Monday, May 16, 2011

Why oh Why?

Is anybody up for some self-esteem boosting? My suggestion is to start up your car and move you way on down to you local Wal-Mart. However if you feel like saving on gas I would recommend surfing you way to peopleofwalmart.com. It is hard to believe that people would stoop to such a low level and go out like that in public. Either they don’t care or they don’t know better. Anyways is a great way to get a laugh or make you feel like the king/queen of England. It appears that low prices draw the creatures from the dark side into the fluorescent lighted aisles of cheap made in china products. Below I will provide you with some examples of the people of Wal-Mart. But feel free to go to peopleofwalmart.com for “infinite lolz.”

Say NO to Crack, and that job app.



Excuse me but you have a carpet on your head.



Git-r-dun



and so on......

A Wind of Inspiration

Have you ever seen the show, “Hoarding: Buried Alive?” Well it is on TLC channel, I think, and it is a show about people with hoarding disorders. Having a hoarding disorder, a person will refuse to throw away any thing they hold in possession. Also they tend to buy more then they need. So their house begins to fill up with junk that they think is precious family heirlooms. So they eventually have to clean up their houses after receiving a notice of their house being condemned.
Even though I do not have a hording disorder I can take a peek at my room and think that if I don’t do anything to fix it may become over run with junk and infested with ants. So as warm weather approaches I take my inspiration to clean my room before disaster happens. That means breaking out the shop vacuum and a giant trashcan. After many laborious hours, I can actually see my carpet and walk through my room without tripping over clutter.

Even at best when I watched that show, it made me feel a lot better about myself because, compared to them I look like a person with OCD. To show you here is a picture of a house with a hoarder.

Btw this is NOT my room :P

Gone Fishing

They say that if you give a man a fish then he will eat for the day, but if you teach the man to fish then he can eat for a life time. Well, a couple weeks ago I picked up a new past time and that is fishing. The idea came to me like a cool breeze. I figured that since the summer is coming if would need something to do in the nice weather. Between nine credit hours of summer school and a part time job, I figured I needed something else to do.

The basics of fishing are not that hard actually. I find the hardest part is putting the hook on the line. Hooks are meant to be sharp and man are they. One foul move and there is a insanely sharp piece of metal in your finger (speaking from personal experience here). I tend not to use live bait because I would not want to be a worm speared several times over just to be drowned in the water or eaten alive. So I find that synthetic baits will suffice in catching fish. Speaking of catching fish the little rascals are harder to get off the hook then on. They have needle like fins they use to spear my fingertips at any given chance. But at least they get put back in to the water afterwards.

As of this given moment I have caught four whole fish. I would starve if I had to live off of that. But I am looking forward to summer and all of the good times that await me ahead. Have a safe summer y’all.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Fractured English

As modern technology makes the world smaller and communication faster things are bound to shorten up a bit. Like our English skills for example has been blown into little itty bitty bits by instant messaging. Everybody has at least one time sent a message that looked like this, “r u rdy 2 prty?” I think it is just a matter of being lazy. Also we have developed a language in our language that everybody has seen at least once or twice. What I am talking about its 31337 or 1337 speak. This is where numbers/symbols are letters. Here is a helpful (but not limited to) code: 4=a, 8=b, <=c |)=d, 3=e, |= =f, 6=g, #=h, 1=I, ]=j, |<=k, 1=l, /\/\=m, /\/=n, 0=o, 9=p 9=q, |2=r, 5=s, 7=t, (_)=u, \/=v, \/\/=w, %=x, ‘/= y, 2=z. 50 /\/0\/\/ ‘/0(_) |
Don’t forget about our internet slang abbreviations. Noted in the dictionary “lol” is abbreviation for laughing out loud. This in my book is one of the most over used words. Lol has brothers too: Rofl (rolling on the floor laughing), lmao (laughing my 455 off), Roflmao (rolling on the floor laughing my 455 off), gtg (got to go), brb (be right back), afk (away from keyboard), ttyl (talk to you later), ttfn (ta ta for now), and the list goes on and on. Then we finally reach the creative end of the internet emoticons. These are used to express the persons feelings or use of contex kind of like being sarcastic. Your are garbage :P. The little tongue out probably means they are just kidding or ‘jk-ing’ Use your imagination for these :-) :) L L ^_^ -_- >_< :D :O :P ;) ;-) :’( d(^_^d) thumbs up ( :: [] ::) and there is thousands m04r. So yeah the internet and instant communication has probably d00me3d the g3n3r47ion of tmmrw lol jk idk…:P

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Greenbacks: A Conspiracy Theory.

