“Cookies?!?! Who told you, you could eat my cookies?!”

Before you begin:  you will need

Good Music to keep you motivated

1 – 2 friends to enjoy the cookies with (and clean the pans)

3/4 cup(3/4 stick) Butter Flavor Crisco(or regular Crisco)

1-1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2 Tablespoon milk

1 Tablespoon vanilla

1 egg

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup of chocolate chip cookies or M & M’s which is my favorite.

Directions: The unofficial first step is to get yourself pumped because you are about to bake some bad ass chocolate chip cookies!

1.  Heat oven to 375 degrees:  Also known as the boring part!!!!!!
2. Combine Crisco,light brown sugar,milk,and vanilla in large bowl.  Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended.  Beat egg into creamed mixture.  AKA the messy part!

3. Combine flour, salt, and baking soda.  Mix into creamed mixture just until well blended.  Stir in chocolate chips or anything your heart desires.  Become a mad scientist!    >:P

4. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.

5. Bake one baking sheet at a time at 375 degrease for 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies or longer if you like them a little more crunchy.  I prefer a median between the two.

6. Enjoy eating them while your friends clean the pans.  P.S. make sure you let them cool off or you will learn the hard way!

My view of the world

While I was in Roman I did not do as the Romans do!  But I did see a new part of the world that opened my eyes.  When I toured the grounds of the Sistine Chapel I was astonished by the beauty of it all.   Of all the great things I saw the best thing was an architectural sculpture of the world.  The one thing that made it better was a little boy who tried to push it with everything he had.  While sitting there I thought to myself this kid reminds me of myself.  No matter how impossible the task I would never give up until I tried it myself and made it happen.  I know you are thinking that there is no way that you could ever push that thing, then you aren’t seeing the message.  It is not about the physical cans and can nots, but it is about the mental capacity to overcome anything.

Is it that time ALREADY?!

I started this semester thinking to myself “what am I doing?, I haven’t been to school in 8 years!”  Over the course of the semester I eventually fell into the swing of things, but the thing is I only just realized that it’s almost already over.  It is crazy how fast time flies these days.  This college experience has been fun especially since I thought it was going to be a nightmare.  Things turned out well and I made some good friends.  It is hard for me to imagine doing it all over again though but as I see it I only got 7 more semesters left.  After that i will be a graduate of college and who knows I may continue my career in Active Duty military but this time as an Officer.

Continuing The Fight

So we all just experienced a really crappy snow storm recently but I don’t want to blog about that.  Instead something that is a little more important to me.  My brother has recently decided to join the military and continue in Active Duty where I had left off.  Although I am in the Army Reserves it just isn’t the same as Active Duty.  My brother Tony had talked to me a few times about the idea of joining the Army Forces and I had expressed my dislike of the whole situation, but I reiterated to him that it was his decision.   He called me often asking for my input and for my expertise in dealing with enlistment.  After a while I decided to go with him to the recruiting station on several occasions and find him a great job and get him on the right track which is something I never had.  It was the best thing for him.  The best way for him to succeed and achieve his goals.  Every visit we made to the recruiting station we had made progress in getting him the proper job and not being fooled by Military Recruiters just trying to fill numbers and slots.  He thanked me everyday for going because I had become his spokesman.   Pushing past the misleading b.s. recruiters spit out trying to lure prospective candidates for their branch of service, I had given the recruiters my brothers demands and laid them out clearly.  We finally landed at the door step of the Navy.  They had the best opportunities and best jobs.  I had done my part and got him the benefits and job he wanted.  I felt a little uneasy though letting my brother join the military.  I had been through some tough times and sacrificed a lot, but deep down inside I knew it was the best thing for him.  It would shape him into a stronger person mentally and physically like it did for me.  It would teach him life lessons that would take years or even decades any other way and it could also build him up financially.  Those things are all fine and dandy but the most important thing to me is that he is following in my foot steps and serving our country.  This is not an easy option but it is one of Honor and Duty for your self and your country.  This sacrifice is for more than yourself.  It is for all of those around you.  I am proud that he is joining the Armed Forces.  He is following a new tradition in our family.

He is continuing the fight from where I left off.

Freedom?!?!

