omargrusd-blog

[omargrusd-blog]

Why volleyball is an awesome sport

Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the world. It is most popular in Brazil, where it is the 2nd most played and popularized sport trailing right behind football or soccer.

In volleyball, two teams attempt to make the ball land on the other side of the court in order to score points. Seems simple right? It is, until you consider that the net is over 7' 4" high for girls and 7'11" for boys. Not only that, but various rules are put in place to keep the game competitive, safe, and on your toes at all times. You can't touch the ball twice in a row, you and your team have only three chances to get the ball over, you can't lift the ball are judt a few examples of volleyball rules that keep the game fun and interesting.

One great thing about volleyball is that pretty much everyone with a decent level of athleticism can play it regardless of size. Short but jump extremely high? Be a spiker. Tall and have long reach? Be a blocker and hitter. Extremely quick, agile, and average height? Be a setter or libero.

Almost nobody can just walk into volleyball and be great right off the bat. Playing at above beginner's level requires not only a good jump, being tall, or being quick, but every skill requires tons of practice to master. Defense and setting by far take the longest to learn, so even a high jumping basketball player cannot just play out of the blue and rule the court. Having smarts helps a lot. A physically disadvantaged but smart player will usually beat out a physically talented player that doesn't know the sport well.

Volleyball is one of the most respectful sports I personally have seen. There are rarely any cheaters in the sport (either way it would be hard to cheat at all!) And most people are courteous and eager to teach newbies ways to play. I myself even find myself occasionally giving people advice on how to play better, that way EVERYONE gets to play at a higher level.

The thrill and the hustle. You get so much thrill in volleyball in so many ways. Getting service aces, kills, digging the hardest hits, and setting perfectly all give you a thrill akin to scoring a touchdown, scoring a goal, or shooting a 3-pointer. You have that same feeling constantly in volleyball. The higher level you play, the more fun you have. Incredible plays can be made at any time, it just takes hustle and desire to get the ball and help your team score points. If you play the game right, rallies can last for over a minute by keeping the ball from hitting the floor.

I love this sport because there is so much variety to the game. I learn different styles from other players, play on different surfaces, stay physically active, and meet new people who share a love for this underrated sport. I really think that more people would benefit from playing volleyball, and I wish for the sport to grow globally. Everyone should try it in their lifetimes.

[omargrusd-blog]

Paradoxes

A paradox is something described as self-contradictory. Paradoxes come in different forms, let us delve into them now shall we?

1. The Grandfather Paradox

The grandfather paradox is a more widely known paradox that has to do with time travel.  Say you went back in time to kill your grandfather. If you did kill your grandfather, that means that one of your parents would not be born, resulting in you yourself not existing in the first place. But if you never existed, then you could not go back in time to kill your grandfather. How does this work? The grandfather example is one of two popular ways of explaining this time travel paradox. The second would be one about Hitler. If you went back in time to kill baby Hitler, then that means Hitler would not start WWII, which means you’d have no reason to time travel back in time to kill baby Hitler, meaning Hitler survives and becomes a full fledged Nazi and begins WWII, giving you a reason to go back in time to kill him. This paradox could be applied to any motivated form of time travel where you change history.

2. The Sorites Paradox

The Sorites Paradox asks the question of when something becomes something else. Take for example, a ‘heap’ of sand. If you remove one grain of sand, you’d still call it a heap yes? Say you remove one at a time until you have only one grain of sand left. Is that grain a heap? If it is not a heap, then at what point do you remove a grain where the sand pile goes from being called a heap to not a heap?

3. The Ship of Theseus

The Ship of Theseus is really a thought process paradox. If you replace a boat’s sails, is it the same boat? What if you replace the mast? Or the hull? At one point, everything on the boat is replaced. Is it the same boat? What if you built a second boat made out the original parts that were replaced? Is the first boat the original one? What about the second one? How do you tell whether something is really itself? What if both boats were mixed of old and new parts?

