Kinda Odd Story

The world is a confusing place; full of confusing people, doing confusing things at the most peculiar times. For example, I was just recently working myself to death at Bowman's grocery store. I work there as a bagger so obviously I get quite a lot of contact with the world outside of high school (jr. high for some of you) politics and such. Anyway, I was just pushing a cart back into the store for about the thousandth time that day, when some random, weird person jumps out of a SUV and starts yelling at nobody in particular. As you can probably imagine, I was just standing there looking like a dufus with my mouth open in wonder.

A Reflective Essay I Wrote on Honors English 9 for my Honors English 10 Class

One of the most earth shattering changes in my life, that I actually remember, was when I decided to do the Honors English program in 9th grade. This was probably one of the biggest academic breakthroughs that I have ever made. It not only helped me to get more organized, but it introduced me to a part of myself I never knew I had. I discovered in me a place for the English language. I’d hated English all the way through school. Until then, I had a really hard time with all of the essays and other assignments that were done in class.
7th and 8th grade were one of my least favorite periods of time as far as English was concerned. I had several essays and research papers which I only did well on because of the constant pressure at home to do well. I was also very disorganized. I never knew when my assignments were due, and when I did, they were done sloppily.
In 9th grade I did better. “This is the year,” I would tell myself during ninth grade. “This year I will shape up, I will get good grades because this year counts. Colleges are going to look at this year and judge me by it.” It was then that I decided that, even though I loathed English, I was going to enroll in the honors program that was offered.
My first impression of the Honors English program wasn’t too good. All the enrolled kids filled into the computer lab and we were introduced by Mr. Thompson, or, as we students called him, Mr. T. We were told that it would be an online course and it would have to be done on our own time. We spent the rest of the time setting up our various online accounts for the class.
The class was by no means easy. It was very thought-provoking and tough, unlike a regular English class. We were required to write at least 500 words on an online blog every week, as well as respond to various questions that Mr. T would see fit to throw at us. We always had required reading for the term and there was often some sort of essay that had to be written about the story. We had to enter writing contests on two occasions and several people’s poems or short stories won prizes and got published, mine included.
The most amazing thing about this was that it all had to be done in addition to everything else. I was already on the math “fast-track” and had several days of what seemed like straight homework. Somehow, though, I always got my stuff in by their due dates.
I believe I mentioned earlier that it was a thought-provoking class. Now, I don’t actually think that the phrase “thought provoking” is strong enough for how hard it really was, and how much effort you had to put into your thoughts. I remember one of the questions that Mr. T asked us one day. It went something like this: Read my blog and tell me what you think about the issue that is discussed. The blog was about how kids are needing to have things handed to them on a silver platter. The reason I remember this question is because not only did it point to a real truth in how human beings have degraded themselves, but I spent the better part of two hours writing a reply to it. Another way in which the class was thought provoking was with the blogs. We were NEVER given a topic. We never had anything specific to write about. That may not sound all that hard, and for some of us it’s not. But for the large majority of us, it will be. You see, that class is what really showed me what our society and public education has done to us. It has brainwashed us, you could say, because most of us require someone else to do the actual thinking. Society and public education have done this by small, seemingly insignificant stuff like providing us detailed topics for writing assignments and restricting what we can or can’t write.
Anyway, as the year progressed, I found writing was becoming more and more enjoyable. I didn’t love it, and I still don’t, but I definitely have opened up myself to it. I no longer loathe English, and I actually learn during class now. I was also able to meet a bunch of kids, with whom I am still friends with even though we now attend separate high schools. I sometimes think that it wasn’t me that got me through the class, but rather my friends and, of course, my family’s friendship and support. Finally the school year ended. The class was now less than half the size that it once was and those of us who hadn’t dropped out had earned our credits. This says something about how hard it was!
Now, although I am no longer in Honors English 9, I still have my blog, which I post on occasionally. It’s no longer 500 words a week, but still, it’s there. That fact, I think, is in and of itself a very big, major change in my character. In seventh and eighth grade, you wouldn’t ever have caught me writing. Now, all of a sudden, I’m doing it for fun in my spare time...Go figure!

It's So Much Better!

I love high school compared to jr. high! My classes are as follows:

1. Computer Tech- Not my choice class, but I guess it's not too bad. The teacher (Mrs. Gooch) isn't the nicest teacher in the school, but she's nicer than the some, so I'm not complaining.
2. Debate 1- Way cool course, with the coolest teacher in the entire school. Mrs. Hyer is way funny, and she actually does teach us. I haven't actually had Mr. T, but I imagine that her personality and teaching ethic is very similar to his.
3. Fit For Life- This is the only class I think I'll have problems in, but not because it's hard. The teacher is very, very disorganized. On the first day, she spent twenty-thirty minutes trying to sound out everybody's name. It made her look, um....well, like a high school drop-out or something. It's not very nice I know, but...
4. Chemistry Honors- This class is the only science class that didn't sound boring to me. I'd fall asleep in biology really, really fast, and physics isn't much better. Chemistry, on the other hand, sounds somewhat fun, and very helpful. It also helps that a lot of my friends are doing it. My chemistry teacher is good and fun, but she talks a little on the fast side, so we have to ask her to repeat things occasionally.
   
