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!!!

This past week I wrote my first reveiw on a set of wrenches that I had recived for christmas.
after struggleing for a few weeks with sears to get my log in fixed with sears so that could write the reveiw. You can follow the link that i atached below to read my reveiw.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/allreviews_10153_12605_00946935000P?dataBrand=SEARS&dataWriteReviewsUrl=http://www.sears.com/shc/s/writereview_10153_12605_00946935000P&dataProductPageUrl=http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00946935000P&dataProductTitle=Craftsman+26+pc.+Standard+12+pt.+Combination+Wrench+Set&dataProductId=00946935000P

Thanking you

I have chosen to write another story about someone or a group of people who are so close to me, that I haven't been able to thank enough for all they have gotten me through. I want to write about them and show them how much I appreciate everything they have done for me.

Emotions

Lately I have been to draw emotions and portray them through drawings or objects. Lately I have been happy doing the drawings. Every Tusday I try to portray some emotion and I post them beside Mairlyn in the English room. I will keep on doing this project because it very fun and it relaxes me when just being able to draw random stuff.

Should you Stay or Should you Go!?!?!

Grade________
Do you enjoy prom?


What do you like about it?


Are you going to Prom?


Rate how stressful prom is to you?
1 3 5 7 9

How much do you think you spent on your accessories for prom this year? (Dress, Shoes, Jewelry, Ect….)

The Help.

Alrighty, this book hasn't been a huge priority for me, but I'm slowly getting through the book and enjoying it overall. I'm far from done, but will try to focus on finishing. I'm going to answer a few discussion questions I found online. I'll answer more specific questions next cycle.

1. Which character do you relate to the most?
Thus far I relate most to Skeeter, because of her bookish ways and uniqueness both in appearance and thought.

2. What part of 1960s life in Mississippi do you find most shocking?
At this point in the book I find the treatment of the hired help the most shocking. A complete lack of compassion and respect-- they even believe these women shouldn't be able to use the same bathroom.

I also took a good reads quiz on the first 17 chapters of The Help and got 7 out of 7.

Whitney Houston

August 9th, 1963 - Feburary 11th, 2012

My reading standard is 11.R.5.1. I have summarized this on a different document. I didn’t do the Fearbook for this check point. Instead I am doing a report/investigation/tribute to Whitney Houston. She was a recording artist, producer, model, and actress throughout her life. She will always be remembered by her family and her fans.

She was born in Newark, New Jersey on August 9th, 1963. She got into the music industry from her mother, Cissy Houston who was also producing and singing gospel/soul music with her cousins. Her music career accorded when she was singing in a church choir when she was a teen. She tour with her mother to nightclubs. She started to become a back-up singer with other bands. Whitney Houston’s first album was in 1985. Her album made the top 200 albums for fourteen non-consecutive weeks. Her single “Greatest Love Of All” was No. 1 for three weeks in a row. In 1986, she won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Fans thought that she should have won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, but she wasn’t eligible for the award. Whitney Houston won all types of Awards in her music career. She was a caring woman because she formed a program called The Whitney Houston Foundation for Children. It was a non-profit organization and it was for children who were homeless, had cancer, or other issues.
On July 18th, 1992, Whitney married R&B singer Bobby Brown. They soon had Bobbi Kristina Houston Brown, now 18 years old. She is Whitney’s only child and Bobby’s fourth. Throughout their marriage, Bobby was dealing with drug addiction and run-in with the law. During 1992, the movie The Bodyguard was released and the audience heard a single by Whitney Houston. This song is still remembered till today. The song is called “I Will Always Love You”. It soon won her a Grammy Award in 1994 for Song of the Year. Throughout the marriage of Bobby and Whitney, they went through tough ups and downs. Whitney started getting into drugs because of Bobby and she was changing into an addict with alcohol, cocaine, and prescription drugs.
The day before the Grammy Awards were suppose to be taken off, there was a mystery going on in the Beverly Hills Hotel. Whitney Houston’s mother found her daughter in the bathtub not responding to anything on Feburary 11th, 2012. She was pronounced dead at the scene when paramedics showed up. This left devastation to friends such as Ray J and other artist that sang with her, her family such as her daughter, and fans all over America. They want answers to what happen to Whitney Houston. Detectives and paramedics say that her death had dealt with the mix of prescription pills and alcohol. Until this day, there has been a couple of cause of death.
There have been a few articles for the mystery of her death. They say cause of death was drugs, but others say either suicide or murder. Murder isn’t really the huge topic though anymore. It’s either between suicide or “accidental” drug overdose. I read articles online that say she didn’t have any money because she always spent her money on cocaine. Another article said she killed herself because of money and that her secret life was coming out of being lesbian. No one knows the answer, but people do want the answer. I was reading an article at the store and it said that she was possible murder and she was also pregnant? I don’t know if I believe any of these articles because I think it’s just trying to confuse everyone. In my opinion I think it was drug overdose or suicide. I can’t really pick which one it was. No one will know until the autopsy comes back in a few more weeks.
Her death has left her daughter hospitalized twice. Her daughter went to her funeral drunk and high. Her actions have got her family worried about her. Her funeral was held in Newark, New Jersey. Whitney Houston will always be remembered by fans and family.

