Calculators

This is sooo random, but I figured that I needed to add a random post to my blog so I decided to say a few words about calculators. I saw my calculator lying next to me and I thought . . . well . . . that will be a good post. So, calculators are sooo helpful. If we didn't have calculators, I wouldn't be able to survive. Whoever invented them is a genius. I probably use my calculator at least a dozen times a day. There are so many things that a calculator can do to save you sooo much time. In math . . . you can graph equations on the calculator instead of having to graph them by hand. It is soo cool. You probably think that I'm stupid for all that I'm saying but I just wanted to blog about something random partly because I didn't know what to blog about.

Courage

Courage is bravery. It is doing something that is difficult without fear. If we didn't have courage, we wouldn't be able to get through our everyday lives. There are sooo many examples in my life where I use courage to get through something. One example is from our first swim meet this last Thursday. I was soo nervous for it. I thought that I wasn't going to have enough energy or that I was going to mess something up on my stroke. But, I kept telling myself that I was going to survive and that I should just jump in and do my best. If I didn't have courage, I would have probably not accomplished what I did. Bravery is hard to have, but you know that having bravery will always help you out in tough times.  These are my thoughts about courage.

Leadership

Leadership is such an important concept. I don't even know where to start with this. Every little club, group, school, work place, and even your lunch table has a leader. At work you have your boss which you have to respect and obey. At your lunch table, you have the leader that every body follows and thinks is really "cool". Leadership can be misused too. For example, your group of friends always does the same thing every day as always. One day the boy that always says what to do pulls out some pot and starts smoking it and passing it around. You know you shouldn't take a puff but everyone else it. This is where leadership is misused. Leadership is also very important. It is what keeps churches leading in the correct direction, businesses managing their funds, etc. Leadership is great and an important postition but can be misused.

SNOW!

I was sooo ready for a big snow storm! Unfortunately it had to come during the weekend and not during school days. I like snow for about a month but then I really get sick of it. It gets cold and you can't go outside unless you freeze your butt off. But I really love SNOW DAYS. Who doesn't? I like the feeling of being in your house and there is this gigantic blizzard going on around you. I think that it is really cool but might sound really weird. Car crashes pretty much stink when the snow comes. We were going up this hill and the car in front of us started sliding down. We got out of the way but the car hit a different car. It was kind of funny but I felt bad for the person at the same time. I also love snow because then you can go skiing. I'm alright at it but not the greatest. Snow has its pros and cons but I was totally ready for a big storm.

Giving

It is the time of the year to be giving. You should always be thinking about giving but I guess this is the time that is happens more frequently. Giving is not only a nice thing to do but it is also very rewarding. Annually we always go through our clothes and get rid of some things that we don't like anymore and take it to the Salvation Army. It is very cool to know that you are donating these things that will be given to people less fortunate than you or I. Giving can be a hard thing because we are humans and we always think about ourselves usually and not about someone else. There are millions of homeless people throughout the world or maybe it is someone that can't afford a coat. Giving doesn't have to be hundreds of dollars given to an organization, it just can be something as simple as a can of soup. Every little thing adds up. This is what giving is and means to me.

Hastings Swim Meet

This weekend I had a swim meet in Hastings. There were sooo many people there is such a small space that I thought the building would blow up. Literally, you could not find an open place in the pool just to jump in to warm up. The meet took forever. I never thought that today would come. Nine hours of pure boredom and nervousness. It was a fun meet though because I got to be with some friends that I don't get to see very often. We tried to pass time by napping, running around, laughing, but nothing really worked. My times from the meet were alright. I could have done better. But I sure am glad that it is over with. I have never seen soo many people before. It would have helped if we had an eight lane pool instead of a six lane pool, but you have to deal with what you have. It would have been even better if the swim meet was at the University of Minnesota. But all in all, you have to do what you have to do, show up, and swim your best.

Hope

Hope is the feeling that events will turn out for the best. Hope is difficult to have in hard times but still is what holds us together in difficult situations. Before I read the book "Night", I really didn't have a very broad meaning of hope. For example, when I was hoping for something, I would hope that it would stop raining so that I could go outside and play but in "Night", you are hoping for life. You are hoping that the cooks might drop some potato skins on the floor so that you can sneak in and diminish your quench for food for just a second or for the guards not to see you eating snow off of the backs of a fellow mate just to relieve your dry throat. After reading the book, I now know that hope is not just wishing the rain would stop, but is a matter of coping with life and death.

Video Games

Video games are overrated. I agree they are fun to some point, but then they get boring. We don't have a PS3 or an XBox360, we just have a Wii. When our basement is finished from being remodeled, we are going to get a PS3 in our theatre room. I'm excited for it but never will I become obsessed with it. I like it for the times when I get bored and to play it with people when they come over. Video game obsession causes people to receive bad games and people that always play them, I'm sorry, but are a "no life". There are soooo many other things that you can be doing instead of sitting inside on your butt playing video games all day. Video games are just there for when you get soo bored you can't do anything else that you have to resort to them. This is my opinion of video games.

