Been a long time since we've rock and rolled

Hey kids, been awhile hasn't it? I've been busy. In the past few weeks i've been horrible sick, working on new and old speech stuff, practicing, and awaiting winter break.

I haven't done a review in a while so I'd like to start with a review of The Walking Dead season one.

The Walking Dead makes my top 5 favorite tv shows easily. The character development is amazing, the special effects are very real, and the story line is believable (as far as a zombie apocalypse goes.) The interaction between characters and how they change in the course of just a few days is my favorite part of the series. The script writers have done a wonderful job portraying that. The Walking Dead gets an A+ in my book.

Next, I'll give you our past speech tournament results. I myself had a wonderful weekend, I placed sixth on my info and third with my prose, I was probably next out in impromptu finals. As a team we did even better. Everyone brought home two trophies and we locked out the top three for prose finals. It was a great weekend.

I'll update soon, got some good ideas to get my writing back started.

eat, breathe, sleep forensics

So last night our little 4 person 2 year speech team at Kish decided we are going to "compete with the big boys." All of us want to continue with speech when we transfer to whatever 4 year school is in our future, so our coach Eric said it would be a good idea to get started early. So along with competing with at he every other week two year tournaments, we are also going to compete in the four year tournaments starting second semester. So we will have tournaments every week. AND we are also no longer going to compete and the two year school national tournament Phi-Rho-Pi, but we are going to compete at the two four year national tournaments NFA and AFA. AFA, is basicly the mother of all speech tournaments. In order to qualify you have to break in an open (4 year) tournament and have a cum no more than 8 through prelims. So, needless to say as you can imagine I won't have a life second semester. So, this should be interesting.

Taking in the moment

This might be one of the best marketing examples product displacement I have ever seen.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/13/chile-miners-rescue_n_761259.html

They say I'm a dreamer

Tomorrow is John Lennons birthday, or, I guess it would be John Lennons birthday. Happy Birhday to the late singer/rhythm guitarist of The Beatles! I think The Beatles really did know what they were talking about. Lennon and McCartney are two of the most successful/famous singer/songwriter duos in the history of music.

I don't think that the two ever actually wrote a bad song. I mean, there are songs I would rather listen to then some certain songs but I do not think they are bad. It is my personal opinion that Lennon and McCartney were the "perfect" song writing duo. Except maybe the whole Yoko Ono part.

Happy Birthday, late John Lennon!

Strawberry fields forever!

Life the universe and everything

Long time no post. Getting busy up in here. Decided I want to stick with music for now, music education to be precise. Practicing and practicing. Playing Saint-Saens sonata as my audition piece. Should be exciting.

First forensics tournament is Saturday! I'm super excited. I am very confident that I will excel at these first few tournaments and I will work my hardest to continue to do so. Here's all that I'm bringing:

Prose (Superstud by Paul Feig)

Speech to Entertain (Topic: Cloud Computing)

Impromptu.

I'm really hoping to final at least 2/3 of these events. We'll see when Saturday comes will post results after the tourney and I get home.


Ok, so maybe I won't be winning a trophy like this but it will be a trophy not the less!



I will be going to see Umphrey's Mcgee with Brobert and maybe George at The Canpoy Club on October 29th in Urbana. I'm really excited for this concert. Hopefully I can see some friends before the concert.

Well, that's all for now folks.

top 10 movies

Got bored so decided to think of my top 10 movies.

1. Star Wars Episode V

2. Leon the Professional

3. Inception

4. Back to the Future

5. Back to the Future III

6. James Bond: Golden Eye

7. Ghost Busters

8. The Dark Night

9. Memento

10. Pirates of the Caribbean

8.

Things I need

Haven't posted in aqwhile. (Yes the q was intended.) So this is the list of things I need in the next few months. Luckily city band check will be getting here soon!

1. Clarinet Overhauled.

2. Card magic kit from Penguin Magic.

3. Clean car

4. Lost season 6 (when it comes out)

5. Long term- new laptop.

Life, The Universe, and Everything 4

So today I am going to try something new. I have see a few people do it on facebook, so in order to get a better understanding of myself (which Psychologist Erik Ericsson says is the most important thing in adulthood) I am going to list out 25 random facts about me based on what comes to mind.

Ready?



GO!

