Hey everyone... I am finishing up my Ted Talk on Windows Movie Maker and I need some help. How do you insert a picture and still have the audio play while the picture is showing? I have looked on YouTube and all over the internet and can't figure this out

Now that I have some time to get on here and post a blog or two about the things that have been discussed over the past few weeks, I would like to talk about the great video game presentation given by Joe and Casey. I thought the entire presentation was well put together and you both did a very good job of supporting your views on the topic. I would like to however respond based upon the other end of spectrum when it comes to video games and violence. These are just some of my humble opinions in the topic area and I am in no way trying to bash anyone else's views on this.. I would just like to express my view. The first computer game that was brought to our attention was centered around the stereotypes of illegal Mexican immigrants. I believe that it could be offensive to some but I was kind of raised on the idea of "sticks and stones." Being raised this way has allowed me to learn to avoid getting caught up in the "small" things such as jokes and things of that nature. I saw this game as someone's awful attempt to make fun of a group of people that tend to catch a lot of slack anyways. I see this game as kind of humorous not because of the message behind it but because of how something as simple as a video game can create such a stir. If this game was focused on making me the center of the joke I would do my best to almost laugh it off and move forward with my life. Maybe that is the "jock" side of me coming to the surface... There is no shortage of jokes being thrown around a college locker room and if I was to storm out as soon as my name was used as a punch line, I wouldn't have made it four years on the baseball team. Respectively I think that some people, not all, are a little to sensitive at times. I would also like to discuss video game violence and the effects that is has on children. Doing some brief research I was able to see that there has been no scientific connection between video game violence and the violence level of kids. In reality how can a study prove that a child is violent or aggressive because they play Grand Theft Auto? Correlations have been found instead that have determined that violent video games do not make kids violent, instead kids that have a predisposition to be violent are drawn to these games to seek out the violent entertainment. I tend to agree with this statement as well. If an individual feels the need to attack an elementary school I believe that person to have a mental instability that is in no way linked to violent video games. I have personally spent a large chunk of my day playing Call of Duty with some buddies and in no way shape or form felt the urge to attack someone. Why? I am able to understand that the things being portrayed in the video game are fantasy and that things to not operate like that in the real world. The same goes for the Grand Theft Auto games. I feel like people want to blame anything they can before pointing the finger at themselves. If a child is considered violent by no means can that child be labeled depressed or mentally ill; let's just blame it on the video game he/she might be playing. I find this kind of talk to be ridiculous. Someone may feel the need to replicate something they see in a video game but in no way does the violence in the game create a violent person. "Violent juvenile crime in the United States has been declining as violent video game popularity has increased. The arrest rate for juvenile murders has fallen 71.9% between 1995 and 2008. The arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes has declined 49.3%. In this same period, video game sales have more than quadrupled." I found this statistic while doing some brief research on the topic and thought it to be pretty interesting given the "correlation" between violence and video games. I also believe that parents need to be more involved in monitoring their child's time in front of these games. If there is such a big issue regarding a Call of Duty game or a Grand Theft Auto type of game, DON"T LET YOUR CHILD PLAY THEM. If you choose to allow your child to play a game of this sort you should sit down with them and explain that everything in the game is fantasy and does not reflect how the world works. Again, I respect everyone's opinion and am in now way trying to bash others. I just stand behind my views on this topic and felt like explaining them in detail.

I will start by saying that I'm extremely picky when it comes to food. I know what I like and dislike and usually go with a restaurant that I'm familiar with. My Mexican food favorites pretty much stop at Taco Bell and I wouldn't even consider that real Mexican food. A few teammates and I decided to give Los Amigos a try last week. I have heard good things about the place so I figured I would give it a try. I went in thinking I would order my usual choice of a steak quesadilla or a nacho dish. I decided to go with a Chimichanga with Mexican rice. First of all the thing was the size of my head which pleased me as I tend to eat large portions. It took me all of about 15 minutes to eat the entire plate of food and rice as it was delicious. The one thing that I really enjoyed other than the food, was the authentic Mexican feel of the place. Everyone that worked there fit the mold and there wasn't one thing about the restaurant that seemed Americanized. Los Amigos was a 100% authentic Mexican restaurant. The waiters and host's were all extremely polite which made the trip that much more enjoyable. I would definitely recommend this place to you guys.

