Blood Diamond Cont.

Danny Archer has had a rough life. He lost both of his parents in his early childhood, and lost them painfully. He pretty much just wants to continue living, but a rich man. He also needs a little action in his life, so he smuggles blood diamonds. I enjoyed watching him on screen because he is an attractive actor. I really felt his sympathy when he was telling Maddy about his parents. When he said that, I didn’t feel as bad for the people he killed so he could stay alive. I wanted him to get that diamond so he could have a better life than he has had.

There are 300,000 children soldiers in Africa. That is really hard to believe and very sad. The “older” rebels warp their mind while they are still young. They get the children believing that shooting people is O.K. It is terrible. There are a few places in Africa that help the children recover from that scary state of mind. It does help, but we need more of it. I wish the world would just stop fighting and live in peace, and then we would not have to read sad books and watch sad and gory movies in class. I never knew that diamonds were found the way they are in the movie, and how they are smuggled from one country to the next.


The part of the movie that made an impression on me the most was when Dia was forced to shoot the innocent man. It was sad that he didn’t even know what he was doing, but even sadder when later on; he shot people without feeling any loss of emotion. At the end of the book where he “comes back” mentally made me happy. It gave me hope that the children that are soldiers now can get better and become good people once again.


We have responsibility for buying the diamonds. If we didn’t buy them, innocent men wouldn't be shot for trying to take one just to make a little money for food. We could also go to Africa to help the children soldiers become “normal” again. This would be better than leaving them how it is now.


Word Count: 370

Blood Diamond

Because I am basically done with my Junior year of high school, I have had a lot of free time this three day weekend. I have spent this weekend reading and watching movies. One of which was the Blood Diamond. I figured it would be something good to write a blog or two about so here it is. Enjoy!

Danny Archer lives in South Africa and is a former mercenary. He still “works” for his former colonel finding diamonds. One day while Archer was in jail, a tall black man named Solomon, a fisherman from Mende, joined him. Solomon was mining for diamonds when he found a huge pink stone. He ended up burying it, so he could find it later. When he was doing that, a rebel saw that he had a huge diamond. Luckily for Solomon, the mine just started to undergo an attack. When Archer and Solomon were in the jail, the rebel that saw Solomon bury the diamond pretty much told the whole jail that Solomon had found a huge diamond, though Archer was the only one who actually believed the story. So he told Solomon that if he went with him to find the diamond, Danny Archer would bring Solomon’s family to him. Solomon agreed.

Danny Archer meets a beautiful girl named Maddy Bowen at a bar. They dance and get acquainted. She is a journalist and wants to know what exactly Danny Archer does. All he can get out is he sells blood diamonds. She is fascinated and wants to do a story on him. He is lenient at first, but decides it will be better in the long run, so he will be able to use her. She helps them find Solomon’s family at a refugee camp, but Dia, Solomon’s son, is not there. They find out he was taken by the rebels. This means bad things. Archer guesses that he has become one of the 300,000 children soldiers. Danny and Solomon go on a dangerous adventure searching for the diamond in the rebel territory. While Danny and Solomon are on their way to the diamond, the colonel decides that he wants it for himself and will do anything to get it; including killing both of the men. In a town near the diamond, a few rebel children are playing some cards. Solomon recognizes his son in the crowd. His son, Dia, almost kills them, but Solomon keeps telling him that he loves him, and that he is his father. Finally Dia gives in and father and son are now reunited. The colonel reaches the spot where the diamond is at the same time as Danny and the gang. They have a shootout and Danny’s team wins, but Danny is shot. So, they have the diamond and are on there way to be picked up, but Danny is too weak and tells Solomon and his son to go on without him. They do, and they live happily ever after…and they become very wealthy.

Word Count: 500

Scorpia: AP Lang Teen Fiction Relief

Scorpia is one of my all time favorite books. It has a complex storyline and lots of intense action. The book is long also, which makes the excitement last. I have always enjoyed the books from this series (The Alex Rider series). There have been four other books preceding Scorpia that all made me want to continue reading. They are all very well tied together relating many things in each book to other books in the series.

Although I thought that all the prequels have been outstanding, this book had a special touch to it that seemed to enhance it a little more than the other books in the series. I believe it was the setting that really sparked the flame of enthusiasm in Scorpia. Although the setting brought me all over Europe, Venice, Italy was the reason why this book was so good. The scenery was so exquisitely detailed I could almost imagine myself in Venice just be reading it. Apart from being beautiful, it also is an engineering marvel with the ways of transportation such as canals as roadways.

The plot literally takes you on an adventure throughout Europe through the eyes of a fourteen year old British spy. The excitement begins when Alex crashes a party in Venice and gets in a tangle with a Siberian tiger. The plot is bizarre from now on including the main conflict of the story of how Scorpia is trying to mass murder every child in London. It is because of this action packed plot that I have loved this book so much. At the very end of the book, Horowitz threw out a thrilling but chilling twist with Alex getting shot at the end. Ending the book like this basically forces you to read the next book in the series, Ark Angel, which I plan on reading as soon as school is out. I was kind of expecting a twist like this at the end because of the foreshadowing earlier about how Scorpia always gets its revenge.

Although I feel like I say this for every book I read, this truly is a great book. I was never bored of it; from, cover to cover I was heavily engaged and interested in what was going on. One thing that I really liked about this book is the fact that it is Teen Fiction and I have had to read Non-Fiction only in AP Lang, and this was a nice change of pace. Obviously I would recommend this to anyone because of how entertaining and electrifying it is.

Word Count: 427

Beatlemania

          In this post I will write about the history of one of the greatest bands of all times.

         The Beatles were an amazing rock ‘n’ roll group that began not in the United States, but in a little town in England.  They were each born in the early 1940’s in Liverpool.  All four were in their early twenties when their careers really got started.  Lennon started a band, along with five others called “Quarrymen” named after their high school.  McCartney joined the band in 1957 and Harrison in 1958.  They changed their name to the Beatles in 1960.  John Lennon and Paul McCartney are very nice fellows.  They both agree that they each get by with a little help from their friends.  They were a close group, and around 1960 is when they started to become a hit.

            But what really got the Beatles famous was Brian Epstein.  He became their manager in 1961.  The Beatles were an amazing group, but Epstein helped them rise to fame. The Beatles became famous nationwide fame in 1961 and worldwide in 1964.  After the Beatles made their first United States appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, their albums sold unbelievably fast.   John Lennon once said, “We’re more popular than Jesus Christ now.  I don’t know which will go first, Rock and roll or Christianity.”  All this talk of fame led to the term “Beatlemania”

            The Beatles’ were well liked mainly due to their well written songs and interesting sounds.  Lennon and McCartney wrote most of their songs.  What was different from the Beatles’ songs and earlier rock ‘n’ roll music, was theirs had more meaning.  They had some good song ideas that pleased their audience.  Another crowd-pleaser was their very different choices of sounds used.  They used suggestive imagery and artificial sounds. This was new concept to rock ‘n’ roll, and the fans were definitely curious. Some of their more famous songs include “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Come Together”, and “Something.”  Their documentary Let It Be, won an Academy Award in 1970.  The Beatles were at the top of their rollercoaster ride.

            The fame was too much for some of the members.  According to John Lennon, “Rock ‘n’ roll was not fun anymore.”  This was one reason for their soon to be break-up.  Two other reasons were business and personal related.  Some were mad that they didn’t get to be the lead singer. McCartney announced the breakup on April 10, 1970.  This was a sad day for the millions of Beatles’ fans.  They each later led their own groups or performed as soloists.  They were each good enough to be put in the spotlight of their own band.

Word Count: 444

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

I just finished reading this book in my free reading time so I figured I would write up a little book report-thing on it! Enjoy! 

