Serena Williams

     I'm not much of a tennis fan, but I'm an all around sport junkie. Serena Williams is undoubtedly one of the best female tennis players of all-time with her 13 Grand Slam titles, but sometimes you just have to question her decision making. As you can see from the picture above she  decided to wear a skin tight pink body suit to practice in for her up coming event and this is in lieu of her recent Wii video game commercial being pulled from television because of her racy outfit. Don't get me wrong this woman definitely has a fit body, but some things just are not meant to be worn to play sports in or to be worn in public period. Leave the fashion to the experts and just do what you do better than any other woman in the world, play TENNIS!

Government Shutdown

     According to the Associated Press (AP) about 800,000 workers are bracing for the potential U.S. Government shutdown. If the government does in fact shutdown these people will be sent home from their jobs without a paycheck. I don't have the time or patience to go into great detail about why the two sides of the Federal Government cannot come to an agreement on the budget for the upcoming year. However, I did find something very interesting about this situation. If the government does in fact shutdown and force people to go home without a paycheck, the Republican and Democratic Congressmen who are causing this shutdown will continue to be payed as normal. I think it is crazy for the people who at the heart of the problem to continue to get payed while thousands of other Americans are forced to sit at home and not know when they would be able to return to work and start collecting a paycheck again.  

The Clarks

     Last Saturday night I went and saw a concert  at The State Theatre outside of Washington D.C. The headliner for the concert was The Clarks. I'm originally from outside of Pittsburgh, PA where the band is from so I have seen them perform on more than one occasion. The band was formed 25 years ago while attending IUP (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) and has been putting on shows  ever since. They put on one hell of a show in front of a sold out crowd and they can still perform after 25 years. Being from around that area and listening to their music for years it never even occurred to me that a lot of people from this area have no clue who  The Clarks are, so if you don't check know out their music sometime you wont be disappointed.

Physical Education Bill

http://www.nbc12.com/story/14315880/mcdonnell-vetoes-unfunded-mandate-on-localities?redirected=true

     For those of you who don't know Governor Bob McDonnell recently vetoed a bill that would have required elementary and middle schools here in Virginia to have 150 minutes of physical education per week. Me being a Health and Physical Education major, I have a slight bias towards this topic so I was wondering how others felt related to this topic. I know some people do not have fond memories of physical education class while in elementary school or middle school, but with childhood obesity on the rise I thought that increasing physical education while in school could help this problem.
     I know that some people are going to say, in my school we did not do that much physical activity in physical education class. Given the fact that youth today would much rather sit around on the computer or play video games, any amount of physical activity is better than none at all. This sedentary lifestyle in addition to poor eating is the prime reason for childhood obesity. If children are not going to be active on their own, then requiring more physical activity in school appears to  be a valid solution. I believe their is only one reason that Governor  McDonnell rejected this bill and it is funding. Physical Education has no Standard of Learning testing, therefore it has no ties to the amount of Federal funding that Virginia schools are going to receive. This just shows that until the Federal Government puts a mandate on Physical Education, state funded public education is going to turn a blind eye to the growing problem.

Favorite Place to eat in Richmond

     My favorite restaurant in Richmond is Texas De Brazil. Its located on the west end outside or Regency mall. It is an expansive meal, but it is definitely worth your money. This is an all you can eat Brazilian buffet. I believe the entire buffet costs 49.99 per person or you can get just the salad bar for 29.99 (I only eat here when I have a coupon). You can register on the Texas De Brazil website and on your birthday and/or anniversary they email you a buy one get one free coupon.
    This restaurant has an extremely large salad bar featuring 50-60 items daily. The salad bar includes such items as shrimp, salmon, and sushi as well asthe various salad bar items and soups. In addition to the salad bar their are Gaucho's walking around serving about 10-12 different cuts of meat. These include flank steak, filet mignon (bacon wrapped and non), sirloin, different types of chicken, prime rib, leg of lamb, lamb chops, as well as sausages. If you are a carnivore you will love this restaurant, but it also has the best salad bar I have ever seen. So if you get some extra money sometime check out his restaurant, but I recommend you make reservations.

