Blind man crossing the street

Have you been walking down the sidewalk with your cane, using the two-point touch, and had your cane getcaught in a crack in the sidewalk? Man, that’s freaking embarrassing. One time when I was going to FSU I was late for a class, so I was walking really fast to get to there. There were some people around at this point, when all of a sudden my cane got caught in a crack and it jabbed me in the stomach, and to my embarrassment also snapped in half and hit this girl’s leg. It was horrible, and yet it was kind of funny now that I think about it. After it happened, I had to walk to class with one foot in the grass and one on the sidewalk ‘til I got a new cane!

Canes

-Josue

I’ve decided to dedicate this blog to one of the most awesome creatures to inhabit this planet of ours.

The Pistol Shrimp

Some of you might notice the huge claw he has on one of his hands. That is basically his shotgun hand. With his “shotgun” claw he can make bubbles. Now some of you may be thinking “hey it’s just bubbles, I can do that,” but what I didn’t mention was that his bubbles reach a heat of over 8540.6 ºF. To put this in perspective, the sun’s surface has a temperature of about 9941 ºF. Thus it probably shouldn’t even be called a shotgun, more like a HEAT shotgun.

The pistol shrimp is tied for being the loudest creature on earth. Any guess as to what it’s tied with?

It’s the blue wale. This little guy makes as much noise as a blue wale.  Even after researching it I don’t know if I should fear this creature or love it.

-Nick

Sources: nationalgeographic.com

This last Tuesday, October 13, 2009, my college hosted a Disability Awareness Fair. At the Disability Awareness Fair people representing a variety of organization which serve person with disability, manned tables and handed out information and answered questions about their organizations.

I was at a table representing the Florida Youth Council. It was a fun experience. I really enjoyed answer people questions; it made me feel important. 

To cap off it all off, there was a scholarship that one person could earn. It was for students who had disabilities. Applicants had to write an essay on facing challenges and the future as someone with a disability. The scholarship was for $1000.00 and I won it! That covered all my classes for next semester. God is an awesome provider.

-Sara

These days, new assistive technology is developing everywhere: anything from devices to assist those with visual impairments to savvy assistive robots. Well, now there is even a solar-powered wheelchair! It’s a new way of REALLY “going green.”

Solar Powered Wheelchair

This chair shown was developed by the Southern Taiwan University of Technology recently. It has solar panels covering the chair and even the frame as well. The frame also doubles as a clever awning, to provide shade from the elements.

The cost of production for this type of chair is relatively low, which makes it less expensive than most power chairs.

Additionally, this revolutionary chair is of course very planet friendly. It takes almost no electrical energy and it’s also waste-free!  

-Carly

Life is one big homework assignment!!!

During the school year, my life was one big homework assignment.  That was probably the only good thing about homework.  It took up all of my time, so I didn’t even have to worry about finding anything else to do.  Now that the summer is here, what will keep me busy now?  I don’t know what to do! 

Summer is all about making friends

So, I guess I’ll set some social goals for myself.  Summer is the time for calling up friends, meeting new people, and just having a good time.  I already invited several people to Adventure Landing and bowling, so that’s a start. 

However, I need to do more.  Maybe I could have a pool party along with a get-together at my house next week!  Or maybe I could host a basketball contest for a bunch of my friends.  The possibilities are endless.  Now I just have to act and make sure I always keep people in my life, even when the homework gets heavy again in the fall.

Friday, September 25, I went to Daytona for our quarterly meeting of the FYC. Friday and Saturday went great until I got into the elevator.

A packed elevator

We crammed 8 people in as we all got in to the elevator, and the door started to close. But it couldn’t shut all the way, so it kept on opening and closing trying to make the doors close. We were all getting freaked out, especially my mom and me.  Eventually the doors jammed, and there was a little space for everybody to get out, but unfortunately not enough space for me.

The doors are stuck

My mom swore to me that she would not leave me until the doors opened up again. So about 10 minutes passed by and I started to not feel good and had a melt down because I was claustrophobic in the little elevator. My mom started to cry then I started to cry also.

The elevator repair man said “Don’t worry, I will not let anything happen to you or your mom.” So we waited and the man had to take out some wires off the elevator. Because the elevator door was pushed off the track by someone it would not budge. So we finally made it out after 12-15 minutes. By that time all I wanted to do was lay down in the room. That’s exactly what I did. All in all we were fine at the end.

Lizzy

Have you ever had a day where you just want to hang out with your friends? I know I definitely have those days. Yesterday my fiancé and I called my cousin to hangout for a bit and play dominoes. We could have hung out at my house or hers, but my father in law was asleep and her mother was asleep. We really didn’t want to disturb them and wake them up, so we decided to go to the park and play dominoes.

There is this park here in Miami where we can go and play on the swings and it has picnic tables where people can sit and talk. This is a public park where anyone is welcome. This park has a basketball court, tennis court, baseball field, football field and an extra huge field that the public can use to play soccer or just throw the football around for a while. I just wanted to be out of the house for an hour or two. Now it’s 10 o’clock at night and we arrive at the park. We begin to set up the dominoes to play when a cop car drives by and over his speaker car begins to say “everyone needs to leave the park, the park is closed.” The problem is that we have been coming to this park for many years. My cousin and I used to come when we were younger and all of a sudden they are going to tell us that the park is closed. I was extremely upset and surprised. The park doesn’t even have gates. There have been nights where we go and it’s after 11PM. How is it that it’s not even 10:30PM and we have to leave? This place was our last resort. We used have other locations where we could just sit and play board games and have a beverage or a snack; but little by little this community has been shutting us down.

My fiancé and I were talking in the car and wondering what this world is going to. We weren’t drinking or doing any drugs. We were just hanging out. We are responsible young adults that have graduated and have jobs. Why is it so hard to gives us a place where we can be productive? What about other teenagers that want to go play their sports at the park? If the community keeps shutting us down like this, soon these productive teenagers will start to look for other things to do. For example, they might start to go clubbing, car racing, drinking and driving, and or doing illegal drugs. It really just doesn’t make any sense to me anymore.

I would like to know your opinion on this.

-Cinthia