Sports and Intelligence Don't Always Go Hand in Hand

 

            Sometimes lacking in intelligence can make you a better athlete. As we have seen in our book, intelligence can play very little role in succeeding at sports. Although Rodney’s brain has been severely damaged by his cocaine addiction, he can still play baseball, arguably the most difficult sport to master, at a very high level. I believe his ability is enhanced by his reduced intelligence. He can step up to the plate and hit without ever over thinking the situation: “He doesn’t feel pressure. He doesn’t even understand that others do. Its what makes him so good” (72). I can relate to this as a baseball player. Often when I set up to the plate to hit, I find myself thinking about all the possible outcomes of my at-bat. Thoughts like, “If I single up the middle I’ll get two more RBIs or if I groundout to the right side I can advance the runners or if I strike out looking Sweeney will be ticked off at me” swirl in my head as I am about to attempt to do the most difficult action in sports. I find that I am most successful when I “dumb it down” a bit and clear my head of all thought. Players like Rodney can hit without even thinking about not thinking. I believe that this is what makes players like Rodney, Manny Ramirez and Josh Hamilton so good. They can go up to the plate without their thoughts distracting them and holding them back from doing the simple task at hand: hitting the ball.            

Ignorance in Libya

            Over the past couple weeks I’ve been glued to the 6:30 news every night hoping to find out more about the conflict in Libya. For everyone that does not know what has been going on, the people of Libya have revolted against their dictator, Muammar Qaddafi, who has ruled the country for forty years. Unlike the recent uprising in neighboring Egypt, the Libyan uprising has been extremely violent, with both sides fighting each other with heavy weapons. Qaddafi even ordered fighter jets to bomb his own people. Now, many army units have deserted and joined with the anti-government forces. The result is that the anti-government forces control nearly half the country. What I have found extremely intriguing about the whole situation is the fact that Qaddafi has seemed about as far as one can get from reality. After killing hundreds of his own people in the capital of Tripoli, Qaddafi denied using any force. He also added that the protestors are high on hallucinogenic drugs provided by al Qaeda. In recent interview with the BBC, when asked about the uprising, he calmly denied its very existence saying that all his people love him and would die for him. All of this while the entire eastern half of his country is armed and ready to topple his regime. I find it very troubling that a world leader (and leader of one the world’s top oil producing nations) could have such a delusional view on the events happening in his own country. It looks as though the situation in Libya will not end any time soon. With the stubborn Qaddafi still in charge of the army the future looks dismal for the Libyan people.

Thoughts on the Poetry Project

  I don’t know about anyone else but I am surely enjoying the change of pace that the poetry project has brought to class. Its very refreshing to have a somewhat more laid back class every day. I also find it interesting how the groups thus far have led class in very different and unique ways. Both groups that have gone in third period were quite entertaining. I especially liked the self proclaimed “Dream Team’s” game, even though my comment landed my team out of the game first. I thought it was hilarious having to make Ms. Serensky decide which group she though made the worst comment. I certainly look forward to what the upcoming groups have to offer. Although this poetry project has literally brought some fun and games to the class, I think it really does help us. Having to read a variety of poems written by very different authors and at different times will surely make us ready for whatever the AP test throws our way. I also think the nightly soapstones help get jumpstarted into thinking in depth about the poem. I have found myself each of the past three nights feeling ready to write a poetry paper after completing the soapstone. We have written so many poetry papers after writing spoapstones that it feels natural to get geared up to write a poetry paper following the completion of a soapstone. That is where I think the genius lies in the project. By writing a soapstone, we naturally get in the zone to write a poetry paper, which means that we are probably thinking deeply about the poem. The poetry project enables us to think deeply about many poems without having to spend the many hours constructing a lot of poetry papers. I feel that this project is a very efficient use of our time while still providing us with deep insight into many poems.

 

Paper Covers...Data Sheet

Paper takes less time, Very Nice!