Two Wars is Enough

     With American troops still fighting in and dieing Afghanistan and no end in sight for our war in Iraq, I feel that putting more American troops into another battle overseas would be a terrible idea. I understand that whats going on in Libya is not humane and something needs to be done about it, but I feel the United States should let other nations intervene this time. The way that President Obama is talking about the need to get Muammar Gaddafi out of power reminds me all to much about what was being said about Saddam Hussein before the second Gulf War, in which we are still fighting.
     If we were to put troops in Libya I can foresee the exact same thing happening their that is currently happening in Iraq. American soldiers would end up getting stuck in a country that only wanted us their for one reason, to remove their ruler. Not to mention the fact that it would cost more American soldiers their lives. In addition, it would cost the United States Government more money. I feel that we are already investing a great deal of money in Iraq, when we have enough economic problems going on right here in the United States. I hope for the sake of this country that President Obama and Congress come to their senses and pull the American forces out of Libya before we end up with another Iraq on our hands.   

Romance/Sci-Fi Story

            It was Marie and Wayne’s wedding anniversary, so they decided to go and spend a romantic weekend at the beach. Their first day there was going great; the weather was perfect. So they spent most of the day lying out on the beach soaking up the sun while going in and out of the ocean. They were both tired from sitting in the sun all day, so they decided to go back to the hotel and rest a while before going out for dinner.

            Upon returning to their room, Marie and Wayne got carried away by the romantic setting in the hotel and beach and made love. The passionate love-making made both of them even more exhausted, so they easily dosed off to sleep. They were both so exhausted that they over slept and missed their dinner reservations. Then Marie thought it would be romantic for the two of them to take a picnic to the beach to watch the sunset.

            While Marie was getting ready for their beach dinner, Wayne went and picked up their food and a couple of bottles of wine from a local store. Once he returned, they went down to the beach for their picnic. They found a secluded spot on the beach, with a great view of the setting sun. They ate their dinner and drank the first bottle of wine, as they watched the sun set over the ocean. After the sun set, the temperature began to cool. Wayne put a blanket they brought along around their shoulders and they started on the second bottle of wine.

            Before they knew it, there was a light in the sky that was moving quickly in their direction. They watched as the object got closer and closer, and bigger and bigger! It was not long before a large circular object was hurling towards the beach, it seemed right towards them. The next thing they knew, there was a loud crash and the large object had crashed into the beach about 100 yards from where they were sitting.

            In fright, Marie quickly gathered all of their things so they could leave. Wayne, however, wanted to go and check out what landed on the beach. He talked Marie into going to check it out with him. When the two of them arrived at the site, they were not sure if it was some type of unidentified flying object or if it was some type of government plane. The circular plane was about the size of a Volkswagen beetle. As the two of them were inspecting the object, something on the side of the plane began to open up and out of the opening stepped a shadowy being.

            The shadowy figure began speaking directly to Wayne. “Wayne, you are the only living being that help the people of my planet. I need you to come back with me.”

            Wayne was curious, so he asked, “What is it that I can do to help your people?”

            The shadowy figure moved forward and showed herself. She was an attractive creature with a curvy figure; teal colored skin and long, flowing, and purple hair. She looked directly in Wayne’s eyes and said, “Why, you are the only remaining male human who survived after my people’s experiment on human’s in the late 1980s. Now, we need you to breed with other Czirxians for our kind to survive.”

            Well, Wayne thought this particular Czirxian was sexy, and forgot about Marie standing behind him on the beach. So, he got on the aircraft with her, leaving Marie behind, to go and procreate with the sexy Czirxians. As the flying object took off, Marie stood there in awe as she watched her husband fly away into the unknowns with a mysterious, unidentified creature.