Overview:

For 20% time I played and read reviews for Cartoon Wars.

Standard:

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

Game Review Site:

No helpful game reviews for this game.

Thoughts about the game:

My thoughts about the game were that it is a great game to play in your free time. The only place to find this particular game is on your phone and the only way can play it is if you have a smart phone. The goal of the game is to keep you castle protected from wave after wave of monsters. How you do this is that you send out heors that all have certain powers or abilities that they use to protect your castle and destroy the monsters castle. But you also have arrows that are mounted to your castle that help you out to. All in all it is a good game to keep you entertained.

Evaluation:

I got most of the results from the gameplay but little from the research. Some of the difficulties that encountered were no review sites for this particular game. So i had to go throught alot of sites and i think i only found one that was still not helpful. Yes i would repeat this project. I would keep playing the game and try to finish it and find more review sites.

Still Helping the Animals

For the past couple of weeks, I had been working on the posters to post up around the school. I am completely done with them and so I will be printing them off soon so that Nicole (our school secretary) will hopefully be able to make multiple copies of them so then I can really decorate the walls with them. I will also hopefully try to get her to announce it over the intercom so that people will be able to hear about it.
Now, I have some good or bad news…depending on how they react. I have not made any contact with the shelter about the thing I am doing for them, so when I bring in the items (that’s if I do get items) it will be a giant surprise. I hope they do not mind, although I am sure they won’t…so surprise! I am really looking forward to see what the ending result will be for this project.

Call of Duty Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops

I haven't really been playing a lot of new games lately so i decided to do one that has been in my collection for a while now.

Call of Duty: Black Ops is a great game with lots of action and adventures. You start out as a spy trying to find secrets in a Russian missile organization. I must find out what big plans they have. I finally realize that they are planning to blow up the moon with multiple rockets, but you have been caught and brainwashed into think you are someone you are not. The Cummunist Russians make you fight your own team.

You finally realize that you have been brainwashed and your now confused about who you were and where you came from. you are now back on track trying to find a way to stop the missiles, but hwo will you do it? Thats for you to find out.

This game is a first of its series of Call of Duty series (Black Ops 2 will be coming out in November).

Instead of having Special Ops like Modern Warfare 2 and 3 has Black Ops has Nazi Zombies which a survival mode where you fight hordes of zombies that want to kill you. Nazi Zombies is a really good game to play with friends because you have to use team work and stategy in order to survive. Each waveof zombies becomes smarter and there is more of them.

The Multiplayer is probably the lowest part of this game becuase there corrupted gamers and unfair advantages in the maps and guns. There is a multiplier game type called Combat Training where you fight computer based enemies that attack to which difficulty you set them at.

If you are looking to buy this game, you might want to rent it or barrow it from a friend becuase it really depends on what you like in order to understand the game. If you like close quaters combat than this would be a good game for you. If you like spread out combat than you would most likley want to play the Battlefield Series which is more expanded.

I will try to get a newer game for next post but there is no promises.

Isaac

Scholarships

I applied for several little scholarships and am sending one large scholarship off today. I used 11.R.5.1 Students can analyze factors that influence the credibility of informational sources, and 11.W.2.4 Students can edit for correct use of parentheses, dashes, hyphens, and ellipses. For reading I have to read all the requirements and find out if I meet them and for writing there are often times essays that are required.

Desert Journal

In the Desert Chapter of Survivng the Extremes, Dr. Kamler tells us the story of a Italian policeman, Mauro Prosperi, who found himself lost after a sandstorm interrupted the Ultramarathon of Sands in the Sahara Desert. He survived for nine days by himself with just drops of water left in his water bottle and no food. When he was found, he lost 33 pounds, and he also needed to replace 4 gallons of water that he lost. His skin was so dry that water couldn't be absorbed by it right away. His throat and mouth were swollen to the point where he couldn't swallow or talk. Military doctors in Morocco said it was impossible to survive for more than five days in the desert without supplies, and they postulated that he must have been taken in, somewhat restored, and reentered civilization with a dramatic story to tell. Could he possibly live that long without the most important essentials to sustain human life? Kamler tells the amazing story of how he did it, and I created a daily journal of what he did each day he was stranded.

Day 1

Today was the first day on my own out in the Sahara Desert. The rules of run stated that if any runner was to become lost, we are supposed to stay put where are and wait for
rescue. I did. A rescue helicopter passed overhead, and I waved and waved, but it didn’t see me. I finished my last bit of water today. I don’t know what I’m going to do about water. When I’m finished with this journal, I think I’m going to pee in my bottle to recycle my fluids. It won’t taste good when I drink it, but I must do anything and everything to live. I can and will survive. I will survive.


