I'd like to take the time to congratulate the newly swore in 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama. Good luck and God bless the USA.

stopping the insanity

Ever since their have been sports their have been those sports that when you watch you can't help thinking, "what the hell all those people thinking." Rodeo is one of those sports. This sport originated out of cattle herding in Mexico. The point of the Rodeo is to see how long a someone can stay on a very irritated bull. One of the main staples of this sport is the cowboy hat that the riders wear.
This staple is slowly disappearing from the ring and being replaced with helmet with a titanium grille. This gear is not mandatory but is becoming a repeatedly seen staple in the National Finals Rodeo. Out of the forty-five riders in the finals it was the first time that riders wearing the helmets outnumbered those who did not.
Although this sport only lasts around 8 seconds or less it has been show to be more dangerous then other extreme sports. Out of 15 bull rides it has been seen that at least one ends in an injury, mostly concussions. Even after this statistics the Rodeo Association has not made helmet mandatory. Right now the large majority of riders are wearing them based on their past experiences.
As with all sports injury is inevitable but if their is a way to stop them then it is believed that those precautions should be taken. In soccer the players wear shin guards, in football pads, helmets and mouth guards, then in snowboarding helmets are always warn. Hopefully in time helmets will become mandatory for riders.

First post

When I was little my brothers and I used to fight over who got to read the paper first. Granted, it was normally the comics, and the worst fights were on Sundays; we all walked away with some pretty nasty paper cuts. As we grew older and matured, we all worked together on a paper route for a local newspaper. While we would wrap the papers I would find myself drawn into reading the articles. The chance at journalism seemed distant to me due to a learning disability which affects my spelling. Once I reached high school and teachers introduced the world of spell check and editors, a journalism career seemed to call my name even louder.
Now I am a student in Ohio University's Scripps School for Journalism with a focus on online journalism. After my first quarter I am strengthened in the idea to continue in online, but as for what I am going to write about is still up in the air. This blog is going to be used for not only me to further my writing skills, but to try to get a response from others. I will try to write at least once a week.