Another great example is us, humans. Factually, 98% of our individual atoms are replaced each year. If you said the boat replaced all the way with new parts is not the original, then if all your atoms are replaced, are you really yourself?  If you have the same thoughts and kept all your memories, and that defines you to you, then answer this.  If you have a teleporter that works by disassembling your molecules therefor killing you, and collecting data from your atoms and atomic structure to perfectly recreate you with different atoms in a teleporter far away, is that copy of you really you? You still retain all your memories, except for the time period in between dematerializing and rematerializing. What makes you really you?

4. Pinocchio paradox

Probably the most well known paradox in this list.  Say that Pinocchio, a character whos nose grows whenever he lies, says aloud “My nose will now grow.” What happens? Does Pinocchio’s nose grow longer, since he lied saying his nose would grow? If his nose does indeed grow, then that means that he did not lie when he said his nose would grow, meaning his nose shouldn’t grow. What gives?

A little on how I got the idea for this article, my hilarious thought process. I asked a friend of mine for help on ideas of topics to write for my latest blog post (this one), and she said Zumba. She deleted her message (this was on Instagram) and I asked her Zumba? She responded “what?” and I did as well whilst deleting my own Zumba message. We questioned each other for a while, to which I thought to myself “Questioning questions. Irony. Contradictory things. Paradoxes. “OH, I’ll write about paradoxes! Thank you Karolyna!” and as a result, this blog post exists. :)

[omargrusd-blog]

A bunch of "funny stuff”

This post will just be the same as the creator - a joke.

In all seriousness, I love everything from puns to stand-up comedy. So I will have a bunch of funny/random stuff in here, either from the internet or from my head! Enjoy ;)

Why did the fish decide not to play volleyball? Because it was scared of the net.

I’d tell you a chemistry joke but I know I wouldn’t get a reaction.

Why are you so wet? Water You Doing?

The reason Stephen Hawking died is because he tried to overclock his wheelchair.  He tried to upgrade to windows 10 and then his hard drive corrupted. He drove too far away from the wall and the cord got unplugged. He turned off his VPN. He tried to install the free version of windows 10...

Theme park cameras can take a perfectly clear picture of you and your companions at 80+ miles an hour, but bank cameras can’t capture a robber standing still.

Tall people are supposed to help short people reach stuff up high, but it’s insulting for a tall person to ask a short person to help them reach something down low.

*sneezes in brail*

A dad suffers a heart attack, and tells his son to call him an ambulance.  The son says “You’re an ambulance...”

If you have a cheetah on a leash, people call tell that you’re trying to pull a fast one.

If you’re waiting for a waiter, don’t you become the waiter?

When you clean a vacuum, don’t you become the vacuum cleaner?

A man in an interrogation room says “I’m not saying a word without my lawyer present.” Cop: You are the lawyer. Lawyer: Exactly, so where’s my present?

Gay people rely on straight people to produce more gay people.

If “Boomer” is becoming the new n-word for aged people, will aged people use the word “Booma” with each other?

Ironically, the first slave owner in America was black.

Justice is best served cold. If it were warm, it’d be justwater.

Are you a loan? Because you have my interest!

How do crazy people navigate parks and forests? They take the psycho path.

So and so is so short that even an ipod seems like a theatre screen to them.

If I win by distraction, I took some distraction action.

Algebra? More like AlgeBRA.

For volleyball players - Will you be the back row to my front row?

Every time I am sad, I think of flying, because flying is uplifting.

Are you jellous that I have donuts and you donut?

One time I asked my teacher how you measure energy. He said “carefully.” 

“Using a wheelchair because I can’t stand you guys.”

Even if you don’t phone someone right next you unintentionally, you can still you say you had a close call.

I bet you’re the type of person to eat popcorn with a spoon, or carve jack-o-lanterns with can openers.

The youngest picture of you is the oldest picture of you.

