer and guitar player of all time. The amount that that man has accomplished is unbelievable. I aspire to do everything that he has already done; besides become a heroin addict. The reason I would choose to meet him over anybody else is because I just want to talk to somebody who had been where I am trying to go. I have thousands of questions for that man. I would ask him how he got so good at guitar, how he went about writing music, what tools he used, why he did the things he did, and the list could go on forever. My dream is to become a famous songwriter and musician, and there is nobody better to talk to about this than Jimmy Page. I would also like to meet the rest of the members of Led Zeppelin, including John Bonham, who is passed away. There are so many things that I want to know about the art of music, and especially about their music. They are obviously my favorite band, and I just want to know how they accomplished all that they did. I can’t think of something that would be more awesome than being able to meet Led Zeppelin and jam with them. In my eyes, they are music gods. 

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            When I was younger, I used to have the weirdest reoccurring nightmare. Now that I look back on it, it isn’t quite a nightmare, but when I was little it was pretty scary. It was always the Forth of July, and I was wondering around the neighborhood where they blow of fireworks every year. Everything seemed so smoky from the fireworks. I always end up at the same house, where there is a big party going on. It was so weird because there were kids lined up in the second story rooms, just being thrown out of the windows and to huge mattresses, which looked like a lot of fun. I then proceed to the backyard where the was a big golden slide leading down somewhere underground, and I am tempted to go on the slide every time I had this dream, it was inevitable. So I hop up and ride down the slide, and it spirals down into an underground room, I can’t really describe what it looked like though, almost as if it was made out of clay. Well anyways I would look around and find all seven of Snow White’s dwarfs doing random things around the room. The reason I was always so scared when I woke up is because there was no leaving the room. Once I was in, I would look for a way out, but never found one. I tried so hard to climb back up the slide, but it was way to slick. I would always panic and try to get out to meet my family, but I was stuck until I woke up.

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            If there is one thing in nature that fascinates me, it has to be marine life. The fact that there is an entire world of animals that we don’t know much about is mind-boggling. We have ventured underwater to see much that there is to see, but we have not come close to exploring all that goes on down there, nor will we ever see it. There are so many species that cam live under the water, and even more extreme conditions when you get to the very deep parts of the oceans. We now have high definition cameras to obtain good footage of some of these deep blue environments, but we will never know the whole story. I think it is amazing how a completely different society of animals live under what we see as just a big body of water. I wonder all of the time about the underwater places on this earth that we haven’t discovered yet. There has to be insane caves, beautiful unknown reefs, and crazy looking species of animals that would blow our minds. Underwater creatures are so interesting because of how different they are. Sharks, dolphins, millions of different kinds of fish, eels, and so many more kinds of animals are so unique and interesting. When I went to Hawaii, I went snorkeling and saw some amazing looking creatures. In just the small bay that we were in, I could spend all day swimming around and seeing what is really under the water. I think marine life is the coolest part about nature, mostly because of it’s mysteries.

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The first girl that I ever had a crush on was a little blonde girl with bushy hair and glasses named Julianne Janasko. She was in my first grade class, and as soon as I saw her I immediately liked her. She was the cutest girl I had ever seen my age. I probably had a crush on her until the forth grade, when I “dated” one of her friends. We went to school together all throughout high school, and even though I didn’t still like her, we were pretty good friends. She is super smart and very pretty. I’m not sure why, but she chose to go to Kent State University. I feel like she could have gone to any school that she wanted too, she was very involved in extracurricular activities, had great greats, and just a great attitude towards life. I have never seen that girl without a smile on her face, and every time that I see her, I can’t help but smile also. She is a very strait-edge girl; she doesn’t drink or smoke, but that doesn’t matter to me. She also plays the acoustic guitar and sings like an angel, and it’s really sexy, she reminds me of Taylor Swift. I know someday that girl is going to change the world and do great things. She has a huge heart and is probably one of the sweetest and nicest girls that I will ever meet. I wish there were more people in this world like her.

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             Not a lot of things people do in this world bother me, I can normally tolerate anything, or I just don’t let it get to me. The one thing that really does get to me is ignorance. I absolutely hate when people try to make a point about something that they have no clue about. I also hate when people won’t take no for an answer. For example, I have a friend that I met this year from St. Xavier who likes to go out and party a lot, and I used to go with him a good amount. When we would go to a pre-game at a frat, I would join him, and it was pretty fun. When it came time to go downtown on the buses, I would always call it quits and go home. I don’t want to pay ten dollars to get into a bar, and then pay 10 more for 2 drinks; I just can’t afford it. Each time this happened he would not stop pestering me on going. He would insist that I go over and over, tell me all the reasons why I should go. This would go on for 15 minutes, and I just don’t understand why he wouldn’t let up. This was extremely annoying every time. He also sets a good example for my other pet peeve. Today, when we were playing Fifa 11, he told me that Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player of all time. His reasoning was that Ronaldo scored like 51 goals in 50 games, and that is the best stat he had ever seen. I obviously shook my head and told him that he was crazy, but he asked me to show him a better stat. The reason this was so infuriating, was because I have played soccer my entire life, and know everything there is to know about the game. I am almost sure the kid has never seen a live soccer game, or even kicked a ball in his life. There is so much more to being a good soccer player than scoring goals, but since he doesn’t know that, he thinks his claim is perfectly logical. Because he is ignorant of this fact, he argues with me and tells me that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Cristiano Ronaldo is really good, don’t get me wrong, but there are so many other players that he can’t touch. Things like that just drive me crazy.