I just have to know,  “What is freedom?”  As soon as you get to college you work only to pay bills and rack up College debt.   After College you only work to pay off that debt.  Do you feel the freedom we were promised?  I felt far more freedom in my years in the military and I, like so many others signed away that “freedom” only to do as we were commanded by those appointed over us.  The Irony being that I was in fact able to live a life more freely compared to those who were  living the American Life(Work day in and day out for just enough money to get by, but not actually able to enjoy it thoroughly).  I never felt more free in my life than when I served in the military.  I recently got out and feel restricted by petty rules and regulations made for fools of ignorance.  Now that I am part of the American Life I see the Freedom our Forefathers wrote about diminishing.  While politicians continue to collect huge paychecks and restrict our freedoms even more, the average American continues to struggle to survive.  But I digress, the real reason for this is because I that the current way of living is not real freedom.  I feel that the things I have experienced while serving in the military was the true meaning of freedom.  I traveled, I made friends around the world, I experienced life in more ways than most could ever hope to.  I saw the world many times over.  My only problem is that I had to sacrifice 8 years of my life to earn it.  I will tell you one thing it was worth every moment.  Whether I was getting into an M1A1 tank in Iraq, throwing good luck coins into the Trevi Fountain with my wife in Rome, hanging on a pole in Austria, visiting the Statue of Liberty, skydiving in California,  breathing the fresh air on top of a mountain, or scaling the Frankenjura mountians of Germany, I would make the sacrifice  over and over to be able to enjoy those freedoms for the rest of my life.  We the people deserve better.

Get off your @$$ and have some fun!!

So I just got out of the Army and started looking for things to occupy my time prior to the start of our current 2011 Fall Semester.  I looked around for something adventurous, something competitive, and  physically demanding.  I knew I had found the perfect adrenaline rush when  I stumbled across a great obstacle race called Spartan Race.  This race was a killer 3.5 mile race filled with steep hills, jagged rocks, and muddy swampland.   Oh and guess what,  there were 12 obstacles between you and the finish line.  If you don’t think this type of thing is for you I would hope you reconsider as you would be missing out on the challenge of your life.

I’ll help you envision my perspective as if you had done it yourself .  You begin the race by sprinting about  500 meters uphill with loose rocks and gaps to jump across.   You have about 500 other men and women sharing the same “fun” you are.  You know that everyone and pushing through it, so you keep pushing yourself.  Then that steep sprint uphill turns into a very steep downhill.  The uphill-downhill sea-saw just repeating itself but your mind doesn’t pay attention to that you are far too focused on trees, bushes and branches in your way.   You know that you are starting to get tired but you feel a sense of accomplishment and push harder.  You find yourself running  towards your first actual obstacle.  It’s a rope suspended on a pulley and on the other end two 15 pound bricks,   you know exactly what to do so you just tear the rope back, alternating hands  and pulling harder with each touch of the rope.  The brick hits the top, bring it back down and take off down the crazy trails zig-zagging through the woods of this crazy mountain.  You keep going because the feeling of quitting makes you sick!  As your heart begins pounding the next obstacle can be seen just barely through the thick wooded area.  This obstacle makes you question why you woke up this morning and drove 2 hours, but you aren’t going to quit.  So you fill the bucket up with 45 pounds of rocks and put it on your shoulder.   The hill is the same size as the one you started the race on but at this point far more dreadful.  You feel your arms getting tired and your legs getting weak, yet you continue to push through the pain.  The irony is that once you bring the bucket to the top you then turn around carry it down and dump it back in the pile you took it from then turn around and run up again.  The race continues and so do you.  Obstacle after obstacle the adrenaline forces it’s way through your veins.   You climbed ropes, you hopped across logs to avoid falling in the mud,  you jumped over cars and tires,  you even crawled on your hands and knees through mud and under barbed wire.  You finish obstacle after obstacle with the same intensity as the last.

There are now only two obstacles between you and the finish line.  The first of two is easy after all you have endured previously,  a climb across a 50 foot wall.  There is a catch though, the hands and feet placement are only 3 inches wide by 1 inch thick.  Nothing at this point can stop you, you have one more obstacle.  This final obstacle just happens to be 3 men who just happen to be 6 feet 7 inches tall and are all 250 pounds of muscle.   They just happen to be carrying pugil sticks.  You know you have to get through them.  The finish line is just past them and you can see victory is within your grasps.

This is where you really feel like a Spartan, confronting what seems to you to have been the vast armies of Xerxes himself.  You clash with the first and you continue to put one foot in front of the other bracing yourself for impact but you have caught your opponent off guard.  On to the next, this man knows he has to prevent you front getting past him so he begins to swing his pugil stick at where you are running but you change course and run straight into him and it works you have successfully trampled someone twice your size.   You know you have one more to go but he knows what you are going to do.   What do you do?  If you said “just keep pushing through”, you are absolutely correct.  As you run towards the last man you jump but he clips your legs.  You aren’t worried because you have the reflexes to catch yourself just before hitting the ground.  You’re stumbling forward from the momentum and gather yourself just before passing the finish line.  Greeted by another member who is now draping a Spartan Race Finishers’ Medal on your chest you can’t help but feel a sense of pride and accomplishment.   Covered in mud, bumps, scrapes, blood, bruises, and grass you just begin to smile.  You have just finished the funnest/most difficult race of your life and you couldn’t be happier.

.  If any of this sounded even remotely fun to you I would recommend you visit www.spartanrace.com and sign up for a race for next year.  Or in class talk to me and I can share more stories and get you a possible discount.  Get up and go have some fun.