I don’t know about everybody else but I feel like the money I earn is burning a hole in my wallet. I have been keeping up the news lately and I don’t like what I have been hearing. First they said that there is going to be a spike in meat prices due to some cause in cattle numbers. That means that the hamburger on the grill is going to be more now. Secondly, correct I if I’m wrong but I heard that the makers of Hersey’s chocolate is raising their prices also by ten percent. That may not seem like a lot but that’s a dime to a dollar or a chocolate bar. Third topic I would like to bring up is the rise in gas prices. It seems like I blink and now it costs three dollars to a gallon. Sneeze and it is three fifty, take a breath and now it’s about three seventy five dollars to the gallon. Right now I know that it is cheaper to fill up the bottomless tank with 2%milk at the moment. I don’t know whether it is due to inflation, increased demand, or aliens from mars. All I know is that somebody has their hand in my wallet. At least it is better than hearing, “oh our poor economy.” Oh on a off-hand note, not related to any of this. I find myself wondering why when I heard this news report, “We are checking Illinois for radiation, which might have come from the Japan Tsunami disaster.” Why??? Well they say they found trace amounts in milk and grass clippings. So??? Well they said that they are just small amounts, found in everyday life. WHY ARE YOU WASTING MY TIME!?!?!

Hmm...Art?

Now I cannot declare myself an art fend but everybody can appreciate art now and then, whether it is Macaroni art to the works of Di Vinci. Well I recently found myself surfing the internet looking at a cool and strange arts of the viral world. One of the strange arts that I came across would be three dimensional chalk arts on the side walk. This is where a talented artist puts time and passion into a slab of concrete. As I look at these colorful eye teasers I begin think of what a shame it is, one rain and the entire canvas is erased. All of that time wasted, oh well not my problem. I find myself looking at optical illusions because you can’t believe what your eyes are seeing (really). Mostly I find it a quite nice time killer. Below I have posted some pictures I found on the internet. First, Here is an example of some cool 3d chalk art. Second, Look at this, actually the lines in the middle are set straight, crazy.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Top Five List :D

There is a lot of top five lists that I could go on about, but I feel like my top five books I have read seems fitting. Now I do not tend to read many books a pass time, however there are some times that I read books for fun (weird right?). It goes by top picks

To start off my first favorite book I have read would be “October Sky.” This book was an autobiography written about a boy dubbed “Sonny” who lived in a mining town in the mountains of west Virginia. Ever since Sonny saw Sputnik in the sky he wanted to work at NASA alongside his idle Dr. Werner Von Braun a rocket scientist. However the town he came from was that you graduated high school and became a miner. This is a truly inspirational book because out of all of the odds against him Sonny worked hard and eventually accomplished his dream of working at NASA. It is my first pick because it just goes to show that you can do anything as long as you believe in yourself and never let anything stop you from doing it.

My Second Favorite book is “The House of the Scorpion.” It is actually an interesting story to how I got to read this book. Long ago somebody left this book under their desk and when I came in it was under mine. So I said finder’s keepers and hey I had a free book. Well since it looked so darn nice I decided to read it. It was actually a nice fiction story set in the future about a boy who was cloned to give this ancient wealthy drug his parts he needed. In essence he was grown for body parts. Well this wasn’t the first clone this drug lord had. But this boy was special; he got to live by escaping. Eventually the drug lord dies and the clone lives a productive life after everybody dies in the funeral. It is probably the only book I read more than twice.