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            Last summer, my family and some of my sister’s friends took a trip to Hawaii to visit my sister’s family. I was born there, but don’t remember anything because we moved to Cleveland when I was like 15 months. I had hands down the best time of my entire life. We flew into Oahu, and it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen, and from the moment we got there, I knew I would one day retire there. For the first half of our trip, we stayed with my Uncle Ceasar and his family. The weather, the scenery, and everything about it was amazing. We got to experience the local life and see some unforgettable places. We went hiking on a trail into the mountains, which was pretty rough. It took us about an hour and a half to finally get where we were going, but when we reached our destination we knew it was worth it. Deep into the forest, with some crazy looking trees and plants, we arrived at a 30-foot waterfall pouring into a small lake. We all climbed up the side and sat on a ledge as the waterfall splashed on our backs, then we chilled there for a while and took turns jumping off. One of the most awesome things I have ever done in my life. We also went camping for the 4^th of July, in a private beach on the east side of the mountains. The water was strait aqua, the sand was so smooth, and the sun felt so good. We stayed the weekend there and I got to sleep on the beach, and I was woken up by the amazing sunrise over the beach. We camped and partied with my sister’s huge extended Philippine family all weekend, and cooked some amazing food on the beach. One of my cousins caught a baby shark in the water! It was pretty sweet. We also hit some other amazing sights, like Hanauma Bay and the North Shore, where we jumped off of this huge 30-foot rock into the ocean, so bomb. After experiencing the local life for a week, we got a hotel in Waikiki and partied it up for five days. This was the first time I had been back since I was born, and the first time I met my sister’s family, and it was by far the best two weeks of my life. I can’t wait to go back there the summer after next, I’ve been looking forward to it since I got on the plane ride home.

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            The best present that I ever received has to be my Fender Stratocaster. For my 19^th birthday, I wanted a new electric guitar, since my old one is a piece. I got to pick it out, which probably explains why it was my favorite present. I have always wanted a Fender Stratocaster since I learned that it was the guitar that Jimi Hendrix played one. My parents took me to Guitar Center, and I was like a kid in a candy store. I played so many different guitars, including some awesome models that were way out of my price range. I really liked the Epiphone Les Paul, but someday when I have a career I am going to buy an actual Gibson Les Paul, the guitar that Jimmy Page played. After playing a ton of guitars I went to try out the Fender that I really wanted. As soon as I picked it up it was bliss. It plays so smooth and sound amazing. For the first week that I had it, I didn’t set it down, and I still rarely do. I picked a model with a maple neck and a turquoise finish. It came with three different pickups, and the last one is a double humbucker that sounds so sweet while giving it a thicker, more defined sound. This guitar definitely takes the cake when it comes to presents that I have been given; I am absolutely in love with it. I used to play a good amount, but when I got this new one I pick it up every spare minute I get. Thank you parents for my lovely guitar!

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            My favorite job that I have ever had has to be when I worked for a burrito shop called Moe’s Southwest Grill. Some of you may have heard of it, but it isn’t the most popular place to eat. I worked there for the better half of two years, and started during my junior year in high school. The main reason that I loved this job was because I had the absolute sweetest boss in the world, her name was Big Mama, and she was a large black woman. She is still a close family friend, and probably one of the funniest people that I have ever met. At this place I didn’t have to do much working, because we were so slow, but it was an awesome job. Most of the time I spent eating free food, or fooling around with the other two workers who were there. All we really did was keep the place clean and roll burritos for people, when we actually had business. Since I was close with my boss Mama, I got to pick my hours for the most part, which was very nice. I also became a shift manager towards the end of my job, which was sweet because I was 18 years old in charge of a food shop, with no supervision above me. My close friend worked with me, and sometimes it was just us two in the store, so we got to do whatever we pleased whenever we wanted. The reason we could do this is again because nobody actually came to eat, since there was a chipotle right down the street. The food wasn’t very good, but I had a lot of good times and made some good money working there. The reason I still don’t work there in the summer is because we went out of business. The owners got into a fight and stopped paying the lease on the establishment, since neither of them cared about it anymore (They are really old). Just recently the store opened back up, but I didn’t apply because my boss Mama found another job, and it just wouldn’t be the same.

