Anyone who knows anything about the Internet knows about Google — at least its search engine. After all, searching through a googol — er, a few billion — Web pages is no problem for the world’s second-most popular Web site. But Google offers much more than a search engine. In fact, there’s hardly anything Google doesn’t do.

A few weeks ago, I was trying to find resources on Chinese immigration that I could use for my English research paper. I obtained a couple of books, one of them being "The Chinese in America" by Iris Chang. It was a really well-written book that contained lots of useful information, and everyone in my class who was researching Chinese immigration also had a copy of it.

Imagine two opposing sides locked in a battle of epic proportions. Both sides are working for an advantage, giving a valiant effort to win the battle. Sacrifices must be made in the name of forward progress. In the end, they were but pawns in the greater picture of the battle.

Is this some far-off war being fought? No. This is my interpretation of the cut-throat world of chess.

Until Saturday, I was under the impression that cross country was a noncontact sport. Then, at the Class 1A St. Joseph regional cross country meet at Kickapoo State Park, I got an elbow in the ribs, purely to intimidate me. As Jar-Jar Binks would say, “How rude!”

Unfortunately, this was not the only place where I have encountered rudeness.