*************************SPOILER ALERT*************************

Mass homicide committed on an island encircled by obscurity leaves characters on their toes to the point where they start killing each other in their strive for self-preservation. General Macarthur was correct when he said that “This is the end....” This was not only true for himself but true for all of the guests other than the murderer of course. This is repeated at the end of the book by Philip Lombard, “This is the end, you understand. We’ve come to the truth now. And it’s the end.” I believe that this is the quote of the whole book because it is truly the end for the inhabitants of the island.

Throughout the story I did not believe that the murderer was one of themselves and that there had to be another person hidden on the island. If they were right, and they were, I had decided it must be Armstrong. This hypothesis was partially correct because Armstrong worked as a partner in crime with Wargrave, although, Wargrave was the master murderer behind the whole plot. Armstrong helped by pronouncing Wargrave’s death when he really was not dead.

At the end when we were told that Wargrave was the murderer behind everything, I was completely surprised because he was the one who took charge in trying to discover who the murderer was and who suggested it was one of the people amongst them. I think he was trying to make this a mental challenge for himself because had he not put his ideas on the table the others wouldn’t had suspected someone among themselves until much later. Also I believe his job would’ve been so easy that is would’ve been boring and he wouldn’t of fulfilled his lust of causing death.

Armstrong, as I stated above, was the murderer in my mind, because he was the doctor of the lot. He administered drugs to the others, he brought an obscure item, the hypodermic syringe, and he was always one of the “mini-courts” possible suspects. Although many people were mentioned during the “mini-courts” only Armstrong was continuously brought up as a possible suspect for each death. This hypothesis disappeared when Armstrong was murdered, but brought back when Wargrave explained that Armstrong became his partner in crime. Apart from Armstrong I had no idea who possibly could be the murderer.

At the start of the book, like most books starts out very slow, with the introduction of characters. This made me think that I had chosen a bad free reading book and that I wouldn’t like it much. This thought did not last because as soon as the rising action started the suspense kept me up at night. I could not wait another day to find out who the murderer really was, I had to find out that night otherwise I knew I wouldn’t be focused the next day at school, because I would be thinking about who I thought the murderer really was. As you can tell, I very much enjoyed And Then There Were None.

Word Count: 532

Future Cities Part 3

Imagine living a beautiful city with clean energy, no traffic, and self-sufficient water supply. That city is Stad Van de Toekomst.

Our energy comes from various clean and renewable sources. Our maglev turbines are extremely efficient turbines. The low friction magnetic bearing allow the turbines operate with as little as three kilometers per hour wind speed. Two water power systems harvest energy from the ocean and the river. The first, water current turbines, work like wind turbines but underwater which is better because of the constant flow of water. The second energy source is the wavebob which creates energy from the constant wave motion of the ocean. Another energy source is the power sidewalk, which flex when people walk on them. This motion is then converted into energy.

Citizens enjoy relaxing and revitalizing at our world class parks designed by the best architects, planners, and artists. Because of the constant new, colorful, and exciting additions to our parks, they are a great place to visit multiple times.

Our city is traffic congestion-free due to electric, computer-driven cars and our mag-lev. These cars, which fold up for storage to reduce parking space usage, are available at one of our many storage stations and recharged from the electricity grid and efficient solar panels. These cars are computer controlled and use sensors to determine their proximity to other cars and buildings, as well as to drive as quickly and safely as possible.

Our police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances operate on the same system. These emergency vehicles are given priority over all other cars so they can respond to emergency as quickly as possible without endangering other drivers on the road.

Food for Stad Van de Toekomst grows in farm towers located throughout the city. This growing process eliminates the large energy consumption coming from moving produce from city to city, which also lowers costs.

Our school system is considered the best in the world. We offer the highest pay for our teachers, large funding for the school, and only ten students per teacher allowing individual learning goals to be reached.


The revenue used to fund our city is created by taxing our prosperous businesses, industries, and families about €5500 and sales taxes would be 6%.

Our water is stored in underground tanks which store up to 200,000 liters. The water is pumped from the Rhine River and the North Sea into one of our two electrolysis plants, where it is split into hydrogen and oxygen. The pure hydrogen and oxygen is cooled to a liquid and piped through the city under the mag-lev superconducting magnetic railway, cooling it as it generates heat from conducting so much energy. Those pipes will lead to one of Stad Van de Toekomst’s two Hydrogen Fuel Cell plants where the oxygen and hydrogen recombine, creating pure H²O and 10-100 energy kilowatts of energy per cell.

Word Count: 478

Future Cities Part 2

Each house in Stad Van de Toekomst will have their shower water drain directly into the toilet; when flushed, the black water will be piped to one of the Electrolysis Plants. Every building will collect storm water and grey water and pipe it through their filtration-purification system to remove all the particulate and kill all bacteria. To have each house in our city reach a closed water system would be impossible if Stad Van de Toekomst was to utilize the hydrogen fuel cell and Electrolysis.

Many Electrolysis Engineers would oversee the two Electrolysis Plants, overseeing that the plants run correctly and efficiently. The engineers would also work on advancing the study of electrolysis, searching for a way to make the process more energy efficient.

A new kind of engineer produced in the creation of our city; this engineer would be a Hydrogen Fuel Cell engineer. They would oversee the HFCP and work closely with Electrolysis Engineers. They would also look over the piping from the Electrolysis Plant to the HFCP, and the HFCP energy distribution.

Some of the new water pertaining technologies in our city are farm towers, wave bobs, and autonomous pipe robot. The advantages of farm towers are that they reuse storm water to water the crops inside. Wave bobs will be placed slightly off shore, and when waves rock it, the hydraulics are pumped to power a generator that could power 1,500 modern day homes. The autonomous pipe robots would go through pipes, checking for cracks and the water quality level if needed.

Stad Van de Toekomst would use a piping system to transport gases, liquids, and sewage, because it’s a very effective system. In addition to this, we would have size-variant robots that patrol the pipes, checking for pipe leaks, water quality in potable water pipes and other possible problems.

Our city will reuse any form of water, if and when our population and water demand grows, we will pump more water from the Rhein River. Every building will collect, reuse, and sanitize water with their filtration-purification system, in addition to receiving water from the HFCPs. The HFCP and the Electrolysis Plant will be utilized to create energy and clean water in an environmentally friendly way. Our engineers would oversee that the city of Stad Van de Toekomst is efficient and eco-friendly.

Word Count: 386

Future Cities Part 1

Recently I posted a recent example of my writing about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Therefore I figured I would post an example of my writing from 8th grade. Enjoy comparing and contrasting!


In Stad Van de Toekomst, all the stormwater that drains into houses gutters will be piped away to our Electrolysis plant. Once the stormwater is processed through the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Plant (HFCP), it will be potable water for the city’s population to use. To reduce runoff in our city, instead of using concrete for our streets and sidewalks, we will use recycled tires, which will absorb water and filter it through the tire’s fibers. We will also encourage people to use mulch in their lawns, which will also absorb the runoff water. To make sure the environment is not being harmed by runoff, we will ban all pesticides and fertilizers that are not organic or environmentally friendly, because it is logically impossible to halt it altogether.

Drinking water will be held in our city’s underground water tanks. Pipes from one of the two HFCPs will supply the potable water for these tanks and pipes will transport the water to all buildings.

The black water in Stad Van de Toekomst will be piped from each building through a large filter to take out the chunks of waste. Then it will then be piped to our electrolysis plant where the H2O will be split into pure hydrogen and pure oxygen, the waste being left to be burned in our plasma arc technology.

A common problem today is sanitizing water inexpensively and in an eco-friendly way. We would use the processes of electrolysis and the hydrogen fuel cell to transform any water into potable water. Many cities also face a shortage of water, due to either lack of water or population growth. Stad Van de Toekomst would completely avoid this problem by reusing all water, from waste water to storm water, and piping extra water from the Rhein River when needed.