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The one thing about grammar that I don’ think I will ever be good at is knowing when to use a comma, a semicolon, or a colon. I have heard the rules from so many different English teachers, but when I am writing a sentence or a paper, I always seem to screw it up. I feel that there is always multiple ways to write a sentence, and you can manipulate the structure to however you please. I always try to make it the most simple sentence in order to get my grammar right, but this leads to a lot of boring sentences. When I try to switch up the sentence structure, I always make some sort of error with my commas, and word tells me to use semi-colons. When I use semi-colons word tells me to use commas. I really hate using colons, because it seems as if they stop the flow of the reading. I use commas all of the time, and I think that I use them too much. I know you are supposed to use a semi-colon to connect two closely related independent clauses; I know I could have used a comma and a conjunction previously instead of a semi-colon, but each time I go to write, Microsoft Word likes to underline my sentence with a squiggly green line to tell me that I wrote my sentence wrong. This has to be the most frustrating thing in the world for me when it comes to writing.

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There are many hypothetical situations that are relevant to my topic of legalizing marijuana. Imagine that you just got off of a hard day of work or class, and to unwind and relax, you want to smoke some weed. You go to your dealer’s house to buy some pot, then get in your car and head home. Maybe you are slightly flustered and anxious, and the only thing on your mind is getting home to relax. You drive like every other driver in the world, and maybe forget to turn on your blinker as you make a turn. A policeman sees you and immediately moves to pull you over. Now the stuff that you bought is really good and smells up the car, and when they cop walks up, he obviously can smell it. He decides to search your car and finds the pot, takes it and gives you a possession ticket, at the very least. Now you are stuck with a nice fat fine, court fees, and a dreadful day at court where they make you feel like you killed somebody.

            Now imagine somebody getting off work, and stopping straight at the bar before even going home. Some days can be stressful enough to make people do this all of the time. After a couple drinks, he or she is having a good time, and decide to stay. Before you know it, that person is hammered, and has to drive home. Swerving like crazy, speeding, and not paying attention at all, they arrive safely at home and go to bed.

            There is a major problem with this picture. How unsafe is it for somebody to possess marijuana? How unsafe is it for them to drive home hammered? Both of these scenarios happen all of the time, but instead of trying to bust people who want to smoke their pot, the police force should concentrate of keeping drunk drivers off of the road, and countless other dangerous crimes that happen. Giving out pot tickets is such a waste of time and money, and takes a load of attention away from real crimes.

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Legalizing marijuana I feel is extremely relevant for us today, and cannot keep being ignored as an issue of our government. I am not expecting it to be legalized within then next year. Hopefully our government will realize the countless benefits of doing so, and finally make one thing wrong with our country right. I want everybody to be aware of the situation. Think about the rights that you enjoy daily, whether or not they are healthy for you, bad for you, or if they don’t really affect you so much, the bottom line is that they are your rights. You get to choose what you want to do with your life, and unless you are obviously putting somebody in danger, you should have the right to do as you please, being a citizen of this country. I don’t expect you all to smoke pot, or support pot smokers, or even condone what they do. I would just like you all to think about a valid reason for marijuana being illegal. Think about why you are able to drink a beer at the bar, but not smoke a blunt even in the privacy of your own house.
            I would also like everybody to sit and think about what other rights you feel you deserve but do not have. Is there anything else that you wish you could do, but can’t because of the law? Anything harmless that you might enjoy doing like having a fire, or blowing up fireworks? We need open our eyes and ask why things are they way they are, maybe that would be the first step for some positive change.

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How many times have you saw a tragic car accident resulting in a loss of life due to a drunk driver? How many times are the police called to the scene of a domestic violence crime, to find the aggressor is drunk? How many college students are rushed to the hospital because they drank too much and got alcohol poisoning? All of your answers to these questions most likely share a common theme. Think of all of the news stories that you have heard when somebody has died or been injured because of an overdose of drugs. Were any of them because of an overdose on marijuana? It is a god given right to each person in the country to drink when they please, and it should also be a person’s right to smoke if they want. Just because it may have a bad image doesn’t mean it should be illegal. Laws are made to protect the citizens who live in a common place, and outlawing pot hardly protects anybody. I wish that I could find a way that just may justify keeping the substance illegal, but I simply can’t. Legalizing the plant itself would do so much good. The United States spends a ridiculous amount of money on petty marijuana crimes, instead of trying to stop actually crime. So many people are imprisoned each year because of a marijuana crime, and we are paying the government out taxes to keep them in jail, paying for them to live, all because of some weed charges.