What's Wrong with My Face?

Throughout my entire life, I have always enjoyed working out and staying in shape. My junior year in highschool I began running 5k's and noticed that when I would run for a certain amount of time my face would begin to get really splotchy. I would look around after a race and everyone else would have normal symptoms such as red faces or sweat running off of their nose..while my face looks like a spotted dalmation. I wasn't too worried about this problem until this semester. I have a kickboxing class every Monday and Wednesday morning in which we do vigorous workouts along with running. I then have a chemistry and english class right after. I am embarassed to walk into class with my splotchy face! :(

After researching over this condition, I learned that it is called vasodilation. As you use your large muscle groups in cardiovascular exercise, you have to breathe more deeply and the increase of oxygen makes your heart rate increase. In return your capillaries expand to allow extra oxygen through to your muscles. This expansion in your capillaries makes you appear flushed or blotchy.

Now that I have found the explanation of why I have a splotchy face after running, I will feel a little more confident when walking into chemistry class. There are other conditions that have this same symptom that can be found on this website. http://www.livestrong.com/article/308155-blotchy-red-skin-from-working-out/

Topic to Thesis Statement

I have never been one to just pick out a topic and start writing a paper. It takes me hours, days, maybe even weeks to formulate the layout of my paper, and what point I want to get across. I missed the discussion in class regarding "Topic to Thesis Statement", but I have learned from past experience that creating a thesis statement is very difficult at times, but very benficial to your paper.

My junior year of highschool, I decided to take Advanced Placement U.S. History. This area was definitely not my strong point, and I had no backgroud in this subject either. The main focus in the class was constructing superb thesis statements for our DBQ's (Document Based Questions). At the beginning of the year, I thought I would never make it through this class, and I didn't see the point in creating thesis statements for every paper I wrote. But now I realize that having a thesis not only helps you stay focused in your paper, but it also tells your reader the point you will be defending throughout your entire piece.

These skills will also be very helpful not only through the rest of my career here at Murray State University, but also if I decide to continue my education into Pharmacy school. For a more detailed description of a thesis statement you can visit this website.  
http://www.pasadena.edu/divisions/english/writing/documents/dbdistin_524.pdf

Big Questions

John Hodgman is a very curious man...and while reading his article and his "Big" questions, I realized I'm not the only one who's always asking questions or wondering how something works. It is amazing to see how rapidly technology is expanding, and this growth just adds more and more questions to further rack my brain.I have always had a specific interest in communication. It blows my mind that your voice can travel through a single cable to someone else's phone and into their receiver? Even better than that though, is how does sound that goes into a cell phone possibly travel through air and happen to land in another person's ear? I decided to do some further investigation on this subject about this same time last year when we were talking about sound waves in chemistry.

It turns out cell phones actually operate with radio frequencies. These are located somewhere on the electromagnetic spectrum between the FM (radio waves) and microwaves. Cell phones are split into different geographic zones which are called "cells". (Hence the name "cell" phones) There are base stations in each cell which assign an incoming call an available frequency channel which then receives and sends what is spoken through the cell phone.


Although I have researched this and found a great explanation, I am still slightly confused on how this could possibly work. It wasn't hard to find an answer to this question, it just wasn't the answer I was looking for. If anyone else is interested, here is a great website that explains the in depth process of how cordless, mobile, and portable phones work.  http://www.ehso.com/ehshome/cellphonetech.php

My Weird Dreams! :S

Have you ever wondered what your dreams mean? Some people dream of being chased, falling in love.. or off a cliff...but I always seem to dream about snakes. Ever since I was a child I have had bizarre dreams/nightmares about snakes slithering in my bed, chasing me in the forest, wrapping around my neck etc, etc. I have finally decided to face my fear, and find out why in the world I am always faced with these types of dreams. 

Gillian Holloway, Ph.D. wrote, "People who are dying or who have lost a loved one often dream of snakes, at or near the time of death. For whatever reason, these dreams seem involved with the psychic awareness of the transition from this life to the next....". I was hoping this instance didn't apply to me, so I did further research. Gillian Holloway also later stated in the text, that dreams about snakes can be a sign that you are trying to overcome a fear or a struggle in your life. From another website, Craig Hamilton-Parker said that snake dreams may resemble stress in your life, or being anxious about a certain event. This is most likely the reason I dream about snakes because I have always been one to stress over school. To find further information on my weird dreams you can go to these websites:http://www.dreamsnightmares.com/snakes.html
http://www.dreamsleep.net/commondreams/meaning-of-snake-dream.html