A Bit of Whichcraft

A Bit of Whichcraft is the name of the snare drum solo that I have been working on so far this year. The title is a little joke, because it implies witchcraft, but it is spelled differently (And that, dear children is called a play on words). The solo is actually pretty difficult, but I enjoy the challenge immensely. I often spend half an hour to an hour working on it each day. Working on solos is kind of an addiction of mine, I don't know if it is the satisfaction of finally getting it done or if it is just spending hours getting the entire solo worked to perfection. Anyways, we have our second band concert of the year tomorrow night and I'm starting to get pretty pumped. Oh, and we better start having snow during the school week instead of just on the weekends.

Courage

Courage is something that can make many people look up to you. I once heard somewhere, "Being courageous doesn't mean that you aren't afraid of anything, it means that you can do the right thing despite being afraid". I think that whoever said that was very wise. Honestly I think that if you aren't afraid of anything, you're probably stupid, but being able to consistently do the right thing takes real courage. Also, Courage the Cowardly Dog kind of shows how that is true. In every episode, something that scares Courage happens and instead of just sitting in a corner and crying or something, he does the courageous thing and defeats the evil person and protects his family. Just because he is afraid of whatever it is that is scaring him, doesn't mean that he gives up on what is right, and that is what courage is.

Leadership

When we think of leadership, we often think of the leaders of countries. Barack Obama, Kim Jong IL, Hitler, Joeseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, or Napolean. For better or for worse, these people have or had been placed in a seat of leadership and it was or is their job to lead their country. There are also spirtual leaders, leaders of the people, or even speakers like Martin Luther King, Mahatma Ghandi, or John F. Kennedy. These people made a huge difference in many people's lives but weren't necessarily in a position of public power. But there are also leaders in each community, the people that everyone knows and trusts. These people don't always get a lot of attention, but that's usually how they like it. These people can often be much more influential than any politician.

Kryptonite

Everyone has their own kryptonite, their one greatest weakness. Obviously Superman's kryptonite was kryptonite. It always seems like the bad guy's weakness is greed, or jealousy, or rage. Anyways, kinda got me thinking if people know what their own kryptonite is. I honestly don't know what my biggest weakness is, I mean, I obviously have several weaknesses, but I want to know what my one greatest weakness is.

Giving

Hey, it's Thanksgiving again. Do you know what that means? It means, giving, turkey, football, family, and black Friday. Now depending on what interests you, each item on that list may be more or less important than the others. But no matter what you like, giving should always be towards the top of your list. We take way too many things for granted and it isn't that hard to make a difference by giving. Whether it's food, blood, or even just your time, giving feels good. Now I know that some people don't have the resources to give food or clothing, but many of those people still give blood or spend time working for charity. In the end, everyone should give what they can.

My Most Sincere Regrets

To whom it may concern,

I wish to apologize for writing my blogs a day late, it was wrong of me, and I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Phew. Feels good to finally get that off of my chest, it's been bugging me all day. In other news, Chilly was finally fired today! Hip-hip, Hooray! Or as they maybe say in the U.K., pip-pip hooray! (sometimes how clever I am astonishes me) I've always wanted to go to England, maybe it's because of that crazy Harry Potter obsession I had? Anyways, that reminds me, I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 twice in a 24- hour period. In case you were wondering, I loved the movie, although I am kind of bummed out that the second part doesn't come out for another 9 months. Oh well, I hope it's worth the wait!

Hope

Hope is something that everyone should have at least a little of. When you have hope, anything can go your way, like any Disney movie would prove true. But when you are hopeless, like the Vikings this season, it can seem like the whole world is against you. Hopelessness is the terrible feeling you get when you know that something you thought was going to happen, never will. Hard times can make you lose hope as quickly as you lose your phone when you need it. But no matter how terrible things may seem, even a tiny speck of hope can make anything possible. When you're sick, when you're hurt, when you're losing your way, and when it seems like you can't do anything right, you have to keep hope, because hope is what can get you through it.

Holy Cow

The Vikings lost again today. I really hope they fire the head coach Brad Childress, or Chilly for short. Childress is like the little kid who really believes he can fly, but everyone else knows that he can't. When Chilly calls a play, everyone just hopes that when Favre gets to the line of scrimmage he changes the it. The Vikings are 3-6 even though they have a Pro-Bowl loaded team, which is usually a sign of? Bad coaching. The most likely candidate for the coaching job if Childress gets the boot? The current Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier. The last time the Vikings were faced with a decision like this, they let the then present defensive coordinator, Mike Tomlin, leave town and coach the Pittsburgh Steelers. They went on to win a Super Bowl. But, you know, it doesn't really matter.

Adaptations

Adaptations are changes that living things make to give them an advantage in nature. Giraffes have long necks because they adapted to having to eat from tall trees. Or if there was another ice-age, humans could possibly grow a fur-coat to keep warm. But not all adaptations are physical, some are mental or social. In the book Night the main character makes a mental adaptation to his surroundings by blocking out all the terrible things going on around him.

