11/29-12/3 2.)

Many people look around and wish they were Nate Bailey because he is the boss, but this is what the boss will look like 20 years from now. I look at this picture and see a very determined man that looks very suspicious and scrubby, just like Nate Bailey now. 20 years from now Nate will finally be able to grow facial hair, but because he is irresponsible he lost his razor. Are you surprised? I'm not. Many people will have their opinion on what this man is planning to do, but I think that he is planning on doing something really low, as we all know Nathan Bailey would do something like that. I have a feeling that Nate is going to like steal an old lady’s purse, or highjack an elderly man's moped, or take a young kid's ice cream cone and shove it in the kid's face, Nate is planning to do something of this sort. This is a man that once thought he was bound for Cortland, New York, but he took a detour route and ended up on the corner of Momma's Boy Avenue and Live in a Box Drive. Ever since Nathan found his destination he has always been determined to find his mother again someday. He is still trying to come up with a plan to find his mother and it's been tough for him because he is ineligible to receive his license due to driving his car through garage doors. So Nate has to collect money to catch a train to go back to his homeland. This will also be hard for him though because he lives in a box with no mailbox so his unemployment checks get lost. I hope that one day Nate can turn his life around because right now it is kind of rough.

11/22-11/26 - Nate Zobrest

Top ten things about Nate Zobrest
10. The worst thing about him is that he is Phil Zobrest's brother.
9.   He plays football for the Alden Bulldogs.
8. He changes his permanent hair color for a Halloween costume.
7. He has a deep voice that scares away little kids.
6. He has eaten a Foss lineman dinner
5. He has a dry sense of humor.
4. He still thinks USC will be playing in a bowl game this year
3. He wears Matt Barkley underwear.
2. He owns a Matt Barkley cape and wears it every night and he is still waiting to be called to come to rescue someone.
1. He sits next to Ryan Pinkowski.

11/22-11/26 - Fear builds walls."

In my opinion, I truly believe that fear does build walls. When you have a fear of something you are afraid to do it or try to attempt something. Like, for example we will say that you are Nate Bailey and you are afraid of your dark basement in your house because you act like such a little child all the time. Well now Nate never goes in his basement because he is a little baby. So now he never goes in his basement and he always makes some 5 year old go in the basement for him. My point is though that he never goes in his basement because he is scared so it almost like there is a wall blocking Nate from his basement and it is his fear just like this quote says. This quote can be related to many scenarios like sports, fears that little kids may experience, fears of animals or other people, or fears of natural disasters. I know some people on the football field fit into this quote in this way. There are some people that are afraid of end of the game situations and they don't want to be under pressure or they get nervous when the game is on the line. Well let's say you have to score a touchdown at the end of the game and you are not nervous. Your chances of being successful are better because you are calm, but when you are nervous it's like you are building a wall for yourself to get over. So I think this quote makes a lot of sense.

11/15-11/19What is your favorite holiday? Why?

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, but I have wrote about Thanksgiving twice this year so I am going to write about my second favorite holiday which is Christmas. I find Christmas to be one of the most fun times of the year just because it is just an amazing atmosphere. I always love seeing the snow on the ground everywhere during December because it just gets everybody in the Christmas mode. Usually up to Christmas, I am always shopping or getting ready for my break from school. I always have basketball going on during this time which always makes it fun because I like basketball a lot and I find that to be a very fun sport. Also, during the Christmas period, I am constantly outside playing football or basketball in the cold, or I am chucking snow balls at Ty, or I am shoveling the drive way by myself because Tyler never has time to do that. That actually leads me to my next point, my brother always looks like he has so much time on his hands and then every time he is busy it just so happens that the driveway needs to be shoveled and he cannot do it. That seems very interesting to me. Also Christmas is a great time because you get the opportunity to spend so much time with your family which is something that I always look forward to. I also enjoy using my new gifts that I get for Christmas; that is a pretty good time. I would have to say the best part about Christmas is that you get to spend time with your family. Right now I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, but after that I will start to get in that Christmas mode which I love. Christmas is one of the best times of the year and I can’t wait for this year’s Christmas.