Day 2

I woke this morning and gazed in the distance; what I saw was very disappointing: a barren wasteland with nothing in site besides rolling dunes of sand. I knew I couldn’t stay here because the sun would roast me alive or I would die of starvation. After hours of walking, I finally spotted a small Muslim shrine in the distance. I was extremely lucky I found it, but unlucky because it was completely empty. It didn’t take too long for me to discover I was the only organism taking shelter in that shrine. There was a colony of bats in the shrine. I instantly thought food. I grabbed two bats and broke their necks. After I sucked the bats dry for water, I ate them raw. The taste was horrendous, but it was food. I started to feel more and more like a predator. I am going to rest up tonight in the shrine and tomorrow I will figure out what to do. I will survive.


Day 3

Today I created a SOS in the sand for planes to see. I also placed my Italian flag outside on a post just in case someone will luckily come by. I made some useful observations during the day when I was outside. These observations were about the effects of heat during the day. My muscles started to kind of convulse or shake during the day when I was outside. I also discovered that my heart started to beat faster when I was just sitting outside; this made me conclude that the chemical reactions in my body speed up when it’s hot. So this must mean, at night when it is cold, the chemical reactions slow down along with my heart rate. After a while, I realized that I can’t be out here too long because I sweat, and when I sweat, I lose water. I can’t lose water. I will…


Day 4

I really don’t know what happened last night. I woke up this morning and my wrists were slit. I was finishing up my journal, and I don’t remember what happened after that. That must be another effect of heat on the body; confusion, fainting, and maybe suicidal thoughts or actions? Luckily I fainted inside, so the sun wouldn’t kill me. Anyway, a plan flew over this morning, but unfortunately didn’t see my SOS or my Italian flag. After I gave up on waving, the mountains off in the distance sparked something in my mind. I remembered that the race ends at the base of those mountains! I must head there, and I will be rescued! I will walk during sunset and sunrise, and rest at night to cool my body off; I will also rest during the day in shade, so I don’t dehydrate or roast myself alive. I will lick rocks for water in the morning, and I will suck the water out of any plants that I can find to stay hydrated. I ate some beetles that weren’t actually that bad. “Slimy yet satisfying”; Simba was right! (Lion King reference) I also ate a mouse that I killed with a slingshot made from a bungee cord and stick. I will survive.


Day 5

Today I felt the real effects of the desert. I swear I spotted water ahead of me as I was progressing towards the mountains. I moved toward it, and it remained there, however, I knew it might not be real. I remained hopeful though as I progressed towards the water. As I got to it, the water disappeared. It was a mirage. Stupid me. I wasted a lot of energy trying to get to that for nothing. I became stressed. My heart started to beat faster, and I started to sweat. I was losing even more water. I calmed myself down. I remembered back in college when we learned about stress: Stress enhances danger to survive. Stress causes the endocrine system to release adrenaline which makes your heart beat faster and you start sweating. Sweating requires more water. Chaperone proteins are used to respond to rising levels in stress, starvation, sleep deprivation, and vigorous exercise. That is why vigorous exercise relieves the mental stress on the nervous system so well.


Day 6

I really have nothing to talk about today. I am becoming extremely lonely. I have been finding myself talking to myself a lot. When I sleep, I dream of my family and their beautiful faces. I miss them, and the times we had together. Oh my, I need to stop otherwise I’m going to cry and lose even more water. I just need to keep my head and get to the mountains.

Day 7

I don’t know how much more I can take of this. I know I should be dead right now, but miraculously, I’m alive. I’m starting to think surviving isn’t worth the pain I’m in. The mountains are becoming close…I think. I’m giving myself to day 10 before I finally decide whether or not to give up. I found a couple beetles today and ate them. I haven’t found water for days, and my urine is starting to take an effect on me. I think I figured out some reasons as to why I survived this long: My endurance training strengthened my cardiovascular system to require less pumping to maintain blood flow. It also enhances my liver’s ability to convert glycogen to glucose. My muscles contract smoothly which conserves energy. The energy saved reduces heat buildup. My training also made it easier for his blood to flow to the surface for cooling and reach the deep organs for nourishment.


Day 8

As I am writing this, I am periodically licking a puddle of water in a wadi! When I first discovered it, I drank it, but I threw up. I think I threw up because my throat and mouth were so dang swollen. That really hurt my throat because it was scratchy and all. I never thought muddy water tasted so good! My moral has been boosted exceptionally! I’m staying here all day and night to drink. Tomorrow is another day, and we’ll see what happens. I am surviving.

