Tuesday, April 23, 2013

23 Apr. 2013

Since this blog can be written about anything I want, I’m going to talk about what I want to do with my life. Sometimes I feel like I should do what I have told people what I will try to do, which is go to college and become an engineer in advanced weaponry, work with a firm for a few years and go back to college to get my degree in business management to start my own advanced weaponry firm that builds weapons for the armed forces. But there is also a side of me that wants to go to college and get my degree in musical engineering so that I can produce music. I would love to build weapons because my “brother” Justin is in the army as well as my real brother Austin, I would like to be able to help them out by giving them weapons strong enough to take out a fully armed tank in two shots but light enough that they will not get very tired while carrying them. But I love music, it is my life music is what inspires others to do great and be happy. Without music life wouldn’t be worth living. I would like to be able to mix and mash music from different genres together that make a beautiful symphony that everybody will love. I’d also like to make my own music that famous singers can make the songs hits, because I’m not that good of a singer myself.
       This second paragraph is going to be about baking. I love to bake, it doesn’t matter what it is I can bake it. I can bake anything from chocolate mousse to gooey butter cake to pineapple upside down cake. I have learned over the years from my grandma that baking is an art. She always told me that if you aren’t having fun and you aren’t putting love in it then it will never come out right. I used to always cook with my grandma before she moved. Every year before Christmas my brother sister and I would help her make her famous Christmas sugar cookies, they were show stoppers, and her fruit cake cup cakes, I didn’t particularly like them but I still liked to bake them. In my Russian class we were supposed to make a meal or drink for the class for a grade. When I heard this I was ecstatic, I immediately started searching for recipes. I found a Russian apple pie, this pie was different than any other pie, and you would cut up the apples and pour the dough over the cut apples. It created a kind of apple pie cake so to speak. After I had told my mom about how to make it she thought it would be a good idea to make a backup southern apple pie. So I baked the Russian pie and what I was excited for most was that I got to bake a pie with those cross hair dough pieces. I cut them out and placed them on the pie. The next day when I brought the pies to school everybody went crazy I didn’t have any left over.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

2 April 2013

Throwing In The Towel
Amberlin Rudnicki
       This article explains that in this NBA season there are only five teams that can still be considered legitimate title contenders, most of the others aren’t truly trying. The Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando magic have won at least 70% of their games, and only the San Antonio Spurs have better than a 10% chance of winning the NBA title. This is the first time in NBA history that tem owners, executives, and fans in multiple markets say they have resigned themselves to the idea that their teams aren’t going to be competitive this season. Besides the obvious disappointment for fans, the most troubling thing in this situation is that the majority of the teams in one league have no financial incentive to improve. In the last 2 decades the NBA has boomed in size, popularity and profitability. The average player salary skyrocketed from $275,000 in 1982-1983 to $5.6 million today. NBA teams are concerned about their ability to raise their sponsorship revenue and sell the expensive premium seats and skyboxes. The Detroit Pistons traded arguably their best player, Chauncey Billups, to Denver. His trade disrupted the Pistons’ solid lineup, and the Pistons stumbled through most of the rest of the season. When the article said the teams “weren’t really trying” it meant that they weren’t certain of their future revenue and that they wanted to win but they are waiting to save enough to bid on the better players. More and more teams are hesitant to spend money because the teams are losing more and more money because of the economy. The NBA can lower prices on the players and give larger salaries to the teams so the team can make everything better. In my opinion I think the teams should still try to win no matter what. In conclusion most NBA teams aren’t trying to win anymore.


Part 2
       The very first player in the NBA to be drafted was Clifton McNeely in 1947 for the Pittsburgh Ironmen from the University of Texas at El Paso. A draft is a process used to allocate specific players to sports teams. The NBA draft has two rounds, but instead of immediately granting the top pick to the worst team from the previous year, the NBA holds a draft lottery to see who gets to pick first. The top three picks are designated by chance between 14 teams that didn’t make playoffs the year before. The NBA teams choose from the NCAA and teams from overseas. It was previously common for players to be chosen right from high school, but the NBA required that players must wait a year before playing in the NBA. Some think it isn’t fair because they could have been the worst team and still not get the top draft.