Final

Two young Utah residents Rob Spurrier, and his brother Richard Spurrier both of Sandy Utah have been battling a disease their whole lives. The disease is Retinitis Pigmatosa this disease is caused when a gene in the body attacks the retina causing full deterioration of the retina. "The doctors found the disease when i was only two years old, the disease is pretty rare currently only 20 million people have the disease" says Rob.
Rob who is currently 25 resides in cedar city a senior at Southern Utah University. "I am studying psychology, it is interesting to me, it takes me about twice as long as the person with normal eye sight to be able to read and write, but school has defiantly been worth it"says Rob. The disease will slowly take Rob and Richards eye sight some people claim this is one of the cruelest of eye diseases known. Rob who is super active still, "I enjoy the outdoors; I can do pretty much what others do, skydiving, scuba diving, auto restoration, motorcycle riding (driving), four wheelers, and pretty much anything fast".
Despite the frustrations walking around at night Rob jokes about not being able to see while out at night I trip over everything when i there is no lighting. Rob relies on friends to help him get around by driving and guiding him at night. " I served a two year Mormon mission, I have started several businesses and partnered with people on others; I also sold door to door last summer making it into the top first year representatives for my office"says Spurrier.
Retinitis Pigmatosa will eventually take both Spurriers eye sights completly. Although there isnt much news about Retintis Pigmatosa right now more is comming to light. there are several tests being conducted, using stem cells " Sight is being restored where once it wasnt even possible, a person could look up on youtube and watch several videos about the disease, it helps because people sometimes dont completly understand and it makes explaining it easier"says Spurrier.

Written by Jonathan Richards
April 19th 2009

word count: 310

life

well its been a few days but im trying to catch up on a few of these blogs. I wasnt really on top of this class this year. I was hoping to pull a better grade than what I am getting. But its my fault. I had plenty of time to get things done. I really was hoping to get motivated but then life throws people curve balls. I was hoping to hit the ball out of the park. But I would hit to low or high. I dont know what to do sometimes with striking out. oh well that is life.

Pain

Wow its winding down to the last few weeks of the school year. I grew alot this semester in all aspects of my life. I finally realized something important about relationships people are in. I was in one for almost 5 years until this last november. She broke up with me, said she didnt want to be with me. That was a struggle, but someone always is there to comfort or help when its needed. I mean look at a friend who talked to you during heart ache, or maybe a parent. It all depends how you look at it. I am unsure if we will ever get back together. I still think of her often even though its been months, I hope she thinks of me too. There were alot of mistakes, they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, or that if you trully love something let it go if it wants to be let go. It will come back to you. I hoped for that but honestly I dont think that is how it works all of the time. unfortunatly for me i made the mistake of just letting go. Now she is dating someone else. I think or believe that if your feeling something or someway talk to that person about it. dont let time slip by, you only have today because tomorrow will make today yesterday, and a person cant take time back..

The last straw

Sometimes the littlest things can set people off. I realized that what a person says and does can greatly affect the outcome of a relationship. One person told me that people can make a judgement in the first 7 second you meet them. It simply depends on the type of person your going to be. When you walk into a meeting or a room, are you going to be noticed for your charisma? or are you going to just be another type of guy that simply came into the meeting or whatever was going on.
So simply being a person isn't enough. if a person thinks that good enough is good enough than mediocre will always be fine for them. But for the few percentage of people that want to rise above the rest be charismatic don't allow what others think or say affect the true you.

News break

Arrests were made today because of a tip off police received. four salt lake city residents were taken into custody because of alleged drug paraphernalia, and cocaine was found in the apartment in the basement of a house located at 1532 south 1300 east.
This is still being investigated but because there was enough evidence in the house at least 1 person will be charged with possession of a controlled substance, and apparently there was more than enough to distribute. Police say that at least three people could be convicted in connection with the case.

Beat

1. Any world news- Daniel Jensen
2. recreation fun for students that is happening in utah county- Rob spurrier
3.New types of clothing that will be coming to Utah County- Sarah Johnston
4.Car reviews in detail that will help people buy better cars esp students- James Arnold
5. Any happy news- Shantelle Williams

Europeans debate castration

A recent debate in Europe has several people contemplating the types of rehabilitation for sex offenders. A European man, Pavel who asked not to have his full name disclosed, spent time in prison for killing a young boy after sexual abusing him; underwent surgery to get castrated for rehabilitation purposes.
"I can finally live knowing i am no harm to anybody" said Pavel.
Whether or not castration could in fact help sex offenders is under certain amount of scrutiny from the Anti-torture committee in Europe, the committee says that castration is "invasive, irreversible and mutilating." The Czech Republic is the only current country in Europe to allow for surgical, and chemical castration, there have been 94 prisoners so far that have undergone the surgery in the past decade.
Recently though in the United States Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana state Governor signed a legislative bill that would have some repeated sex offenders chemically castrated depending on the type of crime.
"I feel castration is a crime in itself, I would be angry even to the point of terrorist acts if i had no say in the matter, of what would happen to my body if i was ever in that situation." said Daniel Jensen a Utah Valley University student.
James Arnold another Utah Valley University student said "castration is the way to do it, maybe even a sex change take something away they can never get back."
Depending on the circumstance hopefully the Governments will come to some certain standing on castration and rehabilitation.

