Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire

My reading standard: 11.R.2.2 Students can read fluently to comprehend grade-level text.

This is a real inspiring book about prayer and how it so powerful that we don't know it. 

Throughout this book a pastor in New York is being called to Preach at the Brooklyn Tabernacle but he doesn't think that should go there.  He is Pastoring at another church and at this Tabernacle and it is a commute to the Tabernacle is a great distance.  And throughout the book the Preacher man choose to be with the Brooklyn Tabernacle and changes the chruch from being dead to alive. Thats as far as i am right now but will get farther throughtout the summer.

Glass Art.

Art is used for many different things. It is used to make something special for someone or just for yourself. Some people find creating art a way of therapy. To me I feel that art is a way to let stress out of you. It makes me happy creating something. I find that creating art it makes me happy. I picked two different projects to do. I did a glass art and a vase.

Pet Peeves

For my final 20% post, I decided to compile a list of pet peeves with explanations. I originally called it my "Top 10" but I can't really narrow it down to the 10 things that bother me the most, so it's just a general list of annoyances.

Standard: 11.R.2.2 Students can read fluently to comprehend grade-level text

I had originally planned to draw pictures along with my explanations, but my explanations turned out to be a bit more bitter than humorous, so I appologize for that...

My Top 10 Pet Peeves

10. When Disney stars “go big.”

Hannah Montana, Selena Gomez, Demi Lavato, Jonas Brothers, Raven Symone, Hillary Duff, Vanessa Hudgens—they all had their time and went. They used Disney as an entryway into the music industry, singing about double-lives or thriving friendships, then they get sent mainstream for maybe a year. Soon after that, they get sucked down into the black hole of washed up mainstream pop and are old news. *cough*Miley Cyrus*cough* 

9. People who tend to send one-word texts/messages (“Ya,” “ok,” or “cool.”)

After I send a 2-page text about something exciting, it’d be much appreciated to receive more recognition than “cool.” What’s the point? And how can you manage to hold a decent conversation like that?

8. When teachers have double standards.

It bothers me so much when teachers say one thing yet do another. For example, they interrupt another teacher’s class to have them fill out a form or remind them of an assignment that’s due, but they would slaughter you if you dared to fill out a form in their class. It’s like, oh really?

7. When people clear their throats…in a disgusting way.

I understand that there’s a tickle in there, but COME ON. There is absolutely no way bellowing “AUGGGHHUIQQUUUUAMDNASUDUASNIUSAN” is going to get rid of it; it’s 100% unnecessary. Oh, and what makes it worse is if somebody doesn’t cover their mouth when they cough. Then their sickening mist of germs flies everywhere. Gross.

6. When people are obsessed with their partner.

I understand that you have a boyfriend/girlfriend, and you care about them, but there is a point where you draw the line. You do not need to relate everything that happens to your partner, or worse, your ex-partner. This tends to be more prevalent in girls than guys, but it is sickening to think about how obsessed you are with that person. There’s a time and place to talk about them, but it’s not 24/7.

5. People who cut through parking lots, go the wrong direction in a parking lot lane, or when people are rude enough to drive in the middle of a two-car lane.

Yes, I’m sure I’ve done it before, but it still annoys me to no end. I’ll just be driving along, going down the correct lane, when someone zips in front of me from two lanes over and takes my parking spot. Seriously?! Simply put—it’s rude.

3. When people feel they’re obligated to grabbing your technology and roaming around it freely.

Just because my phone is sitting on the coffee table doesn’t mean that you can grab it and gaze at all my text messages. No, I don’t have anything to hide, but you aren’t allowed to put your hands all over my stuff. Even worse is when someone grabs my iPod and logs out of my Facebook account to log into theirs, and then they forget to log out… People these days…

2. When people try to talk to you when you have headphones in.

I’m going to lay this out just as simple as it is. When someone has headphones in, they have them in for a reason. They will not be listening to you. You are talking to nobody, so don’t get annoyed when they realize you’re over there flailing your arms around, asking a question…

1.       People that misuse the words “retarded” or “gay.”

This is probably one of the nation’s biggest problems in my opinion. Gay doesn’t mean lame, and retarded doesn’t mean stupid. It’s not only extremely offensive to people who are literally these terms, but also the family members who may have a gay family member or the people who have a friend with down’s syndrome. It’s not funny; it’s incredibly rude and disrespectful. And the least you could do is have enough tact to be conscious of your habits around people who are offended by misusing these terms.

Scholarship search

I am continuing my scholarship search, I feel it will be helpful for me as I start my senior year. I have found a couple interesting scholarships that I am interested in such as the left-handed scholarship, it is for those who are left-handed. Another one I found is about blogging about a traveling experience. I am quickly learning thaat they have scholarships for anything. If you just look around you can find easy money, just as if you're digging for change in the couch.

Polygamy and Ellen

So, I was working on my 20% time which deals with reading a book called  The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams. Its about a girl who grows up in a family where her dad is married to multiple women. She discovers for herself that its not what she wants to have as a faith and makes her own choices without the support of her family. And then i got distracted with Ellens Photos Just Aren't Right. TOO FUNNY!

