The Show Must Go On!

Well it has come to close the first chapter in my college career, and have a new one begin. I hate to admit, but it will be nice to have my Saturday's back! I can say that I have learned alot from my English 1312 class. I for one have learned how to use new technology such as "blogging" and using Photostory. Which I know will come in hand later on in my college career. I have also improved my writing ability, and how to write more effectively. I am willing to admit that looking back at my first paper how much of a disaster it was, but throughout the course I have learned to write more subjectively and not keep to much fat on my writings. It has been a fun and educating class, but eventually all good things must come to an end. But for my last blog, I am posting my Photostory presentation, which is on Teen Pregnancy Campaigning. I hope everyone has a relaxing and rejuvenating summer (I know I will!) and hope to see you next semester!

Broadway Anyone?

For anyone who is like me and loves broadway, you can feel my pain when I say that I was not able to get tickets to see Chicago this past weekend! I was so upset, but luckily I have seen it before and if anyone gets an opportunity to see it, I highly recommend it. But off the subject of tragedies of my life, tonight as I was watching American Idol tonight (Yes, I am one of the geeks that watches the show) they were performing songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber. If you do not know who Andrew Webber is, I suggest you go back to living under your rock. Andrew Webber and Tim Rice have collaborated to create some of the most memorable and most successful broadway shows EVER! Andrew Webber has composed 13 musicals, his awards include seven Tony Awards, three Grammy Awards, and Oscar, two International Emmys, seven Olivier Awards, a Golden Globe, and the Kennedy Center Honors. His most popular musicals include the Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Andrew Webber has created great musical's with great songs and is without a doubt the best composer of our time, and is still continuing to make music. For those of you who are interested in Webber plays you will be glad to hear that there are some coming to El Paso soon. Luckily Chicago is coming back April 26th and 27th. Cats will be performing at NMSU on the 27th of April. I will definitely be at one of the Chicago shows, so hope to see you there, and if you are not a musical fan, I urge you to give it a shot and go see a play. If you did not like it, at least you can always say you gave it a shot, but Webber musicals are awesome!

The Border Patrol

In towns where illegal immigrants are common such as El Paso, the Border Patrol can be a personal subject to talk about. Before I knew anything about the border patrol, I thought they hired almost anyone, and were given a brief orientation on the job, then just drive around the city all day. After a very close friend of mine decided that he wanted to pursue the border patrol as his career, I can say without a doubt it is nothing like I had imagined. Before even being considered for a position, you must pass an entrance exam with at least a grade of 70. The test lasts 4 hours and consists of a logical reasoning test, and either a artificial language or spanish test. An hour after taking the test you are given the results if you have either passed or not, if fail you have to wait 3 months before being eligible to retake the test. After passing the test, you are given paper work to fill out from an extensive background check, must give your finger prints, and are scheduled for an oral interview and medical and fitness exam 30 days after you pass the test. When the oral interview comes, you are interviewed by 3 agents which will ask you a series of questions, the interview is a pass or fail basis. If fail, you have to wait 6 months before being able to retry again. If pass the interview, you move on to the medical exam, if pass that you than move on to the fitness exam. Which you must complete 25 sit up in a minute, 20 push ups in a minute, and a 5 minutes step cadence test. If you fail any part of the physical test, you have to wait 3 months before being able to retry. If you pass the interview, medical and fitness exam, you wait till your background and everything clears out, you are sent to training in New Mexico. Training can last from 8 weeks to 16 weeks (depending on your knowledge of spanish) While in training you must pass all classes with at least a 70, then the last test at training is a fitness test. Which you must complete a obstacle course in 2 min and 20 sec or less, 220 yard dash in 46 sec or less, and run a 1 1/2 miles in 13 minutes or less. If you fail any part of the physical exam, you must redo the whole training process, and have to wait 3 months before baing able to retry. After training and being stationed at your main station, you are on a probation period for 2 years. As you can see the border patrol look very closely at who they hire, and is not just a walk in the park like I had imagined it was to join!

Where has time gone?

