Have Fun!

               Lots of people get super frustrated while golfing and I do not blame them. I know I get super frustrated whenever I golf. Golf is a 50% skill and 50% mental. That is not a true stat but it is something that I believe is true because I have learned many skills in the game of golf, but when it comes to actually playing, I cannot seem to perform the way I want. I can go to the driving range and hit a regular drive straight 10 times in a row, but when I get out onto the course, I might mess up once and that throws me off for the rest of the game.

               A problem that many golfers have is that they let one mistake get to their head. Like I said earlier, I might mess up on one thing and then for the rest of the round I cannot seem to play, as I know I can. This happens to lots of golfers, for example they will hit a bad drive on the 4^th hole and for the rest of the holes they will be trying to over correct and fix their mistake. Let’s say someone slices and hits the ball to the right on one hole. The next hole they are going to try to rotate their hands and end up pulling the ball. This means that they will hit the ball to the left of them, this usually happens because they are afraid to make the same mistake they made on the last hole.

 

               In the picture above there is a picture of a man that is calm and having fun. That is the main point in golf, even if you are making mistakes you have to be able to let it go and refocus on the next hole. As I have been saying repeatedly, the biggest mistake golfers make is overcorrection. Therefore, this golfer up top is a good example of someone who is having fun while the play.

               Question: How much money do you think people pay to play a round of golf?

Trick Shots

               Trick shots in golf have always been something that only few people can master. As I talked about in my sand bunker blog, Phil Mickelson is someone who has almost perfected trick shots. I say almost because no one is perfect at trick shots. Of all the people, I have heard of, Phil Mickelson is the best at trick shots that I know of.

               There are tons of different trick shots that someone can learn to use in golf. Some of these tricks include Driver off the Deck and the Left-Handed Punch-Out.

               Driver off the deck is a shot where you use your driver when you are in the fairway. The only spot that drivers are usually supposed to be used is off the tee box, always off a tee. You are supposed to hit off a tee because of how big the driver is. It is the biggest club in the bag, and you are usually not able to get a clean shot unless you hit off a tee. According to my book How to Hit Every Shot, it says that the driver off the deck is a difficulty 5 out of 5. “In addition to needing turbocharged swing speed, you also need perfect touch to just brush the grass with your club” (Golf Mag. 170). This pretty much just tells us that you need to swing faster than usual and you have to be able to perfectly brush over the grass.

              

In the picture above, it is a professional golfer names Rickie Fowler. In this picture, you can see him hitting the driver off the deck. As I talked about before, this show is unbelievably hard to perfect but if you can execute it correctly, you can hit the ball very far.

The other trick shot I talked about earlier is the left-handed punch-shot. The left-handed punch-shot is a shot that all right handed golfers should learn because it can help in the long run. The spot that the left-handed punch shot usually comes in handy is when your ball is stuck to the side or behind a tree. When the ball is on the side of a tree and you cannot get into your stance this is when the shot comes in handy.

In the picture above, there is a golfer using the left-handed punch shot. The ball is on the side of a tree so as you can see, he tilts his club so that he can still make good contact with the ball and also not hit the tree. Another way you can hit the ball this way is by using the backside of the club. Using the backside of the club usually is not as efficient because it is much harder to make contact with the back of the club. Like the driver off the deck, this is rated 5 out of 5 on the difficulty meter.

Question: How far do you think pros can hit a driver off the deck if they hit it perfectly? (Side note: Most pros can usually drive 300+ yards)

Face to Face with "The Effortless Siren"

I first began "The Effortless Siren" look by doing my eyebrows. After concealing my brows and moisturizing my face; I started on my eyes. Which with this look, was "the main attraction" or "center of attention" in which; is located on the eyes.

First; used my eyeshadow primer as usual to prime my eyelids and then started by applying a light brown. The key to applying dark eyeshadow is starting at with a lighter color then building up to a darker shade you want. If you first start with a dark color, it will leave a "patchy" look on your eyelids which is considered, a rookie mistake. Once I was finished applying the dark eyeshadow to my lids, I then took a light brown and blended that into the crease of my eye, that way; an ombre effect will take place after applying the transitional color to under the brow. Alyssa Giaobbe says "after apply a dark shade to her crease, I gave her a swipe of mascara" (Giaobbe198). In which, I did. Alyssa recommended this because to much mascara can make the eyelashes clump together and look rather... Unpleasant, which is the opposite purpose of what makeup is used for.

I found this look rather easy to replicate. In the end, she just applied a lot of dark eye color and bronzer to her face. There wasnt much more than that. Alyssa does recommend this look to be used to go out with. "Ultimately, this is a great day-to-evening makeup look" (Giacobbe198).

In the end, this look is something I would rather not wear outside of the house. I don't believe this darker look suits me as well as some. But at least I was able to look in an effortless siren.