Golf Course Design

Indicator 2: Students can comprehend and fluently read text.

 (Analysis) 11.R.2.1 Students can analyze how diction affects the interpretation of text.

(Application) 11.R.2.2 Students can read fluently to comprehend grade-level text.

For the last 20% Time project of the junior year, I decided to do one of my senior project ideas: golf course design. I decided to do this for a 20% Time project instead of a senior project because I wanted to branch off from golf for the senior projects.

For the reading portion, I read some research and some helpful tips from Nicklaus Design. They also had a Step-by-Step procedure http://www.nicklaus.com/design/plan_documents.php. For more research, I will keep searching the site. And for the writing portion, I will write/fill out a form that is involved in the Step-by-Step procedure.

So far, I have designed the second nine holes on my father's golf course: Northern Links. We opened Northern Links in 1997/98, and hopefully in the future, we look to expand to 18 holes--reasoning for my picking of this project.

Mafia 2

Mafia 2

Mafia 2 is based off of the Italian mafia right after World War 2.  Vito Scalleta just came home from the war and is trying to find a job.  He soon realizes that his family is in a lot of trouble and that he has to join all of his old friends in the Italian Mafia in order to be able to get out of trouble.  Vito and his good friend Joe Barbaro are becoming "made men" in the Falcone crime family.  They are forced to rob and kill whoever disrespected the Falcone family. 

This is a great game if you like the free roam action games such as: Grand Theft Auto, L.A. Noire, Skyrim.  Mafia 2 is full of action and adventure.  At one point, you would be racing your hot rod with another rival gang, and the next you could be in a shoot out with police officers.  At the end of the short adventures with Vito and Joe, Vito must fight the other italian mafia, the Clemente family, in order to save joe from being tortured into confessing the Falcone family secrets.  

The awsome part about this game is that all the characters are really all the chapters in the game were real events.  Every single character in the Falcone family was an actual person and every single person in the clemente family were real aswell, there are picture documents of what these people actually looked like.

This game is a great way to pass time and is a great way to have fun.  This game is just like Grand Theft Auto but this is based off of 1940's and 50's. 

If i were to rank this game on a scale from 1- 10, i would rank this at a 8 becuase of the wide open world and the fast action gameplay.

Final Post of the Year...

For my last project, I chose to read a book called "Kissed by an Angel," by Elizabeth Chandler. In the book the main character, Ivy, fell in love with Tristan, the best swimmer on the swimming team. After an unexpected car accident, Tristan was killed and Ivy was left in the hospital. In the book there was a twist. Even though Tristan had died, he came back as an angel, and he had to do a mission before he went officially to the other side. Before the crash, Ivy believed in angels, and she even had several statues of them in her room. After the crash though, she didn’t believe anymore, so she couldn’t see Tristan. Phillip, Ivy’s little brother, still believed, and he was able to see Tristan most of the time he was around. As the story continues on, Tristan figures out that the car accident was not a true accident, someone had planned it. When Tristan was driving, the car kept going faster and faster, when he tried to use the break, it went to the floor every time he pushed. Someone had cut the brake line, so no matter how hard Tristan pushed down, the car would not stop. As the book goes on, Ivy begins to believe in angels again because of Phillip’s stories, and then finally she can see Tristan again. When the book ends, they find out who tried to kill Ivy, and Tristan finally goes to the other side, leaving Ivy in peace and the ability to love again.



random

So for the past few days in 20% time I have been doing random stuff, I started out doing the old fall back ACT prep then after that i worked on my presentation for the end of 20% time, next I did some work on fast web and applied for a scholarship, and now I am blogging about it. for scholar ships I had to read and under stand exactly what the instructions say and the for the writing part I had to write stuff to make me look good which is challenging to do.

P.S. 40% Gay 

Pedo Bear

Columbine

My reading standard is 11.R.5.1. I have summarized this on a different document. I got tired of doing the Fearbook, so I decided to move on to school shootings. I chose this topic because bullying has been an effect on school shootings. I did the first one that came into my head, and that was the Columbine Massacre. Columbine is located in a suburban town called Littleton in Colorado.

Dylan Kelbold and Eric Harris seem to be like normal students at Columbine. They became best friends and they were both really intelligent with technology especially with computers. From their acquaintances, they were being picked on by jocks because Dylan or Eric weren’t able to fit in a clique. It seem like the boys were going through depression due to the bullying from their peers. Eric kept a journal and he wrote how much he hated life or other subjects in his life and why.

They wanted to prepare for the massacre. They wanted it to occur on April 20^th, which they knew was Adolf Hitler’s birthday. They research on how to build bombs and they also went to the shooting range to get a little “practice” with their shooting skills. They wanted to enter the cafeteria where 500 students will be for the first lunch period. On April 20^th, 1999 at 11:15, the boys set duffel bags full of explosives near a cafeteria table. No one notice the bags or they thought that it was nothing. The boys waited outside for their explosives to go off, but the bombs malfunctioned. They set up two more explosives several blocks away and once when those explosives went off, they began firing at students outside the cafeteria. At 11:19 the Columbine Massacre happened.