Lifehack: When the doctor gives you 3 months to live, just commit a few war crimes so that the judge gives you life.

Deaf people will never know the difference between tomato and tomato.

“What are you drinking there, son?”  “Soy Milk.” “Hola Milk, soy Padre.”

I’ll give you my best dad joke, but you need to promise to give it back.

“Hey, you got a hair cut!” “No, I got them all cut.”

Two men walked into a bar. Dink! Dink!

[omargrusd-blog]

Different Religions around the World, based on size.

Billions of people around the world are affiliated with some type of religion. Only 12-16% of the world is estimated to be non-religious. Here are some of the largest religions in the world and what they are about.

1. Christianity

According to a Pew Research Center study in 2015, Christianity makes up about one third of the human population (31%). This makes Christianity by far the largest religion in the world.

Christian beliefs and practices focus around the life and death of Jesus Christ, as well as his teachings. Christians believe in one god, and that they should obey the word of "God" found in the Bible.

There are many deviations of Christianity. Some believe in the Holy Trinity, where God, Jesus, and the "Holy Ghost" are one entity. Others, like Jehovah's Witnesses, believe that Jesus is God's son, and the Holy Spirit is God's active force. Depending on which deviation you look at, you will find different beliefs with the same core values.

2. Islam

Followers of Islam believe that there is only one God and that Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is a messenger of this god. They also have one article of holy literature called the Qur'ān.

Muslims make up about 24% of the world's population. Contrary to many peoples' beliefs, muslims aren't all terrorists. Islam is expected to catch up to Christianity's numbers in the coming decades thanks to the high fertility rate of muslim women, which surpasses the fertility rate of Christian women.

Muhammad, to muslims, is the last prophet of many prophets that include from Adam and Moses to Solomon and Jesus.

Able Muslims attempt to visit their holy land, Mecca (located in Saudi Arabia), at least once in their lifetimes. This holy land allows only Muslims to enter.

3. Hinduism

Many acknowledge that there is no one founder of Hinduism, but that it rather was formed by culture and changes in the religions of India.

Hindu beliefs hold that many gods can take many forms, but that Brahman, Vishnu, and Shiva are the creator, preserver, and destroyers of the universe (respectively).

About 15% of the human population consists of those following the Hindu faith.

Hinduism contains many sects and beliefs. The faith generally observes many holy works known as the Vedas, which contain sacred verses.

Hindus believe in reincarnation and karma. Depending on whether you do good or bad deeds determines your conditions in the next life, with the goal of doing good until you reach moksha. Moksha, also known as salvation, stops the cycle of being reborn over and over.

[omargrusd-blog]

Music

Music is defined as vocal or instrumental sounds played in a way to express emotion, harmony, or other human made terms. To us and even many animals, however, these simple acoustic rhythms mean more to us.

Music has been around for a small while - the earliest musical instruments found being dated to about 40,000 years of age. It still lives on to this day, and rather strongly. Millions, and likely billions of people across the world enjoy listening to music. 

Why does melodious humming sooth? Why do screaming vocals hype us up? There isn’t a straight answer as far as I know. For what it’s worth, the closest we have is that for some odd reason, music has a strong capacity to evoke emotions in humans. Certain musical genres have been found through proven medical studies to be able to boost some peoples’ cognitive performance, and even boost their health in ways like improving circulation and lowering stress. The effects are hardly permanent, but they exist even briefly. The famous Mozart effect is a great example of this.

These random sounds aren’t quite random either. The brain is able to tell noise from song apart easily. The average person would probably prefer listening to a song rather than tractor sounds, or just different beats jumbled over each other. We prefer tune, repetitions, and tones in harmony. 

Then, there are the anomalies. Some people just have an utter feeling of apathy for music. Those with musical anhedonia are able to perfectly understand music, but do not derive any positive effects from it at all. Their condition is likely caused from their brains being wired differently in such a way that auditory feedback is not connected to their reward system strongly. This is kind of surprising, since music seems to transcend cultures and even species (YES, some animals are affected by music). But it is less surprising once you consider that only 3 to 5 percent of the human population has this condition according to research.

