Houston Pearce

As I type this post, I realize even more how quickly summer flew by. I completed Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of school last week and start for the first full week tomorrow. The summer really flew by and I did more this past summer than I thought was even possible to fit into a summer. I tried to write a blog post about my summer, and then I realized it would probably be the longest post ever.

So, now we’re back in school. Tenth grade. I can’t believe I’m in the tenth grade! That’s even hard for me to believe. I like my classes for the most part! I have a few friends in each of my classes. I’m extremely glad about that! I have some friends, though, that I never get to see in any of my classes. I guess that’s just kind of how it works in high-school. My teachers this year all seem really nice and they all seem like they really know what they’re teaching about! I really hate it when teachers try to teach something that they have no clue about.

So, anyways, summer was fantastic. I realize, though, that it is time to be back in school. It’s hard to believe I’m a tenth grader. I’ll be graduating from school in 2 years. Wow. Anyways, I will try my best to blog some this school year. I get so tied up in school work that I hardly ever get a chance to blog. So, until next time, have a great school year!

I am taking a break from typing my post about this summer to bring you the top sales-terms used by the people who line the streets in Cozumel, Mexico. Basically, as we walked down every street in Cozumel, we were hawked to buy items from the many salespeople. After a while, it began to get really boring and annoying. So, I decided to make it kind of interesting. Every time I heard a “marketing” term used, I would punch it in to the notes app on my iPhone. Here are the top sales-terms I heard shouted as I walked the streets of Cozumel, Mexico:

• Cigars for you today, my friend?
• How about some tequila? It’s authentic!
• Everything in my store is almost free…
• We are cheaper than Walmart…
• We are nicer than Macy’s…
• You have to try it on! You will love it!
• Don’t forget me, my friend! I need your money!
• Your table is ready! Wait, how many?
• I have a very special offer just for you today!
• Everything is 90% off!
• How about fishing for the nice family?
• You need something silver? Some bling-bling?

The salespeople didn’t care what age people were. I was asked if I wanted alcohol or cigars several times. Of course, I politely declined. However, I suppose there are no minimum ages to drink or smoke in Mexico. Either that, or they specifically choose not to follow any of them…

So, the moral of the story is that if you think you’re being hassled to buy stuff here in the states, just remember it’s probably worse in Mexico. I have never been so annoyed by salespeople in my life.

Yesterday was an interesting day for me. I went over to The Summit, Birmingham’s outdoor mall. My goal was to try out the iPhone 4, Apple’s newest innovative device. Fortunately, I accomplished that. Kind of. I went in to the Apple Store and immediately got my hands on one of the iPhone 4s.

Then, I was approached by a strange Latino lady. She was around 35 and was wearing very bright colors and sunglasses that were studded with diamonds. Normally, I don’t notice small details like sunglasses, but hers almost blinded me. At first, she just stared at me. After around a full minute of her staring blankly at my face, I acknowledged her with a simple “hello.” She greeted me, and then started asking me questions about the iPhone. That’s not the first time I’ve been asked questions in the Apple store, so that wasn’t really too creepy. It wasn’t creepy until she started asking me about the camera. I told her that the camera is supposed to be better than the 3G S. She told me she wanted to try it out. This lady started taking about ten pictures of me with the demo iPhone and also a 30 second video that she left on the screen when she put the phone back on the table…

I tried to leave. She asked where I was going. I told her I didn’t know, and then I left and started walking towards Belk. There she was, right behind me. I told her I HAD to go because I had an “appointment at Belk” (lame excuse, I know). She then tried to hug me. I then walked quickly out of the side door of Belk, and reversed my direction. Thankfully, I didn’t see that lady again. I also made my way back to the Apple Store, where I deleted the many pictures that she took of me on the demo phone.

The iPhone 4 is another work of art. I don’t expect anything less from Apple. It feels very sturdy when holding it, and the one I was using had no reception issues at all. The camera flash works nicely, and the zoom does as well. The best thing about it, though, is that as soon as I picked it up, I knew exactly how to use it. Even though they keep adding amazing new features to the iPhone, they never change how people actually use the phone itself. The retina display is phenomenal. Very crisp, very clear – just as Steve promised. I badly wanted to make a FaceTime call in there, but I had no one to FaceTime with. Oh well. The iPhone 4 makes a big impression and I know it will do very well on the market.

Side Note: I would like to do a quick shout-out to Brookstone. My mini massager that I got from them several months ago broke the other day. I didn’t have the protection plan purchased or anything, and I had long-lost my receipt. The people at Brookstone replaced it with no trouble. If you need an innovative luxury gadget, they’re the people to get it from!

Welcome to my completely redesigned blog! The theme is WordPress’ brand new Twenty Ten. This is special for me because I was one of those people who have used WordPress, and now there’s WordPress 3.0. I use it for everything from my company blog, to my personal website, to the blog you’re reading now. I truly believe it’s the best publishing platform in the world. Please enjoy my blog and let me know what you think about the redesign.

The FBLA State conference I went to was absolutely fantastic. I had a terrible topic but I dealt with it the best I could. My topic was to tell people why they should become business education teachers. Here’s my topic:

A nationwide shortage of K-12 business education teachers now exists. The National Business Education Association (NBEA) is mounting a marketing campaign to address this shortage. Your task is to assist NBEA by developing a presentation for high school students on a career teaching business education. Areas of this presentation may include, but are not limited to, the following: (1) nature of the work, (2) working conditions, (3) employment opportunities, (4) training and other qualifications, (5) advancement, (6) other points about teaching that you would like to include, (7) student and teacher success stories, (8) professional opportunities to serve, and (9) professional networking with other teachers. (FBLA)

So, as you can see, it wasn’t a good topic. I spent several weeks on making my presentation and I finally got it where I wanted it. I followed all of the presentation guidelines that I know of and did my best to answer all of the questions above.

