Vocab Blog Numero 1

My cousin, Ben, just got back from his two month visit to Nepal and his one month voyage to India. Nepal is a relatively small country in between China and India. He graduated early from Johns Hopkins University in December and before entering Medical School he decided to take some time off. He thought it would be fun and exhilarating to help out in an orphanage in Nepal. It was actually an august orphanage because it was subsidized by the government. Before he went he had to be inoculated with a bunch of shots in order to stay healthy for his entire voyage. While he was at our grandparents he was telling us about the exorbitant prices that we pay. He told us that in Nepal and India, he would not pay over the equivalent of $2 for anything! Ben also told me that people imbibe ALL the time. They will start drinking at like 6 AM. He said they also smoke a lot, which is very unhealthy. As the only white person in this small little village in Nepal, my cousin seemed like a celebrity. He was surrounded by an entourage of people when he went into town because he had a lot of money according to their standards. I have learned a lot about third world countries from my cousin. He told me in Katmandu there is garbage lining the streets, and that stray cows roam the streets and eat it. Because of this, the smog in Nepal, specifically Katmandu, is very bad. Also, it causes the city to be noisome and the stench is so bad at times people need gas masks to breath.

My cousin after staying in the orphanage for two months then decided to travel all over India. He assured me that he would buy me something form the Taj Mahal, but of course never did :(. He also told me that the Taj was extremely tortuous inside and you can't even climb up any stairs in it because you would fall. Looking back on the Taj Mahal the builder of it was ingenious. The architectural ability that one most have to be able to do such a thing is incredible. I would not be able to even think of designing a building of that magnitude. Just to show its importance, it is the mecca for Hindus. In Islam, Muslims make a Hajj to Mecca once in their life time, but in Hinduism, people are supposed to make a Hajj to the Taj, or at least I believe so. Anyway that is all the information that I can remember about my cousins trip to Nepal and India and I hope you enjoyed.

Vocab #4

Right now I don't know what to do a blog post on, so I'm going to make one up. This past Friday, my father was indicted for stealing. He stole my neighbor because he wouldn't give my dad back his lawn mower. Yes, I mean my dad stole my neighbor! He literally put him in the guest room (nothing too rash). His son, John, now acts aloof and hostile toward me and my family, simply because my dad kidnapped his dad. His daughter, Mary, is very stoic however, and doesn't show much emotion. She always has a very stern face, and never seems to be having fun. Personally, if my dad was kidnapped I would have a grudge on the person who did it. Everyone is different though. After going to court for a gruesome seven months, the judge acquitted my father of kidnapping because he treated our neighbor with such hospitality and offered him so many luxuries. Another thing that helped my father was that he only kidnapped my neighbor because he wouldn't give back our lawn mower. So in actuality my neighbor was the antagonist, while my father was the protagonist because he lent out our law mower in the first place. The government as a result rescinded the law that kidnapping is a federal offense because of my father's actions. My father and our neighbor are now friends (even better than before) and we have constantly gone over for family BBQ's.

Vocab #3

In an attempt to write these blogs I noticed the word cajole. Ordinarily I would not know what this word meant but I learned that it more or less means to persuade. This probably isn't important to you but I thought it was. After learning the definition of this word I thought about the ways my friends (who aren't the sharpest tools in the shed) try to cajole me into doing certain things. For instance, the other day my friend tried to convince me into going "ice skating" on this frozen pond that we pass everyday as we walk home. I scrupled to agree to walk on this pond because I always fear like I'm going to fall through, and a behemoth or some creature like the Loch Ness Monster is going to grab me and then kill me. Anyway that is not the point of the story. The main point of the story is that the way my friend convinced me to go ice skating was just by repeating himself over and over and over and over again. Finally, I got to the point where I was just so tired of hearing him plead his case that I reluctantly agreed to go ice skating. His plan was extremely overt he knew that by annoying me enough he would eventually get me to give in. There was no doubt in his mind that he was simply doing this by accident. Personally, I persuade people through other means. I like to be suave and make the other person trust me enough that they will do what I want them to do. Neither strategy is right or wrong, but they both prove to be effective.