Looking at the calender, I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. My daughter is going to be 1 Year Old sunday and there is only 5 weeks left in the semester, and I am pretty certain it will go by quickly for everyone waiting in anticipation for summer to come. During my first year of college I can say that I have learned alot from my college experience. I remember last semester, the first week of school crying because I had anticipated the work just to be like high school, but found that was not the case very quickly. College has helped me not only academically, but has taught me a great lesson in time management. For those like me who have children, work, and attend school learning good time management is a necessity. Even though I have barely touched the surface in my academic career, I have learned alot this year. But, I cannot wait for summer to come, me and my daughter are going to Tampa to see my grandmother and are going to Disney Land, and Sear World so it will be a blast. I hope everyone has a good rest of the semester and I wish you a early happy summer!

Slim Shots Phony or Not?

While working on my English work, I had the t.v. on and a commercial about a product called Slim Shots came on which is supposed appetite controller. The product also claims to help keep the feeling of being full to prevent from eating more frequently. The slim shot is literally the size of a shot, if not less. I have not seen the product in person, but from advertisements online and from t.v. it looks identical to the size of the single creamer containers that you would find at Denny's. From the slim shots website the ingredients for the shot are natural oat, palm oil, and vanilla flavor. I have not tried the product myself, but if I were hungry and were to take the "Slim Shot", I cannot imagine from taking the "shot" that it would if at all curb my appetite. The website does not have any positive stories from anyone who has taken the product and who is willing to put there name behind and help endorse it. But the site does contain studies which have been done that claim that the product has positive effects. With all the advertisements for weight loss out there, its hard to tell which products work and which dont and if it is really worth the money.

Spring Break Has Come At Last

Sorry to write a bit late, this morning I went and took my daughter to the mall to get her picture with the easter bunny, it was RIDICULOUS how many people were there, but it was my fault for waiting till the last minute. Then took her to JcPenny's to get pictures of her in her easter dress and some summer outfits. They are going to come out really cute. My plans for this break are to relax. Went ahead and knocked out most of my homework and am going to hang out with Sophia and not have to worry about school. It's already pas the middle of they semester so there is not to much left. But other than hang out I do not have have any really exciting plans for spring break. Hope everyone has a relaxing and rejuvenating spring break!

Another Politician Bites The Dust

Eliot Spitzer the soon to be former governor of New York resigned from office nearly 48 hours of the news being leaked of his involvement in a sex scandal. His resignation will be effective Monday and taking over office will be Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson who will be New Yorks first black chief executive. Spitzer was caught making plans to meet a woman from a prostitution service in Washington. He found the information for the prostitution service online. From someone who has an education from Princeton and Harvard and was a prosecutor for the Manhattan district attorney's office, why would he think of finding a call girl online? In which he can easily be traced? Besides the fact that he broke the law, he cheated on his wife. Who after finding out her husbanded broke the vows of their marriage, stood by his side. If I were married and my husband were to cheat on me, and especially in such a high profile case like this, I would have packed my bags and left. Spitzer will be the first N.Y governor to resign since 1973. Why some may look at Spitzer having an affair with a prostitute different from anyone else having an affair with a prostitute, is that Spitzer was a D.A. and knew the law and was a N.Y. governor. How long does one think they can go around pulling call girls off of websites and not expect to be found? Until this incident happen Spitzer had a pretty clean slate, and this scandal is pretty much the nail in the coffin as fas as his political career goes.

Vote March 4th!

I found an interesting article in the El Paso Times named "El Paso experts say Obama should win Texas" by Brandi Grissom. I believe I can easily say that our next President is going to be either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Sorry but I do not believe that Mccain stands a chance. I find it interesting to see why Grissom would think that Obama would win over Clinton. From an El Pasoan, I take into consideration that Clinton came and campaigned in Texas, we are not the biggest city, but we are a main city and have a diversity of people. But on the other hand George Lopez came to the Magoffin Auditorium to campaign for Obama. Due to El Paso having a mostly hispanic population, having someone such as George Lopez campaigning for them may have an impact on the voters. "The possibility of a black president gave him hope that one day soon, Americans might put a Hispanic in the White House." (Grissom) The possibility of having another race besides a white person in office is exciting. Obama as Grissom states has brought out the young voters in El Paso to come out to vote who haven't before. My personal opinion is that Obama is going to win all the way and will be our next president. He has ran a very good campaign, has good policies, and will bring a much needed change. But everyone has their own thoughts and opinions so we will see what happens on Tuesday!

