Blog 10- Christmas

Christmas is a time of the year where families can be together and just have a good time.  It is by far my favorite time of year.  All the snow, food, and presents are what I live for.  Also, being able to spend time with my whole family, is not only a treat for me, but it is almost always a funny experience that I will remember for a long time.  When Christmas comes around, I start to taste my mom's cooking, hear my uncles telling jokes, and feel the love in the air.  My favorite food on Christmas is my aunt's cheesy potatoes.  They are mouth watering and just absolutly delicious.  I only get them once a year so I always take full advantage of them.  A tradition my family and I always do around Christams time, is to put the tree up around the beginning of December.  On Christmas Eve, each of my brothers and I are allowed to open one present, but I always wait to open mine until Christmas day because to me, there are more presents that way and thats just what I like to do.  On Christmas day, after opening presents and eating a big breakfast, we all get dressed up and go to my Uncle Don's house to have Christmas dinner.  It is a great time to be with my family and I look forward to it every year. 

Week 9 Blog-First College Semester

With the first semester of my college career comeing to an end, I find myself relieved and glad it's over.  With hte semester ending, it means that we as students are about to go on Christmas break.  To me I couldn't be happier.  Christmas is my favorite time of the year.  Looking back on this semester in school, it has zipped by very fast, but that is definatly a good thing.  I met new people, made new friends, and even enjoyed a few of my classes.  The whole college experience is nice and all, but I truly believe it is over rated and too talked up.  I was told that college is supposed to be the time of your life, but so far it has just been the same old school for me.  Maybe it is because I don't get into the whole drinking thing, or maybe it's because I just simply don't take full advantage of it, but either way, college has not been what I thought it would be.  Hopefully next semester will be easier and flow better.  I almost have a full college semester under my belt, and i'm ready for next semest, but after break of course.  I'm very glad that I got the chance to meet new friends.  Hopefully I will continue to talk to them and keep in touch with them throught the rest of my college life, and in the future when we all have jobs and are living the lifes we hoped for.

Week 8 Blog- High School

High school is very often over looked and not taken very seriously.  Most kids, including me, wanted or want nothing more than to just graduate and get the heck out of there.  I thought that I would love college way more and that it would be so fun to be on my own but the reality of it was that I never should have taken high school for granted so much.  I’m not saying this is the case for everyone and I’m not totally saying I hate and dislike everything about college, but looking back, I wish I would have used my time more wisely in high school.  Being in college is nice and it’s an achievement.  It is also a privilege and not a right, so take it seriously.  Being able to choose my classes and have fewer classes than high school is defiantly not a bad thing, but there is a catch to it.  Not all my classes are back to back.  Some days I have breaks, which are nice, but most days I just want to get class over and done with for the day.  A positive thing about it is that I don’t have to get up as early as I did in high school, but the classes are longer and harder.  Studying in high school for me pretty much never happened, but in college if you want to be successful and pass, studying is a huge part of college, which isn’t necessarily fun.  The whole college experience for me hasn’t really been what I expected it to be, and I am a bit disappointed.  All in all, I miss high school a lot, and wish I would have used my time there more wisely and had more fun, because you only get one chance at it and you have to make the most of it.

Week 7 Blog- Video Games

Video games are often looked at as a complete waste of time and very bad for one’s health.  What people don’t see when they look at and think about video games is that they can actually help you in more ways than one.  Hand and eye coordination can be improved and increased when playing video games.  Knowing the controls on the controller while looking at the game helps that tremendously.  Video games can also be a great way to relieve stress.  If you are really overwhelmed with homework or work or anything that stresses you out, taking a break from it and playing a video game can be relaxing and fun.  Games can also be a good way to bond and have fun with friends.  In today’s games and game systems, it is easy to talk to one another from your own houses through the game.  This feature is called live.  I’m not saying everything about video games is helpful and good.  Some video games are very violent and can give your gamers the wrong view on certain things.  Video games can also cause kids and adults in some cases to not do what they are supposed to do while they just sit on the gaming system.  

It all depends on what your view is on video games.  To me they are both helpful, and disruptive, but I still enjoy playing them.  Some of my favorite games to play are Madden Football and Halo 3.

Week 6 Blog- SNOW

As the weeks go on I find it more and more challenging to find topic to write about.  But this week I am going to write about snow.  As townships and cities prepare themselves for this winter and the snow it will bring, i do too.  I hope and pray for snow to come as soon as possible.  Why do I want snow so bad you may ask?  Well there are a couple of reasons why.  The first reason is because of what is going to take place starting on November 20, 2010, which is the opening day of the 2010 Wisconsin Gun Deer Hunt.  Now this day only comes around once a year and it’s rare for there to be snow on the ground.  Snow is important to deer hunting because it helps increase visibility in the woods tremendously.  It also help when tracking a deer because it makes the color of the blood appear on the snow very well.  Another reason I want snow so bad right now is because I am a huge snowmobile fan and supporter.  I sold my snowmobile at the end of last winter so that I could buy a newer and more powerful snowmobile for this season, and I don’t want it to go to waste.  Snowmobiling is a fun way to enjoy the outdoors with friends and family.  It is also a good way to relax and just have fun.