Vocab #2

So today was the first time I saw MY movie trailer for MY movie that I'm starring in. Valentines Day, with a ton of actors, was my premiere film. It was an opportunity that I will never forget. My talent agent called my house and said that the director was in dire need of a starring actor and I was just who he needed. This is only how I wish the story went. The actual story is still funny though. I was in Hollywood, CA this summer on a family vacation, and as we were walking through the city, we see Jamie Foxx and a bunch of people around him and very old car. My dad and I were walking up ahead of my mom and sister and were just admiring the movie industry. And from out of the blue, someone came up to us and asked if we were extras, OBVIOUSLY, we said yes and we moved over to the side. After waiting for about 30 minutes, we filmed one shot and just went on with our vacation. It was something I will never forget though. Of course I had to tell my friends and everyone I knew that I was in the movie, when in reality I probably wasn't. Now back to my daydream. The critics appraised my acting as one of the best they have ever seen. Isn't it impressive for my first acting job? It was hard to believe that the director had to terminate my contract for the movie after that one scene though? One would think I would have the potential to star in all his movies! Nonetheless my laconic role in the movie probably was the "make or break" deal in the movie, no big deal. A lot of people didn't believe that I was a movie star at first, but they became credulous when they saw my face in the trailer.

Vocab #1

This week I have had a lot of doctor's appointments. I think its like hair cuts everyone seems to get them around the same time. I'm not really sure why this happens, but its very common, mostly among a group of friends. For instance, this past weekend my friend got a haircut, and from that I noticed that my hair was long and now I made an appointment to go this weekend to get my haircut. Anyway, let's get back to my story. I went to the eye doctor for my annual check up, and he prescribed contacts. I was a bit hesitant at first because contacts require a lot more responsibility than glasses. Paramountly, was the cost of the contacts, which are a lot more than glasses because you constantly need new ones to replace the old, dry ones. After I had my eye doctors appointment, I had my annual physical. I don't really like my doctor because he is very supercilious, always talking like he's so much better than me. However, he is a very good doctor so I understand his haughtiness. One time I went to the doctor after I fell off my bed, and had cut my head open. There was blood gushing everywhere, yet he managed to keep his sang-froid. I'm still wary if he did anything wrong though because that side of my head tends to hurt every so often for no apparent reason. One will never know...I do know that it is important to trust doctors because they are very helpful on matters that the common person isn't aware of.

Blog #4

I am in my room on this beautiful Sunday morning thinking about what to write about for my next blog post, and I have been looking at my walls for inspiration. I noticed i have a picture of myself in a baseball uniform hanging on my wall right above my television. This is from my bar mitzvah when a caricaturist drew it. This reminds me of a story from this past week. My friends drew a picture of another one of my friends, which caused some drama. He made fun of my other friend in the picture, and eventually he saw it. My friend who was made fun of was very angry, and harsh words were exchanged. In brief, this was how this fight transpired. Since I have been very random in this post, I am going to continue to do so. This past Friday was our Winter Ball and my date had already got her license and said she would drive me there; however, she was very scared that her car would get stuck in the snow. Even though I was going with her I could not allay her fears of getting stuck in the snow and being stranded in the freezing cold. It didn't snow on Friday and she succumbed to driving us, which helped out my parents a lot. To continue my rant on really random stories, I am watching the playoff's and I am trying to understand what the broadcasters are saying, but they have an argot, which is impossible to figure out.

Blog #3

Today is January 6th and New Year's Eve was only a few days ago. I have heard a lot of people make their annual new year's resolutions, most of which they will not follow through on, but that isn't the problem I am going to be talking about. What I was going to talk about was, how some people try to circumvent working out and dieting for weight loss supplements in order to lose weights. This is simply preposterous because you really have to work hard to lose weight. The stigma of being overweight, which is unhealthy to begin with, should inspire you to lose weight no matter if it takes more work than you are expecting. But all resolutions don't have to do with losing weight, some of my friends made a resolution to try to allure some boys/girls they are interested in. My friends wore this tawdry shirt he just bought at the mall, which wasn't his style at all might I add, to attract the attention of all these girls we saw that night. Also a few of my friends are garrulous so I'm not sure if they were just saying they wanted to go out with these boys or if they were serious. But in the end how many times have you heard someone say "well...I didn't lose the weight...", or "well...I didn't get the guy...", etc. As a result, I don't expect people to accomplish their new year's resolutions (this probably sounds horrible) so if they do fulfill it I am very impressed.