1. My name is James Richard Zucker, but I prefer to be called Jimmy, JimmyJames, or Lafleur.

2. I enjoy playing music. I don't know what my life would be like if I stopped playing music.

3. I really enjoy reading fiction.

4. I never finish anything I start.

5. I actually like school and learning.

6. I would like to travel the world someday and learn about different cultures. People intrigue me.

7. I have no idea what the future holds for me.

8. I am a Darwinist.

9. I don't talk a lot when I'm around my friends, but I love to debate when I get the chance.

10. I am a very lucky person.

11. My friends are awesome people. Especially when they come get me for a bike ride when I would rather sleep in, but they know I should go on the bike ride.

12. I like watching good television shows.

13. Ludwig Van Beethoven is my favorite classical composer. His 7th symphony is my favorite piece written of all time.

14. Erenesto Cavallini is my favorite Clarinet composer of all time. His piece "Adagio-Tarantella" is my favorite piece written for clarinet.

15. I think Psychology and Sociology are very different.

16. I think animals have just as much right to live free on this planet as Humans do.

17. I sometimes wish the internet had never been invented. I think the world would be a much better place.

18. The Waltzing Cat by Leroy Anderson is the worse piece of music ever written.

19. Unlike the people who wrote my Psychology book, I do not believe Creativity can be defined.

20. I believe organized religion is the worse thing to happen to humanity. It has caused more War, Death, and turmoil than any other thing.

21. I like to gamble and test the odds.

22. I believe anything is possible.

23. I always try and help out others whether it's loaning a book or buying them food.

24. Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, and John Stewart are some of the funniest men ever.

25. I love living life.

COLLEGE

just for my reference, here is the list of colleges I am considering going to.

Northern Illinois University

Illinois State University

University of Florida at Gainesville

University of Wisconsin Madison

University of Texas at Austin

Coastal Carolina




... Wow just realized that's a lot. Hopefully I can narrow it down before fall...

Life, The Universe, and Everything 3

So the Black Hawks won the world series... or was it the super bowl? Or are they going to the super bowl? I don't understand why so many people jumped on the hockey train. You know I bet if Chicago only had one base ball team we be a lot better than either team is right now.

I hate sports fans. I like people who are loyal with what they believe in, but rubbing it in others faces and calling other teams bad is what terns me off. Now, I like the cubs. But I don't say they are the best, because obviously that is not true. So I am not going to say it. I wish more sports fans would be like this, then maybe I would enjoy watching games with other people more.

Zombie, run!

Today me and my friend AJ got the game Zombie, run for the Droid. It has to be the funnest game I have played for a cell phone. How it works is it marks down your position on GPS and then you enter in your destination. You can also set what kind of an outbreak you want (level of difficulty) easy medium medium hard or hard. Then you can set the speed of the zombies based on zombie video games/movies. (Night of the living dead, resident evil, and 28 days later.)

What happens next is a map of your city (or where ever you are trying to get to) comes up and the game randomly puts zombies on your map in various groups and locations. Now you have to get to your location without getting caught by these invisible Zombies. If you get eaten you die. You can stop and build up a barricade and rest for a few minutes if you need to.

Zombie, Run for the Motorola Droid gets an A+. It teaches you what you are going to need when the impending zombie invasion happens. It gets you in shape by making waling/running fun and you will want to do it because you do not want to die. It also shows team work as you have to stick together in a group. What is also cool is that they are in a beta of multi-player massive online so you can meet up with anyone else who has the game in your area. This is a great free game for the Droid and i highly reccomend it.

Life, The Universe, and Everything 2

Haven't had anything to review yet again so here I am posting some thoughts. Today I am going to be talking about the Psychologist B. Skinner, a complete moronic individual. Skinner believed that society could be conditioned or engineered in a way that we could create the perfect society. I think this the worse idea I have ever heard. People need choice and free will to decide what they are going to do. I just typed a paper about this so I am not going to go more into it, but I will attach the paper for anyone to read more about it. I am very angry right now that people actually think this. I need an Arnold Palmer.