Animal Instinct

The one thing that really separates us from animals is our ability to fight our animal instinct. When an animal sees someone or something they don't like they usually attack it. Humans usually won't attack another human unless they are threatened or crazy. Also, humans don't just straight up eat dead meat, we almost always cook it or let it dry out before we eat it. We also have the ability to communicate in many different ways. We can talk, write, type, draw, use hand motions, and other ways. Animals can communicate too, of course, but in less complicated ways. Like sounds and movement. Dolphins seem to have the most complex language though, I call it Dolphinese. I swear, if dolphins had thumbs, we would all be slaves to their tyrannical plot.

Furry Wall Fever

We had a band concert tonight. We had to combine with the freshman band for it because we only have about twenty sophomores in our band. Even though there are only twenty of us, we still manage to sound pretty good. But when we add in the freshman; look out! For the most part, we weren't completely terrible but there were still  
plenty of mistakes all around. One of the songs was named Black Diamond and it supposedly got its name when the composer was writing the song and happened to look up at a can of Black Diamond coffee. That's why this post is called Furry Wall Fever. Not because I have furry walls, but because there happened to be furry walls on the movie I was watching. I guess it worked...

Pokerface

How do you make Lady Gaga laugh? You Poke-er Face. haha get it? No but seriously, I played poker this weekend. It was pretty fun, except that an old lady stole my money. No joke. I lost just about 4 dollars in the first hour. Then I won like 2 dollars back. Then I lost again, and I wasn't happy. At least I got a free Snuggie out of the deal.

THE END

I need to see some identification...

I went to Wal-Mart today, I really wanted to buy The Hangover. After I got it off the shelf, I walked to the front of the store, and hoping that I wouldn't get carded for the R-rated movie, I went in the self-checkout. But as I stood there, ready to pay, some woman, hardly older than myself comes up to me and asks to see my ID. I gave it to her and she checked for the date of birth that the screen told her I needed. She just stares at the screen for about 15 seconds, obviously debating on whether or not to let me make the purchase anyways. She then told me, "I can't let you buy this", and just walked away. Needless to say, I was frustrated, so I went to my house and watched Superbad instead. It just wasn't the same.

Freedom

Freedom is the feeling you get when you know you could do whatever you want, whenever you want. But when you have that much freedom, you have to have a decent amount of reasoning. Just because you can, doesn't mean that you should go into a bank, rob it, have a dance party, have a bonfire with the wood from the desks, and then make a get away on a jetski.

You're heated

We have a game tomorrow against Mankato West. Rumor has it that their JV has only given up 8 points so far this season. And to make things worse, we have 5 starters out with concussions. But that also means that people have a chance to step up. Get er done

Justice for ALL

Everybody wants to think that our country is fair, but really, we aren't. When a star athlete gets a DUI or a prizewinning model is addicted to drugs everybody seems to think, "It's okay, they won't do it again", and  then they get off with the bare minimum punishment. But when your dog craps on their yard or you bump their car it's either, "Have that mutt put down", or, "You're paying for a new paint job".  Half the time a celebrity with an assault charge gets off easier than an average person does when they have a parking violation. I don't know if that can be considered Justice.

Silence

It's already October and as Halloween draws closer, so does deer hunting season. If you really want to experience silence, hike out in the middle of the woods at 5:00 a.m., sit in the exact same spot for 7 hours straight, and have no human contact during the whole thing; that's what deer hunting is like. But the other side of deer hunting is how incredibly loud the one gunshot you hear that morning after being dead silent all morning.

Redonkulous

It has come to my attention that the word "redonkulous" is being over used. In fact, it gets used more often than the one kid with a Gameboy in preschool.. That was funny wasn't it? My new favorite comedian is Dan Cummins; he's pretty funny, or at least I think so. He also names all of his jokes. (In case you were wondering, that opening joke is called "Technology; Instant Friends")

By the way, when I was asked earlier this week about the definition of friendship, I only wrote down one or two sentences. I think they sum it up pretty well though. Friendship is when people, who may or may not be interested in the same things, treat each other like family. Even if some of your friends are just the weird cousins that everyone laughs about when they aren't there. But you also have the brothers and sisters of your friends who would do anything to help you. 

For Starters (see what I did there?)

Hello, my name is Jacob Kunkel, and this is my blog. This is the first time I have ever tried blogging and I honestly have no idea what to expect. 

Anyways, I went to the football game tonight, (or is it last night now?) and I have to admit, I was disappointed. After the way our defense played, we still managed to fumble the game away for the second straight week. And I have to say, although I was raised not to blame anything on officials, the referees seemed to have a tough time calling penalties; for both teams I might add. 

On a side-note, I'm going to the Twins game tomorrow; it will be my first time ever to Target Field and I am really looking forward to it.