Midnight Coffee

Towards the beginning of my senior year of high school, I discovered one of the best websites of all time to pass the time, distract you, or to find out interesting stuff!  During any study hall or open period that my friends and I didn’t have anything to do, we’d go right onto StumbleUpon.com!  I’ve even introduced this website to my roommates and many of my friends and they love it!  What is basically is, is a website that brings you to other interesting websites that are all completely different from each other.  All you have to do is simply go to the website and press the “Start Stumbling!” button…then it brings you to your first site. To continue to the next site, press the Stumble! button in the top left corner!  Each site is completely random and you never know what you’re going to get.  For example, it could be a YouTube video, a website for recipes, the top 10 strangest places on Earth, a captivating picture of a sunset, or even a cartoon strip!  One time, one of my friends “stumbled upon” a How To Make a T-Shirt Out of a Dollar Bill. Well soon enough, about five guys were whipping out dollar bills and making little t-shirts like it was their job! One of the coolest websites that I discovered from StumbleUpon was something like a paint canvas but it gave you a choice of tools and no colors, but the colors changed and made the picture look really cool! It’s called Bomomo.com, try it out!

One day while stumbling, I came across the picture below, and I’ve even used as my desktop background before!  So if you’re ever bored or just curious now for what crazy websites you’re missing out on, go stumbling! I should warn, it gets a little addicting! =)

The most important aspects of my life are definitely family and friends, and without the both of these, I would not be the person I am today.  The biggest influence in my life is my family, which is not your average family.

Any time I am asked an interesting fact about myself, or something to describe my life, my typical answer is “Well…I have 8 siblings.”  To be completely honest, in reality I have 2 full siblings and 6 half siblings, but I’ve spent too much time living with them that I don’t consider any of them less than a full sibling.  The part that confuses most are that some of my siblings aren’t related whatsoever to others.  Well, here’s the breakdown to my family! My two oldest brothers are 30 and 27 (the oldest is expecting his FIFTH kid! ) but they are my half brothers.  Same Mom, different Dad. Next comes my older sister who’s 22, me, and my younger sister who is 16.  We’re all full sisters, follow? Nextcomes the rest of them, my Dad and Step-mom’s kids.  Brother is 4, twin sisters are almost 2 and brother#4 will be here in February!

Most people get lost in the process but it’s quite easy once you really figure it out.  Don’t worry, my house isn’t a mad house..wait that’s a lie. I’m the oldest in the house..well when I’m at school my sister gets to deal with it, poor girl.  Although my siblings all drive me CRAZY, they’re family and I’m stuck with them! Having so many older siblings has made me a strong and confident person and having so many younger siblings also has made me an easy person to talk to and I’m great with kids! Dealing with them every day swayed my decision to major in elementary education, but then recently I realized…I can’t do that every day..No way! Therefore, I want to switch to secondary ed.  My siblings are enough little kids to deal with in my life.  Without my family there to provide me with experience, I could very well have a completely different major and I could be awful with little kids! They’re always there for support when I need them, and I can’t even imagine my life with any less than 8 siblings!

Recently I had been reading a classmate’s blog which was responding to someone else’s blog about the meaning of the word: love.

It is true that today people use the word love like it’s just another word to describe feelings for someone, or something.  50 years ago if someone’s significant other said: “I love you,” they really meant it and it was a big deal! Today, people can be dating for a week and already say “I love you.”  The fact of the matter is, they are losing sight of what love truly is.  It isn’t just a word you can throw around like it’s no big deal, it has to come from the heart and must be meant whole heartedly.  You hear many people saying, “I love my cell phone!” or  “I love this coffee!” but do they really love it?? Love is defined (by dictionary.com) as 1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.  Love in your family is an unconditional love that will always be there for you no matter what.  Love in a relationship is a butterflies-in-your-stomach, whirlwind, love drunk feeling and you care deeply for the person you are with.  It is hard to imagine a 13-year old couple feeling that for each other when they are so young and naïve.  Saying “I love you” isn’t just saying, I like you, you’re hot.  It’s I love everything about you, and your flaws are what make you special.  That is why the feeling of love involves much thought and should not be simply thrown about, but saying it should not be a thoughtless routine.  One must say it and mean it! =)

I found this on stumbleupon.com

Whenever I’m on the internet and I stumble upon Yahoo.com, I notice the wide range of news articles that stare me straight in the face.  Often times, the titles are very catchy and I click on the articles to read them out of curiosity.   Recently, I clicked on an article, which had a link to another article, which linked to another, until I found myself one that captured my interest once I read the whole thing through.  This article is titled The Health Benefits of Red Wine.  This first caught my attention because the first thing you think about when reading about alcohol is not usually how it’s good for you!  Also, being italian, my family appreciates the commodity of wine, so I was interested in learning about it!  (It  is focused towards an adult audience, not one for underage men and women, so it is not accepting underage drinking.)

According to the article, red wine is full of flavoniods and antioxidants that can prevent allergens, viruses, carcinogens and help the body resist cancer and cardiovascular disease.  They warn that just because red wine is good for your health, it doesn’t condone the misuse of it and getting extremely drunk every night, but simply adding a small glass to your daily diet can be beneficial to your body!  Due to the differences between men and women, many health officials concluded that 1-2 four-ounce glasses of wine per day can be beneficial to men, while one four-ounce serving per day will suffice for women.  Don’t be fooled, drinking red wine won’t make you look younger or make you live forever, but adding it into your diet will easily help you lead a longer, healthier lifestyle!

Hi =) my name is Kristin and this is my blog!