Day 9

This will be my very last journal entry. I came across fresh goat droppings and a small human footprint! I continued on and later came across a Tureg girl. She was very little. She screamed at me and ran away. I wouldn’t blame her though. I lost at least 30 to 40 pounds, and I probably look hideous. I tried to speak but nothing came out because my throat was so swollen. He reappeared with what seemed to be her grandmother. They kindly led me to their camp. Apparently I’m in Algeria now. They first took me by camel than a car to an Algerian Hospital. I survived…

Hunger Games

In the past three weeks I started and completed the first two books in the Hunger Games series. Katniss Everdeen is the main character who is a teenage girl struggles to feed her mother and sister, but when the all ruling capitol draws tributes for the 74the annual hunger games, Katniss's worst fear has occurred. Her innocent sister has been chosen to participate in the blood bath of the hunger games, and Katniss must volunteer in her place. With a background of hunting illegally, she catches many off guard and becomes one of the favorites to win the game. In the ever adapting games Katniss struggles for survival and a new twist forces Katniss and Peeta (the male tribute from district 12 together). These two "star crossed lovers" survive to the end of the games and are the last two alive. But because there can only be one winner the two defy the capitol. They are pulled from the games and declared winners before they have a chance- ending book one. In book two, the Quarter Quell is opon them (the 75 anniversery of the games where Peeta and Katniss and thrown back into the games with previous winners where rebellion in the districs turn the tide against the capitol-putting an interesting spin on the games.
I am in the process of reading the final book and will blog in three weeks about my thoughts.

I must say was entrapped by the action packed plot of Suzanne Collins and I even enjoyed the love struggle of Katniss Everdeen where she has to choose between Peeta and Gale. I think that the books show a struggle for democracy in a world where the Capitol rules over 12 districts like an overseer. It is a series of hope for the future and taking a stand on what you know is right. Like the millions of others who have read the series, I would reccommend these books to anyone.

New Topic

I am thinking of researching on the best fundraisers that are easy and quick. The ideas that i have come up with are change jars, car wash, recycling and pancake breakfast. The idea of change jars are put jars around the school and around business to ask for their loose change. The car wash would be like having people pledge for how many cars you wash and you charge a certain rate per car pledge. The Recycling ideas is when we ask for all your old cell phone, ink cartage, old batteries from cars and just sending those things in for money. And finally a pancake breakfast feed which is pretty self explanatory or some sort of feed that is not to are or messy to clean up. I will narrow it down in the coming days and will start planning the event. I plan on it being a week or 2 effort for this project unless if it works out really well.

One Hit Wonders!

We finally are going to be performing our song, "White Horse" by Taylor Swift. We were going to perform today, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow because Ellie is absent today. We have been progressing very well; for the most part, we all know our parts. I think our band is a one hit wonder. We did better than what we thought we were going to do. We didn't think we were all actually going to be able to learn this song, but we did!

Chicken Soup for the Teacher's Soul

Michelle Schwab
20% time

At first I started to read and summarize a different book, but after picking up Chicken Soup for the Teacher’s Soul I changed my project to these heart wrenching stories.
After reading various stories I pick out 3 that were my favorite.
#1.This kid was dirty and gross and had been picked on all 5 years of elementary school. At first he got moved from class room to class room because he was always disruptive. Then after this sped teacher got him into her class she started thinking his parents didn’t care about him. She researched where he live and found out that the father had eight kids and was raising them on a third grade education. So once she realized the dad did care and was doing the best he could with what he had she took the boy under her wing and taught him life lessons that his father couldn’t have.
#2. This one was about a college professor on their first day. Everyone in the class room seamed bored and didn’t seem to be listening, until the teacher spotted one student in particular who seemed to have it all together. Later in the semester the teacher noticed she wasn’t attending class for two weeks. As an attempt to get to know this girl better the teacher went to the dean of students and asked where she had been. The teacher found out the girl had committed suicide. Shocked the teacher created a class on love. It filled the class room and student brought other students who weren’t even taking the class. The most touching part of this read was the fact that for the first time a college student went up to his dad and told him he loved him for the first time. It brought tears to my eyes.
#3. This story was about a long time teacher who had prided their self on being a great teacher; putting their self through grad school even and after twenty years of teaching burnt out. And just at the divine moment, a message from God sparked their interest in teaching again. A student who had probably been about ten years back was at the hospital with his wife and child and pointed to the teacher who was picking up pills saying “HEY THAT’S THE LADY THAT KEPT ME IN SCHOOL AND THE REASON WHY I READ TODAY”. It created that fire for teaching again in the teacher that they actually canceled their new job of being a car salesman to still teach after 20 years. Wow, that’s a story; they found what they were called to do.

I’ve really enjoyed this book. I will be reading tid bits in BANDOLOGY. It’s a warm fuzzy book. J

ACT Prep and Scholarship Search

Reading Standard - 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. Writing Standard - Writing essays for the scholarships I apply for.

I started a new project this week. I will be searching for scholarships and hopefully applying for some soon. I will also be studying and reviewing for the ACT since I signed up last week and will be taking the test in April. So far, I have found a few scholarships that I could apply before, but I haven't gone too far into detail with them.

