After Hours

I am on a swim team
by Knightfoto

   I have an interesting life after school. Instead of having many activities packed into a tight schedule, I have 2, once or twice a week. I am on a swim team for my town. We have practices 3 times a week. At every practice, we swim vigorously, trying to beat our personal time. In swimming, one lap of the pool is equal to 25 yards. We swim about 1000 yards every practice, or about 40 laps. Once in a while we have a swim meet, which is a competition between two or more teams. Even though one team is competing against the other(s), we mainly compete against our own time. For example, if it took 50.57 seconds to do 50 yards of freestyle in the last meet, then I want to be able to do 50 yards of freestyle in 50.56 seconds or less, etc.

I do Kempo Karate
by superwebdeveloper

   I am also an orange belt in Kempo Defense Karate. I have tried Tae Kwon Do Karate, but I made it to green belt. I was too little, and I didn't really understand, so I quit. Tae Kwon Do is more of a competitional karate, whereas Kempo is mainly about defense. My brother and I started Kempo about 5-6 months ago, and after learning and learning, we went from white to yellow and then to orange belts. Twice a week, for an hour, we learn how to defend ourselves if ever needed. Even though that is the primary lesson, we take time to talk about discipline and self-control. We also do fitness training (sit-ups and push-ups). As we learn all our material, we learn about how to use it in the real world. Much of this class has to do with physics and mechanics.

What do you do after school/work? Do you have any special activities? Remember, comments are appreciated!

The Opportunity Of A Lifetime

Meeting Linda McMahon

Linda McMahon

On Monday, October 17th, I got a rare chance to meet Linda McMahon, the candidate for Senator in the State of Connecticut. For those of you that don’t know, each state in the U.S. has two Senators, who are voted for by the people. The 100 Senators of the country vote on things such as bills, laws, or other matters that will affect the state they represent.

Linda McMahon is going to run for senator in the 2012 elections, and is starting her campaign. After spending $50 million of her own earnings, she lost the 2010 election by only 11% to Richard Blumenthal, who is the current Senator. Even so, she will not accept defeat, and is going to try again in next year’s election.

The poster I made with a picture
of me and my friends
next to Linda McMahon

We got to meet Linda McMahon when Uncle Joe invited us to a gathering held by Mr. and Mrs. Bonessi, his neighbors. The gathering was coordinated by Linda McMahon’s campaign organizer, Tom Scott, a friend of Uncle Joe. Mrs. McMahon came and spoke to us for a while. She signed a poster that I had made in 6th grade, when I ran for Student Government. I got a picture with her when she came to an Indian function. On the poster, I wrote “ Vote for Kairav! He Knows People... He Will Get The Job Done!”  I brought that poster with me, and she signed it. As she signed, she noticed that at the bottom I had writtten “I’m Kairav Maniar, and I Approve this Message”, and she laughed. Instead of just writing her name, she wrote " ... and I approve your message! Linda McMahon." She then asked me if I won the student government election. I told her how I lost by only one vote. With a  smile on her face, she said, "Well, I know how that feels." 

We also got a chance to talk to Mrs. Bonessi, whose house we were at. She mentioned how she was an educator, and offered to give us a tour of the high school she works at, The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering in Stamford, CT. Mrs. Bonessi is the head of the World Language Department in AITE. My brother will be going to high school next year, and it would be a good chance for me to start looking for a high school for when I have to go, in 2 years.

 

 

ABOUT LINDA MCMAHON

Mrs. McMahon, who was Linda Marie Edwards at that time, was born on October 4, 1948 in New Bern, North Carolina. She got married to Vincent (Vince) McMahon, the Chairman of the Board and ringmaster of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). His dad was the co-founder of WWE. She became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of WWE.

Linda McMahon is a Republican who will be running for Senator in Connecticut next year. She will be running against Republicans Brian K. Hill, Rob Simmons and Jason McCoy, and Democrats Susan Bysiewicz, Chris Murphy and William Tong. The Republicans and the Democrats are the two major parties in America. Other people running are from smaller parties, such as the Independent Party.

Remember, your thoughts are always appreciated. Just leave a comment!