Jonathan Richards

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/world/europe/11castrate.html?_r=1&ref=world

Future

I realized that i was graduating soon. Let me be more specific, ill finish in fall of 2010. finally, the real work begins. however I am a little scared, with the economic stimulus plan will it affect me in the near future as i begin to job hunt? what will this do for retirement? for my health insurance? i hope that the Government takes great care with the billions of dollars that will help bail out America. It worries me a little not knowing if i will succeed at my current job and will be let go.
I support our current President.I also supported our last President, "the downfall of America will be the ununification of the people with the President" said our first and great President George Washington.

cruising

I am on my cruise this week. a suttle reminder we all need vacations. it has been an incredible experience. I was able to go to cabo, while there i saw several amazing things. One of the first things i saw was cabowabo, not familiar with this attraction? go look up van halen (Sammy Hagar) right after David lee Roth left the band. Sammy Hagar was the lead singer for Van Halen, and he owns cabowabo. I also got to see alot of sea life, there are dolphins, whales, sea lions, and turtles. so the experience has been a great one. while im here id like to say that ive soaked up all that i can until i return to the normal grind of everyday life.

Final

Jeffrey Glenn Richards former Utah resident was recently put in as the new head coach of Utah State Universities women's gymnastics team in Logan, Utah after Ray corn retired from 31 seasons with the Aggie's.
Richards graduated from Logan high school in 1988, where he continued his education at USU assisting former coach Ray Corn from 88-90. Richards Moved from the University of Iowa where he had recently received co-coach assistant of the year with fellow assistants from Iowa.
"Its great to be home, and be close to family and friends i haven't seen for years." said Richards.
Richards began his coaching career at USU as an assistant to Ray Corn from 88-90, he then moved to SUU where finished his schooling in physical education, and continued his coaching career along side Scott Bauman who also is a former assistant to Ray Corn at USU.
Richards continued coaching when he became head coach of the Stout Blue devils in Wisconsin, from 1998-2004, he then moved to Winona from 04-05, before going to Iowa.
"We are so proud of Jeff and his accomplishment, Jeff has always been a big brother and hero to his little brothers." said Richards family. " we are excited to see what new things Jeff will bring to USU's program he has always had great ideas and will be able to lead the Aggie's to many Victories."
Richards is an accomplished coach receiving many awards 00-01 both years receiving the (NCGA) National Collegiate Gymnastics coach of the year award. While at Stout Richards also increased the overall score of the season every year.
While at Winona Richards helped in assisting two gymnasts who qualified for the NCGA National Championships.
At SUU Richards increased the overall score from 170 to 188, and also increased recruiting calibers for the school.

Richards started at USU in August of 2008, the season will start December 6th at 2pm following an anual Blue White Exhibition in the Hyper Gym.

327 words.

new president

with the new president elect i wonder how things are going to work out for our country. i cannot believe that for over 8yrs gas prices were so outrageous. i support our president, but i don't always like what he chooses to do. I hope that with the new president that the market will climb and we will continue to succeed as a country to grow together, and once again become the world leaders in industry trade. with that in mind it will secure millions of jobs for not only Americans but also for people over seas we are the leaders when we fail the world fails. that is how i look at it.

television

Television writers have loosen the ideas on what might be considered family friendly. It seems that even teenagers, and children are being affected by certain t.v. series such as sex in the city, and movies like Juno. a person has to ask themselves where did it become OK to have t.v. shows showing people having sex, instead of ob staining from this! why is it even necessary? when did it become OK for people to show drug use on TV as well? a person watching such things must wonder what their kids are getting out of those same shows. when did it become alright for television to teach our kids about sex and drugs? personal views shouldn't be left out of such important things as this. i believe that this is becoming a huge crises in the world. when is it going to stop? where will it stop? enough said i think that the point has been made here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/washington/22stevens.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Ted Stevens a long time Republican senator for Alaska will now reap the fruitful rewards as he stands trial on felony charges for failing to disclose over $250,000 worth of gifts and services given by a Mr.Allen.
Mr. Allen a rough man that worked on the off shore oil rigs until he made his million as a freewheeling contractor for oil companies off the north slope.
The two names will collide in the court room. At one time the two men were friends of sorts thrown into each other for oil money, and politics.
The indictment says that Mr.Allen was asked to help renovated the girdwood house. Mr.Allen's company jacked up the house added a second floor, garage, new appliances, and a bathroom. non of these things were noted. in fact Mr.Allen is claiming that he was Mr.Stevens all around handyman.
Ted Stevens will be charged with seven counts of failing to list on his senate disclosure forms goods and services provided by Mr. Allen