11/15-11/19 2.) What is winning? What does winning mean to you? What does it mean to be a winner?

To me, winning is not just when a team is winning on the scoreboard at the end of a sport contest. Winning is when a person or a team has given a 100 percent effort to do whatever they possible could to win a game. That is winning. Sometimes there are occasions where a team will defeat another team, but they don't earn the win. That is not a true win no matter how you look at it. Winning means the world to me. I play sports because I love winning and I always want to win because I am very competitive. This football season, our team went undefeated and I now know what it feels like to win because we earned to have an amazing season. We worked out every day this summer and we dedicated our summer to football and it paid off. After that, I truly knew what it felt like to be a winner. When you do no win, it is a terrible feeling, one of the worst feelings in the world. I have only lost one football game as a starter and I have never got over it. I hate losing and I always have a tough time handling losing no matter what the scenario is or no matter what my role is on a team I hate to lose. I always do whatever it takes to win, no matter how hard I have to prepare or no matter how hard I have to work I will always do whatever it takes to win. If there is one good thing that comes out of losing though, I think would be this. Whenever you lose at something that you love doing, it motivates you to do better and work harder. Ever since I lost my first J.V. football game, I always played with a chip on my shoulder because I always remember how much that loss hurt. Ever since that game I have never lost a football game and I think it is because I learned from that loss. Winning means so much to me and there are not many more things that I love more than winning.

11/15-11/19 I am thankful for...

The thing in life that I am definitely most thankful for is my family. My two parents and my brother mean so much to me and they play such big roles in my life, and I care about them more than anything. My parents and my brother Tyler have both taught me so many lessons in life and I couldn't ask for a better family. Both of my parents have always taught me great things about life and I feel the reason I am successful in life is because of my parents. Whenever I need something, they are always there for me and I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people on this planet because they are my parents. Also, they are both very hardworking, so they make a good amount of money to allow me to experience opportunities in life that the average kid doesn't get to experience. My parents are both teachers, with my Mom teaching here at Alden, and my Dad is a physical education teacher at Akron. I couldn't ask for better parents and I am so thankful to have them in my life. Now my brother on the other hand, I am also very thankful to have him in my life even though he probably is not thankful that I am in his life. Tyler is maybe the hardest working person I have ever meant in my life and one of the smartest people I have ever seen. There is not one person in this world that I feel more comfortable talking to than Ty. He is always very understanding about everything and he is always there to give me tips. Tyler is also a great athlete, I have always looked up to him my whole life, and I have always wanted to be like him. He is one of the most respected people in the school and he deserves every ounce of it. I also could not ask for a better brother. I am most thankful for my family.

11/8-11/12 #1

In my useless opinion, I think that Thanksgiving is the best holiday without question. I mean the two things I like the most in life are put together in one day. First, I absolutely love football to death and on Thanksgiving there is tons of football. On every Thanksgiving there are three NFL football games. First the Detroit Lions play in the middle of the day, but they are not good ever so they usually lose and no one cares about that game. After the Detroit game, the Dallas Cowboys play a game, but I hate the Dallas Cowboys and this is awesome because this year they are terrible and they will lose too. So this Thanksgiving might be my best Thanksgiving. Then there is another NFL game later in the night, but the teams that play in that game change every year. Also on Thanksgiving, I get to eat the best meal of the year. I love this dinner and I look forward to it all year. My family and I always go down to my Grandparent's home where I get to eat this amazing dinner. There is turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, stuffing, cran berry sauce, cream cucumbers, corn, broccoli casserole, bean casserole, and lots of dessert. I can't wait for this meal this year; it will be amazing at the least. After Thanksgiving, I usually play a pick up football game that Friday and we call it the Turkey Bowl, but hopefully this year I'm playing in the Carrier Dome on Sunday for a State Championship instead of playing a pick up football game.

                                                                                                                                          

11/8-11/12 2.)