#makeup #bronzer #eyeshadow #highlight #foundation

Warm ups are important for any type of physical activities you do. Misty says that the better warm up you have the better your performance will be. Misty had a leg injury which was bad because she was well known for her jumps and if her leg was hurting her she couldn't perform which is something she loves doing and has worked her whole life to do. with a proper warm and proper stretching misty was able to heal quickly and get back onstage. misty tells anyone that has had a bad injury to not let it discourage you but to instead bring out the best in you and give you a reason to work harder.

Do you think stretching before doing a physical activity is important?

Hard Work

Hard Work

Misty Copeland started ballet when she was thirteen, usually when you are someone of her stature you would expect them to start at possibly 5 or 6. I started dance when I was 3 and have been doing it to this day. Misty Copeland started dancing "Later" than the usual age so she knew that she had a lot of work to do if she was going to catch up.

Hard Work, to Copeland starts with determination and aspiration. if you don't have the mindset needed to achieve something you aren't getting anywhere and you wont get any better. if you want to excel then it all starts with you believing you can. Misty, like i said before, was places in a ballet class at the age of thirteen which is a very old age to be put into something. she could've just given up and said that she will never be as good as all of the other students in her class, but she kept persevering and she succeeded her dream. Secondly she believes that Practicing is probably the most important part of working hard. If you learned something and you go home and do it by yourself a few times you'll get better at it quicker because you will constantly be working on it and it will soon become apart of your muscle memory and it wont be as hard. But if you decide to not practice it then the process of you getting better will be a lot slower because instead of you doing it a lot so that it gets retained quicker you wait until you go back to class so its almost like your relearning something. Misty with a lot of practice at home and at the studio.

Lastly Misty says that not only is hard work an important process and a lot of things can go into it but there is nothing like the outcome that comes from hard work. If your constantly doing your absolute best than you will see a change in your  and so will everyone else.

Making grilled stuffed backstraps (with pork instead of venison)

The Total Outdoorsman Guide by T. Edward Nickens is not just full of hunting tricks or how to set up a tent, it also includes a scarce few recipes as well. The original recipe for the grilled stuffed backstraps calls for one piece of venison backstrap, which is a very nice cut of deer meat, but unless you hunted and killed the deer yourself the meat is quite expensive. Because I don't have a hunting license, and didn't want to pay in the range of $75 per pound of meat, I decided to use pork instead. One thing that I had to learn in order to make this dish was how to truss a cut of meat with kitchen string and how to make a butterfly cut in the meat, but it sure turned out great.

Works Cited: 

T. Edward Nickens, The Total Outdoorsman Guide,. Weldon Owen Inc. 2013

Making a deer drag (not just for deer)

In The Total Outdoorsman Guide by T. Edward Nickens, the 244th item in the guide is about making a drag with which one can move more weight around without having to work very much. The materials the guide says to use is 2 black plastic pallet sheets, a grommet tool, 20 feet of parachute cord, and 10 feet of drag rope. For the sake of convenience, I used a pre-made tarp rather than using the grommet tool to connect the two pallet sheets together to make my own. Some other uses for this include moving large amounts of wood for a fire or just out of the way, moving a person if they have to be moved but can't on their own, and more that people other than myself have probably thought up. Just a extra note, you don't have to use parachute cord or drag rope, really any rope will work so long as 1. it fits in the grommets, and 2. the rope is strong enough for what you want to drag. The last picture is of me dragging my younger brother around in the drag that I made.

Works Cited: 

T. Edward Nickens, The Total Outdoorsman Guide,. Weldon Owen Inc. 2013

Chocolate Chips: It's good enough

My time in the kitchen has come to a close. I learned a lot and I didn't burn down the house. I decided to make chocolate chip cookies as my farewell and i think they turned out okay. Following from the recipe I used "1/2 cup of shortening and 1/2 cup of butter" (Darling 109) start the process of making the cookies. Next, I stirred in flour, sugar, packed brown sugar, vanilla, and chocolate chips (Darling 109). I then put it in the oven which I set at 375 and I left them in there for 8 minutes. After they cooled I tried them and they tasted good. I was surprised they were so good considering they had shortening in it.

How chocolate filled so you like your cookies? What are your favorite types of cookies?

 Darling, Jennifer. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. Des Moines, IA: Meredith, 1989. Print.

Solving a 5x5 Rubik's Cube

In my final post, I will be talking about and talking about how to solve the 5x5 Rubik's Cube. This is the most overwhelming cube yet, with a whopping 2.8 x 10^72, or 280 trevigintillion possible configurations with once again, only 1 of those configurations being a solved cube(Harris 121).

Along with the 2x2 and the 4x4, experience and knowledge of the 3x3 cube can greatly help in learning this cube, and how to solve it. Harris agrees, "As with the 4x4x4 solution, this solution is geared toward cubers who already have some experience with the 3x3x3, have learned a solution or figured it out on their own, and can solve it from memory without any problems(Harris 121).

Thank you for reading all of my blog posts this quarter, and I hope throughout these 5 posts, if not helping you I have at least entertained you and potentially given you inspiration to try and enter the puzzling world of Rubik's Cubes.