Adaptation

Adaptation is when you make something suitable to the current conditions. Everyone adapts. Us as humans always want everything to be good or perfect so we change things to make them what we want them to be which is adaptation. This is not always such a good thing because it can get us into trouble or lead to lying, cheating, etc. For example in the book "Night" by Elie Wiezel the Jews from Sighet were always trying to make things seem like they were "ok". They forced them to wear the "Star of David" which shows that they are a Jew and impure. They adapted to the situation and said that it was just a stupid little star and that it wasn't lethal. It's in our nature that we want to make everything what we want things to be and we just need to deal with it, not everything is going to be perfect, and we need to realize that.

Humanity

Humanity is the quality of being humane or the act of being kind. We are blessed to be humans. Think of all the other millions of species in this world and you are a human . . . that is amazing! So sense we are so lucky to be a human . . . we should act like a human not an animal. My definition of acting like a human would be being respectful all of the time. Like cleaning up something without being told to or opening the door for an elderly woman. Another area in which we should act humane is in the category of emotions. Emotions can be a huge struggle in our daily lives and we need to learn how to handle them in a humane way. Animal's way of solving emotions is fighting because they can't communicate. We are lucky to be able to talk to each other in way that we can understand each other. So my whole point of this blog entry about humanity is that we are soo lucky to be humans and we should act like them.

Pets

Pets are someone that you can always look forward to at the end of your day coming home to. When I come home from school, my dog is always there jumping up on me. I guess it's kind of a nice feeling that she is there and can't talk back to you or be disrespectful. I guess that dogs have earned their name, "man's best friend" because they can't talk. Just think . . . if you could be a dog one day. Not saying that I want to be a dog, but you wouldn't have to worry about school or homework or doing really well in sports. You could just sleep all day if you wanted to. This why I think that pets are such a great thing; using dogs as an example. So I guess you as the reader probably think that this post is really stupid but I'm just trying to come up with something to blog about.

Beauty

Beauty is all around. Just think . . . when you walk outside whether it is the trickling waterfall through the landscape or the birds chirping in the garden. Just imagine the water in the morning that is so smooth that you can see your reflection or even just the little ant running across your driveway. Beauty is all around you. People usually think of beauty in a girlfriend/boyfriend and that's just sad. There is more to the meaning of beauty than just that. Sometimes we just need to stop our busy lives and just look around at the beauty. Beauty is something we take for granted. It's not like we stop everyday and just admire the blooming flowers in the garden because in our fast paced society we wouldn't have time or people would think that it is stupid. We should take more time to admire our Creator of these beautiful things.

My little Brother

I have a younger brother that is in 7th grade at Southwest Middle School. He is autistic and struggles both academically and socially. He has gotten a lot better as the years have passed and knows how to control himself. He can be kind of hard to get along with coming from a brother's point of view. Sometimes it is hard to notice that things will NOT always be fair with. He needs the extra attention to move along and progress. I admit, I sometimes do get jealous, but I do know that things won't always be fair. Sometimes we get into arguments and I'm the one that usually gets into trouble. It frustrates me sooo much. You as the reader can probably reflect upon this if you have any siblings. I guess I just need to move on and understand that he is my brother and I need to accept him the way that he is.

My swim meet this last weekend.

This last weekend, some friends and I had our first club swim meet up at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. It started Saturday around noonish and got done around 4 o'clock p.m. and was also on Sunday starting at 7 o'clock a.m. and ending around noonish. This was our first swim meet swimming with the Stingrays up in Faribuilt. I think that it was a great meet. The pool is soo nice and big. None of us really made our best time in our events because it was our first meet of the season and we really haven't had a lot of practice time yet but it was still a fun meet. Any extra swim meet that you can "pick up" before that actual highschool season starts is always very beneficial. You always learn something new at a swim meet that you can improve upon in your next meet.

Freedom

It is soo great having freedom. I think that freedom is something that we take for granted but we should think about how grateful we really are to have freedom. Just think, in some countries you need to ask someone just to leave your house, but here in the United States we can just hop right in a car and drive away. I can't imagine what it would be like to move somewhere like North Korea where there is now freedom. You would have to learn all of the brand new customs and laws and if you don't abide by them, it might cost you your life. I guess it is kind of based upon where you were born and raised. For example, if I was born and raised in North Korea, I would probably be used to the dictatorship and the laws but if I was born in the US and moved to North Korea, it would be difficult to change your customs. This is why I think that we take freedom for granted.

