Sean Palladino

Finally, I have the elusive iPod Touch! I recently won the iPod on eBay for a mere $200, considerably less than its $400 price tag. After almost three years of listening to countless people ecstatic about the latest apps, I can finally get into the game. When I initially touched (Ha... it's a play on words...) the iPod, it just felt "right". I mean, touching my music, movies, email, and websites is a magnificent and extraordinary feeling.  That feeling of almighty power.

Anyway, after downloading a few notable apps, some of which I will detail in later posts, I was pleasantly enjoying the interactive, touchiness of the iPod.

Speaking of apps, I have decided to showcase one of my favorite apps every week as well as migrating the "Movie of the Day" to "Movie of the Week". So, that way, I can tell you guys about an awesome app and movie one a week. Be sure to subscribe to this blog to know about the latest movie and app of the week.

In order to get off the subject of my new high-tech gadget, I've been taking a summer course in college: Calculus. It's only two, 3-hour classes a week... not too bad. I've been keeping up with all the tests, quizzes, and homework, in order to ace the class.

I think that's all I need to talk about for this post. See yeah next time!

Over a month ago, I published a book containing a bunch of short stories involving the adventures of Jenny and Michelle as they discover the mysterious Jack Mormon.  I have decided to release a small bit of the Jack Mormon back story. And here it goes....

In the year 1790, when pirates walked the earth and sailed the seas, a captain, named Jack Mormon, got stuck on top of a tree. Here is his amazing story:

Jack Mormon was a greedy ol’ pirate who never let a single soul on to his ship. This rejection of shipmates made his job as being captain much tougher to handle. When he was near the edge of the sea, near America, he thought he could find the treasure all by his self. He thought wrong.

When he was almost to the beach, a long-legged octopus sprang up and attacked the boat. He quickly searched for his sword, and started to chop the octopus’s arms off. After chopping off most of the legs, all he could see, really, was white water and a dismantled octopus. A few minutes later, he reached land, and he started to walk into the dark forest. He never knew what was going to happen next.

Want to find out what happens next?  Buy the book @ Lulu! In fact, Lulu is having a free shipping promotion during the summer.  All the profit from each sale will go towards my college fund.  Thank You!  In other personal news, I'm still workin' at Taco Bell.  I have to work on this weekend, just like every other week.

See yeah next time I write!

As you can see, I just received by iTunes Store credit from the now defunct Lala website. If you don't know, Apple bought out Lala back in December, and, recently, Apple shutdown the Lala website. Lala.com was an interesting service that allows its user to listen to the full song once, with the ability to listen unlimited more times by paying a measly 10 cents. And, if you wanted to get the MP3 file, it only costs 79 cents. Simple, cheap, and awesome. I mean, I bought 109 web songs for a measly $10.90. Truly awesome!

Just a little FYI, I already used the credit code. It's invalid for anyone else. 

Anyway, I'm still workin' at Taco Bell. In fact, its almost been a year already. That's pretty awesome. I think I've clocked in almost 1000 hours. Damn.

Well, that's all I wanted to write this week. See yeah later!

Looking back at what has happened since I wrote the bomb threat on June 2nd, 2009, I feel like I just want to change time. It has changed the relationships with my parents and friends. It has taken over my memories of high school. Even though I had a pretty good time in high school, all of the events that had happened before the bomb threat are almost obscure to me. During high school, I ran in Cross-Country with an award-winning team, made movies in TV Production, and so much more. But writing the bomb threat had masked everything else.

When someone found the bomb threat in the bathroom on that day, I was instantly one of the suspects, thanks to the security camera near the bathroom. I remember being asked to go to the office by Mr. Becker. Then, worst of all, walking down the hall way with Mr. Kind. He kept telling me that I was the last person anyone suspected, that this was just a precaution. I felt horrible. I couldn’t tell the truth, not when everyone thought I was innocent. Not when my parents would be angry and disappointed. Not when I might go to jail. I tried to suppress my guilt, but it just kept on getting worse. So I eventually confessed a couple days later.

Before and after I confessed to my parents, the police, and the school board to the crime, I felt a sense of shame and regret. It was, without a doubt, the worst feeling in the world. I remember walking to my classes thinking that everyone knew already. I started to hate myself for what I did.

The legal stuff was pretty scary. Going to a courtroom is not a fun experience, especially since I had to stand in front of a room of people and answer questions about what I did. Not to mention that amount of fees that I am still paying now as well as the 25 hours of community service that I did.

One of the worst parts about this whole thing is that I wasn’t allowed to go to the graduation ceremony or any of the senior activities during the last few weeks of school. My parents were devastated, and they still are upset about the whole thing. I still think about this whole ordeal, too. Since it has almost been a year, hopefully, I can forget about the whole thing. But sadly, thanks to what I did, whenever I look back at my life in high school, writing a bomb threat will stand out.

So, if you don’t already know, even if you think writing a bomb threat would be a funny prank or joke, it will ruin your memories of high school. Just don’t do it. I wish I would have thought about the consequences back then, but it’s over, and life moves on.

I've been questioning the existence of God, the truthfulness of the Bible, and the flip-flopping lies from the highest levels of the Catholic church for more than five years now. Gradually, I have come to terms with the fact that there is no "supernatural entity" that created the world, reincarnated into a human to save our "sins", and allowed mortal folks to enter "heaven".

It's logical to assume that religious pursuits began as a way to try to understand why we are here, how we came into existence, and what lies beyond. However, thanks for the thousands of years of scientific exploration that deepens our understanding of the Earth and the universe, religion seems obsolete.

In addition to religion being obsolete, the Catholic religion, for hundreds of years, has been on the forefront of countless wars, deaths, persecutions, deceit, and sexual abuse. Yes, humans are not perfect. But why would the church authorities say that they are equal in terms of a pure "God" when countless priests, bishops, and Popes have been caught breaking their own laws?

The Roman Catholic organisation was built to establish order among the peasants and ordinary folk. It incorporated every aspect of religious instruction from countless other religions to create a broadly-accepted form of worship for all people. The organisation has a history of not moving forward with new, scientific developments. In most cases, the church has condemned any change to how we think of the world. Do you really want to support an organisation that pulls us back from progress?

Hopefully this short essay will give you a bit of perspective as to why I do not believe in God nor do I support the Catholic organisation. Thanks for letting me vent a little.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is about to be open to public, after three (long) years since the announcement.  I seriously can't wait for it! Though traveling there is a bit confusing, especially since I don't have a travel guide. The good news? I found out about this cool website that provides cheap flights... LowFares.com!

The guys behind the website allow anyone to compare rates from a variety of hotels and airlines using up to six different websites at once. It's pretty cool and easy to do. In fact, I found a nice hotel, Imperial Swan Hotel & Suites, and cheap airline tickets from Air Tran costing about $255/person for my family. Very nice and cheap! The hotel is only one mile from Universal's theme park (reasonable enough), and the airline flight goes straight from Philadelphia airport to Orlando with no intermediate stops. Possibly the best way to fly, in my opinion.

So, now that I got a sweet deal from LowFares.com, let's calculate the travel expenditures for the week in Florida. Currently, it costs $169/person for a week in the theme park. $255, for the hotel and airline flight, multiplied by 5, for my family and me, equals $1,275. Add $845 for five, one-week ticket passes to the theme park for a total of $2,120. Very nice! I think my family and I are ready to experience the wonders of wizardry and adventure in Universal's theme park. I seriously can't wait until August when we go!

This all happened thanks to the brilliantly simple website, LowFares.com, for allowing my family to find cheap vacation packages. Thanks!

Disclosure:

This post has been paid for by LowFares.com.