Human Freedoms: No Illusion Here.
Having freedoms and having choice to decide our own future is a very important part of society. Psychologist Skinner thought that society could be conditioned into doing whatever society wanted. The effects of society would be horrible. People would not have the process of wondering the outcomes of a certain decision. Instead everything would be decided ahead of time to make sure they become what society thinks they are supposed to become. This way of controlling destiny is eliminating natural selection in letting the best survive. This idea of engineering a society would also eliminate any need of religion. People will no longer think that god set a path for them to follow since someone would have already done that. Religion and worship is a very important part of any society as it gives people something to hang on to and believe in during the worst of times. Finally, if a mistake is made and someone is unable to fulfill what they are “supposed” to do in society, then that person is no longer useful in society. So what would we do with that person? It is completely unethical to let someone else control the destiny of another person. That is what natural selection and survival of the fittest is for.
Human behavior is completely based on choice and different than the way the rats exhibited behavior. Everyone has a choice on what they want to become. For example, I am a musician. My family has never exhibited a member who was a famous musician. Most students join band because their parents want them too. I joined because I wanted to on my own because I wanted to associate myself with those kinds of people and continue to work with those kinds of people today. It was my choice and no one else’s to associate myself in band. The rewards may not be as good as say taking a career in engineering or computer science, but I still liked the rewards of being a music performer and educator more than anything else so I decided on my own to pursue that as my future career.
Behavior is completely based on how an individual wants to act in society. They say a child of an alcoholic is likely to become an alcoholic. However, the fact that I have seen the children of several professional non alcoholic parents become alcoholics shows that we have a choice in whether or not we want to decide to start drinking alcohol and decide when we have had too much. I am taking this class based on my own personal choices. This does meet a requirement that I have to take, but I could have chosen a different class like a sociology or anthropology class that would meet my need as well. Instead I was interested in Psychology so I decided to take the class. Another example of how we decide our own behavior is the hippy movement. In the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s a group of people decided to break away from societies norms and do what they wanted. They did not have the best of lives, but they still preferred that way of living instead of following everyone else and what their parents wanted to do.

Live, The Universe, and Everything

Decided to post a life post today. Jeff wants to bike to the gulf. Anyone think this is a good idea? We have a plan. We're gonna have a car wash to raise money to put our name out there and get sponsored and then we will get a lot of money from this idea according to Jeff. Then we bike to the gulf and clean up wild life and we will forever live in fame.

Me Jeff and Dylan are the only ones who want to do this. I think it is a great idea, it might take a little work but we will get there. BP really pisses me off and I am willing to do anything to help out at the gulf.

Anyway, below is a link to sign a petition so that the government can seize all of BP's assets. SIGN PLEASE!

https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/SPageServer?JServSessionIdr004=crb7ph9q69.app209a&pagename=SeizeBP

Wrigley Field

Wrigley Field is one of the very few places I have ever been where even if what I'm doing there doesn't turn out in the best way I still have an amazing time. I went last weekend to see the Chicago Cubs game and it was the perfect day.

Their food is really good. Some might say it is over priced but in the end it is completely worth it. The hot dogs are so delicious I can easily say they are the best I have ever had.

The cubs won as well. Certainly this does not happen often but they did this game. The environment of Wrigley Field is awesome. It doesn't matter how many screaming fans are surrounding you and what they are saying. I wouldn't leave early even if there was no way the cubs could win a game.

I give Wrigley Field an A+. The food is great and the environment is awesome. Even if I go and the cubs loose I still have the time of my life. So head on down to the friendly confines and pick up a hot dog or two and sit back and watch the chicago cubbies.

Ed Debevics

The other day I went and ate at Ed Debevics. Don't do it. They have really declined in the years. They used to be a fun place where you'd go to be make fun of and have a good time. But they've gone from being funny to being just flat out rude.

As far as dining goes that was a horrible experience. I went with five people so they put us a booth with a seat at the end. The seats were very small. Now, I'm a big guy but even the rest of my party was complaining that we had no room. Next, the food was awful. The fries were poor quality and we had several complaints about the food. Then they didn't even get us our drinks until well after our food had gotten there.

So I give Ed Debevics a D+. The food is poor quality and the service is even worse. But the rudeness of the wait staff makes it an interesting experience. But still, go check out the diner that's like that in MGM studios. It's much better. Don't go to Ed Debevics. Save some money.

Lost: thoughts

After a few days of thinking i am ready to share my thoughts on lost.

At first I thought it was kind of dumb. Then I realized that it was actually really cool. The creators left all of the unanswered questions up to our imaginations. I really like this idea. Making us think about the characters and why something happened based on our own perception of the characters.

