Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling

Recycling is extremely important in attempting to protect our environment from further damage, and as a college student, using certain resources is unavoidable. That does not mean, however, that I can't make a solid effort to reduce, reuse, and recycle! It helps significantly that the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University pride themselves on being sustainable. Personally, I am able to reduce the amount of waste I produce because so many things are communal here. I eat very few items that aren't prepared in the dining hall, and when I do, it tends to be yogurt and other items in small containers that our recycling programs allows me to recycle. Since our dining facilities no longer use trays, all of us students are left to really only get as much food as we can fit on the number of plates we can carry. I notice myself only getting as much food as I will actually eat, so I know there is less of my waste that is being thrown away.
I try to reuse as many containers as I can so that they are not thrown away or recycled immediately. I use glass bottles to keep spare change and plastic containers to store leftover food. Even plastic bags come in handy for trash bags since they fit perfectly in my small dorm garbage can.
The recycling program at St. Ben's is wonderful. Everything from bottles to Kleenex boxes can be recycled in our co-mingled recycling program. I like knowing that there are so many materials that are being recycled rather than being burned in an incinerator or tossed into a landfill.

Photo source: HERE

Scholarship sponsored by Castle Ink

Barbarous Humans: The Death Penalty Needs to be Eliminated

The ultimate flaw with the death penalty is that no human should have the right to decide whether or not another human being is worthy of living. For those who are religious, you are taught that killing is a sin and that you should love everyone as your neighbor, so how can taking a life in the setting of the death penalty be acceptable? Even if the accused person is found guilty of murder, how is taking that person’s life different from his or her crime? It is not as though the action can be justified as self-defense.
For a recent example of the death penalty’s faults, I turn to the case of Troy Davis. Davis was executed on September 21, 2011 even though significant doubt about his guilt in a murder case. In fact, only two witnesses (excluding police witnesses) recanted or contradicted the statements they had made in earlier trials. I simply do not understand how Davis could still be executed when all of those factors came into play. I oppose the death penalty to begin with, but when there is not one hundred percent certainty of doubt, I become even more upset.
I know that many people make the argument that keeping a person in a prison for life costs significantly more than using the death penalty, but can we really reduce a human being to how much money we can save by killing him or her? The human life is too precious to have a price tag placed upon it. I know an exact solution is difficult for one person to come up with, but there simply has to be a way to allow a human to live but still pay the consequences of the crime or crimes. I think with a proper amount of effort, it would be possible to create a way to decrease the cost of keeping a person in prison. It may seem like a stretch, but having the family of a prisoner pay for food and residence could be a solution. This would play out much like if the person were to be living at home. The sentence to serve program could be altered so that prisoners could actually make money to pay for their prison stay.
Before the punishment, however, I feel it is most important to look at the details of a trial, such as that of Troy Davis, and be able to convince ourselves that the evidence and testimonies have no flaws and that the accused is truly guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I simply do not the United States to become a country that is known for a legal system that kills accused people without thinking anything of such an action.

This blog post is an official entry for the Law Blogger’s Scholarship, sponsored by The Law Office of Joshua Pond, http://www.joshuapondlaw.com.

Blech. Summer.

I have been a high school graduate for almost a month now, but life could not feel any less different. This summer has been just like any other, possibly even more boring due to the lack of doing ANYTHING! Basically, this is what an average week looks like for me: Monday - sit around the house, maybe read; Tuesday - sit around the house, eat lunch, work, watch TV; Wednesday - repeat of Tuesday; Thursday - repeat of Wednesday/Tuesday; Friday - repeat of Monday; Saturday - wake up before the sun, work, participate in boredom; Sunday - church (blech), work, watch TV. It's no wonder that I'm getting fat. Ew. I would do something, but I tend to like to do things with other people, and so far this summer I seem to not really have friends, so that's fun.

Fortunately, I have, as of today, a mere 32 days until I can cross the pond and create some adventures with the Nelson sibs. I'm pumped. I can't even completely express just how excited I am to go on this trip, and I just know that when our trip draws even closer I simply won't be able to contain my excitement! Even now, I constantly am looking at hostels and places in each of the three major cities we will be visiting. It's an addiction. We will be hitting up Prague, Munich, and Vienna as the major destinations, and possibly some smaller cities/towns on the side. But take a look at these pictures and tell me you are not jealous.

Prague:



Munich:



Vienna:



Wow. So. Excited!

About two weeks after returning from Europe, I will be headed to college, so obviously that is just one more thing to make the end of summer awesome! College will be the best thing for me, I think. I'm hoping that it will be as great as I am hoping and imagining. I am just super done with Alexandria. I don't particularly like the small town setting (there are only a few characteristics I would keep), and nobody here really fits the idea of what I want in the people I hope to surround myself with. Oops. That might be the hipster in me coming out a little bit. I know that St. Joe is not a huge town, but it's bringing me one step closer to where I would like to be. That's all I can ask for.

Lazing about on the couch at night, I realized that it is fairly easy to come up with something to write about. Music. For as long as I can remember, it has been part of my life, but something that continues to fascinate me is the constantly evolving state that my musical interests are in. Some people will no doubt criticize me for this, but it took none other than the legendary Hall & Oates to remind me of this. Thank you vh1 classic.

For me, I think there is something incredibly interesting about discovering (or rediscovering) music that is decades old. That is even more relevant in the present state that popular music is in. Don't get me wrong, I love some (emphasis on the some) pop songs, but the whole preset beats and auto-tune wear on my soul. It hurts to listen to such unoriginal music that requires no talent to create. Taking in music that was actually written and performed with real instruments in refreshing.

It is one of the most difficult tasks for me to describe my musical tastes. Not only does a wide variety of music appeal to me, but it also varies sooooooooo much from day to day, mood to mood, situation to situation. Sometimes it's frustrating for me to be around other people whilst listening to music because I don't think their music is as good as mine. This behavior is supported by my friends' frequent insisting that I am quite the musical elitist. Oops. Didn't mean to take on that role.

My biggest problem is that I don't possess unlimited funds for music. That would be glorious. With constant music wants, I would love to be able to afford buying music whenever I wanted. Alas, reality has different plans for me.


Does this post count as a real one? Can anybody deny that those two men above are spectacular in their own wonderful way?

I've Procrastinated Long Enough

Holy fudge. This blog was supposed to be christened eons ago. Fer realz. This is just one of the endless examples of my terrible habit of procrastinating. Can I just blame senioritis for this one, too? Sounds good to me.

*At this point I apologize for the lameness present in excess thus far in my writing. I am not a funny person, and the only time I can come off as such is when I don't try. Bear with me, please.

I'm really not going to promise a lot from this blog at this point. If something entertaining happens to me (this probably will not happen), I'll share. Trying to balance school, work, orchestra, and tutoring leaves me with very little free time to dedicate to thinking up witty blog posts, or more importantly, spend with those people I call friends.

That picture above what attached so y'all could appreciate my beauty!