Untitled Phobia

Well as of right now I don't have an extremely clear phobia, but to tide me over and to Mr. Kunkle's disapproval. The phobia is the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series. I already know that they have no shot of obtaining the Commissioner's Trophy, unless they can do the unthinkable and court Albert Pujols to Chicago in the offseason and get a wise man to replace Jim Hendry. The players right now are nothing more that mediocre and their upcoming talent is sub-par at best. Overall this is a complete rebuilding time on the North Side and I've got another 100 years to develope a real phobia.

Far From Home

A song that really means a lot to a certain Milwaukee Brewers player as it is his "walk-up" or "at-bat" music, Johnathan Lucroy the Brewers catcher has had this song as his walk-up music all season as a tribute to those fighting for our country in the Middle East. Written in 2009 by a rock group Five Finger Death Punch, Far From Home "is sort of a ballad" it definiely follows that definiton as it has come to be a tribute to those fighting for our country overseas. Since the song has been recently written it fits the tune of our counrty strving for a real reason as the song suggests that people don't realize the losses that happen and how much tumoil that a family goes through. Overall it has a constant theme that many can relate to.

Presidents

Well my inital thoughts of all of the crap spouted by these Ivy league grads was, could this be any more vague? It truely is very boring to fatham that all these men do is try to convince the masses that they made the correct decision in choosing them to run our country for the next four years. The most astonishing thing is that some acctually show remorse in their second term like Clinton and "W." where something had happend rather serious during their first presidency and by their dumb luck some people really enjoyed their presidency and felt that by boasting up the country in their campaign that they would be getting votes and that is exactly what happend. William J. Clinton had nothing to do with the economy but it was turned around during his years. George Bush tried to join his country together by stating that 9/11 was a time for togetherness and joining one another to be a strong country and is what has been a complete falasy for our country.

Moneyball

My Non-Fiction choice was the book Moneyball written by Michael Lewis. Moneyball is a biography of Oakland Athletics' G.M. Billy Beane. Beane grew up in Southern California under the impression that he would definitely be going to play professional baseball considering that he had two great chances to enrich his baseball career, no question that he was a first round talent in the upcoming MLB amateur draft, but he wasn't sold as his other option was for him to go to Stanford University on a joint scholarship where he would be playing football as well as baseball. The most intriguing part of the book was when Billy realized that after spending about ten years in the big leagues he went into Sandy Alderson's office (Oakland A's G.M.) and requested to become an advanced scout in the Oakland system. What Beane did really resonates with me, though I am not saying that I am near as good as he was but I feel the way that he did right now. I like to play baseball somewhat but I know that my dream job would be being able to take over a team and be the General Manager of any team and after reading Moneyball I really can relate with Billy Beane and before reading I wasn't a huge fan of Billy Beane, but what he has done on one of the smallest payrolls in Major League Baseball.

Google?

My initial reaction to this article was that many including myself can definitely agree with this comment "And what the net seems to be doing is chipping away at my capacity for concentration and contemplation." And what resonates with me about that comment is that as is further explained in the story is that everyday people are attempting to "Power Browse" or "Skim" a segment or article as fast as they can. I will often find myself doing that with any article that I don't particularly want to read or doesn't interest me at the time. It is already happening on the internet where many people will only read the intro to a blog or news article and this is the calling for that, whether it is today's lack of interest for a certain subject or current objection or it is simply that we are too lazy to even turn another page because we simply want to move on. Another scapegoat to reading is texting and creating a shorter way to say something as Maryanne Wolf describes we are putting "efficiency" and "immediacy" above all. All of that comes with today's standards for communicating with each other it's not because were beginning to slowly lack concentration or becoming more stupid it is because of our surroundings and what they create for us. In the end it all comes down to our society has become so obsessed with completing one checkpoint a cruising on to the next one we have engulfed ourselves into the need of doing justice by getting it done fast and not by getting it done right.

9/11: Unitie or Revenge

The views brought to my attention by the two authors for the New Yorker's Talk of the Town section, John Updike and Susan Sontag were very interesting and put my perspective on both of the sides of the devastation. Updike seemed to hold a more optimistic setting throughout, while Sontag sort of bashed Americans and took a more dark approach. Both of which there were moments where I agreed and disagreed with.

Updike really painted a vivid image of how a person not involved in the catastrophic acts of the terrorists and their actions. It seems to me as if he wanted everybody to feel a sense of optimism and that everything will be o.k. in the future, that may be true for actions in this country, but about a year and a half later we would be going into war with Iraq that is still waging now. Also there have been troops in Afghanistan for many years and turned out to be rather unsuccessful. In the end he tries to portray that it all will be restored and the country will only become stronger and for a tighter bond. Meanwhile Susan Sontag really shows how American in times of crisis leans on a very weak leg in President Bush and his actions seem to be scripted and weak, but it does serve as a wake up call that "being strong isn't all America has to do." Overall the two articles really put this whole series of events in perspective for someone who wasn't old enough to understand at the time.

Intro Blog

Hi, I am Alex Baxter, a senior at McFarland High School enrolled in A.P. Composition with not only a great teacher but my former baseball coach Mr. Kunkle. Mr. Kunkle has a great baseball mind; however, his favorite team is the Chicago Cubs a rival of my favorite team the Saint Louis Cardinals.

Along with school I enjoy playing baseball whenever I can that means playing for the school team coached by the great John Feldner and American Legion ball which is in the summer and not directly related through the school. I aspire to attend college in Saint Louis at Washington University to study either Chemical Engineering or Journalism. Another thing that I would like to do is see every baseball stadium in the United States, which I have been to six of them all in the Midwest and this summer I am going to be traveling east to Baltimore, New York, and Pittsburgh to see three more games.