If I could have lunch with three people in this world, they would probably be Brett Favre, Peyton Manning, and Aaron Rodgers. First, Brett Favre would be cool to have lunch with because he would be able to tell me about all his experiences throughout his long, incredible career. He has won a Super Bowl too, so that would be a cool subject to chat about. Favre has also played for four NFL franchises so he could explain to me all the differences between the teams. He is also my biggest role model; I admire the way he plays the game of football so it would be a thrilling experience to talk with him. It would be cool to have lunch with Peyton Manning because he is arguably the best quarterback in the NFL so it would be interesting to see what he would have to say. Manning has also won a Super Bowl and a couple MVP awards, just like Favre. Manning is probably the most knowledgeable quarterback in the NFL so I would love to hear what his knowledge of football is like. Finally, it would be cool to have lunch with Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, because he is in my opinion the best young quarterback in the NFL. He is such a great passer; I think that it is incredible. I also like Rodgers because I was watching NFL Match up the other day and I realized that he does something similar to what we do hear at Alden. The best part about going out to eat with these men would be that they are all rich so I wouldn't have to pay for a thing.

11/8-11/12 quotes

Vince Lombardi- "If you can accept losing, you can't win."

I like this quote because I agree with this statement 100 percent.  What Vince Lombardi is saying is that if you ever want to be a true winner or a champion in other words you can't be satisfied with losing ever. To be a true winner you can never settle for losing. A true winner has the passion to win every time they step onto a playing field. A winner always has to drive to get better no matter how good they are at something. I think this is a great quote that many people should pay attention to.

Vince Lombardi- "The strength of the group is the strength of the leaders." 
I also think that his is a great quote because whenever you look at successful sports team, there is always one thing that is in common. All great teams have great leaders. People always overlook leadership, but that might be the most important aspect for a character in life. People always say how athletic or how strong these good athletes are, but they reason they are successful is because they work hard. They work hard because they are a leader or they had a leader that influenced them. This is a great quote and it has a huge meaning.

Vince Lombardi- "Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit."
When people quit something for the first time, they usually have the attitude that it's just a one-time thing, but this quote is saying that you start to keep quitting things. It's not good to quit in life in most cases so if you get in that habit you are hurting yourself in the long run.

 

respect11/1-11/5

Respect is a little word that has a huge meaning. The word respect means that you are a kind person that put others in front of yourself, and you always are polite to people. An antonym of respect is Nathan Bailey. When you are respectful you don't lie to people. The other day, Nathan Bailey decided to write a comment on his own article saying it was me. Then he decided to lie about it to Mr. Currin which was un-called for. Nathan also always picks on me which is not polite at all. I'm a freshman who takes flak from only one person in this school and it is Nathan Bailey. I mean I am afraid to come to school every day because of that big, scary Nathan Bailey. Also, I run the scout team offense for the varsity football team against Nate, who is a starter on the defense. All I hear all day from Nate is how slow I am and he is going to tackle me so hard. First of all I hope Nathan Bailey tries to tackle me because it wouldn't hurt and I am not sure he can. Just watch last season's game film and you will agree with me. Nathan has some explaining to do after people see that. Then, going back to this scout team harassment, Bailey tells me that I am slow yet yesterday I had a few nice runs and Nathan Bailey did not tackle me. How come? Is he afraid of me? It would not surprise me. I think that respect is one of the most important qualities a person must have. If you are respectful in life, you will go a long way.

11/1-11/5#1

My dream job is either to be an NFL coach one day or an NFL quarterback. These are dream jobs for me because I absolutely love football to death and it would be incredible if my job dealt with football. Obviously to get one of these jobs, it will be a lot of hard work which i would be willing to do. To be an NFL quarterback, you have to be smart, precise, composed, athletic, and you must have leadership that is out of this world. You also must have a work ethic that is very strong. An NFL quarterback in most cases is the highest paid player on a football team, but that's not the reason i want this to be my job. I just think that it would be amazing to play football for a living. Then to be a coach, it is very similar to being a quarterback. You have to be smart, composed, strong leadership skills, and it would be a good idea to play football at some point in your life. Also a coach must be willing to work long days even in the off season because you have to be able to study film, and strategize for opponents. A coach has to be willing to work with other people as well and be able to deal with stress. Being a coach in the NFL consists of lots of pressure and stress so if you can't handle criticism, neither of these jobs are good then. I think the pros of this job out way the cons by far though and that's why these are dream jobs for me.