Question: Have you every heard of and/or tried solving a 5x5 Rubik's Cube? If so how difficult was it, and how much did your knowledge of the 3x3 help you with solving it?

Harris, Dan. Speedsolving the Cube: Easy-to-follow, Step-by-step Instructions for Many Popular 3-D Puzzles. New York: Sterling Pub., 2008. Print.

Solving a 4x4 Rubik's Cube

In this post I will be talking about the 4x4 Rubik's Cube and how to solve this cube. Once again, like the 2x2 Rubik's Cube, if you have already mastered and understood the 2x2 cube, learning how to solve this cube will be a lot easier. Harris agrees with this idea, "If you are a complete novice to cubing, you may be able to follow the solution described in this section, but you will find it hard going compared with those who have experience already with the standard Rubik's Cube" (Harris 100.)

This may seem overwhelming at first especially due to the fact that; the 4x4 Rubik's cube has an astonishing 7.4 quattuordecillion possible positions with only one of those being the solved position(Harris 100). Due to this fact and also it having a 2x2 center instead of a 1x1 center, these are both reasons why people could get overwhelmed by the cube. However, if you use your knowledge of the 3x3 cube and the algorithms and tricks you learned for that cube, learning and understanding the 4x4 cube will be much easier.

Once you finally learn however, you will be amazed with what you have accomplished. Also, and added bonus is this cube will help(along with the other 2), with learning how to solve even more complicated cubes such as the 5x5 Rubik's Cube.

Question: Have you every heard of and/or tried solving a 4x4 Rubik's Cube? If so how difficult was it, and how much did your knowledge of the 3x3 help you with solving it?

Harris, Dan. Speedsolving the Cube: Easy-to-follow, Step-by-step Instructions for Many Popular 3-D Puzzles. New York: Sterling Pub., 2008. Print.

practice

Misty Copeland says that "Dance isn't only an exercise for the body it is also an exercise for the mind." Being a dancer you have to remember a number of dances at a time. but while you are trying to learn one thing you have to maintain another. misty says that there is an easy way to maintain things and the only answer to that is to practice and ask questions.

this goes for anything really if you practice then it will stick in your head and if your confused about it then you should probably ask questions about it. if you ever want to get better you can't just think that it will magically happy. Misty said that when she first started she didn't have much motivation but it was something she really liked doing and was willing to put in the work to make her dream come true. she asked questions when she wasn't sure about something and whenever she got the chance she would practice.

Do you practice whatever you do on a daily basis?

Shortening your Speed-Solving Time

In this blog post, I will be talking once again about the 3x3 Rubik's Cube, however this time I will be talking about shortening your time, and getting faster, instead of just solving it. Dan Harris starts talking about speedcubing and decreasing your time when speedcubing. One way to accomplish a faster time is just by solving the cube over and over and over again. This will improve your muscle memory and the more you solve it the better and faster you will be.

Dan Harris talks about another way to drastically improve your time; this is by how you solve it. Harris emphasizes this when he says, "In this chapter I present a wealth of information about an advanced speecubing method known as the CFOP system, which is the system I currently use for speedcubing. This method has allowed me to set personal-best average times of under 15 seconds" (Harris 40). This method was created and invented by Jessica Fridrich of the Czech Republic and is still used today in speedsolving. It is a very efficient way to solve the cube, and using this method, speedcubers, on average, can solve the cube in under 20 seconds.

This may seem new and overwhelming to all of the sudden learn a new way to solve the cube, but if you have already mastered other ways, the algorithms, and the muscle memory will kick in eventually. As Harris stated, each step of the new method requires more memorization than any step in the beginner's method, but if you learn it step by step, you will be familiar with most, maybe all of the algorithms(Harris 40). This is due to the fact that is has the sequence in a sense as the beginner's method however it takes out multiple steps for efficiency.




Question: If you have tried solving a Rubik's Cube, what was your fastest time, and if you wanted to improve it, how much practice did you have to do?

Harris, Dan. Speedsolving the Cube: Easy-to-follow, Step-by-step Instructions for Many Popular 3-D Puzzles. New York: Sterling Pub., 2008. Print.

Where to Fish

When ice is melting, ponds and small lakes are grate places to fish.  Because of shallow depths of water the fish mainly trout are rarely far away from the shore.  But before you pick a spot and start casting out you need to make sure you know how to look for the ideal location that will increase your odds of catching a fish even more.

According to The Essential Fishing Handbook “The best spot to catch a variety of fish is in creeks because of their spawning habitats and that’s where they lay their eggs.” (Cermele 54) I would have to agree with him because from my experience when fishing salmon.  My dad and I have caught the most when in creeks and by the shallow banks.

Considering that, I am mostly a bass angler I prefer to fish in weedbeds because that is where most of the bass like to hang out because of the shade caused by all the plants. Another good place I like to fish is underneath docks and by broken Boulders in the water.

Where do you like to fish and why?

Works Cited

Cermele Joe, The Essential Fishing Handbook,. weldonown, 2016