Word Count: 331

Breckenridge Vacation

One of my favorite memories is when all my family and I went skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado. We arrived in Denver a couple hours before dusk, so we went to Hertz and rented a SUV. From Denver we headed toward Breckenridge only stopping at a grocery store to get supplies. After dark we arrived to our lodge and started unpacking quickly. We then walked around exploring the town and you could feel the difference in air pressure. Lights lit up the slope and you could see the snow that was glistening, perfect for skiing.

The next morning we all took lessons for half the day to get used to the mountain because before this trip we had never skied on a mountain before. Lunchtime snuck up on us quick and then we had to decide whether we should do lessons the rest of the day or not. In the end we decide against more lessons so we could ski down any slope we wanted to. That night my dad arrived in Breckenridge from and meeting for work and we all were excited to see him.

The next couple days were spent skiing whatever we wanted to do whenever we wanted to do it. A lot of the time I, myself was up on the blacks diamonds which were fairly difficult. In comparison of Breckenridge to Iowa, our double black diamonds are just as hard as those blue slopes in Breckenridge.

Our second to last day was spent half skiing, but also after lunchtime we went on foot and toured the city. We rested ourselves a lot that night for the long drive and flight for the day to come. Finally on the next day it was time to leave, we drove back to Denver and caught our flight back to Iowa. Hurray! I was glad to be back where it was a little warmer. We had a ton of fun on our skiing vacation Breckenridge, Colorado.

Word Count: 326

Bi-lingual Literature

Recently in Spanish class we read the House on Mango Street in Spanish. I remember reading this story before and now that I read it again in Spanish, I figured I do a little write-up about it for a blog.

In House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros creates this character that is said to be ‘special’ by the three sisters in “The Three Sisters.” Her strength that is portrayed through out the book, is that she is a dreamer.Her name is Esperanza. It’s not a very good name, as she recalls it in the story “My Name.” In Spanish it means sadness, it means waiting; it means a muddy color, or the number nine. She wants to change her name into something that is more like her. She received the name from her great-grandmother, who was born in the Chinese year of the horse. She was a wild woman, more like Esperanza. Ended her life a sad one, looking out the window wishing she could be free.But she knows that she can to better. She doesn’t want to be ashamed like she is now of her house on Mango Street and have to tell people that she lives there. In “Mango Says Goodbye Sometime” she believes that she is there by mistake. Sometimes there are little stories Esperanza makes up in her head. One that she describes in the last story proceeds, “I am going to tell you a story about a girl who didn’t want to belong.” She later concludes that she is “to strong for her (Mango Street) to keep her there forever.” This statement seems to me that she thinks she is too good for Mango Street. That she is going to move on and take her books and paper, and write books. Her strength is sort of like her already knowing what she is going to do with her life, get out.The stories that are told about the people of Mango Street have helped Esperanza become what she is by the end of the book. Also to confirm her strength, that she most certainly does not want to stay on Mango Street, but to proceed with her dream. The last couple of sentences describe this: “They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.”

Word Count: 395

Blogging

Blogging about blogging is an interesting topic. Personally, blogging is not exactly fun, but for many it is a great way for people to get their thoughts said. In this post I will talk about blogging and things that I have noticed about blogging.

Blogging for our AP Lang class seems like one big procrastination session for everyone. If you look at our blogs about a week before they are due, you will probably notice that we haven't posted for at least a month. This is because blogging is something that takes time. You have to stop whatever you are doing and sit down to take the time to write a blog post. Because of this time commitment, and relative boring-ness of writing, is why I believe AP Lang students have put off this task for so long.

If you look at our blogs on the day before blogs are due, you will most likely see "Joe Schmo posted 10 minutes ago" This is because everyone in the class that have procrastinated their blogs are now scrambling to get them done. Ill admit I am a part of this scramble. I noticed this a few minutes ago when I logged onto blogger and saw that all the people that I was linked to on my blogs had post within hours ago.

Something about blogging that I have found very frustrating is the highlighting tool. If you scroll through my blog you will see that I am a victim of this highlighting holocaust. For some reason, some of my blog posts have become highlighted in white. The problem is because once something is highlighted, you cannot un-highlight it. There is  no option to un-highlight your text, something that has frustrated me for the entire year.

If anyone knows how to fix this problem, PLEASE comment on this post and let me know how to un-highlight my posts!

Word Count: 316

Cuban Missile Crisis Part 2

The reason why the Soviets were in Cuba was because Castro wanted some defense to prevent another invasion, reminiscent of The Bay of Pigs invasion. Castro began receiving military aid from the Soviet Union. This came after Cuba became openly communist in 1960. At that time Cuba took millions of dollars of United States property located in Cuba. The United States subsequently ended diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961. Kennedy used the original Eisenhower administration plan to “dispatch Cuban exiles living in Nicaragua.” CIA officials poorly trained their soldiers and anti-Castro Cubans. On April 17, 1961 1400 troops got smashed by Castro. The CIA had poor planning on their part because the planes sent for backup arrived an hour late. The pilots forgot to set their clocks to Cuban time. This led to the loss of Bay of Pigs for the United States allowing Castro to gain more control over Cuba.

John F. Kennedy attempted to make the United States a safer place. He added 300,000 troops and 40,000 in Europe to try to protect the United States. Still, Kennedy agreed with Castro not to invade. Even though the Soviets felt threatened by the United States missiles in Turkey, the Soviet Union demanded the removal of the missiles. The United States then got the Soviet Union to remove their missiles only after Castro protested. As a result, in 1963 the Soviet Union and the United States, along with nearly one-hundred other nations “signed the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to end the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.” Americans now felt like they didn’t have to worry.

Due to a failed invasion and good negotiations, all nuclear powers are able to live in harmony with the creation of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Before the Test Ban Treaty was established, nobody really knew what was going to happen next. Looking up in the sky and expecting a bomb to appear seemed probable. The United States once vigilant could now take a deep breath and stop worrying about a nuclear attack. Nuclear testing of atomic bombs was intolerable above ground. Luckily, there were no casualties from the Cuban missile crisis and it resulted in a learning moment for the entire world.

Word Count: 371

Cuban Missile Crisis Part 1

Here is an essay I just wrote about the Cuban Missile Crisis for AP United States History. I posted it because I wanted you guys to see an example of my current writing.

Imagine in twenty minutes, a town like Cedar Rapids, Iowa, once filled with fun loving friends and family could be wiped out by a nuclear attack. This impending threat caused uneasy feelings leading the United States into a sense of panic during the Cuban Missile Crises. In a matter of seconds any city in the United States could be obliterated. Soviet missile bases were only fifty miles off the coast of Florida in Cuba. After the United States Bay of Pigs invasion on Cuba failed miserably, Fidel Castro wanted some protection in case of another attack. The Cuban Missile Crisis is an important event, changing the way Americans looked at the sky. Since nuclear energy was discovered, President Kennedy explored many different avenues to avoid a nuclear war. Even with the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Soviets setting up “Nukes” in Cuba, these events led to a more secure and safer America.

There are many people to blame for the Cuban Missile Crisis including, Castro, President Kennedy, and the CIA. It started with the CIA’s failure with the Bay of Pigs invasion. The Cuban Missile Crisis never would have happened if nuclear power was not invented. Nuclear energy was also known as atomic energy which was created by changes in the nucleus of atoms. Around the 1900’s, scientists first noticed most of the mass of every atom came from the nucleus. Many people at this time found this hard to believe. Still, scientists went on to demonstrate the nuclei were held together by an extremely strong force. This created a large amount of energy. The “next step was to make nuclei let go of that energy.” The first time this nuclear energy was tested was in Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945. In World War II was the initial time people used this new fearful force in combat.

Kennedy and his group of advisers wanted to avoid a nuclear war that would lead to thousands of casualties. They then decided to either set up a naval blockade or invasion. Kennedy announced he was “setting up a naval blockade of Cuba until the weapons were removed.” To avoid casualties he decided on going with the blockade. Since a blockade was a national law of war, Kennedy referred to the blockade as a quarantine zone. “Kennedy warned if Khrushchev fired missiles from Cuba, the result would be a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.” Both the United States and Cuba wanted to avoid conflict. The Soviets knocking on the United States door with nuclear weapons was hard to believe.

