Bed Bugs EW!

I was watching the news while I was working out and I watched a story that was covering the new bed bug problem that is spreading across the country. The news covered a story on a woman that had bed bugs in here home. She has been trying to get rid of them for several months but they are too hard to find and kill. The woman never has anyone come to her house or goes to her friend's homes for fear of spreading the bedbugs. In order to get rid of all the bed bugs in her home she had to have a dog come and find them in her home and then she had to put all of her home items into a room that was heated to 130 degrees. Bed bugs can be killed if they are exposed to heat that is over 130 degrees. What I thought was really interesting, and a little gross, was when the news interviewed a scientist who studies bed bugs. In order for him to study the bed bugs he has to allow the bugs to feed on his skin. A couple of days later I got a flyer in my mailbox that describes how to protect yourself from bedbugs. It's scary knowing that someone can easily get bed bugs through the contact of furniture or clothes.

Hot Air Balloon Race

One of my friends going to school at Saint Louis attended the Annual Saint Louis Great Forest Park Balloon Race over the weekend. I have always been amazed at hot air balloons. In Saint Louis the night before the race all of the balloon pilots light up their balloons, but they stay on the ground. Many people come out to view the balloons. As the picture to the right shows this makes for quite a beautiful view. The race starts the next day. An energizer bunny hot air balloon takes of a few minutesbefore the other 70 selected balloons, and all of the other balloons are to follow the bunny and the first to get to the end wins.
I have never been on a hot air balloon, but it is on my list of things to do. I think that it would be really cool to go to one in Colorado, Europe, or Mexico. Festivals are held all over the country ever year. Going to one of these is on my "bucket list" of things to do in my life. Hopefully I will be able to go to something like this one day and to actually ride in one of the balloons, not just watch the balloons.

Hey Hey Hockeytown!

I am a Red Wings fan and they start off their season on Wednesday. The will be playing the Pittsburgh Penguins and then they end the week by playing the Chicago Blackhawks. This will be a tough start for the Wings, but I have no doubt that they will start off the year strong. I'm really mad that I won't get most of the games here at school! My favorite player on the team is Henrik Zetterburg (#40). I might be going to a game over Thanksgiving break and I am really hoping that it works out so that I can go!

One for One

I just learned about the shoe company named Toms. Toms sells shoes, but for every shoe that someone buys they send another pair to a child in need. Their motto is "One for One". I am going to buy a pair, not only because they are really comfortable and cute, but because theyhelp others out in need.
I was reading about Toms mission on their website and I learned that the leading cause for disease in third world countries comes from the soil. This is why it is important that children have shoes to protect their feet. Children often get cuts on their feet too, and that makes it easy for the feet to become infected with disease if they are running around barefoot. I think that this company is doing something awesome. After I graduate I hope to start one of my own charities that can help people out. I'm not quite sure what I want to do yet, but I think that it is important to help out others more in need.

Facebook Friends

Over the weekend I decided that I would go edit my list of facebook friends. I had nearly 600 facebook friends. Some of them were my actual friends and some where family members, however others were people that I didn't even know or have never talked to. I decided that I didn't want these people "creeping" and "facestalking" by profile so I deleted a lot of them. I deleted almost 300 of my friends. It was almost scary to see how many people I was friends with and I didn't even recognize the name or know them. Another reason why I wanted to do this was because I am addictive to facebook. When I should be doing my homework, I'm actually checking peoples statuses. I get off read for a little bit, get bored, and then check again. I wanted to delete people who I don't talk to and aren't friends with so I can stop creeping on there pages and reading about them on my newsfeed. Facebook has changed the way that we do things. Our parents didn't have facebook pages when they were in high school and in college, but we do. When they graduated high school or broke up with someone they didn't see much of these people, now however I am friends with all of these people and can keep up with their lives. I am not saying that I don't love facebook, but it is something that can become addicting and I waste a lot of my time on it worrying about other peoples lives. I am glad that I deleted some of my friends and that I now most of my friends are ones that are involved in my life.

Sheep Art

Someone showed me the video posted below and I thought it was really cool. I have a Bearded Collie at home which is one of the typical breeds for sheep dogs and I wonder if he would be able to herd these sheep to do these things. I also think that sometimes people have too much time on there hands! This was a crazy idea to think up and I wonder how long it took them to create this video. It, however, is really awesome. I would probably need more patience to do this.

Power Soccer

An extra credit opportunity for my sociology class was to attend a Ball State power soccer practice. Before I went to the power soccer practice I was very curious if the players actually played with the soccer ball on the ground or if they played by tossing the ball. It seemed almost impossible for me to imagine playing soccer in a wheel chair. I have seen many other chair sports, such as murderball, but I did not think that soccer would be one of them. As I entered the gym, the players were already on the court playing. They had bumpers on the front of their chairs to hit the ball with. As I continued to observe the players I began thinking that this still seemed impossible. I think that it would be very difficult to play soccer in a chair and I was amazed and gained an appreciation for the players. It must take a lot of patience and determination in order to learn to play this game. These are two characteristics that I sometimes lack, but this has inspired me to work on that. I would encourage others to attend a match or a practice!

The fight in the Irish is back!

I was really excited to watch the season opener of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Saturday. I was nervous at first for the game, but I knew that the Irish could pull through. I'm excited to see how they do for the rest of the season! I'm going up for a couple of games in October and I hope that they are still doing well. I think that Brian Kelly showed today that he can be a good coach and I saw a lot of good plays in the game. It wasn't the best game and I think that they still have some work, but it was good to see them win today.

What am I watching?

Last night I went with a couple of friends I went to someone's dorm room to hang out. We ended up watching Jersey Shore. I have never watched Jersey Shore before, but I now know why Professor McArdle now says that MTV will bring about the end of the world. I kept thinking to myself: what am I watching? Someone I was watching asked what the purpose of the show was and no one could answer. The people just fight and hook up. I felt like I was losing some of my intelligence just watching the show. I told my boyfriend that I watched the show for the first time and he responded by saying "don't turn to the dark side and let it brain wash you".

Fire Drill!!!

Early this morning I was woken up by a beeping noise. At first I thought that it was my roommate's alarm clock, but after it beeped for a few minutes I decided that it was some of the construction work outside. Suddenly someone was pounding on my door yelling "get out!". I woke up my roommate and told her someone was pounding on her door, but she replied that she didn't care. However, she changed her mind when I told her I thought the fire alarm was going off. My floor starting marching outside. I was surprised when walking down the stairs that one of the maintenance workers was just calmly sweeping the floor. It wasn't until I went outside that I realized that it was only my floor that had to evacuate. Someone one my floor set off the fire alarm in the laundry room when she was using the drier. But really who does laundry at 8 on a Friday morning?!