Money eaters

Today I decided to blog about the cost of babies. I went shopping today at JcPenny's to get my daughter some spring and summer outfits since the weather is beginning to warm up. I purchased 10 outfits and the total came out to $110.00. For some baby clothes, my daughter Sophia is 10 going on 11 months old. Some of my shirts dont even cost $10.00 and a baby outfit costs over $15.00 it is ridiculous. Some other costs that accompant children include insurance costs $250.00 a month, diapers are about $60.00 a week, $10.00 for baby wipes, $40.00-$60.00 a week on formula, $20.00 a week on juice, baby cookies, baby jarred food. Those are just basic things that she needs on a weekly basis, not including the costs of all the other big items such as a crib, dressers, bottles, baby shampoo and soap, bottle sterilizer, etc. Me living in a tri-level house are beginning to have to baby proof everything since she is beginning crawl, have to buy baby locks, fire place guards, railing guards, etc. As they grow older they dont get any loss expensive. Youll eventually be buying more expensive clothes from AE or wherever they will want to shop, will have to get a car, quince's, college, etc. Once you have children you are looking at a lifetime of spending money on them. But no matter how much they cost and all the little hours that you get to sleep, they are totally worth it all.

Research Topic Thoughts

I had a bit of a hard time picking a topic to write about. I wanted the topic to be something that was somewhat close to my heart, and I decided to write about teen mothers. I am proud to say that I am the mother of my beautiful daughter Sophia Grace who is 10 months old. Some perceptions from the media label teen mothers as having less opprotunities to provide for their children and will less likely to continue with education, and for single mothers maybe not even get married. As someone who is a teen mother, I do not agree with what the media sterotypes about teen mothers. If anyone were to have any suggestions on whether that think this is a good topic or not I would love to hear your thoughts!

As I was watching the television the other day, there was a story on how people are becoming addicted to video games. Some may think, hey they aren't doing drugs or anything to harm themselves so what is the problem? I can say with much certainty that my little brother is addicted to video games. His number one game of choice is World of WarCraft. If he does not get to play for at least an hour a day, it will ruin his whole day. There is a point when you play a game just to enjoy it, and when you become addicted to it. Some of the big games people get addicted to playing are Guitar Hero, Halo, God of War, and World of WarCraft. But everything should be taken in moderation including video games!

SUPER BOWL XLII

As we all know, and for those of you who do not know this religious day I am saddened, for it is Super Bowl Sunday, the one day everyone is allowed to skip their diets and drink all the beer, eat all the hot wings they want, and paint themselves. Super Bowl XLII is between the undefeated New England Patriots, and the New York Giants. For those who watch football like I do, I can bet my life that the Patriots are going to totally annihilate the Giants. Tom Brady one of the best quarterbacks against measly Elijah Manning? The only thing Elijah is known for is for being Peyton's brother. I am still in shock that they beat the Packer's to make it to the Super Bowl, but I have to give them credit because after all they did make it to the bowl. After the Patriots lost in the playoffs to the Colts, I think they have come back this year wanting their trophy and rings back. In between watching the Giants get creamed, I will be watching the famous Super Bowl commercials and eating my hot wings! Hope you all have a good Super Bowl Sunday!

My First Blog

Today is January, 23rd, 2008, as I was flipping through the television channels plastered all over the news is that actor Heath Ledger has passed away, the autopsy results were inconclusive. He was found with prescription sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication in his apartment. The police believed he may have died from a possible drug overdose, which appeared to be accidental. Heath Ledger starred in such movies as 10 Things I Hate About You, Brokeback Mountain, and is the villain The Joker in the new Batman, soon to be released. After seeing 10 Things I Hate About You, I had the biggest crush for Heath Ledger, and I am sad to hear that he has passed away, he leaves behind a great family, career, and all of his fans.