Check out the gas prices

Intresting that the market is dropping so fast. I saw gas so high this summer my paycheck was already gone once it was in my hands. i drive a newer truck but get a little over 20mpg. Even with the 20mpg i couldn't even keep it on the road. now that prices are dropping I'm driving more which doesn't make any sense i could save a whole lot of money by just keeping the simple decisions i made early by driving sensibly, and not as much.
The market is now at the lowest it could be. sending all our stocks, bonds and whatever other investments into a whirlwind of loss. so my conclusion is when a person had to stop driving, or had to use other means of transportation. continue using them this could be a very reliable source for extra money and when you need it most it will be there. because a person prepared early for the even harder times ahead

SINGLE AND OLD

I recently realized that i am getting to the age where i am closing in on the national average for people getting married. I am 27 coming up on 28 in about 6 months. interestingly enough i have had many opportunities to find a girl and settle down. I didn't think about it till now that i actually had number of opportunities. I realized as well that i am not that old. i still am young and it kills me that people take marriage so lightly. people getting married at 21-23 in Utah girls as young as 18 i mean it isn't bad if your mature enough to take the responsibility for bearing children and starting a family. Having responsibility for not only yourself, financially and other reasons as well.
currently the possibility of having a failed marriage is one in every two people that is the national average, however the possibility in Utah is even higher. it is closer to 52% of marriages will fail within a certain undetermined amount of time. This is unfortunate. My advice wait and get to know one another better, your future spouse may not be what you want.

gas prices

I cant believe this year alone Ive spent over 1/4Th of my income on gas... i need a new car or something. it kill me to see that in Venezuela that they pay only .73 a gallon. in Iraq it is only .43 here we are paying nearly 4 dollars a gallon.
hopefully some of the vehicles that are hybrids will decrease in price. gas prices will not matter if vehicle prices are not going down. the problem is that it could take some people over 10 years for them to recover the cost of a new hybrid vehicle to replace the cost of the gas from their old car or truck. justifying that is hard to do considering that everything costs much more than the average person makes a year.

the money issue

Money is always the biggest issue we currently have in the United States. People always seem to know how to live above their means. While working as a sales rep for a door to door company i experienced this first hand. I would sell in some of the biggest homes Ive ever seen, 4000 to 5000 square foot houses. the funny thing was these people couldn't afford what i was offering most of the time they admitted they needed the product but didn't have the funds to pay for the services i offered (pest control).
I imagine due to the jobs recently lost and lost money from all over the country a lot of these people will be sore for a few years and may have even lost their houses. unfortunately my job will be effected just as well because of the economy. we gotta remember though in order for the economy to grow a person has to invest in it.

what else is new?

well here is my second post.... I just realized that our crises for the American people is pretty bad. i have just read about the government taking control of the biggest financial firms in America! i don't know if that is a good thing or a great thing either way it has to help. It becomes more apparent to me that the less financial control we have as a society the less freedom we have.
Ive wanted to buy a house. the great thing is i still can with nearly 10 or more percent down and i need a 750 credit score and over 2yrs proof of work. so now i have to wait to buy a house! anyways it seems more and more apparent how little control of my life i have and finance too. i almost feel safer keeping my money in my back pocket than giving it to a bank to keep safe we all know where that has gotten people..

Forgotten

I wouldnt say im very savy about the whole war thing.. But recently i have determined to play my part and speak my mind. I am often reminded that we were attacked first. which i feel gives our country the right to safe gaurd our religion, freedom of speech, families, and all other freedoms we enjoy.I dont know if we even got all the bad guys yet? However as i constantly read and reread the articals placed in magazines, newspapers, and best selling books about families recovering from the 9-11 attacks there has to be a reason we are doing what we are doing over there.
maybe nobody knows where over there is; besides the president and the people fighting for our freedoms. I cant even imagine loosing someone in this war or giving my own life. But i am free and i can go to work this week in my car and get payed what im worth, paying 4 dollars a gallon in gas but im happy and free.