Continuing to read Life As We Knew It…

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.
Miranda continues to swim at the pond with her friends. She brings her brother one day and realizes how much he is struggling with all of this as well. She also thinks about how much she hasn’t talked to her friends, and decides to pay them a visit. Her brother is now at baseball camp where he is working on a farm and getting full course meals for every meal. The shortage for food in town and in houses is dramatically growing low, and families learn to not talk about food or ‘private life’ like others would in everyday life.
As far as reading goes for me, I am beginning to read by myself on my own time. I usually do during my study hall when I sit in the library. There is a couch right by the window which is super relaxing and motivating to my reading; I am about half way through my book, and am now starting the Hunger Games in hope to finish before the midnight release in Dell Rapids!

Scholarship Search

Reading Standard: 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.
Writing Standard: Writing some essays for the scholarships

I am starting a new project today. I will be doing some scholarship searching. These scholarships offer different amounts of money from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
http://www.free-4u.com/scholarships_for_high_school_students.htm
This is a website that has a few scholarships listed.

Dresses.....Shoes.....Tanning....Stress.....Decorating.....Parties........PROM!!!!

As of today Prom is only 45 days away. My only question is why do we stress out so much about it?
Girls with finding the right dress and making sure we have all the perfect accessories. Guys with their fidgety ways of wanting to ask a girl to go but deathly afraid of that simple word "NO". So can someone please tell me how we went from simple yet elegant to wild and crazy yet some what controlled.

Survival Guide For the High Seas

The next chapter in the book is called The High Seas. In the chapter, Kamler doesn't adventure out to sea, instead he gives us insight on what happens to the body through other survivors' stories. This chapter has many useful and interesting tips on what to and what not to do. I decided to make a short survival guide for when someone is stranded in the ocean.

Finding Food and Water

Take advantage of rain! Use a canopy or tarp of some sort to funnel in rain water in containers. Two thirds of the body is made up of water, and water is used in all chemical reactions and bodily functions. A person can’t eat without water, so because the digestive enzymes won’t function properly. “Sea water sends you mad”. Organs and tissues are intolerant to increased salt. Salt is very hard to get out once dissolved in water. The more salt water you drink, the thirstier you get.
Dehydration can lead to hallucinations it can be very convincing because the brain doesn’t get enough excitement, so it creates its own excitement. Electrochemistry is generated by emotion and memory. People have even been known to walk off the boat.

Watch what you eat! Normal human diet should contain 60% of carbohydrates because they are an important fuel, and our bodies can’t manufacture it. In the ocean, a human needs to about a pound of carbohydrates a day. In order to obtain carbohydrates, eat fish that eat algae due to the fact that algae are directly inedible. 25% of daily intake should be from fats. This is difficult in the ocean due to the fact that fish are the only source of food, and they only contain one percent of fat. The other 15% of daily intake should be protein. Protein is easy to find because fish are made up of nearly all protein. Too much protein is bad though. Due to its complexity, proteins take nearly five times more energy to break down so the body can use. Hunger means that not enough fuel is being distributed by the food. Glucose burns easily. Blood resupplies glucose levels with the release of glucose levels. from the liver.

Adaptations

With steady fat and carbohydrate levels, the body takes steps decrease the rate of power consumption. Reaction times slow down because nothing that requires reaction has taken place for a while. The decreased production of cells that repair wounds takes place. The decreased production of sex hormones takes place due to the fact that that is not a priority Metabolic rate is decreased because the body doesn’t have to break down as much food, and it conserves energy. Due to lack of energy, protein can be burned for energy. Muscle is the first one to lose protein because of its abundance. At this point, the body starts to literally eat itself alive


Cannibalism and Mentality

It is the process of eating of the same species. It works against individuals but favors the survival of the groups. Fairness and morality which is in the cerebral cortex, is easily deactivated. As ethical standards drop, the cerebral cortex drops back to more primal instincts and less control over primitive urges. This is seen in the novel Lord of the Flies. It is imperative to have the WILL to live that will keep a stranded person alive.Hope alone has kept people alive for over a month when stranded out at sea.

Indo Board

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.

I got the idea to Indo Board from Noah's Demonition Speech. It looked like a really fun thing to do and it looked like a good thing to improve my balance for golfing and surfing. To learn more about Indo-Boarding, I went to http://indoboard.com/. There, I looked at different techniques and trick/workouts that you can do on the Indo Board.

The last few weeks I have been working on Indo-Boarding. Lately, I have gotten better because I can get up and stay for several minutes. I am helping other people learn how to Indo Board. Noah is also there to help others with learning because I don't know as much as he does about it (because he is the owner of it).

Clothes For a Cause

This past weekend, Nicole and I took our items into the Children's Inn Society. We had a total of 595 items ranging from clothing to toys, to shoes, to breakfast foods. Anything that the Children's Inn couldn't use would be donated to another organization that helps families get started on their own feet.

100th Post!

