Turkey makes you tired??

They say that eating turkey makes you tired, because it has a natural chemical called tryptophan. I wonder if its the turkey that makes you tired, or is it just all the food that a person eats that makes him/her tired. It seems like after you eat a large meal you get tired from all the calories you have to burn. I think any large meal with meat would make a person tired.

Thanksgiving week off!

Why do we have so little time off for the Thanksgiving holiday this week?  We only get two days off, which is not right.  Other schools are off for the whole week.  My brother's college is off for the whole week.  It's not like we have snow days to make up or anything, so why can't we have this whole week off?  I don't understand how the school board decides our school calendar every year, but we need to tell them that they should give us this whole week off!  You would think that they would want us to enjoy the tradition of Thanksgiving, where the pilgrims joined with the native indians to celebrate together.  It was a very special time in the history of this nation, and I believe it deserves an entire week off!  I'm just saying....

Is Harry Potter too scary for kids?

I started reading the Harry Potter books with my mom when I was about 8 or 9 years old.  I remember them being pretty scary in some parts, but they were always very interesting and suspenseful.  This weekend, the Family Channel was running a Harry Potter marathon, and I watched some of the movies that I hadn't seen in a really long time.  In some of the scarier parts of the movies, I found myself wondering if these movies are too scary for kids.  When you read the books, you form pictures in your mind of how things might look, and that might not be so scary.  But when you see the movies, there is no imagination involved -- it's all right there in your face!   

It seems like J.K. Rowling was targeting an audience about the same age as Harry (starting at 11 years old), but I know that many younger kids are big Potter fans as well.  Do you think J.K. Rowling intended for younger kids to watch these movies?  I think these movies are too scary for younger kids, and parents should be very careful before letting their younger children watch this series of movies.

Daylight Savings Time - helpful or not?

Last night we had to turn back the clocks by one hour, as we went back to Central Standard Time.  While it's nice to get that extra hour of sleep, it makes me wonder why we have Daylight Savings Time at all.  When you read about the history of Daylight Savings, it says it was first started in the US in 1918, shortly after World War I.  The reason for starting it was to save on energy costs.  The thought was that if you added an extra hour of daylight to the day, you would save on heating costs and energy costs.  But recent studies show that it actually costs more money in the summer time because you have to pay for air conditioning longer during the day.  I'm not sure if Daylight Savings Time is a good thing or not, but I do know that it takes a long time for your body to get used to the shift in time.  And it sucks that it gets dark so early now!  We should ditch Daylight Savings Time and stay on Standard Time all year... it would be easier for everyone.

Parody as a Living

I was watching a Weird Al Yankovic special on Comedy Central tonight.  While watching the show, I began to ask myself, "Is it acceptable for an artist to make a living off the parody of other, more successful artists?"  My first thought was that Weird Al was just a mimic pretending to be these other artists.  But then as I began to listen to his lyrics, I realized that he is a very talented artist/comedian in his own right.  He uses very clever words and phrases to make genuiunely funny imitations of some of today's most popular songs.  My mom said that Weird Al first got popular by imitating Michael Jackson back in the 80's.  Clearly he has what it takes to remain popular and successful more than 20 years later!  So, to answer my question, I guess Weird Al has made it acceptable to make a living from parody.

Costume or no costume?

Should people be allowed to go to a Halloween party with no costume?  As someone who enjoys wearing a costume, I don't get those people who think it's okay not to wear one.  If you're invited to a party on the one holiday of the year where a costume is expected, I think it's pretty foolish not to dress up.  I'm sure those who don't wear a costume have some argument as to why they couldn't wear one -- like no money, no time, or they couldn't think of something funny to wear.  But those are just excuses... people need to make an effort and wear a costume!

FVC vs. NSC

This year Hampshire High School joined the Fox Valley Conference for sports contests. The bad news is that its about an hour and a half away from Grayslake. Why aren't we in the North Suburban Conference that every neighboring school in the county participates in?  Grayslake might have joined the Fox Valley Conference sometime ago because Grayslake used to be sort of a small school. However, now all the other schools in the FVC became big and we keep getting our butts kicked (well at least not in football). I believe it would make much more sense to move back to the NSC conference, so we wouldn't have trouble traveling so far. The fans would be much more enthusiastic about going to the away games.