No Country Like The U.S.A.

As the 2010 Olympics are off and running in Vancouver, Canada its been a parade of medals for our own sweet country. The U.S. is far in the lead in the medal count so far in this Olympics with eighteen medals. These medals include seven bronze medals five silver medals and six prized gold medals. The next closest challenger to the U.S. is Germany with the eleven medals. As members of the United States I am sure everyone expected the U.S. to come out on top in the medal count but winning medals at the rate the U.S. is, is pretty amazing. The medals are coming from all across the board from men singles figure skating to women snowboarding. Now I am gonna take some time to introduce to the U.S.'s brightest stars.

The first athlete I am introducing to you is the first men's speed skater ever to win back to back gold medals in the 1000 meter race. Shani Davis won a gold medal in the 2006 Olympic Games and blew by competitors to capture the gold in Vancouver.

Evan Lysacek stunned many as he stole the show and beat the favored Russian in the Men's Singles Figure Skating Competition. The medal marks the first gold for American men since Brian Boitano won in 1988. Some were upset at Lysacek winning challenging the judging of the competition because Lysacek did not throw a single quad but never the less he brought home another medal, gold to be precise, back to the U.S.

Shaun White, to no ones surprise, won a gold medal in the Men's Half Pipe event. He won the medal with ease taking a conservative run and still scoring the highest winning the gold. Then on his last run, being the crowd pleaser he is, he topped off his victory run with a Double McTwist.

As the 2010 Olympics are off and running in Vancouver, Canada its been a parade of medals for our own sweet country. The U.S. is far in the lead in the medal count so far in this Olympics with eighteen medals. These medals include seven bronze medals five silver medals and six prized gold medals. The next closest challenger to the U.S. is Germany with the eleven medals. As members of the United States I am sure everyone expected the U.S. to come out on top in the medal count but winning medals at the rate the U.S. is, is pretty amazing. The medals are coming from all across the board from men singles figure skating to women snowboarding. Now I am gonna take some time to introduce to the U.S.'s brightest stars.

The first athlete I am introducing to you is the first men's speed skater ever to win back to back gold medals in the 1000 meter race. Shani Davis won a gold medal in the 2006 Olympic Games and blew by competitors to capture the gold in Vancouver.

Evan Lysacek stunned many as he stole the show and beat the favored Russian in the Men's Singles Figure Skating Competition. The medal marks the first gold for American men since Brian Boitano won in 1988. Some were upset at Lysacek winning challenging the judging of the competition because Lysacek did not throw a single quad but never the less he brought home another medal, gold to be precise, back to the U.S.

Shaun White, to no one’s surprise, won a gold medal in the Men's Half Pipe event. He won the medal with ease taking a conservative run and still scoring the highest winning the gold. Then on his last run, being the crowd pleaser he is, he topped off his victory run with a Double McTwist.

Lindsey Von was another favorite before the Olympics in all of her Alpine Skiing events but leading up to her events she was having severe pain in her shins. Some questioned the fact if she would even compete in the Olympics but she persevered and won gold.

All in all this Olympics has been a big success for the great United States of America. Our athletes have stepped it up and really done our country proud in these 2010 winter Olympics. Let’s hope that we can win another gold in ice hockey!

The Attack of The Sharks

My family and I were on vacation in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Some people also refer to it as the eighth wonder of the world. Being able to swim in the Gulf of Mexico is a once in a lifetime chance but I am going to tell you people around here don't know. The Gulf of Mexico at that time was known for some of the biggest sharks ever known to man. Witnesses say that some of these sharks were twenty feet long, weighed 900 pounds and had the mouth as wide as bulldozer. Of course me being the young arrogant kid I was I paid no attention to those "rumors". Who had ever heard of a creature that big? Little did I know that I would have an encounter with a few of them buggers and I was lucky to make it out alive.

The sun was just rising and I thought I'd go for a little swim before the mobs of people started crowding the beautiful beach. I was swimming for about an hour not really paying any attention to the direction I was going. I had no worries. I was young and clueless and not to mention the fact one of the best swimmers in my entire town. When I finally stopped, I turned to look back at the hotel but nothing was there. All I could see around was nothing but the beautiful blue ocean as the sun began to rise. I must have swum about a hundred miles and not even noticed it. Not quite sure which direction the hotel was located I pulled my handy dandy compass out of my pocket which I also kept on me on account of good luck. I began swimming back toward the hotel when I saw I first saw it.

Something dark about the size of a bus brushed my leg! As I looked down I almost emptied my bladder. This was the shark those people had spoke of only you couldn't really imagine the size of this thing unless you saw it in person. I turned around to see if it was circling back but to my displeasure I spotted two more of the monsters! I tried not to panic because I knew the sharks could sense fear as I quietly tried to make of run for it. Before I made two feet of progress the three sharks made a wall blocking me from returning to the hotel. I had no choice. These sharks wanted a fight, and boy was I going to give it to them.

I decided to throw the first punch at the biggest shark which was stationed in the middle in hopes to scare the other two off. I wound up and threw a punch that would have given Ali a run for his money back in the day. The shark whined and whimpered and swam off, what a coward. I wasn’t out of the woods yet though as I had two more gigantic sharks I had to deal with. These other two sharks were smart and they decided to attack me at the same time. I was able to connect a beautiful under water kick right under the chin of one of the sharks sending it away but I wasn’t able to avoid the shark coming from the other side that put about a seven inch gash directly to the right of my right eye. (Doctors later told me that one inch to left and I would’ve been blind for the rest of my life.) Now it was me mono a mono, me up against the blood thirsty shark who almost had rid me of my eyeball.

I was full of anger right now, blood covering my face. I was ready to go for the kill on this shark that almost took my life. I charged full head a steam, it doing the same in return. The scene reminded me of a jousting match held by the knights back in the middle ages. As I already told you I was one heck of a swimmer and I must been up to about 300 MPH when my shoulder connected with the shark sending it flying over two hundred feet in the air as I swam right under it heading back to shore. I never stopped to look back at the sight in which my life was almost taken. I breathed a sigh of relief as I reached shore. I finally made it back. Land never felt more like home.

The Invisible War

The Invisible War in Congo should be made international media everyday.

One reason why the Invisible War should be made national news is because it will put pressure on the U.N.to take stronger actions. With everyone in the world hearing and seeing the tragedy in Congo people will ask what the UN is doing to help. The U.N. will feel pressured to act. Imagine the quarterback of a football. His team is failing against the tough defense on the other side of the ball. Everyone on the offense is looking for the quarterback to do something that can put his team back in the game. The U.N. has to act cause the whole world expects them to do something.

A second reason that the Invisible War should be made international news is because it would be a great way to raise money to help the cause. If the horrific scenes going on in the Congo right were made visible to Americans just think of the money that could be made to donate to organizations like the Red Cross to help the injured. If the Invisible War was given the media attention that the earthquake in Haiti was given imagine the results. Here are some numbers from Haiti donations which could be very similar if the Invisible War was made national media according to the Huffington Post, "In addition to Americans sending more than $8 million via text message donations facilitated by cell phone companies." We need to make the Invisible War crisis international media.