preventing the flu!!!!

Lately it seems like everyone is getting sick, including me. A lot of my friends have gone to the health center and are all getting the same feedback; they have the flu. The flu which is technically called Influenza is a viral infection. True symptoms of the flu are basically symptoms that are worse than a cold that last longer than a cold, and also doesn’t cause vomiting or anything like that.
If you are one of the people who still aren’t sick yet, there are a lot of things you can do to help prevent illness. One thing you can do is stock up on commonly used public items. An example is pens. Public pens carry so many germs if you think about it. If you are at the bank you should try and use your own pen. You have no clue how many infected people have used that pen, or the germs that the pen is carrying. Another thing you can do is buy hand sanitizer. A study was taken at a hospital in Boston and the results showed that out of 292 families, the families who carried hand sanitizers with them had 59% fewer cases of getting sick than families who did not. I thought it was pretty interesting to see that massage therapy has also been proven to improve immunity and increase energy levels in cancer patients. I think massages are the greatest things ever, especially when you are stressed out and need a break! One other important way you can help your body is to take your daily vitamins. A one a day multivitamin is always a good thing. Multivitamins which require to be taken with a meal actually help your body absorb the nutrients better. Don’t forget a glass of water to help dissolve the pill as well!! Hopefully everyone gets better before spring break!! <33

steroids

Lately I have been doing a lot of research on steroids. I decided to write my article on them because there is just so much information on them. The only problem is that I am not sure what my myth about them would be. Any suggestions?
One interesting thing I found while researching steroids is that steroids were first used in the Olympics by the soviets at the World Weightlifting Competition. At this point though, they were just using plant derivatives as steroids, which were all meat diets and animal testicles. I think that’s pretty disgusting but I guess if you are really set on intensifying their muscles and getting bigger then more power to them!

Recently I was looking at an article about Roger Clemens. Apparently Roger Clemens is being accused of being at a party where he was conversing about using performance-enhancing drugs. Also, McNamee claims he injected Clemens with steroids between seven and ten years ago. Not only once though, more like 16 times McNamee said. Of course Clemens denies ever being injected with steroids but the fact that someone is claiming those actions makes it convincing. The press is saying that there is a picture of Clemens being at Canseco’s party and that if he really was there then it could have a big effect on what happens in the end with Clemens.

I think it is so bad how there are so many people including athletes using steroids these days. I think it sets a bad example for young kids who play sports. I have a younger brother and for him to see and hear about major league athletes taking steroids worries me. I think that the negative aspects of steroids should be taught more. I’m not saying my brother is going to grow up and start using them but I wouldn’t want to see him or any other younger kids thinking it is something that everyone does and it is ok to do.

Today was such a busy day for me. I didn’t go to sleep last night until 3:30. Then I had to wake up at 7:00 to be ready for my 8:00 class which I had our first big test in. As stressful as it was having a big test in the morning after hardly any sleep at all; I spent the rest of the day studying for my chemistry test which was at 7:00 tonight. My friends and I all studied and went into the test hoping for the best. The first question on the test was simple. I’m sure just about everyone got it right. Anyways, the rest of the test was out of control HARD! Everyone who took it was saying how they guessed on more than half of the questions. This isn’t anything new though because the same teacher taught us the first part of the class (chem221) and now he is teaching us chem222 this semester. The first semester we had three major tests. Each class average for the test was in the 40’s. You would think that the college or the teacher would recognize that something is wrong and do something about it. Even though most of the class received B’s and A’s at the end of the semester, those grades hardly reflect upon what we actually learned. Of course nobody complained about the curve though. This semester our teacher is giving us homework at the end of each chapter that we have to do. I’m hoping this will help us learn the material a little better but so far I don’t think it has helped much. A lot of times I do the homework just to get it done and not to actually learn the material. All and all I think the only way to get through classes such as my chemistry class is to study hard outside of class and attend as many of the SI sessions as possible.

Library time

All week I have been telling myself that I need to buckle down and study. With three tests on Monday and friends coming up for the weekend I knew I had to study during the week if I wanted to do well on my tests. I think I have been to the library more times the past two weeks than I went during the whole first semester. I figured out that when I am in my room sitting in my bed trying to get my work done I always fall asleep. When I am at the library I really can’t just lay down and fall asleep somewhere, therefore I have to get my work done. I think this semester I will be spending a lot more time there.