Word Count: 466

Angels and Demons Annotated Bibliography

Brown, Dan. Angels & Demons. New York: Atria, 2003. Print. (569)

Angels and Demons is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Both my mom and sister had read it a long time ago when it first came out, but it was a little too advanced for me at the time. I decided to read Angels and Demons for two main reasons, the first because I needed 500 more pages to complete my reading requirement, the second because I absolutely loved The Da Vinci Code, and I figured if I enjoyed that, I would enjoy Angels and Demons. After reading The Da Vinci Code, I rented the movie and as with every other scenario, the book was way better than the movie. For Angels and Demons, my mom has already bought the movie and I plan to watch it sometime late this week, but I assume it can’t be as good as the book.

Angels and Demons fit right into the type of books I like. I like books that are intense and dramatic, books that keep you up late wanting to read more and more. This book did just that. I found myself up until two in the morning the last couple night reading the book. It is just that good. Traditionally I enjoy the mystery genre and this book fulfilled that quite well. I love the deep, complex thought that goes on in professor Langdon’s head while is thinking something through. I find him thinking at a level that I would never even consider in day to day life.

As with The Da Vinci Code,   I feel as though this book is on a much higher level of thinking than other books I have read. This is part of why I love these books. I take special love into the deep religious history that goes into the making of these books. Dan Brown has gained my respect as a hugely accomplished, New York Times Bestseller. I look forward to reading more books written by Dan Brown in the future as the one I have read thus far are simply amazing.

Word Count: 355

"Here's to the Crazy Ones"

Steve Jobs was the revolutionary of PC and Post-PC devices. This one man brought us into the chapter of the Digital age, the Personal Computer chapter, and also began taking us on to the next chapter, the Post-PC chapter. Jobs is often referred to as the “Father of the Digital Revolution,” an apt title considering his invaluable contributions to the field.

Without his driving determination, modern displays and desktop mice would have been delayed for years. Without him, we would have never had the Macintosh. Without him, there would be no Pixar, meaning no Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars, Up, WALL-E, all of which were staples of our childhood. Without him, there would be no iMac, there would be no iPod, there would be no iPhone, there would be no iPad, and there would be no Apple.

Steve Jobs was a visionary, someone who makes the unimaginable a reality. Through his foresight, he set the foundation for what today has become the largest publicly traded company in the world. Despite Jobs’ adverse childhood, he was able to find his creative and productive self, and put it to work for the evolution of an industry.

Jobs devoted his life to the advancement of the digital age. No other person in the world can rival the accomplishments made by Jobs. He was a pioneer of an industry, an Age, a culture, and a way of life. Jobs was definitely crazy, and “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” [Think Different]

Word Count: 264

Sportmanship

Sportsmanship is a characteristic that all sportsmen should have. From congratulating the other team, to simply biting your tongue are all parts of proper sportsmanship. It is a set of “unwritten” rules that keeps games fun, but also competitive.

A “good sport” is often what we call someone who abides by this set of “unwritten” rules. There two components that make-up being a “good sport". One is being a “good winner”, when you win you need to still respect others and not boast about your victory. The other component to being a “good sport” is being a “good loser”. I noticed that in many of my soccer games, if the losing team does not have a chance of coming back to win, the losing team changes their goal to trying to hurt opposing players for the remainder of the match. I too have thought f doing this many times, but never have I actually brought myself to actually hurting someone else on purpose. This has transferred to off the soccer field, where I still have not actually hurt someone on purpose.

Many concepts make up the greater word of sportsmanship. They’re fair play, character, and spirit. Fair play is the ability for each team to equally pursue success. A good sportsman would continue playing in a dignified manner even in the event that other participants are not. Character is the qualities of honesty, courage, and integrity. Honesty is important because if you cheat, you are cheating yourself in the process. Courage is used ability to rise against challenges, the bully at school, or the cheater in a game. Integrity is having these moral and ethical principles. Spirit is inspiring to us and pushes us towards our goals.

Poor sportsmanship not only makes the poor sport look bad, but it also makes feel bad. A situation where being a poor sport could lead to injury is if a soccer is saying obscenities to an opposing player, he makes himself a target. The opposing player could become very angry and hurt the poor sport in anyway, while also making a poor sport of himself too. In soccer many times the losing team tries to blame the loss on something other than themselves. They first blame it on each other which makes the entire team angry, and then someone brings up, “Oh it’s the referees fault, and he was terrible!” Which in most cases it was our failure to work together that made us lose. In American football, a team can get a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, which in other sports like soccer, saying obscenities is a yellow card, which is a warning, and if you receive to yellow cards you get a red card and are forced to sit out for the remainder of the game and the next.

All of the stated above s what I feel sportsmanship is all about. No matter what you do in life, it will require you to play and act with good sportsmanship.

Word Count: 499

Winter Term Finals: AP Physics, AP US, AP Calc

AP Physics B. This final was truly a mark of achievement. All year I have been earning B's and C's on Mr. Jensen's tests. This obviously has made my grade suffer. Even though it is an AP class and I get the GPA boost, it still has been the class that has been tanking my GPA the most. Without AP Physics, my GPA would without a doubt be much better.


Despite my misfortunes regarding my test grades in AP Physics, I must say, I dominated that final today. I earned an A- (30/33) and I am ecstatic. It is the highest grade I have received on A AP Physics test all year, definitely something to celebrate. I was even considering the idea of dropping the class due to the fact that it was hurting GPA so much.


On to AP US. This test I was worried about all term. Mr. B had warned us after the fall term final that he would be so easy on us for the final for winter term. Needless to say he was bluffing. He gave us an old AP test and had us working on it in groups. As if this was good enough, we were then allowed to take the test home that night and work on it! This obviously removed all the stress associated with this final, and everyone in my group received 100% on the final.

AP Calc is the only class I am extremely worried about. I had a few low test scores during the term that are really hurting my grade. I have utilized every extra credit opportunity there has been in order to counteract this. As far as the final, I don't think I got over a 70%... It is not looking good. I couldn't even do about 10 out of the 40 questions, so just that is 75%, and then I doubt I got all the others right as well, therefore I'm probably looking at a repeat of  fall term with some form of a D on the final. This is pretty depressing considering how hard I have worked in  AP Calc, just for some reason I struggle on the tests and quizzes

Other than AP Calc, I must say it was a very successful day of finals!

Word Count: 381

Winter Term Finals: Spanish

Whew! Finished my first day of finals for winter term! I have four tests today...ugh, but it feels good to be done! Tomorrow I only have one final (AP Lang), and it does not count for a grade so I am not stressing about it. Today was the day I had to worry about, and in general I did very well so far!

First, I had my multiple choice and listening portion of my Spanish 3 final. We took the oral and written final earlier in the week, which dramatically reduced the work load for the final. Compared to the fall term final exam, this terms was a cake walk. The fall term final exam was much more broad and covered a large range of topics, making it very difficult to study for. This term's final was mostly focused on one main subject, the subjunctive. Last night I had my sister quiz me over the entire vocabulary list for the entire unit in which the final was focused on. This proved to be very useful because there was not one word that I did not understand while taking that final. Finally, the hard evidence about the final being a success, I received an A- (59/65). I was extremely happy with this score for two main reasons.

1) My grade did not go down, which I really need to keep my A
2) In a comparison to my fall term final, I did much better. I received a B on my fall term final, after the curve, where as I received a A- on this terms final without a curve at all.

The only thing I can still hope for is that Sra. Perkins will bump me up to an A+, which I would be pretty surprised if she did, but it would still be very nice. I am not going to ask her about it though because I don't wish to anger her.

Word Count: 323

My Top 50 Movies of All Time

Here is a list of my favorite 30 movies I have ever seen. Note that the list only includes movies that I have seen.