I ended up getting first place and I plan on going to Nashville!

I would like to express HUGE thank-yous to: My Parents, Mrs. Westerlund, Mrs. Lott, Ms. Harris, and Ms. Mangina – along with everyone at the Sheraton and FBLA that made this possible!

Spring Break 2010 was very special to me. I will always remember it! It was the one of the best ones I’ve ever had. If you’re going , I suggest visiting the Disney World website and ordering a free vacation planning DVD for additional tips. Here’s my quick list of some of the things we did and my opinion on them:

• Rainforest Cafe – Great place to go for a unique dining experience… Food is not out-of-this-world but it is pretty good and the atmosphere is very cool.
• Polynesian Hotel – Great hotel, kind of old, but overall this is a great place to stay at Disney. You’re on Disney property, too. This lets you have special perks such as early opening days.
• Haunted Mansion – Still one of my favorite rides in all of Magic Kingdom. Lots of cool technology effects in there.
• Hard Rock Hotel – This is Universal’s coolest hotel and possibly the coolest hotel I’ve ever stayed in. It’s got live music all the time poolside, great food, great service. Overall, an excellent hotel that I hope to return to.
• Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – Very cool ride. I rode it for the very first time on this trip and it is not as scary as it is advertised to be. Just a fun, fast, elevator ride.
• Mel’s Diner – Universal 50s-style drive-in-like diner where you have burgers and fries and foods of that nature. It’s good and you feel like you’re in a whole different time period. It’s a lot like Johnny Rocket.
• Car Stunt Show at Hollywood Studios – Very cool stunt show. They do all sorts of cool things with the cars including fire and explosive effects.
• Boat Ride between Disney Hotels – I thought this was very cool. You can cruise around on your own private boat and you can fish between the Disney Hotels in the lake by the Polynesian.
• Mickey’s House – Takes about 30 seconds, but it’s pretty cool just to glance at. It’s in ToonTown at the Magic Kingdom.
• Star Wars – I felt a little dizzy after getting off of it, but this ride is overall fun. It raises you up and it feels like you’re in a spaceship.
• Simpson’s Roller Coaster – At Universal Studios, this is not a real roller coaster. It’s inside and you hardly move. You just look at a giant screen as your cart feels like its moving. It’s like a very-involved 4D movie.
• Character Breakfasts – At most of the Disney Hotels, they offer character breakfasts. Those are usually expensive, but they are pretty cool, especially for younger kids.
• Pirates of the Caribbean – This attraction has been a family favorite for quite some time. It’s not scary at all and you get to see a ton of cool robotics as the pirates shoot at each other before your eyes.
• Indiana Jones – This is at Hollywood Studios. It is a very cool show about the stunts and they way they’re executed and focuses especially on the ones in Indiana Jones.
• Splash Mountain – Even though the weather was pretty chilly, we managed to ride Splash Mountain — twice! It’s another family favorite, and it’s my little brother’s favorite ride in all of Disney World. We found out the drop is 52 feet.
• Big Thunder Mountain – This is a fast roller coaster but it’s not very scary. It’s fun and it’s also another one that we rode twice.
• Space Mountain – Again, a family favorite. We love this ride and it’s one that everyone really has fun on every time. In fact, I found a video of it with the lights turned on! You can watch it here.

This pretty much sums up our favorites at Disney World and Universal. I still will probably update this post, though, if I can think of any more. We really enjoyed our time in Orlando and returning again soon would definitely be a lot of fun!

Here’s some pictures from the trip! You can view my whole Disney set on Flickr where I’ll post more from the trip very soon.

Side note: I just switched to a new theme on the blog called Titan and I really like it so far and hope you do, too.

It’s finally time for Spring Break. I’m in Georgia right now, stopping by on the way to Orlando. Today, I think we will go to Universal Theme Park and maybe have dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. I’m terribly surprised by the American Idol results from Thursday… I was a fan of both Alex and Lily. Anyways, I am looking forward to the nice long break from school. I hope that Disney proves to be a lot of fun. I think it will! The American Idol top twelve video can be viewed here.

As I’m sitting here watching my little brother practice his karate, I figured now would be a good time to blog. American Idol has been a family favorite for several years now. However, this season, I’m not seeing any extreme talent… Who are my favorites? I like Alex Lambert and Katie Stevens. I think their excellent voices and personalities will get them far in the competition. I don’t like Ellen on the show. She has absolutely no musical experience or musical talent. I think she needs to give up and go back to being only a comedian and talk show host. I think only time will tell the winner of American Idol. Next week is when the performances really start to reflect who the contestants are. Tune in tonight for results and let me know what you think.

This is my first time blogging for a personal use. I have been blogging for a very long time for my company, but never personally. After seeing so many of my friends start up blogs, and being an avid blog reader myself, I have decided to start up a blog of my very own. I look forward to sharing my thoughts, pictures, music, and more with those who choose to read my blog.

I think the best way to start things off is by explaining my current thoughts. I have gotten done with my homework! Tacos were for dinner tonight! What’s the top thing on my mind? Spring Break. I’m ready for spring weather and the nice break from school that comes with it. I’m even ready for summer!

That’s all for now, but expect more to come soon… And, remember, I’m new to this personal blogging thing – so be patient.