Dr. Karowe presented a very interesting lecture on Monday regarding the global warming issue. I entered class not knowing much about the subject aside from the fact that indeed the earth is being affected by this phenomena. The first thing that impacted me upon listening to the facts was the issue regarding the energy from the sun. There is much debate regarding whether or not we are receiving more energy from the sun and if this is playing a major role in the warming of earth's temperature. I learned that over the time period discussed that indeed the earth has warmed fastest while receiving a lower amount of energy from the sun. This immediately led me to believe that humans are playing a much larger role in global warming then originally thought. Dr. Karowe then gave us this statistic; 95% of the increase in earthly temperature is a result of humans. The burning of fossil fuels and forest clearing being the leading role players in that stat. I also appreciated the portion of the lecture that provided ways in which we can begin to minimize this climate change. So often we hear of all of these complaints and people continue to contribute to global warming without realizing it. It is nice to know that there is a group of people who are adamant about making positive changes in order to sustain the earth we live on.

Traveling as much as I do for baseball gives me the grand opportunity of eating at any and every fast food place in existence. I will admit that I probably consume more fast food than I should but how can you turn down some chicken nuggets after a long day on the field?? This brings me to the irony of these same fast food places... they have some of the slowest service in the nation! Places like McDonald's and Taco Bell were created because of the appeal they had to people knowing that their meal could r=be received quickly. The don't call it fast food for nothing right? Now-a-days you can drive up to any McDonald's and see that they have two lanes in the drive thru. I don't know who made that brilliant decision because all it does is slow down an already slow service. I can see that it allows more cars to pass through and thus increases the amount of money being made but I don't want to sit in line for 30 minutes waiting for my food. Some teammates and I walked to a Taco Bell that was near our hotel this past weekend and came to find it completely empty. We figured that we would be in and out of there in 20 minutes; WRONG! It took Taco Bell 20 minutes alone to come up with our orders...! You can't keep a handful of hungry ball players waiting on their extremely unhealthy food when they have been craving it all day. (We tend to get a little cranky when we're hungry) Fast food places need to take a page out of the Jimmy Johns handbook and start taking it up a notch!

The further I read the more interested I become in the way Ernest Hemingway writes. He writes in a way that is very short and to the point. Early in the book he describes the way in which he begins his work with the most simple sentence he can think of and goes from there. He goes into more description of how he writes in the chunk that I have just read. He referred to his ability to deal with hunger as he works and how writing while he is hungry makes him a better writer. He feels as though he is able to notice smaller details in things around him when he is hungry. I took this as he is more focused on his writing when he is working on an empty stomach. This characteristic of Hemingway I found to be odd. Writing is his craft and being able to perform in that craft better when he is starving was interesting to read about. Another thing I found interesting in this portion of the story was the conversation Hemingway had with Miss Stein about the generation of that time period. She refers to it as the "lost generation." She felt very strongly that all of the men in this generation were drunks and then in turn were worthless.

I was a little hesitant to begin reading A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway simply because I'm not a huge reader. I have heard so much of his work and kind of thought that it might not reach into something I was interested in. After the first 50 pages I will say that I am pleasantly surprised about what I am reading. The story takes place in Paris and is told through the eyes of Hemingway himself. It describes his day to day activities throughout the city and goes into great detail about the unique bars, restaurants and shops he often visits. Only 50 pages in and I can tell that Hemingway loved to drink, he often described the various wines or other beverages he enjoys throughout the story. Hemingway is very descriptive in his writing about the various things he comes into contact with this was evident in the very first chapter as he describes a beautiful women he notices at a bar. His writing instantly puts an image of what this women could have looked like into your head and I think this is one of the qualities of this story that I have enjoyed. Hemingway puts you directly into Paris with his various descriptions of the cool, damp, and bare sky of the winter time. I also noticed that in just the first 50 pages he visits a number of interesting and cool places. These places included various bars, museums, shops, and even the horse track. It is because of these qualities that I looked forward to reading the remainder of the book!