I will write a little bit about my favorite movie though. I have watched the movie 300 countless times and love it each time even more. It is one of the only movies I can watch again and again and not get bored of. I like it for its action, some of the most exciting scenes of any movie. I also love the historical accuracy of the content. As you can tell by my second favorite movie, Troy, you can tell that I throughly enjoy my war movies. Both movies are similar in the type of movie, making them my all time two favorite movies I have ever seen.

I know that you all don't have to agree with this list -- in fact I don't expect any of you to agree with it. It is only comprised of movies I have seen which a small fraction of all the great movies out there.


1. 300
2. Troy
3. Pursuit of Happiness
4. Super Bad
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
7. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
8. Avatar
9. Finding Nemo
10. Crocodile Dundee 2 Las Angelas
11. Finding Nemo
12. The Incredibles
13. Hoosiers
14. Moneyball
15. Cars
16. Hangover Part II
17. Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster
18. Spider Man 2
19. Bourne Ultimatum
20.Bourne Supremacy
21. Sister Act
22. Twister
23. The Love Guru
24. Talledega Nights
25. Greese
26. Pirates of the Caribbean
27. Pirates of the Caribbean 2
28. The Pacifier
29. DodgeBall
30. Catch Me If You Can
31. Short Circuit
32. Home Alone
33. Holes
34. National Treasure
35. National Treasure 2
36. Shark Tale
37. Night at the Museum
38. Epic Movie
39. Anchor Man
40. Disturbia
41. Snow Dogs
42. Kids World
43. Sahara
44. Envy
45. Rudy
46. Coming to America
47. The Longest Yard.
48. Casino Royal 007
49. Octopussy
50. Top Gun

Word Count: 354

Poetic Parody

Ok guys, so recently I have become interested in parodies. Parodies of anything. I have been surfing the web looking at parodies. Parodies are comical renditions of otherwise serious subjects. A famous music parody artist is Weird Al Yankovic. He has taken famous songs and made parodies of them. An example of one of his songs is when he made "Canadian Idiot", a parody of Green Day's famous "American Idiot"

While surfing the web, I came across things to make parodies of and one of the easy things I saw was poem parodies. So I took one of the only poems I know of and made a parody. The following is a parody of the poem Twas' the night of Christmas that I just wrote.

Twas the night of Halloween

Twas the night of Halloween, when all through the neighborhood

All creatures were stirring, anyone could

Bags were full, hanging from the shoulder

As the night got colder

Children ran from door to door

They kept wanting more and more

Father dressed as a vampire

While Mother dressed as an umpire

Sis was cooking on the fryer

She was going out with Trent Meyer

They were cooking a Halloween feast

Both dressed as Beauty and the Beast

Along came witches through the night sky

At the party they were starting to eat pumpkin pie

The witches came on their broom

Along with cats that needed a groom

Pumpkins flew from cannons afar

A couples hits and they destroyed the bar

Our whole city was under attack

We had no choice, we had to fight back

Good legendary characters came to fight

The battle raged on all through the night

Goblin and Ghouls fought jolly Santa Claus on a roof

But his reindeer kicked them with a mighty hoof

The Easter bunny laid stink bombs

They exploded in a big array like pom-poms

Dozens were lost in this great battle

But the Devil said “Let’s skedaddle!”

Good has triumphed over evil

Our leader was Knievel

At sunrise, at last we were ready to eat

Because evil was finally beat

Word Count: 349

Wuthering Heights

I can say for certain that Wuthering Heights is one of the more strange books I have read.  One of my interesting experiences with this book, is instead of actually reading it, I listened to it on audio tape, while following along on my iPad. It felt like a very odd way to read the book, but it was something different, and it accomplished the same task.

One very interesting thing I noticed while reading Wuthering Heights was the reoccurrence of some subjects. One example of this is the reuse of names, for example, Catherine and Young Catherine. There are also many moments during the story where I had Déjà vu because I thought that some of the things had already happened.

The book at the beginning was so incredibly boring. I actually fell asleep a few times while trying to read the book. It took about one hundred pages before it started to pick up and get interesting. All was giving was background information and kind of familiarized us with the setting. This I have noticed is true of a lot of books. Even my favorite of books usually have boring beginnings. I believe that this is almost necessary because we need to become acquainted with how the book is written, so when it does pick up, we can fully understand what is going on.

My favorite part of the book by far was in the middle of it. When there was all the drama with Heathcliff and Catherine. It was exciting and suspenseful. One thing I didn’t like was Catherine’s betrayal of Heathcliff in marrying Linton. I believe that you should trust your heart instead of seeking to be a “gentlewomen”. As a result, Heathcliff becomes a cruel and mean person for the remainder of the story

By the end I felt sad when Heathcliff died, even though I am not usually affected by books. This was definitely not one of my favorite books. It was boring for most of it and was hard to understand at times, but I am glad that I have read it.

Word Count: 332

30 Things to do on a Boring Day.

1. Write a blog post - what I am doing right now! Oh the joys of AP Lang!

2. Play a board game - I highly recommend Monopoly. But if you decide to play, make sure you have at least a few hours set aside to finish. You don't want to get halfway through the game and then have to quit.

3. Play some tennis - I love tennis! It is super fun to play and is good for you.

4. Do your homework - Sounds like your parents I know... But it is a good idea to get your homework done when you aren't busy, that way when you are busy, you don't have to worry about your homework!

5. Play Badminton - Great game to play in your backyard.

6. Learn how to play the guitar - This might be for the people who are a little more determined than me.

7. Study for AP Exams - Agian, sounds like your parents but it can save you a lot of money in college!

8. Start a project - build something. That is usually what I do.

9. Do some crafts - kind of like starting a project. Make something you will be proud of.
10. Watch TV - what we usually end up doing...zzzZZzz
11. Go for a run - what a great idea! Have fun and stay fit!
12. Cook something for lunch
13. Surf the web
14. Go shopping
15. Hang out with friends
16. Go to church
17. Go to a football game
18. Go bowling
19. Go golfing
20. Play some poker
21. Ride your bike
22. Go skateboarding
23. Count to one million
24. Help you parents
25. Get a job
26. Mow the lawn
27.Volunteer somewhere
28. Throw a party
29. Draw on the sidewalk with chalk
30. Or just stay on Facebook ALL DAY LONG

Word Count: 317

Comparing Series: Alex Rider vs. Cherub

The book the Stormbreaker is a thrilling and suspenseful book that people of any ages can enjoy. While The Recruit is a great book, with a similar storyline but, in my opinion, is not quite as good. I am comparing these books because they are the same in many ways. These books are the first in their respective series, both of which I have grown to love.

In each novel, the British school boy’s parents/guardians die at the beginning of the story. Following their parent/guardian dieing they are each recruited by a military intelligence agency. Each is schoolboy is then led through an extensive training program to ready them for their awaiting mission. Both go undercover in their missions, impersonating another person. Each of the missions they are on, they stop people from releasing harmful substances to the public. Along with these many similarities, they’re many differences.

The first difference in the story is that in Stormbreaker Alex’s (main character) uncle dies while in The Recruit James’s (main character) mom dies. MI5 recruits Alex, while CHERUB recruits James. In Stormbreaker, Alex saves people from the RS Virus and in The Recruit, James saves people from anthrax. The character Alex is rather shy, but James is very outgoing and social. Now for this I think is why Stormbreaker is more interesting, because it is more focused on the story at hand, while The Recruit wastes much time explaining James’s social life.

To conclude my post, I must say, listed above are not all the similarities and differences of these great books. If you want to find out what they are then you should definitely read them. I highly recommend both books, and series for that matter. Below I have included links to Amazon so you can order the books for yourself! I hope you have now learned of the numerous similarities and differences of Stormbreaker and The Recruit.