I was just sitting there, about to make a post on my own blog (link!) when I noticed that there were 99 posts on the main blog. That means that this is the 100th post!

That's about it I guess.

Clothes for a Cause

Nicole and I have reached our goal of 150. We actually have probably doubled it. We will be taking our "closet" of clothes to the Children's Inn this weekend.

We have items of all types. We even got extras. We've received shirts, jeans, shoes, dresses, hats, gloves, jackets, snow pants, and breakfast foods. The extras we received were toys.

L.A. Candy

The last 20% time I finished the book L.A. Candy. Madison is jealous that Jane is getting all of the attention. Jane is falling between two guys: Braden and his best friend, Jesse. Madison decides to hire a camera man to photograph Jane with Braden, and then Jane with Jesse, trying to make Jane look like she was two timing both of them. She gets pictures of Jane and Braden making out, and she gives them to a magazine editor. Before Jane knows it, she's all over every magazine and every headline imaginable. She's incredibly embarassed, and Madison tells Jane that it was all Jesse who gave the pictures to the magazine editor. Scarlett, Jane's best friend, goes over to Jesse's house to freak out on him, but when she returns, there's a note from Jane saying her and Madison had gone away for a few days to Madison's parent's house. In the note she also writes there is no cell service there so Scarlett wouldn't be able to tell Jane it was actually Madison.

Fearbook: Zodiac Killer

My reading standard is 11.R.5.1. I have summarized this on a different document. I am still going through the Fearbook and learning about past notorious serial killers and what made them blow up like a ticking time bomb.

The next man I have researched about is the Zodiac Killer. There is no suspects and the case is still unsolved. The Zodiac Killer may never be solve because it has been going on for about 40 years. The suspect behind the Zodiac killing is possibly deceased now. The Zodiac Killer has claimed to murder 37 victims. The reason I have said "claim" in that sentence is because in the 1960's and the 1970's the Zodiac Killer sent letters to the detectives that were trying to solve the case. He would always start in the letter saying, "This is the Zodiac speaking". No one really knows why he is called that.

The Zodiac always wanted his murders in the papers and he wants his mysterious letters in there as well. He would send cryptograms to the news media and demand them to print it out on papers. If they didn't, he would warn them that he will kill again. He kills mostly couples where there are no witnesses around. He mostly have killed women because most of the men survive to tell their stories. The most daring procedure he tried to do was warn the police department that he put a bomb on a school bus and threaten the police department that he was going to kill all the children. He sent a letter of the school bus and where the bomb was. He always called the chief of the police department "The Blue Piggy".

There has not been a Zodiac killing in a maximum of 30 years. Hopefully there will never be another Zodiac killing again.

Band's Still Working Together

This last two weeks we have been practicing very, very, very hard. We, yet again, changed our song to White Horse by Taylor Swift. We think that this song choice would be easier for us to preform.

Her story

No one will ever know my sister like I do, but not even I will know the way she feels. I know she is a strong woman, but at this time she needs help to build her strength. I am there for her along with all of the nurses who help her, which I could never thank them enough for.

I wrote just a small portion of her story and how I learned a lesson behind her accident. I used to say good-bye as if I would see you tomorrow. I now say good-bye as if I'll never see you again. I make sure to tell them how much they mean to me.

I inserted a picture of her and her first son with the portion of her story for memories of her every day. I will never forget my sister.

Yoga Shmoga

Michelle Schwab
20% time blog
Yoga
Students can read fluently to comprehend grade-level text.
For the first week, a couple of us did power yoga, seriously. This stuff was fast and advanced. We definitely clicked the wrong video. And for the second week, while listening we did yoga in class while listening to Huck Finn. Let me say this, Mrs. K has got some ADVANCED MOVES. I could hardly do half of them. I learned it is all about balance.
Ever since my 20% time I have been doing yoga moves as stretches to help me get lose over the course of weeks. It’s really improved my flexibility for working out!
I read this article on yoga. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,106356,00.html

And learned some interesting things:
You should feel famous while doing yoga… all the big stars do too! J
I keep spelling yoga as ‘yogo’. GoodNESS.
Yoga has increased 75% in the past five years. Understandably.
It takes the western culture out of its body to inside but yoga see its as a chance to see what’s inside to experience it on the outside as well.
There was a testimony of a woman who had cancer and they did surgery on her arm and how she can stand up on her arms with her feet on her head because she uses breathing and mental techniques to keep her going.
Through this project I have found a new love for yoga stretches. It’s great for the body and gives you a non toxic mind after and during. The stretches are great to cleanse the mind with.

Scholarship Search

This past few week I have been apply for scholarship from thousands to hundreds of dollars. It doesn't matter how much or how little it helps pay your way through college someway. So far I think I have signed up for about 10 to 15 scholarship. Some are easy, like submiting a your name to them or as hard as writing essays that have to meet certain guidelines and regulations that you must follow. All I can do is try and do as many as possible to increase my odds in getting a scholarship.