My Third favorite book would be “Were the Red Fern Grows.” I was forced to read it in school; however I found that it was actually nice and chose to read it again later. It is about man remembering when he was a boy who lives in a small town and has barely any money to his name. Well this boy got older and wanted to hunt. He asked his parents for money to buy hunting dogs, but they said we don’t have the money. So he raised money over two years and got him two fine hunting hounds. Then he trained them. They were good raccoon hunting dogs; in fact they won the hunting games. But one night of hunting they were attacked by a mountain lion. One dog dies, and then the other can’t live without the other, so it dies. And now the boy has no dogs that he worked so hard for. Then he moved out of the town, but when he came back to his town years after. He went to the burial ground to find that a red fern had grown in between the deceased dogs and that had a story behind it, but case in point it was given by angels. It is a nice book however it is sad also.

My Fourth Favorite book would be “Hatchet.” This book is about a nightmare situation that this boy gets into. His mom and dad are divorced, and over the summer he gets to see his dad who works in Canada. Well his mom gave him a hatchet to take with him to see his dad. Well on the plane ride there the pilot suffers a heart attack and dies, sets the plane off course and crashed in a lake. Nobody could find him so the boy had to learn to survive by himself. With help from his hatched he made fire, hunted, and shelter. Without the hatchet he would have been most likely dead. However a tornado came through the woods and hit the lake exposing the plane. And he went to the plane got the emergency pack and accidentally left the emergency transmitter on and was rescued. The thing that I learned from this book is that anything could happen. But don’t take anything you have for granted because you could lose it.

Finally my fifth favorite book would be “Velocity” which is a very cool thriller book. Were this random guy his tracked down by serial killer. The serial killer messes with him by killing this innocent woman to whom he laid the fate of in his hands, a slow or fast death. The killer is known to have female victims. Then he sends a guy over to his house to tell him to keep playing his game. Then the psycho kills the guy he sent to his house in his bathtub. So he has to hide it from the police by dumping it in a volcano shaft. Case in point the protagonist has a race against time to find and stop the killer before he gets killed himself. It was a good book that keep me on the edge of my seat with every page.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Stop...Break Time

Everyone cheer Spring Break is almost here! Well I cannot wait it is just a week away and it is so close I can almost smell the flowers. I wish, even though like the cold weather and all but it will be nice to see some green. As the season progresses I will probably end up saying that it is about time for fall. I am tired of all the darned bugs flying around, it need to be cold again.

Personally there are only two good seasons, the just right ones. That is Fall and Spring. Were the temperatures are nice and the environment changes. Summer and Winter are two extremes though. Either it is burning up on scorching hot asphalt, or freezing winds that chill down to the bone.
It is just a nice milemarker to see that spring is almost here. However I do not plan on doing much over my break. Just work and something else to fill in the cracks of time I have left. I do not plan on wasting it away, but that is what it might come down to. Oh well, at least there is no quizzes or test. Hope everybody has an awesome break.

Quotes, Yeah!

As I was skimming across the, “Writing to Change the World,” book a came across this one quote that I found simply astonishing. It was on page two hundred and five. It was written by a man named Lewis Tomas, it read, “Viewed from a distance of the moon, the astonishing thing about Earth, catching the breath, is that it’s still alive.”
Why did I choose this? Well it all seemed to be a coincidence actually. It was just a Wednesday evening, I just got off of work and it was the end of the day. Well it was rather nice out there were some clouds rolling by in the dark sky. As I stopped halfway through my trip to my car I saw a bright light in the sky. It was the moon it looks like it was full. I thought to myself, “wasn’t the moon just over there in the sky.” Gosh things move fast, it was hard to believe that things still happen even though your life is moving at a cutthroat pace.
Also I couldn’t help but notice how bright it had shown through the dark sky. How it lit up the translucent clouds giving it a peaceful look. At this time I had stopped and was just staring at the moon. As I saw it was staring back. I couldn’t believe it, it was like looking at the moon for the first time. I am a creature of habit so I tend to be in a rut. And I was in that rut for a while. Anyways as I was looking at the moon I couldn’t help but think of why it was so darn bright. Well, I couldn’t help but think that the sun is always shining on the earth. As I was getting ready to end the day, the moon saw that, and at that same moment somebody else was waking up to start all over again.
This planet is always alive and breathing it just took me to look at the moon and a break in my routine to see that. It was just so eye opening from the daily mentality. And I thought that this quote was a convenient gateway to this thought.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Getting Your Feet Wet