For example: Hurley bird! The bird that called out Hurley's name way back in season 2 was never really explained. After thinking I have decided that the bird was trying to prepare Hurley for becoming Jacob. The bird may have been sent by Jacob or perhaps an even higher power.

The characters that all ascended into heaven it. Here's a brief break down why.

Jack- He knew he had to come back to the Island to save his friends he left behind. He sacrificed everything for his friends and the Island.

Hurley- When he asked Ben if he would help him with the Island he was giving Ben, one of the most evil characters a second chance. Totally heaven worthy.

Kate- When she conquered her fears in the beginning to help everyone she got her chance.

Shannon- When she stopped caring about herself and started helping out.

Boone- When he went with Locke and decided he would help serve the Island.

Locke- Well he kind of saved everyone in a way by convincing Jack he needed to be Jacob.

Sayid- When he sacraficed himself to save everyone else.

Charlie- see above

Desmond- When he saved Rose and Bernard from being killed by the MIB

Rose and Bernard- when they saved Desmond from the well and broke their rule of not getting involved.

Sawyer- When he saved everyone as Lafleur

Juliet- When she betrayed the other to help Jack and the survivors.

Sun and Jin- They told Jack to save sawyer and go on without them.

Claire- When she left the smoke monster to help the survivors.

So all in all I give lost an A+ It's creativity and the way it kept its viewers begging for more made it simply the best TV show that was ever aired.

Arny Palmer

Arnold "arny" Palmers own special half and half Arizona ice tea and lemonade is possibly the greatest drink I have ever had in my life. It's unique taste is unlike anything else I have ever had.

If I went to a store and only had the option of getting Ice Tea or Lemonade I would not be able to make the choice. Have one without the other is something I could not do. I need the taste of both.

I give Arizonas arny palmer an A+ for being delicious and unique. There is nothing else about it. GO AND BUY LOTS NOW!

The Motorola Droid

Here we go! My first post.

I got the Motorola Droid in the middle of April when I broke my old sprint phone. So i'be had a while to figure out some neat stuff with it. First is the screen space. It looks like it just has one ordinary screen but you can scroll between three separate screens to store your information.

The phone is also simple to use. Its touch screen is very cool. Single touch activates the app and if you hold down touch it you can drag it somewhere and put it on a screen. If you run out of space on your screen all of your apps are stored in a easy accessible data base from the bottom of the screen.

Next is the operating system. The Droid is Verizon's first phone to run the Android 2.0 operating system by Google. It makes the phone fast than any other choice of phone. Not only can you use wi-fi if it is available in your location but the phone has automatic 3g wifi which is normally fast and powerful with no glitches.

The phones market place to buy apps is very easy to navigate. You can select between apps or games or both and from there choose between free apps and paid apps. The app library is very large with many useful (and others not so useful... virtual gavel... really? REALLY!?) apps. In the market place you can also buy soundboards and wallpaper apps that have 1000's of different options so you can customize your phone differently everyday. I've been taking advantage of this so I do not get sick of my ringtone.

The Droid is also part of the Adobe's next installment of Flash Player. This will make it, as far as my knowledge goes, the only phone with Flash Player on it. This will allow us to use The Droid for many many more useful things. Yep, I can finally check my farmville on the road! Thanks Adobe!

Its multiple keyboard system is very useful as well. You can choose between a touch screen keyboard AND a regular slide out keyboard. Different times and places I enjoy using either or so I am very happy with the option to choose between them. Texting is one of the most important feature many people look for when they buy a phone. I give the Droids an A+

The only downside I have about is the size and its protective case. The size (although not as big as the Ipad... Ibrick as I like to call it), although it fits in your pocket, could be a tad bit smaller. I know it has a lot of stuff it has stuff it has to run but a little smaller would have been better in the long run.

The protective case is annoying. Don't get me wrong, it does the job very well, but it makes sliding the keyboard open difficult. A better case (although rubber was a very good choice) would have been a good idea to put more thought into as well.

Finally is price. 300+dollars is very expensive. Again, it runs a stuff and I know companies are all about making money but I think if it was cheaper it might even do better in sales.


So there you have it guys. The Motorola Droid. Motorolas best phone on the market, and it just surpassed the Iphone in sales. So all in all I am going to give The Droid an A-. I think it is the best phone on the market right now but due to the high expense and small other things it bumped it down on the grade scale again.