Students inside the school thought that it was a senior prank. No one started to panic until Eric and Dylan shot at least 4 students. Teachers put students in rooms and lock the door and hid. Numerous of students were trapped in the library where Eric and Dylan did most of their shooting. As they were walking through the school, they just threw pipe bombs and just kept shooting. After killing thirteen innocent people, twelve students and one teacher, Eric and Dylan committed suicide somewhere between 12:02 to 12:05 in the library. Columbine Massacre went on for 47 devastating minutes even with the entire world watching this.

10 years later: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-04-13-columbine-myths_N.htm

Here is the link to read more on USA today.

In USA Today article, the police say that Eric and Dylan didn’t start the shooting due to the bullying that they had. They just wanted to pick on the freshmen and “fags”. The boys didn’t target the jocks, blacks, or Christians. Both of them were on antidepressants and that seem to play a major concept in the investigation. They weren’t normal kids; they just had severe psychological problems. 

Post the Last

For my 20% Time (and most of those previous as well) I made a blog where I reviewed books I had read. You can find the link to the blog here.

Crazy Horse continued...

For my 20% blog time I decided to extend the idea of my research paper (the indigenous Indian tribes in the 1800-1900s) by researching more about this new Native American culture. I read many quotes of both chiefs and modern Native Americans, watched pow wow videos and listened to music, and unfortunately read and saw the devastation affecting reservations. However, for my presentation I plan on explaing who Crazy Horse was, and why there's a 600ft by 530 ft (ish) unfinished sculpture collecting dust in SoDak.

Indicator 5: Students can access, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate informational texts.

 (Analysis) 11.R.5.1 Students can analyze factors that influence the credibility of informational sources.

I will be synthesizing information from probably two sources, and expanding on what I comprehend about how this monumental sculpture is a symbol for the new assimilated Native American culture, which is an indirect follow-up to what my junior research paper was about.

I accomplished exactly what I wanted to with this small project, and I plan on expanding on this idea over summer by attending Native American festivals or pow wows.

Friends

The last time I posted, I wrote about a person who was very close and meant alot to me. I decided to stay with the same theme. I am writing a story about how my friends have gotten me through many of the rough times. As I don't have my sister to give me advice; I go to my true friends. They are true friends when they will deal with my attitude and problems. This doesn't exactly show my appreciation for them, but it is just a tid bit of how much they truly mean to me. I will continue to write my story over the weekend and will share tidbits in class on Tuesday.

Indicator 1: Students can recognize and analyze words.

 (Application) 11.R.1.1 Students can apply context clues to extend vocabulary.

This past week I have been reading The Hunger Games. I saw the movie in theatres shortly after it came out. I thought the movie was pretty good, so I decided to read the book. I haven't made it very far, since I just started, but it's definitely a work in progress. So far, the book is pretty good and I plan to finish the series and see the other movies as they come out as well. If you like reading, I would suggest this series! :)

Preparing to Present

Indicator 1: Students can recognize and analyze words. Indicator 2: Students can comprehend and fluently read text. (Analysis) 11.R.2.1 Students can analyze how diction affects the interpretation of text. (Application) 11.R.2.2 Students can read fluently to comprehend grade-level text.

As of right now, I am about half way through my book. I don’t want to be disappointed, but I am because I planned to finish this book before the end of the year – which probably won’t be happening.  I did find out some good news though – that there is a sequel to the book I’m reading. I’m quite excited for this, which is driving me continue reading and finish! We are presenting one 20% project that we have experienced throughout this year, and I am now preparing for that. Because the year is about ending, I am just creating a PowerPoint and presenting a book review type presentation.

209 Years!

In my oppion our country is way to generous. We give even when our own country begins to fall. We've lost so many and yet we claim ourself as one to be looked up to. So here is a little something for you all to process and I would really like your feedback on what you think.

So.....

Let’s Be Honest

The Revolutionary War: 1775 - 1783

The War of 1812: 1812 -1814

The Mexican American War: 1836 - 1848

The American Civil War: 1861 - 1865

The Spanish American War: 1897 - 1898

The Indian American Wars: 1775 - 1918

World War I: 1914 - 1918

World War II: 1941 - 1945

Cold War: 1945 - 1992

The Vietnam War: 1962 - 1973

The Invasion of Grenada: 1983 – 1984

The Invasion of Panama: 1989

Operation Desert Storm: 1991 - 1992

Operation United Shield: 1992 - 1995

Operation Determined Falcon: 1998 - 1999

Operation Enduring Freedom: 2001 - 2011

Operation Iraqi Freedom: 2003 - 2011

Operation Freedom Falcon: 2011 -

We have been a country for 235 years…

WE HAVE BEEN AT WAR FOR

209 YEARS!!!