Personally, I enjoy music for 3 things.

- One, songs are background noise to a stale or boring environment. Why would I want to sit and do homework by myself with no stimulation? Boring. I and many students enjoy listening to music. In my personal opinion, the RIGHT kind of music helps me stay on track and finish quicker than without.

- Two, energy. Up-beat and fast-paced music helps me mentally focus athletically. Allowing me to quickly and easily “get into” a state of mind where I can push myself to the greatest capacity physically is where music helps. If I want to relax, I can play classical, jazz, or just soothing melodies in general. For whatever reason, I feel it helps. Whether it be a universal solution or just a placebo effect, it helps. I’ll keep doing it.

- Three, mood. Thanks to the power of music, I can evoke in myself emotions pretty much on command. If I wake up a sourpuss, I can just play happy songs and bring up my mood. If I become upset and angry at something throughout the day, instead of making a rash decision later, I can just make my mood go from negative to positive.

Music is a new invention for us. It’s a luxury, among other things, but it’s here to stay. I enjoy it, and I hope you do too, because there’s probably more than a million humans similar to you, just around you, that enjoy it.

[omargrusd-blog]

Injuries.

The worst possible scenario for any athlete - the injury. Some small and annoying, others career ending and disabling. Either way you put it, injuries are a negative impact to everyone.

Injuries can happen to anybody, but usually occur to those that either are very unhealthy and do not move much, or those that exert themselves too much, especially in contact sports.

For example one, take a 5'6 200lb woman that has never done very exerting physical activity in her life. She sits around in an office all day, and has a poor diet at home. All of a sudden, she slips one day and sprains her ankle. Her body just couldn't take all that weight at once, especially at a bad angle. Being dangerously overweight can have various health side effects, and being prone to injury is one of them.

One more example would be myself. I was born with over pronated feet, meaning my ankles roll inward too much. Such a condition means regular running and jumping may be hindered due to pain or other injuries. After trying to run with weights and completing a new work out routine, one of my new injuries became Posterior shin splints.

Another example, a 6'6 260lb football player. As an athlete, he trains almost daily and eats very healthy. Seems unfair to the 200lb woman? Think again. His sport puts him at a high risk of another injury - the concussion. Serious concussions may cause brain damage, and football is a dangerous sport known for it's high injury risk.

Injuries hurt. They hurt people in multiple ways, both physically and mentally. Playing volleyball? Uh oh. You tore one of your achlle's tendons and you can expect to be gone for at least 6 weeks . No progress except losing more muscle mass and gaining fat those few weeks. Running track but you fell and broke an arm? Too bad. Nobody is going to wait for you, you're out for a few weeks at least.

Injuries are scary, but are also entirely preventable and curable! How, one might ask? People need to be aware of the threat and take precautions now, not later.

1. Stay healthy. Eating right and exercising are the best way to take care of your body. Take advantage of it now! Proteins strengthen joints, and carbs provide fuel your body needs.

2. Work at your level and improve. If you can barely sprint for 8 seconds, don't try squatting 315 right off the bat.

3. Reduce your time in dangerous situations! If you love rugby, maybe try football instead. Love running? Run on flatter surfaces.

What if you're already injured?

Follow medical advice from a professional or look online for solutions people have proven work themselves.

For me, I saw a YouTube video on shin splints and tried the advice myself. Within a week, I saw immediate improvement. I could run longer, and jump higher, and without much pain like before. Of course, never use info that looks absurd. Use common sense. If you have a serious injury, seek professional medical attention.

Overall, injuries may prove to be a nuisance, and terrify some, but they happen all the time. Avoid the worst injuries if possible, and seeks solutions for the ailments you already have. Don't let injuries control your life, control injuries.