Stormbreaker: http://www.amazon.com/Stormbreaker-Alex-Rider-Anthony-Horowitz/dp/0142406112/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334512766&sr=8-1

The Recruit: http://www.amazon.com/The-Recruit-Cherub-Robert-Muchamore/dp/1442413603/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334512814&sr=1-1

 Word Count: 322

Comparing Middle Schools Cont.

 I would say that Harding middle school was a close third. They were definitely not far behind Franklin middle school, but they did have a few students holding them back. Also because Harding had a very different layout than Franklin, Roosevelt, and McKinley, I had a difficult time finding my way around the school. I previously hated Harding, who knows, maybe I still do. My elementary school friends mainly went to Harding, with a select few of us going to Franklin. This caused a "elementary hatred" for Harding Middle School.

 Roosevelt middle school comes in fourth place. They had some students that were so exceedingly bad, it dropped them from what would probably have been second place to fourth place. In general the kids were respectful, but some were just terrible students. This was my first time actually going inside of Roosevelt, and as I stated in my previous post, it was astonishing how similar Roosevelt, McKinley, and Franklin are.

 In dead last, way behind all others, is Wilson middle school. They were the only middle school that held true to our opinions we formed in middle school. We had believed that the students attending Wilson Middle School were not exceptional students, and our opinions held true. Students there were simply rowdy and disrespectful. They could not stay focused, and were not interested in the experiments at all.

 Looking back, most opinions that we formed in middle school were completely inaccurate. And honestly, it is actually a good thing, it was just surprising, because we didn't exactly have high opinions of any of the schools really, other than Franklin Middle School, our previous opinions of the public middle schools in Cedar Rapids were not very good. This just proves you can't judge a book by its cover. We were previously basing our opinions on what we have heard about the schools, but now that I have actually visited them, I feel I can accurately form my personal opinions about the schools.

Note***You may not agree with all of my opinions!

Word Count: 340

Comparing middle schools

Recently I've had the opportunity to go around the Cedar Rapids Community School District middle schools area for Kennedy Science Roadshow. In doing so I have noticed many similarities and differences among the middle schools. The most astonishing similarity I've noticed is between Roosevelt middle school, Franklin middle school, and McKinley middle school. All three middle schools were built around the same time period, and so the architecture the buildings are remarkably similar. Personally, I went to Franklin middle school, and when I went to the other middle schools, McKinley and Roosevelt, I felt like I knew around the middle schools even though I had never been there before.



When we went to middle school, everyone formed their opinions about the other middle schools and it turns out now that I have visited all of them, not all these opinions are accurate. I had previous believe that the students of McKinley middle school rowdy and relatively bad students. When we went there, it is a complete opposite; students at McKinley middle school were by far the mildest students we had visited for Kennedy Science roadshow. These results were very surprising considering I had previously believed that the students of McKinley middle school were the worst in the district.



A close second, my Alma Mater, Franklin middle school. Like McKinley middle school, they were also very respectful and had a genuine interest in our science experiments. They were calm and collective, and very fun to work with. I will also add that was very exciting to go back and see former teachers of mine. The school was just how I remembered it, except the kids were miniature. That is one thing that I noticed a lot when going back to these middle schools, the kids seemed tiny. I have been short all my life, but these kids were small! Nevertheless, it was cool going back to visit my former middle school.

Word Count: 320

How to take the ACT Cont.

On this blog post I will continue to offer strategies to consider while taking the ACT test.

Make sure you get a good night’s rest the night before! This is extremely important because if you are tired then you are likely to not “be fully present” as Ms. A refers to it as. The ACT isn’t exactly exciting and so it could be possible to drift off, which would be catastrophic.

This strategy might seem a little excessive, but it makes sense. Use dull pencils. This is because a dull pencil has a greater surface area on the tip; therefore you can circle in the ovals quicker. This is really a minute detail but remember, every second counts! The few seconds you save could be the difference between you getting to answer the last question or not.

Skimming, not reading. If you truly read out the passages in your head, you will never finish the reading portion of the exam. Although you comprehension will likely be better, you will not have enough time to answer all of the questions. Remember, it is better to answer questions hastily than to guess, or not answer it at all.

Using a watch is instrumental in being able to accurately pace yourself. Make sure you don’t bring a watch that beeps; otherwise you will be asked to leave. When the test administrator starts the test, start your stopwatch, that way you know exactly how much time it has been later in the test.

I highly recommend that you leave your cell phone in your car, or at home. Do you really want to take the chance that your phone might go off in the middle of the test? No, you don’t want to take that risk. Should it go off, you will also be asked you leave, and your test will not be scored. That is not at all what you want.

Word Count: 318

How to take the ACT

The ACT is a large fear among teenagers across the United States. The ACT has so much weight when deciding where you go to college. It can be the reason you get in and vice versa. It is a dreadful four hours of your life on an early Saturday morning. There is a way to take the ACT test, but there are many ways how not to take the ACT.

The first thing to do is PREPARE! Find out the format of the test. It is good to know what the test will be like. I recommend taking an actual practice test because it is truly the best way to find out the exact format of the test. Another way you need to prepare is your testing materials. Make sure you collect your pencils, calculator, ID, watch, and admission ticket the night before. You don’t want to wake up and have to scramble to get your materials together.

THE TEST.

Make sure you get at least 15 minutes early. They say 30 minutes, but really you just sit around for those 30 minutes. 15 minutes is plenty to get checked in and find you room. Once you get there just sit in your seat and get you things situated the way you want and then wait for the test administrator to begin.

STRATEGY

Go quick. I believe it is better to have a hasty answer than a guess. You are obviously much more likely to get an answer correct if you answer quickly, rather than not at all. The thing that will hurt you score more than anything is not getting finished. Personally I have had this problem a lot.

Another huge tip is stay focused. If you are reading a passage, but instead you are thinking about something else, you will ultimately have to read that entire passage again because even though you “read” it, you didn’t comprehend it.

Word Count: 320

ITEDs vs. The Iowa Assessment

The state and federal governments have a newfound urge to make high schoolers take more tests. Well, in reality we are taking no more tests than we used to. This school year (2011-2012), The Cedar Rapids Community School District has switched the standardized test they are administering. In the past, high schoolers were required to take the Iowa Test of Educational Development, and it had been this way ever since I have lived here (17 years). Recently the CRCSD has decided to replace the ITEDs with a new standardized test, The Iowa Assessment. Apparently it is not a test just for Iowa, it would be called the "Illinois Assessment" if you were taking the test in Illinois, or the "California Assessment" if you were taking it in California. It is a nationwide test that is said to offer a better understanding of where student are at, and an overall better rating system.


Having taken both of these standardized tests before, I can accurately assess the two tests. In my opinion, overall, The Iowa Assessment is much easier than the ITEDs. The ITEDs were more obscure and didn't really test us over things that we have learned. This was especially true about the science portion of the ITEDs. All it would have us do is look and analyze graphs and experiments. This was partially true with the Iowa Assessment, there were some things that were pointless and we shouldn't have been tested over. Who gives a rip if I can read the graph? THAT ISN'T SCIENCE. They should change the name of the test to "Analyzing Science" because that would be a much more accurate title.


Other than this gripe about science, I thought the Iowa Assessment was much easier than the ITEDs were. Also there is a lot more subject matter appearing on this test that we have actually learned about in class, as opposed to basic algebra I learned in 7th grade.


Overall, I like the Iowa Assessment much more than the ITEDs.

Word Count: 334

¡En Español!

He querido escribir un blog en Español para un tiempo largo y ahora, estoy escribiendolo. No sé que escribir, así voy a escribir todo que quiero.

Cuando era niño, habría querido aprender Español porque mis hermanas lo aprendía. Y ahora estoy haciendo exactamente eso. Es muy divertido, y estoy muy alegre que escogé sacar Español que Alemán o Francés.