The Basement

Right now our basement is being remodeled and I am soo ready for it to be done. It has almost been one year since it has started. We are all living upstairs; both my parents, my brother and sister. It is soo annoying. I can't get away from any of the craziness. I guess it could be worse because we do have pretty big floors. In our new basement we are going to have a second kitchen, home theatre, a pool table, and me and my brother's bedrooms along with our bathrooms. I am soo excited to get my own room back again. I'm sitting in bed typing this right now and if I walk ten steps to my left, I will run into my parents bed. There is NO privacy at all. It is really chaotic but I guess I can't complain. So I am soo ready for this to be done!

Justice

I picked justice over fairness because not everything is always going to be fair. For example, there are people that have learning disabilities and if they are assigned a 500 word essay and a person with average learning abilites is asked to do the same thing; of course the child with disabilities is not going to be able to complete his/her assignment. This is just one example of why life is not fair. Justice on the other hand is  something that is very annoying if not followed. Justice ALWAYS needs to be served under the correct circumstances fairly. I hate it when two people break the rules but only one of them is punished. That's what I mean when justice should be served fairly. Justice is a good thing. If we did not have justice, our world would be chaotic. Justice is also something that can be abused, which is really sad. Justice is something that we don't always think about but something that we should be grateful for.

My Sister's Birthday

Today is my sister's birthday. She is turning nine years old. She sometimes acts like she is three but other time she is alright. She is always lying to my parents about something that I DIDN'T do, but I still get into trouble. She makes me so mad sometimes because if I try to do that I would get into trouble for lying. She is just a pest. For her birthday she got to pick out her own pair of Ugg boots and a bunch of clothes. She is spoiled all the time. She is the youngest so she gets a lot of the attention. She is in third grade so for school she brought some fruit cups because of the healthy food program and was so excited that she dropped a bunch of them. It made this huge mess and of course, I had to pick it up. So, I guess that all I can say on her birthday is, "Happy Birthday!" and see what she is going to do next -- the unpredictable.

Silence

Silence is the time to get work done. It is the time where you can think without getting distracted by the constant rush of your everyday life. It's the time that you won't get distracted by your pesky brother or sister. It's just you and nothing else. Silence is the best because that's when I get everything accomplished. If it is noisy, you can't concentrate.  Noise also means big groups of people which sometimes is frightening to some people. Noise is the time to be social and silence it the time to get things accomplished. Without silence, I wouldn't know how to concentrate to get anything done. Also, silence means time to sleep which is the best. One extra hour of sleep a day would make my day a whole lot better. Silence is time to yourself and whatever you want to do; whether it is music, homework, or even reading a book. Silence is better because you are around noise all day long in school and just a couple of hours after school of silence is when I get everything done.

Swimming in Faribuilt is great!

I swim three days a week up in Faribuilt with 2 of my friends. We are just swimming up there to get some training in before the boys swim season starts in the winter around the end of November. The coach up there is so great. I feel like I can go there and get the help that I'm needing while still getting a great workout which is really important. The coach is always commenting on what we need to work on and what we are doing a great job on. Also, it is so relaxing to forget about school work for a few hours to go and swim. I like to work hard and do my best and the coach pushes us to do just that. Swimming is kind of a dying sport in Albert Lea so us as the current swim team are trying to get a few more people to join. And it would be cool if anyone else would want to come up to Faribuilt to get a few yards in before the season starts. This is why swimming in Faribuilt is such a great opportunity.

Friendship

I have never really stopped to think about how lucky we are to have friends. Without them you would never have an accountability partner to always be there when you are down. Just think how lucky you are. When you enter your first few days of middle school, your fate is sealed whether you are the jock, prep, nerd, etc. and you can't break those groups or you will be considered stupid. Kids with disabilities don't even have a chance because they don't "fit in" which is so sad because just someone to talk to can make their day a whole lot better. So when I am sitting here typing this I just am thinking about how lucky each person is to have a friend. Everyone just takes friends for granted and it is very hard to find someone that you can trust and rely on. You don't have to have a ton of friends to be cool, all that matters is that you have friends that you can count on. So I guess that this is my little blurb about friendship.

About me and my blog.

My name is Corbin Schultz if you don't already know. I am a big swimmer. Boys swim team is a winter sport that starts around the end of November. But I'm still swimming right now up in Faribuilt three times a week with a couple of my friends. Swimming is the only sport that I am in so I guess that I take it pretty seriously and I'm pretty competitive. Also, I'm in choir and show choir (forcefully by my parents). So right now my life is pretty busy with swimming and extracurricular activities. My blog's title, "Crazy swimming life" I guess just means that I have a crazy life right now and swimming involves most of my time right now. It's kind of a stupid title but that's all I could come up with at the moment. So I guess this is my blog introduction. I have never blogged before so I don't know if I'm posting something stupid of doing something wrong.