Watching Hockey

Ever since I went to two hockey games a couple of weeks ago I have become more and more interested in hockey. When I was young I used to play with friends all the time and had great times playing, but never went to games or watched the sport on the television. When I was young two of my friends who lived in my apartment complex played in hockey leagues so because of them we played the sport often after school. Though I played it often when I was young I did not ever go to a professional game except for once which I don't remember much. I probably haven't played in like 8 years so I kind of forgot about the sport and all the fun I had playing the sport. So when a friend asked me if I wanted to go to a game because he got free tickets I figured why not I used to like it when I was younger. I came in not expecting much from the game but was extremely surprised to find out that I loved watching hockey. After that first exciting game I was just waiting and hoping that I could go to another game before the season ended in about a month. Luckily I was able to convince my uncle and grandfather to go. I went with them to my second game about a week and a half after my first game. I was very excited this time and I hoped that this second game would live up to the excitement that I had when watching my first game. The game did not disappoint. If anything it exceeded my expectations by far. The first game I went to the team I was rooting for, the Anaheim Ducks, lost the game, but at the second game they won and made it that more exciting. After that second game I knew it was certain that I could consider myself a fan of hockey and a fan of the Anaheim Ducks. I tried to make a few more games but I was unable to. So when next season comes around I will be ready and prepared to go to as many games I can go to throughout the season. I think it is funny that hockey would be the sport I love especially since I am really not a sports kind of guy. I enjoy going to baseball games and stuff like that but I never found a sport that I was actually interested enough into to follow it throughout the season. I also find it interesting that the sport I enjoy the most is one that is not extremely popular. Well I am glad that I by chance got to go to a hockey game and in turn discover that there is a sport I enjoy and one that I like enough to follow. Unfortunately now that the season is over it will be another four months before I will be able to go to a game again, but it will be worth the wait now that I consider myself a full blown fan of the Anaheim Ducks.

Captain Planet

Yesterday I watched a few episodes of Captain Planet that was part of a marathon for the upcoming Earth Day. I watched around three episodes. The first two were typical of the show, cartoony, preachy, and kiddy. Fortunately I stuck around for the third episode. The third episode was a very mature and realistic episode. I felt like it was a perfect episode of what the show is about. The show is all about environmental activism. The episode was about deforestation. The group of kids come to a logging town where a rich businessman is tearing down the forest. While hiking through the forest they discover that endangered species of animals live in the forest. The kids go to the authorities to tell them that they have to make him stop cutting down the forest. They are told that they need proof and that they need to file some paper work. They are also told that they only have three days to show the proof that is needed and the paper work completed. Half of the group goes to file all the paperwork while the other half goes to get pictures of the endangered animals. With the group that is doing the paperwork they show that it is a difficult process with wrong agencies, wrong color ink, and the long processing periods. This is one of the parts I really liked. It showed that in activism there is a lot of hoops you have to jump through to get what you want accomplished. The group trying to get pictures of the endangered animals are unsuccessful of getting the pictures in time. The group is unsuccessful of getting what they needed in time and when they go back to the forest it is all torn down. I thought this was a great lesson to teach kids, especially in the field of activism. It taught kids that even if you try your hardest you still might not be able to get what you want. The great activists are the ones who keep on coming back no matter how successful or unsuccessful they are. I was surprised that they would make an episode where the good guys lose but I am glad they did make it. The other great aspect of this episode was that it only had captain planet in it for around one minute. This helped make it a more mature episode. Overall I think The show should have had a few more episodes like this that make it feel more real.

Kids These Days

When I say kids I mean a good portion of people between the age of 15 and 25. Over the course of the last few weeks I have been noticing a shocking trend with people around my age, they are all extremely boring. Whether I am at school, Disneyland, or just out shopping all I hear people talk about is partying, drinking, smoking, or having sex. While this is just quick spurts of conversations I have been hearing it is so common that I don't see how it could not be common all around. While those things are great and exciting there is more to life then those things. To me when I hear these things all I can think of is how no one has character. No one is talking about a great book they have read, the new hiking trail they went on, how they traveled overseas, current events, politics, social ideas, films, and so on. I have been analysing this trend and been wondering what is it's cause, where is the root of this problem. I am sure many people would take this as me just trying to act like I am better then them. I don't know maybe I am acting that way, but I surely hope not because that was not my intention. My intention is to show people that there is more then just those things and that difference is the excitement of life. Some possible answers to the cause that I have come up with are people want to be "cool" and fit in, they want to be young forever, they want to these things now before they have to settle down and be responsible, or the media.

Being "cool" is always a factor in popular trends. A lot of what people do whatever will make them "cool" and in turn popular. People just want to be loved and adored, but the understanding of these concepts are lost to these newer generations. Having a lot of drinking buddies and sex partners is not real love and adoration, it's instant gratification. It then turns to a cycle of new drinking buddies, new friends to smoke pot with, and new sex partners. A new one to replace the old one that left. A cycle that continues until you hit a realization that you will probably be lonely forever. To clarify when I say lonely I do not mean alone I mean that you have a constant emptiness that can never be filled with the current situation you are in. People will soon realize, hopefully, when they get older that people love you and adore you for whoever you are. So I would consider this a pretty big factor in the cause.

While wanting to be young has been a common trend since the beginning of time, it currently has been growing to an almost psychotic level. Cougars, milfs, gilfs, and many other names have become common terminology nowadays. These people are supposed to be the role models for these newer generations, but they are acting just like their children or grandchildren. Mothers and grandmothers going out partying with there children is just irresponsible. It is becoming more of a commonplace for these parents to be the ones who introduce sex, booze, and drugs to their children. This is a big problem, they should be teaching them both the positive and negative effects of these things instead of teaching them to just have fun and not worry about the consequences. These people just cause me to go into an insane madness. So I would consider this another big factor.

Another factor is one that is more understandable but is still just an excuse to be irresponsible and that is wanting to have all the fun now before they have to settle down and be responsible. Who says you can have no fun when you get older? Thinking that way is a little naive and also quite sad. I believe there is two ways to live you life, have all the fun now and none later or have fun throughout your whole life. It is impossible to have both because the consequences of one directly affect the other. This is just my belief. I would say this is a factor but less than the other reasons.

The last factor I believe may be the biggest is the media. The media is a big thing in everybody's life whether it be through T.V., radio, books, internet, music, movie, or anything like that. Because of this onslaught of influence constantly hitting us from all of it's various forms, media plays a big part in how we act. While it might not all be noticeable it definitely is taken all in. It decides what is right and wrong in our current society. For example throughout all media it shows that killing people is bad, while there are certain exceptions there is more that says it is bad that it is good. Unfortunately there are a few areas where it tells us bad things are good. For example drinking alcohol. Alcohol has almost no benefits and is constantly destroying lives but none of those aspects are shown in the media, especially t.v. and film. Instead it shows how cool and fun it is. In this case there is more places where it says it is good then it is bad. It then becomes a good thing in the eyes of most people.

After overhearing all of these people I have found a common theme:
A teenage boys funniest story is how how he had sex with this drunk girl.
A teenage girls funniest story is how she got wasted and can't remember anything that happened.


This is our future.