Me gusta mucho mis maestros habría tenido. En mi primero año de Español, my maestra fue Sra. Jauhiainen. Ella nos dio tarea todos las noches, y no me gustó eso, pero era muy bueno para estudiar. En los años segundo y tercero, no tenemos mucha tarea y es muy agradable.

En el año segundo , tenía Sr. Schmidt. Él fue muy simpático y comprensivo. Me gusto como él me enseñó. Él dijó chistes en su lección, cual fue muy cómico y divertido. Este año nos faltan Sr. Schmidt porque el habría salido para siempre. Estoy triste, I quería tener Sr. en AP Español también. Tú no siempre puedes conseguir lo que quieres.

Y por fin, en el año tercero, mi maestra es Sra. Perkins. Ella es considerada y comprensiva también. Ella tiene una personalidad fuerte y sabe lo que quiere. Creo que es importante tener estas characterístticas. Mi clase con ella son súper inteligente y divertido. Mi actividad favorita es "cerdos". Es un partido rapído, pero muy divertido. Es bueno para estudiar el vocabulario también.

Por el año cuarto, voy a sacar la clase de Español AP con Sr. Burke. Estoy emocionado por mi futura en Español. Quiero continuar my educación de español en la universidad.

Numero de Palabras: 265

T1 vs. T2

Something that I have noticed in our AP Lang class is the differences between term 1 and term 2. Term 2 felt like it was taking much rigorously, and was all around more difficult. Term 2 seemed like we were more serious about what we were doing, essentially making it less fun.

One of the key factors that that supports my theory is my grade in the class. My grade during the second term has gone down two percent from first term, resulting in an overall worse grade in the class and a worse grade point average. Historically winter term has been my worst term as far as grade point average is concerned. I have no idea why it is this way, but it has become increasingly frustrating.

I have noticed a difference in Ms. A's attitude also. During the first trimester she was much more free spirited and seemed much less stressed. Since she has complained about her AP Lang classes not have "AP Students". I agree with the notion because there a definitely some people in her classes that are not traditional AP students and I believe that they should be in a different class, but ultimately it is not my decision.

These things have definitely stressed out Ms. A, and you can tell. She has that essence about her that expresses her as stressed. She seems rarely in a good mood anymore. She is often fighting the class for control, which is extremely stressful because some students in her classes are very stubborn and always want their way.

Ms. A is the greatest thing that changed between the two trimesters. Her different "mood" provides an entirely different environment for learning. I think that this is the main cause making term 2 an all around worse term than term 1.

 Word Count: 302

                                                                                                                                            

Sportmanship

Sportsmanship is a characteristic that all sportsmen should have. From congratulating the other team, to simply biting your tongue are all parts of proper sportsmanship. It is a set of “unwritten” rules that keeps games fun, but also competitive.

A “good sport” is often what we call someone who abides by this set of “unwritten” rules. There two components that make-up being a “good sport". One is being a “good winner”, when you win you need to still respect others and not boast about your victory. The other component to being a “good sport” is being a “good loser”. I have noticed that in many of my soccer games, if the losing team does not have a chance of coming back to win, the losing team changes their goal to trying to hurt opposing players for the remainder of the match. I too have thought f doing this many times, but never have I actually brought myself to actually hurting someone else on purpose. This has transferred to off the soccer field, where I still have not actually hurt someone on purpose.

Many concepts make up the greater word of sportsmanship. They’re fair play, character, and spirit. Fair play is the ability for each team to equally pursue success. A good sportsman would continue playing in a dignified manner even in the event that other participants are not. Character is the qualities of honesty, courage, and integrity. Honesty is important because if you cheat, you are cheating yourself in the process. Courage is used ability to rise against challenges, the bully at school, or the cheater in a game. Integrity is having these moral and ethical principles. Spirit is inspiring to us and pushes us towards our goals.

Poor sportsmanship not only makes the poor sport look bad, but it also makes feel bad. A situation where being a poor sport could lead to injury is if a soccer is saying obscenities to an opposing player, he makes himself a target. The opposing player could become very angry and hurt the poor sport in anyway, while also making a poor sport of himself too. In soccer many times the losing team tries to blame the loss on something other than themselves. They first blame it on each other which makes the entire team angry, and then someone brings up, “Oh it’s the referees fault, and he was terrible!” Which in most cases it was our failure to work together that made us lose. In American football, a team can get a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, which in other sports like soccer, saying obscenities is a yellow card, which is a warning, and if you receive to yellow cards you get a red card and are forced to sit out for the remainder of the game and the next.

All of the stated above s what I feel sportsmanship is all about. No matter what you do in life, it will require you to play and act with good sportsmanship.

Word Count: 499

Winter Term Finals: AP Physics, AP US, AP Calc

AP Physics B. This final was truly a mark of achievement. All year I have been earning B's and C's on Mr. Jensen's tests. This obviously has made my grade suffer. Even though it is an AP class and I get the GPA boost, it still has been the class that has been tanking my GPA the most. Without AP Physics, my GPA would without a doubt be much better.


Despite my misfortunes regarding my test grades in AP Physics, I must say, I dominated that final today. I earned an A- (30/33) and I am ecstatic. It is the highest grade I have received on A AP Physics test all year, definitely something to celebrate. I was even considering the idea of dropping the class due to the fact that it was hurting GPA so much.


On to AP US. This test I was worried about all term. Mr. B had warned us after the fall term final that he would be so easy on us for the final for winter term. Needless to say he was bluffing. He gave us an old AP test and had us working on it in groups. As if this was good enough, we were then allowed to take the test home that night and work on it! This obviously removed all the stress associated with this final, and everyone in my group received 100% on the final.

AP Calc is the only class I am extremely worried about. I had a few low test scores during the term that are really hurting my grade. I have utilized every extra credit opportunity there has been in order to counteract this. As far as the final, I don't think I got over a 70%... It is not looking good. I couldn't even do about 10 out of the 40 questions, so just that is 75%, and then I doubt I got all the others right as well, therefore I'm probably looking at a repeat of  fall term with some form of a D on the final. This is pretty depressing considering how hard I have worked in  AP Calc, just for some reason I struggle on the tests and quizzes

Other than AP Calc, I must say it was a very successful day of finals!

Word Count: 381

Winter Term Finals: Spanish

Whew! Finished my first day of finals for winter term! I have four tests today...ugh, but it feels good to be done! Tomorrow I only have one final (AP Lang), and it does not count for a grade so I am not stressing about it. Today was the day I had to worry about, and in general I did very well so far!

First, I had my multiple choice and listening portion of my Spanish 3 final. We took the oral and written final earlier in the week, which dramatically reduced the work load for the final. Compared to the fall term final exam, this terms was a cake walk. The fall term final exam was much more broad and covered a large range of topics, making it very difficult to study for. This term's final was mostly focused on one main subject, the subjunctive. Last night I had my sister quiz me over the entire vocabulary list for the entire unit in which the final was focused on. This proved to be very useful because there was not one word that I did not understand while taking that final. Finally, the hard evidence about the final being a success, I received an A- (59/65). I was extremely happy with this score for two main reasons.

1) My grade did not go down, which I really need to keep my A
2) In a comparison to my fall term final, I did much better. I received a B on my fall term final, after the curve, where as I received a A- on this terms final without a curve at all.

The only thing I can still hope for is that Sra. Perkins will bump me up to an A+, which I would be pretty surprised if she did, but it would still be very nice. I am not going to ask her about it though because I don't wish to anger her.

Word Count 323

Evil Doctor Candle 3

After years of defeating Evil Doctor Candle he is now trying to make a lab like he did once before but this time as big as Utah! To do this he would have to rob the biggest bank in the world. This bank was called Evan’s Bank. It has 3,457,568,679 US dollars! This was enough money to build 2 labs as big as Alaska!

After a couple days, Evil Doctor Candle truck at Evan’s Bank and stole a total of $2,213,657,980! He made things to hold back the team while he built the lab.