Yesterday I went to the library with a few other people and we all studied for our chemistry test, or at least tried to. We ended up studying for about an hour and then all talking about the most random things for the last hour. In the end I’m not really sure how much studying we actually got done. I think that the best way for me to study is when I am by myself in the library or with someone who has a lot to get done also. Usually I get a lot of work done but when I am with girls and trying to study we always seem to have better things to talk about than the homework we are doing or the test we are studying for. Like yesterday for example, we got on the topic of Whitney Houston as we were trying to study for our chemistry test. How we got on the topic of Whitney Houston, I have no clue. We even started listening to one of her songs and singing it in the library. I’m sure people weren’t too happy with us but we stopped anyways. I guess from now on when I go to the library I am going to be aware when we start to get off topic and try to keep our off topic conversations to a minimum.

One of the hardest things to do when I came to college was leaving my best friends from home. I have a few amazing friends that could never be replaced. Today I talked to my best girl friend from home for the first time in a few days. When we first met I was in 7th grade and she was in 6th. We met through AAU Basketball. At first we had our differences because our personalities were so different and we were just completely different people. Eventually we just started hanging out more and more until we became best friends. We called each other every day and always had something to talk about. I can still remember the first time I stayed at her house and we went to one of her school dances with a few boys. We always said that nothing would come between us and we would be “friends ‘til the end.” Since I’ve been away at college she has come up to visit a couple times. All of my friends love her and are always asking when she’s coming up for her next visit. Even though we still talk it’s hard because I really miss her and it’s hard to talk to each other every day when you’re living the college life. I feel like college has distanced us a little and I’m scared that it is going to continue to.

When I think about what I could do to help our friendship, there’s a lot I could be doing. I could definitely make more of an effort to keep in touch with her more than just two or three times a week. I know that Reggie and I will always be friends and we will always be here for each other but college has definitely impacted our friendship. We have been through so much together and I can’t see college having that big of an impact on our friendship if we both make an effort to stay in close contact with each other like we have the past six years.

I’m sure you guys know what I’m talking about. Leaving your best friends is one of the hardest things but no matter what I know we will always be friends
<33

Yesterday I went snowboarding with a bunch of friend. The friends that I go with are all guys and are naturally a little better than me for the most part. Sometimes I see them do things and I think that I can do it too. Most of the time I can do the things the guys do like go over little jumps or the boxes but, every once in a while I push my limits a little too much. Last night the trails were really icy and in other spots it was pretty slushy. I started picking up a lot of speed before a corner. Before I knew it I was trying to turn on the ice and I started sliding across it on my butt until I finally came to a stop. It really hurt but it was really funny and I can only imagine how funny it looked. After we all got our laughs out I realized how much my shoulder was bothering me and I knew exactly what I did because it wasn't the first time that I have felt this pain before. Ever since my junior year in high school when I first hurt my rotator cuff from doing the butterfly in swim, my shoulder has been a lot weaker. The second and third time I hurt it just made it even more weak. This time it didn’t feel like I hurt it as bad but I guess I’ll have to wait and see. I’m sort of getting sick of this snowboarding class and I don’t really want to do it anymore. Maybe this will help get me out of it if I actually did hurt my shoulder!! That might be bad to say but the class is very time consuming and there are a lot of other things I could be doing with that time. I also recently got in an argument with one of the guys that I go with. I don’t know what to do about it..any suggestions!? Sorry this isn’t too interesting..I have just been rambling on about snowboarding and my shoulder. I guess that’s it for now! Byyyeee!

Ughh It’s Monday. An 8:00 in the morning class after superbowl Sunday isn’t something I was looking forward to. Yesterday was a pretty big day, especially for the Giants fans out there. My family and I are pretty big Giants fans so I can only imagine how crazy it was at home. It’s been quite a while since the last time the Giants won a superbowl. Yesterday was a pretty fun day overall though. A bunch of my friends went down to a house on Groton and we ordered three pizzas for us and a bunch of guys. We had a little fire in the driveway which lasted an hour or two before a lady called the cops even though we weren’t doing anything wrong. It makes me mad how adults can be such scrooges and are always trying to ruin the fun! We ended up leaving that house and going to another one on Groton. We stayed there until the game started and then we went back to other house once everything calmed down. There were about 25 people there or so and everyone except for one guy wanted the Giants to win. Everyone was going crazy at the end of the game when the Giants scored within the last couple minutes of the game. My friend Erika literally started choking because she started screaming in the middle of telling us a story. It was so funny. One thing I found interesting was the fact that the Giants were being fed bananas on the sidelines during the game. Today during my kinesiology class this was brought up. We talked about how bananas contain a lot of potassium. The potassium in the bananas helps get rid of muscle cramps and that’s why the players were being fed bananas during their game. I don’t know if anyone else thought so, but I thought this was pretty interesting.

Hope everyone had a good weekend and enjoyed the superbowl!!