Helping the Animals

So instead of doing the whole "Shasta-and-Me" thing, I am switching my project to something a little more helpful. I had been doing research these past couple of weeks, and I couldn't help but look at the Sioux Falls Humane Society website. I saw that they had a wish list, including a new building project that is needing money. I thought to myself for a while and knew that I couldn't just straight out and ask for money from people, so instead of getting money for the building project, I am going to try to fulfill the wish list which includes: dog food, cat food, distilled water gallons, latex gloves, cotton balls, pill containers WITHOUT labels, hand sanitizer, Clorox Bleach (because the other types don't have the correct concentration for disease prevention), air fresheners, stamps, Dawn Dish Soap, and of course money for either the building fund or for animal care and medical services.
Now, I myself am an animal lover and it shows because I have four dogs and two cats. To help the poor animals that were abandoned, abused, or just brought in for different purposes means a lot to me. So hopefully I will be able to make some change for everyone at the Humane Society.
For the next couple of weeks I will be making posters to post around the school so that the word will be getting out. With those posters, I may even print pictures of the animals that are at the Humane Society and post them along the walls as well. Hopefully this project will work, and I will be looking forward to keep the people updated with how it is going.

regretable I sunk so low to write poems

I used standards 11.R.1.1 and 11.W.2.2. I wrote poems.

I also read some poems on http://thepoetsgarret.com/2011Challenge/form1.html

I wrote poems to the rhyme scheme of:
A
B
A
B
C
On a day such as this you may feel dismay
But for what? Just don’t lose sleep at night
Don’t let this gloom make your whole day gray
Be confident you’ll chose what’s right
Stay in school and don’t do drugs!

I’m listening to a techno mix
Thinking of the next line
But wishing I had a Twix
Realizing I’m glad moles are benign
700,030 die from cancer in a year

Blue is everywhere
Is it because it’s our school color
Look it’s right there
Blue is just duller
Blue is overused

Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption

This action packed western game brings gun slingers to life in a free roam world. John Marston is out to rescue his brother from one of the most dangerous gangs ever in the wild wild west.

John was found passed out in front of an barricade, he was shot trying to find his brother. A ranch family took him in until he became healthy. Now, John is out to get revenge on the gang and to rescue his brain washed brother.

John must train for his missions, but first he must become familiar with the land and all the people that might stand in his way. He must explore in order to succeed. John has no idea what he is up against and how he will be able to survive.

I my opinion i think this game is amazing. You almost forget that you are actually playing a video game. You can tell the creators spent a lot of time making the graphics and scenory perfect. This game is just like Grand Theft Auto but in the western era which makes a new twist in free roam game. This game is huge, the world is huge and the mission set is huge. The multiplayer is ever perfect. with teamdeath match and co-op campaign. I understand how this game got game of the year and why poeple are still playing it even after a fews years its been out. It always has something new to do.

If i were to give this game a rating out of 10 it would definelty be extremely close to a 10. The characters are perfect and the bad poeple are perfect, they have the perfect amount of villain.

The Help

Okay, I'm about a fourth of the way through the book so I'm going to speed up my reading a bit and hopefully finish it by the end fo the next cycle. Once I finish the book I'm going to find some reading guides/ book club questions and answer some of my favorites. So far, I'm still loving the dialect used in the story and the characters are so believable. Looking forward to reading more! Adieu.

Life As We Know It... 3

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.

I am doing better on reading on my own outside of class. The book is getting super interesting, which makes it even more hard to blog about it. I don't want to give away any more details on what is happening for anyone who might want to be reading the book. I usually read during 20% time in the library, and then also during study hall and any other extra time I get during class.

Change in Project

I'm sorry to say that I am dropping the project of "Childhood Obesity" and am moving on to scholarship hunting.

College is only a year away and I think it's about time that we all start searching for as many scholarships as possible to allow us to get into college with paying as minimal from our pockets as possible.


So..........the hunt is on. :)

Learning to Live Again

According to Steven M Schwarz, MD, FAAP, FACN, AGAF, author of article, Obesity in Children.

Approximately 21-24% of American children and adolescents are overweight, and another 16-18% is obese. Childhood obesity predisposes to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, liver and renal disease, and reproductive dysfunction. This condition also increases the risk of adult-onset obesity and cardiovascular disease. Sadly that percentage slowly starts to increase the more we don't do anything about our children's diets and activities.

We say we try but do we really?

Happy, Sad, Mad, Boy am I glad

We have all felt fear loved or even at times hopeless. I have decided to change topics I was in the works of doing a stop motion but unfortunately the pictures got deleted and I was not going to start all over. I have decided to express emotions through art. The 1^st emotion I did was Hopeless and I decided to write Friendship over and over and over. Sometimes it seems that we lose our hope throughout friendship because either you lost a friend or they have just turned away from you. We just get that feeling in our hearts and we can’t do anything and it seems like our hope has just faded away. But in the end we shine with those who stuck with you until the end. The next emotion I am focusing is FEAR and I will try to express it throughout drawing a monster or something that we have all feared in our lives.  