The temperatures are cold enough and it’s that time of year, so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Week 5 Blog- Packers

The Green Bay Packers are currently 6-3 overall and are on top the standing in their division rankings.  This is not surprising to me, given the talent they have and possess, but at the beginning of the season, due to injuries and a slow start, I was beginning to think that it could be a long season. The team is finally starting to come around and some key players and starting to become fully healthy again.  A key loss they have had this season had been one of the top ranked corner backs in the NFL, AL Harris.  HE suffered a severe knee injury and still hasn’t fully recovered from it, so the Packers decided to let him go.  Personally I believe they should have kept him around and waited to see how he bounced back from the injury, but then again, it’s hard to keep him on the team and keep paying him if you don’t know if he will be able to play again the same as he used to.  Luckily, the new young corners are starting to play well and take over in his place.  Aaron Rodgers is starting to finally play like the quarterback he can be.  He had a slow start to the season, like the rest of the team, but his last game against the Dallas Cowboys was his best game yet this season.  He threw for 283 yards and had 3 touchdowns.  His quarterback rating was the highest it’s been all year as wee, which was a 131.5.  If the Packers keep this momentum rolling, the rest of the season should be exciting and fun to watch.

-Jeff

Final Draft-Hunting Paper

Jeff Raasch

Mrs. Allard

September 26, 2010

     Throughout everyone’s life, different things happen that change all of us forever, and make us who they are today. These events may be a death in the family, or even an experience you had with someone at some time that touched them in a way they never thought possible. An event in my life that has changed me as a person and as a hunter is when I became part of my family’s hunting tradition. It was a long and stressful process which took years to fully accomplish, but the start of it was an experience I would never forget.
It was a cold and snowy Saturday morning. The time was 4:30a.m and my alarm was yelping in my ear, which meant one thing… hunting season was only hours from beginning. I was 12 years old and finally ready to start my first year of hunting with my dad and two older brothers, Bobby and Tommy. My twin brother Jason was also 12 and old enough to hunt along me, my brothers and my dad. I had already gotten all of my hunting clothes and belongings ready the night before so that I could get a head start in the morning, and be ready to go on time. It was becoming close to leaving time so I double checked to make sure I had everything that I would need to go hunting. As my family and I made our way out to our hunting land, I couldn’t help but feel a mix of emotions. I was excited, pumped up, happy, and ready to start hunting, but most of all I was nervous and scared. I never knew I could feel such crazy and opposite emotions, but it was uncontrollable and being poured on me all at once. What made me so nervous was that this was the year that I would hopefully become one of the guys. This meant someone who was a man now. To become a man and one of the guys, I would have to shoot my first deer, and preferably a buck, but this was no easy task. I would not only have to overcome what hunters call “buck fever”, but I would also have to steady my nerves and make a clean and deadly shot. Buck fever is when a buck or doe comes walking through the woods towards you and you start shake uncontrollably. You hear nothing but the sounds of the deer, inching its way towards you; and you wait for it to present a shot so that you can shoot it.
The challenge was well-known as I climbed into my tree stand. As I sat down in my chair, which was placed on the wooden platform below me, I took a moment to recognize my surroundings and placed my things down next to me. I propped my gun up against the tree, and my fanny-pack full of snacks and pop on the wooden platform below. After everything was set down and in place, and I was comfortably sitting down in my chair, I took a moment to see what was around me. I was surrounded by woods to my left and right, and an open hay field in front and behind me. There was a fresh scent of cool, wet outdoors in the air. It was almost as if there was no sound anywhere. The wind was calm and cooling, and the temperature was near a shivering 20 degrees. As I sat in my stand, patiently waiting for something to happen, I watched the sun peak out from behind the hills and start to slowly melt away the snow. Then, all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something peeking its way out into the hay field in front of me. My first thought was that I was only seeing things, and that it was nothing. But to my excitement, it was a young doe and hopefully my first deer. I quickly but quietly reached for my gun. The nerves were starting to set in as at this point, and I knew this was my chance to shoot my first deer. Next, I slowly raised my gun to take the shot. I knew that I needed to hit the deer just behind its front shoulder in order to kill it quickly and easily. I steadied my gun and aimed right where I needed to. As the shot went off, and the smoke cleared, I saw the deer drop to the ground, and the rest is history.
That night back at the house, my family and I sat down talked about the day of hunting. I couldn’t explain the feeling that I had at that moment, knowing that I had finally taken the first step in becoming a man and had been a part of my family’s hunting tradition. Traditions can contain many different things and have several different meanings. Some traditions may consist of making a certain food for the holidays, or even singing a certain song during a family members birthday, but one thing in common between all traditions is that they all have a special meaning and are very precious. The only thing left to make me officially part of my family’s tradition was to shoot a buck. That task would be completed a few years later. I hope to one day have a few kids of my own, and I hope that I can teach them how to hunt so they can know the feeling of becoming part of a long and fun hunting tradition. My experience in becoming part of my families hunting tradition was a fun and exciting part of my life, but also a stressful and nervous experience. I continue to hunt every year, and become more and more involved with our family’s ways of doing things, and to me, it never gets old. Hunting is a part of me and my life, and without it, I truly believe that I wouldn’t be the person I am today.