About a week ago I took a step into the dark side. Well I don’t know if it’s dark but I do have my eyes closed. Last week I received my very first credit card from Discover. The only reason that I have this is because I was told that I have to establish credit somehow. Credit is apparently useful for loans and so forth. I find myself not having to worry about it, but most likely I will in the future. So an application was filled out and weeks after that I receive my very own credit card.
Just looking at it makes me cringe. I have seen too many horror stories about credit card usage. Plus know I feel I am at risk for identity theft. It’s just that I have done way too many reports on theft and massive debt. I feel that it can be turned into a positive if I just learn responsibility.
Speaking of responsibility, I have had so many impulses to buy stuff every since I got it. Well, they are just thoughts not actions. It took me a week to buy something with it after activating it. Then all I bought was at three dollar bag of chips. I guess it’s just the feeling that you have infinite money at your disposal. That is how so many other people got into debt.
So I say to myself it is just like spending you own money. You can only spend what you have. Believe me, I hate spending money. I probably got the cheapskate in me from my dad. I absolutely hate spending the money I worked so hard and dear for.
This credit card might turn out to be a good thing after all. If I just can keep track of spending and manage my accounts. Then yeah, it should be a breeze.

I am From

I am from O’Fallon Illinois, the only place I have known.
From the mix of trees to the plain nothing.
I am from four seasons all year round.
From scorching summers to frozen winters and snow days.
I am from a family of five that is rarely together at once.
I am from, “If you want it, too bad you don’t need it or buy it with your own money.”
I am from getting a job to get what I want.
From obtaining a second job to fill the cracks of the day.
I am from a hard work ethic.
From, “If the job needs to be done, it needs to be done right and the first time.”
I am from a house that never sleeps.
From eight cats to five parakeets.
I am from boring summer days of school.
From finding activities that keep me out of trouble.
I am from the mother that every teacher and administrator in school is friends with.
I am from hard days of work and coming home to housework.
I am from I cannot find a break.
I am from, “This is your reason to get an education and find a career.”
I am smart enough to find out that’s the best thing I could do.
I am from all of the above, which is what defines me as a me.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

I hate Snow

If anybody is working or has worked a grocery store or super center they might have to agree with me when I say, “I hate the snow.” Back before I had this job snow meant that there was no school and I could play outside in the wintery wonder land.

But now it is means that my day of work just became hell. The Monday before the total winter apocalypse was probably the worst I have ever seen. I didn’t even know that we were supposed to get snow that day until somebody brought it up. The whole day turned into, “everybody lets got the store and buy all of the stuff we can because we will trapped in the house for years.” So everybody and their brother were in the store with a cart full of items. It was so busy that it topped the sales for Christmas Eve and Christmas combined in that one day.

I am the maintenance guy, but soon had to take up the position of a bagger. So I was expected to do the job of two people for the rest of the day. I was not able to get anything done. I think the “icing” on the cake of that day was when I went to get the carts (which is not my job) I slipped on some ice and smacked the back of my head. So I was tired and had a headache. The moral of the story is that I now do not like the snow, and there is talk about another snow storm a few weeks from now, Great.

About Me

Who is Alex Simons? Well, to sum it up just a really awesome guy. With all seriousness I would describe myself a cookie cutter student. I go to school, work, and repeat. This is my first year, second semester, of college. I find it hard to believe that I was just in high school two semesters ago. It was a big leap from being a kid in school to being an adult in college with adult responsibilities. That is all I have been doing lately, attend school, work, and game. It is different experience.
Well, I got my second job at Schnucks grocery store (up in Fairview next to St. Clair Square) two weeks before fall classes started in 2010. My first job was at KFC, I haven’t quit but there is not enough hours to be happy with. I am enrolled at SWIC with 14 credit hours for the spring semester. And when I am not at school or working I am playing my Xbox 360. I have not had much time for it lately but with my free time I play on the Xbox and show no mercy against all who stand against me.

It is not a lot about me but it is basically all of the stuff that is most important in my life at the moment, school, work, and games. It may not sound like much but it fills that gaps. I do not plan of keeping it that way ten years in the future. But yeah, thats about it.