A Most Surprising Juxtaposition

            The Cavs, oh the Cavs. As most everyone knows, the Cleveland Cavaliers now own the record for the most consecutive losses in NBA history. It makes me very sad every time I see another “Cavs Fall Again” headline in the Plain Dealer. It’s really quite unbelievable how much of a 180 the Cavs managed to pull off. They had the best regular season record in the NBA just last season and now, less than a year later, they are arguably the worst team in NBA history, if not sports history. Murphy’s Law began its chokehold on the Cavaliers as soon as LeBron James announced that he would take his talents to South Beach. Although all us Cleveland fans worried about the future of the Cavs, no one could have imagined that we would be this bad. Injuries to key players like Anderson Varejao and Mo Williams combined with the loss of big-men Zydrunas Ilgauskus and Shaquelle O’Neil factored in to the Cavs’s ineptness this season. So, a bunch of NBA backups playing in the aftermath of losing the best player in the NBA losing 26 games in a row should not come as too much of a surprise. The part I hate most about the losing streak is that it makes LeBron look like some sort of basketball god. To the casual fan it looks like the Cavs were the best team in the NBA with him and are the worst team in the NBA without him. Although LeBron’s departure has made the Cavs into below average team, all the injuries, Byron Scott’s new system and the departure of other players have made the Cavs the worst team in league. It really saddens me to think that without LeBron, Cleveland sports are in absolute ruin. 

Cowardice

 

            Come on Clive. Really? Write down the sound a bird makes instead of help a woman getting beat up by a shady looking guy in the middle of the forest? It’s kind of pathetic if you ask me. He needed to go down that hill and help out the woman in need. Especially considering he felt “that there was not really so much physical difference between him and his thirty-year-old self” (88). His cowardice does not shock me though. I feel like characters wimping out in the face of adversity is a fairly common theme in movies and books. Take the movie Saving Private Ryan for example. Toward the end of the film, during a major battle scene, the young inexperienced private Upham tries to deliver much needed ammunition to his fellow soldiers. But as he walks up the stairs to the building his comrades are in, he hears a brawl going on in the building. He hears a German soldier and one of his fellow American soldiers engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat. Upham freezes up on the stairs, unable to move into the room and help his buddy. In the end, the German soldier wins the battle and excruciatingly kills the American soldier. He then walks down the stairs, sees Upham harmlessly cowering in fear, and moves on without hurting him. Upham’s failure to act closely resembles Clive’s failure to act. Although we do not know what happened to the girl and the shady guy, it would seem that it did not end well for the girl. Both Clive’s and Upham’s failure to act in the face of adversity show their cowardice and selfishness. Deep down, the reason each did not act certainly centered on the fact that they did not want to hurt themselves in the process. I find it hard to read/watch such cowardice knowing that others could have been helped.  

Second Semester Senior is Bliss

Upon the completion of the last high school midterm exams of our lives, I felt a great calmness come over my life. All the hard work and time put into to school for the past 11.5 years now seems undoubtedly worth it. All of us seniors have put ourselves into a position where we can tone down our stress levels and relax for one more semester together. My dad recently told me that I should make the best of my next seven months before college because it will be one of the only times in my life where I can feel comfortable about the stability of the few years ahead of me. Once out of college we will all experience the anxiety of not having concrete immediate future jobs or feel the pressure of having to excel at our job or else be at risk of losing it. We should feel very fortunate to find ourselves in such a favorable stage of life. It feels so good to go school and not feel the stress of having to attain a particular grade or to get a certain GPA anymore. One result of this relative relaxed state revolves around the fact that we perform better in some aspects of school. Take toady’s in-class writing for example. I did not feel the usual jitters upon flipping over the question sheet and I did not feel overwhelmed by deciding what to write about. Without stressing about our grades I feel that our AP English grades will go up as oddly as it may sound. I truly believe that writing in a more relaxed and stress free state fosters creative and deep ideas. Overall, this whole second semester senior thing has been going pretty well. School without having to stress isn’t half bad.