After months of building he was done with the lab. Right then the team crashed through one of the walls. The team eventually found Evil Doctor Candle in his own private movie theater watching Barney and Friends. Suddenly the team started laughing so hard it kept them laughing for an hour. During that hour they did not notice that Evil Doctor Candle had escaped.

Once they were done laughing they noticed that Evil Doctor Candle had escaped. They searched miles throughout the lab. They eventually found a door that said PURPLE PONY HOUSE/EVIL DOCTOR CANDLE’S BEDROOM. They opened the door and found purple ponies all over with a holographic rainbow in the sky. And on one of the ponies was Evil Doctor Candle. The team then got on some ponies and ran towards Evil Doctor Candle. When Evil Doctor Candle noticed them he went to high speed and ran towards the team. He ran past the team, opened the door with the electronic door opener, and ran to a different room.

The team was getting tired chasing after Evil Doctor Candle but at least they had ponies to ride on. They went out to find Evil Doctor Candle. Surprisingly they found him in only five minutes but Evil Doctor Candle was prepared and teleported to a different room.

The team was so angry that they started to break down the building. After half of the building was destroyed they took a rest for an hour. Once their rest was over they were off again destroying the building. They only had a sixth of the building left to destroy but for now they decided to go home for the night.

The next morning they set off to finish the building. Once they were done they saw Evil Doctor Candle one hundred feet away in a big robot. Then they combined into a big robot like Evil Doctor Candle’s. They easily hit him with hypnotize beam to make him get out of his robot and go in to jail.

After Evil Doctor Candle was behind bars the team had a fundraiser and all the money they made they donated it to Evan’s Bank.

Word Count: 456

Evil Doctor Candle 2

Bed and the gang were at a secret hero meeting with other heroes like Batman, Robin, and Superman. At the meeting they were trying to decide about who should be the new team leader and a name of the team.

But in the middle of the meeting Evil Doctor Candle discovered where the meeting was being held. Afterward he broke into the meeting and tried to capture Pen and Potion but Back jumped for Doctor Candle and caught him and locked his zipper shut. Back then brought Doctor Candle to the police and then they returned to the meeting.

There they made the decision to make Bed the leader. Then after hours of brainstorming ideas they came up with the name Little Waggers.

Once the meeting was over the Little Waggers went outside to look for danger. After long hours of looking for danger they discovered atomic toilets that were flooding 5th avenue. None of the Little Waggers could swim so they rented a boat. They drove the boat over to one of the atomic toilets and tried to grab it but it was too slippery. At that time all the toilets swam to the jail and released Evil Doctor Candle. After that they swam so fast to the Doctor Candle’s lab that the Little Waggers could not keep up so they lost track of them. There they made a super robot.

Once they were done they headed for town. There they destroyed Evan’s Bank and took 100,000 dollars that flew into the air after they smashed it.

They then went in the direction of their lab and set up a force field. Then the Little Waggers could not get to Evil Doctor Candle’s because of the force field. While the force field was up Doctor Candle built a new lab and after a year of long construction process Doctor Candle was done.

A month later after building the lab the villains took down the force field down. Then all the atomic toilets came out and screamed, “It was my idea,” and then the argued whose idea it was to walk out of the building.

Once they saw the army of atomic toilets they ran to Joe Bob Joe’s Toiletries, Toilet Paper Galore, and Perfect Store If You’re Fighting Evil Atomic Toilets. Then they bought tons of toilet paper and then the put life into them buy saying, “1 2 what do you say life life and life all the way yeah!”


Word Count: 412

Evil Doctor Candle

Once upon a time there was an Evil Doctor Candle. He loved destroying property. But there was the Goofy Team on the side of good. They always stopped Evil Doctor Candle. They saved a box from turning into a flower. They were shaving when the red alert siren went off. Evil Doctor Candle robbed a store. The Goofy Team sprang into action. Bed used take down on Evil Doctor Candle. Evil Doctor Candle ran to his secret lab. He created zords. There are 5 zords and the zords can combine into a mega zord.

Evil Doctor Candle almost hurt half of the goofy team. Then they combined to get her so they made a mega thing so it was one on one. Evil Doctor Candle used kunka. The Goofy Team used bag, but Evil Doctor Candle escaped. Bed said, “We’ll put you on fire.”

Evil Doctor Candle responded, “I’m 1 million percent fire proof.”

The Goofy Team burst out with laughter and then they lit Evil Doctor Candle on fire.

Evil Doctor Candle started screaming, “I’m on fire! I’m on fire! I’m on fire!”

Yo-yo said, “We’ll leave you to your business.

Then they went to the order room. They ordered a candle and 100 pizzas. They put them into a machine that splats pizza at other things. They put the candle girl by the machine so Evil Doctor Candle would be attracted to her and then they’ll fire off a pizza.

The thing that was carrying the machine said to Back, “Can I join you?”

Back responded, “Ask Bed.”

Bed said, “Yes.” And they went off to find Evil Doctor Candle.

They found Evil Doctor Candle in front of a pizza shop. Evil Doctor Candle started coming towards the girl candle and they fired a pizza. They hit Evil Doctor Candle one time out of one hundred so they missed ninety nine pizzas.

Slink, who was aiming them said, “Why you lookin’ at me? I only missed ninety nine out of one hundred.”

91 people said “Can we join the Goofy team?”

Bed said yes to all of them. They now had one hundred people on their team! They all got stuck together by glue and did a mega body slam. A police car came and Evil Doctor Candle went to jail.

Three days later they were having a party for their accomplishments. When they got there, there was rock and roll music like this, “I’m a Barbie girl in a Barbie world. I’m so fantastic, I’m made out of plastic, and other songs’ After that they got their medals the president sang the Star Spangled Banner (p.s. everyone covered their ears).

“Oh say can you see, this land is your land of thee I see of amber waves of grain from the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of Tennessee” Everybody was glad that he was done.

Bed went up and sang “Bon voyage, heave ho!” and “bingle bongle by” and “no ordinary sandwich, a sandwich filled with jelly fish jelly!”


Th-Th-Th-That’s all folks

Word Count: 506

Holy Cow people. I'm sorry if you just read that. I didn't realize how bad that was, but hey, I wrote it in 2nd grade so I didn't expect it to be great.

Apollo 13 Part 3

Miraculously, they reached the Earth under their limited power and oxygen. This is where the next big and vital step was taken. They needed to renter the command module, which had been powered down during the previous days in order to conserve the remaining power to this exact moment. They need to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere with pinpoint accuracy, otherwise they would land far off course. Another concern of the crew and NASA was whether or not the heat shield was damaged during the explosion. At this point there was really no way to find out, they just needed to keep going.

They reentered the atmosphere perfectly but there was still the three minute communication blackout that NASA had to go through before they would know whether or not the heat shield was damaged. Had it been damaged, then there would have been no chance of survival on reentry. They would have burnt up in the atmosphere much like the Columbia disaster did in 2003 when its heat shield was damaged on takeoff.

This three minute communication blackout almost left NASA crushed. The usual three minute blackout last for almost thirty seconds longer than normal, making mission control think that they had possibly burned up in the atmosphere. Fortunately seconds later, communication was reestablished between the module and mission control, allowing them to breathe a temporary sigh of relief, but the job was still not over. They still needed to be rescued from wherever they would land in the ocean. There were many ships spread out across the South Pacific Ocean. They splashed down near the primary recovery ship the USS Iwo Jima. They were on board and safe in a remarkable forty five minutes. One ship nearby even got video of the module splashing down.

The Apollo 13 mission did not achieve its original mission, and thus was essentially a failure in that respect. From a different perspective, this mission was an astounding success. It demonstrated the incredible innovativeness of NASA engineers and the Apollo 13 crew. In eighth grade, I was lucky enough to travel to Huntsville, Alabama to the US Space and Rocket Center. There I purchased a coin collection of all the Apollo Series missions, including Apollo 13.

Word Count: 372