Living to Learn Again

11.W.1.1 Students can write text using comparison/contrast organizational patterns.

Well I can safely start off by saying that it's a new year with a new attitude and with this comes a new 20% time project.

My new project entails that I will be blogging about the growing child obesity rates and their causes. It's sad enough that we feed our children fattening foods at a very young age. I feel that this is something that our students shoud be aware of as well as the adult world. Because if we know, at our generation, what's happening to our generation then we can help to prevent it from happening to future generations.

Mush!

The past couple of weeks, there has actually been snow fall. The first day it snowed I ran outside with her. I was hoping she would go running around, but she stayed at my side, as if she didn’t know what she was supposed to do. See, when we had gotten Shasta, I had a thought in the back of my mind, that one day, I would be able to have a sled dog team. Of course that would mean I would need to get more Siberian Huskies, but let’s just keep that a secret from my mom. Anyways, I even yelled “MUSH!” a couple of times, just to see how Shasta would react to it. She must have thought it meant up or something, because all I got from it was a giant dog standing on her back legs, looking into my eyes. I pushed her off and she kept jumping on me, so then I decided I would play with her. My little brother, Adam, would wrestle with her when she was inside, and so I had learned some new “moves” to use on her. One of these moves being an arm bar that UFC people use on each other, and well, Shasta did not like that. So I let her go and decided I would put her in a leg lock. Shasta, being a Siberian Husky, she is an extreme escape artist. She got out of all the moves I would put on her, and by the end, it seemed as if she had won, because I was so tired from having to chase her down. So this time, the victory had gone to dog, but not for long. One of these times, I will be victorious.

Above here are two pictures of my dog Shasta. She is a giant baby, and I love her very much.

We're Getting The Band Back Togther!

For the next three or so weeks Ellie, Casey, Abby and myself are in a band and will be preforming a song for our class. Ellie will be rocking it on the guitar, Casey will be scream her lungs off on vocals, Abby will be calm and collective playing the piano, and I will being keeping a nice steady beat on the drums. It will definitely be a fun and interesting process!

The Help

Students can read fluently to comprehend grade-level text.

I've always preferred to read on my own terms, so although this may seem late to those in Book Club I have decided to read The Help. I was going to write a summary for each chapter but have decided instead to read the whole book, then do a project over it that involves writing. I'm excited to read this book so I can finally watch the movie.

Thus far I love the writing style and use of dialect. I've been in the South on multiple occasions and reading this book transports me back to those warm summers.

Adieu.

Fearbook: Ted Bundy

My reading standard is 11.R.5.1. I have summarized this on a different document. I am still going through the Fearbook and learning about past notorious serial killers and what made them blow up like a ticking time bomb.

The second man I have researched and many people should have heard about him. His name is Ted Bundy also known as Theodore Robert Cowell. He was born on November 24, 1946 in Burlington, Vermont. Throughout the years, he always thought that his sister was his mother and his grandparents were his real parents. Ted Bundy was an attractive young man who was very intelligent especially when it came with politics.

When he entered college, he fell in love with a girl who broke his heart which made him start his depression. After awhile they got back together because she loves the “new” Ted Bundy. He started to run for campaigns, but soon after he left politics and Washington after suspicion from police when they started investigation of missing women. Ted decides to move to Salt Lake City, Utah to attend law school. Soon after he was charged with murder, but he somehow escaped from the prison. He was soon caught after and went back to prison, but soon after he escaped once again.

Ted Bundy murdered from 20-100 women, but he only confessed to 29 murders. There was a young woman by the name of Nita Neary who was an eye witness and saw Bundy leave a house of two women who were murdered. He was arrested for the third time for those murders. He went to trial and he was his own lawyer. After the counts of murder, he lost the trial and was sentence to death by the electric chair. Ted Bundy was executed on January 14th, 1989.

Overview:For 20% time I played and read reviews for the game Grand Theft Auto Episodes From Liberty City.

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

Game Review Site: http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/143/14352794.html blocked at school

Thoughts about the game:My thoughts about the game were that it is awesome but it is nothing compared to the new grand Grand Theft Auto that will becoming out soon. The graphics in the game were outstanding it looked so real. The only problems that i have from this game is that it might have a minor glitch here or there but nothing major like Saints Row the Third. But over all the game had great missions that challenged your skills to see if your a noob or a pro at the game. And the game is so addictiong that you want to keep playing the game.

Evaluation:I got most of the results out of the gameplay and and it took me a while to get the results i wanted out of the research. I found alot of good review sites after alot of looking throw gaming companies and other gaming reviewing sites. But there are also the bad game sites where they dont eather have the game you are looking for aor they dont have alot of reviews for them yet. Yes i would repeat this project because it it is fun and entertaining. I did the research on the game and i have played the game and have decieded that this is a great game for anyone.