http://snappingnecks.blogspot.com/

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had the rare opportunity to spend time with my older brother Trevor. He plays football for Purdue University, so it is a rare occasion to have him around the house. While he was home, he introduced me to a blog written by one of his teammates, Kevin Ballinger. Kevin's blog consists of various posts, sometimes funny, sometimes serious, and sometimes a mix. Since checking out his blog, I have spent multiple hours going through his blog and reading all that he has to say. The kid is extremely funny and has some interesting thoughts to share with the world. If you are ever in need of a good laugh, I recommend checking it out.

Charlie Chaplin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcvjoWOwnn4

This video was introduced to me by my oldest brother Hunter over the Thanksgiving holiday. Immediately after hearing it, I knew I should make a blog post about it. The video is filled with a message that needs to be told to every country on earth. Charlie Chaplin talks to the people of his nation and tells them that we need to rid ourselves of greed and start working together to make the earth a great place to live. He tells the people to be human beings with love in their hearts rather than acting like cattle who follow every command from their superior. This is an argument that goes far beyond religion, race, or political party. This is a message that needs to be heard by all of human kind.

Worst Analogies Ever

One way my roommates and I pass times on down nights it using StumbleUpon. For those of you who have never been blessed with the greatness that is StumbleUpon, it is a website that you plug your interests into, and the website takes you to random websites relating to those interests. One of the hidden gems I found was this post on the worst high school essay analogies ever. I may be stretching it by saying that this article will enhance your rhetorical skills, however it will give you a good laugh. It is a compilation of analogies that either make no sense, ramble on way too long, or make no point in the paper. I highly recommend everyone to read this post if you are in need of some internet humor.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/AYas21/www.etni.org.il/farside/analogies.htm

Warren Buffet

Through the past year or so of my life, I have become obsessed with following the lives of various successful people. Some of my idols are Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, Sam Walton, Rob Dyrdek, and Jack Canfield. These people are the best in the world at what they do. The thing I admire the most about these people is that since making it to the top of the world, they focus on helping others make it too. (see my previous post on Mark Cuban if you have time) As a young aspiring entrepreneur, I find it important to look into the lives of these people and mimic their habits. One thing I stumbled across was an article about a recent spending binge by Warren Buffet. In case any of you did not know, he is probably the most successful investor to ever live. He specialized in taking small businesses, dropping millions sometimes billions of dollars into them, and watching them turn into world wide corporations. Buffett has created jobs for millions across the world, which is why I respect him more than anybody except maybe my father. Anyways, Buffett spent $25 billion on US bank stock this past quarter. Think about it, the greatest investor to ever live just made one of his biggest investments ever in US bank stock. Point in case, INVEST IN US BANK STOCK IMMEDIATELY.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/07/markets/buffett_stocks/?iref=NS1

Presentation

My presentation was over the plastic recycling solution on the first day. I'm glad I decided to go first because it was nice to get it out of the way right off the bat. If I were to do it again, I would have touched more on talking about what I wanted to find out with the research paper. I feel like overall I did well with it, and it seemed to all go smoothly. I think the topic I picked was a good topic that I can dig into and get a lot of information and research out of. I thought everybody did a great job with the presentations.

The Guru's Secret

http://www.saul-rodriguez.com/2010/08/need-to-breathe.html

This is a story that has been important to me since my junior year of high school. December 5th, 2010, the night of the football state championship, my coach walked into the locker room and told us this story. He told us that if we wanted to win as bad as we wanted to breathe, we would win. We ended up winning 36-6 over our hated rivals in front of 30,000 people and finished the season as the 13th ranked team in the nation. Ever since that night, I think of this story when I get overwhelmed with schoolwork or anything else. I try to implement this idea in as many facets of my life as possible, and I have found it to be effective. If you can prioritize your life correctly and strive for what you want, it will eventually become yours. People seem to give up on their goals for success even when they are closer than ever before to achieving them. This story can provide valuable advice for anybody who is pushing to achieve success.

Steve Jobs TED Talk

I decided to do two posts on TED talks because this Steve Jobs commencement speech is a video that has been one of my favorites for years. Being the younger brother of a web designer and social network developer, I have had no choice to be tech-savvy. Steve Jobs has been my brother Hunter’s idol for years, so it did not take long for my brother to force our whole family to listen to this video. It is a great speech, and it immediately had an impact on me. The part that meant the most to me is when he speaks about doing what you love. He claims that you must do what you love to make great work. The most important thing is to keep looking for what you love and never settle for less. Since hearing this advice, I have been in relentless pursuit of finding what I love. I have started to realize that my passion is in the music industry, and I have Steve Jobs to thank for helping me find it. Steve Jobs is one of the most influential people our era has ever seen, and he is truly a remarkable person with a roller coaster life. I recommend everybody to watch this video and learn a little more about the life of Steve Jobs.

http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html