5. World Civ- Ha ha! I was going to do AP Euro, but I decided that I didn't want 4 hours of homework, so I switched to World Civ. Now I only have 2 hours of homework a day (kidding)!
6. Pre-Calc Honors-Sooooo much better than last year. My teacher, Mrs. Brough, is way nice. She allows us to actually work during close, which is a luxury that I wasn't giving last year. The teacher actually teaches us, instead of giving us examples and saying "go figure it out".
7. Seminary- Good old seminary! My teacher is Brother Clayton, and is the first person from Idaho that I've ever met with no Idahoan accent. He's pretty cool, too.
8. English Honors-This class is kinda wierd, since we have a substitute for three-four more weeks. The substitute isn't too bad though, since when she was a teacher, she taught 10th grade English Honors. We're expected to do quite a lot in this class, but it's not too bad.
   

School...again

I've never been one who likes or enjoys school, but I can't help but be a little excited for high school. I'm not saying I have school spirit or anything, because I don't. It's just that I like to try new stuff, which is odd because I don't like change either (in fact, I get extremely stubborn when it comes to changing). High school has a lot more options too. I'm still sad about my friends who I'm leaving. Although hopefully we'll be able to get together often!

My Vacation

These are pictures that were taken on my vacation to California! On my vacation I went to Lassen Volcanic National Park, Calaveras Big Trees State Park(Sequoia trees), and two different gold mines that one of my ancestors worked in.

This is the peak of Mt. Lassen, a volcano, which my dad, brother (Dan) and I all hiked

My brother and I climbing to the peak of Lassen.

A snowball fight on the top of a volcano!

A lizard friend that followed us all over the park.

My brother and I by a cool machine at the top of the volcano!

A place called Bumpass Hell in Lassen which had boiling pools and bubbling mudpots.

My dad, sister (Emily), and myself at the Kentucky Gold Mine.

I get to turn on a watermill! These were very powerful!

A different, bigger gold mine-Kennedy Gold Mine.

My brothers and I on a cement platform at the Kennedy Gold Mine.

My brother (Ammon) and sister (Emily) doing a silly dance in an Indian house.

My brother and I dueling with sticks at Big Trees State Park.

Some of my family posing inside an uprooted giant tree.

I was the self-proclaimed fire master on the trip. I built and maintained every fire made.

My family, minus parents, at the root of a giant Sequoia.

Laser Tag

Amidst all the boredom of summer, there are some days where I actually can do something fun! LASER TAG!!!!!!! As you might have guessed, I really like it. It's kind of like paintball, with an arena and obstacles and stuff, but it doesn't hurt! You run around so much (which is technically against the rules), but you don't even really notice! If you haven't tried it, you HAVE to!

Driving

Well, I got my permit yesterday! It's kind of exciting to finally be driving, although to tell the truth I'm not nearly as excited as people are telling me I should be. Anyway, I got to drive around a church parking lot for a little while yesterday and I'm going to be learning the ways of the stick shift today! Hope you're all doing well!

The Parting of Ways

Isn't it ironic that every ray of sunshine has a shadow to counter it? This year has been my favorite year in school. I learned how to focus better in school so I'd do well, I made way more friends, and had relatively good classes and teachers (with a few exceptions). This has also been my least favorite school year. A lot of my friends (including my best friend) are going to go to Layton HS next year, while I go to Davis. Also, I've now got an overloaded 10th grade year to look forward to next year! Still, I wouldn't do 9th grade over again, as it was as close to a perfect year as I'll ever get. And anyway, if all goes as planned, I'll stay in contact with my friends and we'll get together frequently over the next few years.

Because it was my last year in Jr. High, my parents bought me a yearbook this year! At the signing, I was kind of shocked at how many people I knew! I spent forever getting all my friends and favorite teachers to sign my yearbook. Thank you everyone for signing! You're all amazing people! Keep reading my blogs!

Letter From Mr. T

This is my letter from Mr. T written by myself. The assignment was to write a letter from Mr. T's perspective and give yourself an analysis on how you did in the course. I personally think that this letter is not all that far off from the truth and I'm sure Mr. T agrees as well!

Dear Moe,
Bravo! There is nothing that I like more in a student, especially when in honors, than having a student who will stick it through to the very end. In your case, what makes sticking it through even more incredible, is you posted everything on time for both your blog and your forum. You also did every writing contest and essay on time, too! This is not something that I can say about every student, which makes the praise that much more special. The only problem that I have to admonish you on is that while you did everything on time, occasionally it wasn't your VERY best work. I would imagine that this would be a result of procrastination and encourage you to change such behavior as you move on to a less forgiving high school. Overall, however, I believe that you deserve an "A" for the class for on time, relatively creative blogs and forum posts. I could tell that as the year passed, your posts become a lot more organized and the errors in them lessened. Once again, Bravo!

Sincerely,
Mr. T

"So Long And Thanks For All The Fish"!

Well, since this is probably among the last posts I'll ever make on my blog, I'll take this chance to say good-bye to all the friends and family who ever bothered to read what I wrote. I'd also like to wish the worst of luck to anyone who didn' t read what I wrote! OK, I'm just kidding there! I'll probably still post on my blog every once and a while, but I doubt I'll ever write a 500 word post again! Phew!

Literary Comparison

Literary Comparison: To Kill A Mockingbird and Walk Two Moons

Scout and Salamanca are two very interesting, girl characters from two different books. Scout is the main character from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Salamanca is the main character from Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Both girls, however, have lots of similarities and differences between them. Both characters are brave, but while Scout is a tomboy and close to her father, Salamanca is a normal girl who is distanced from her father.

One of the ways in which the two characters are different is in their views of their fathers. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus, the father, is someone who Scout admires a lot. This is a quote that I thought brought this point together really well. “It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.”(Scout’s thoughts from Chapter 11, pg. 105). In this passage, Scout is admiring her father because he acted nobly in shooting the rabid dog. Salamanca, from Walk Two Moons, on the other hand, seemed to think that her dad was good, but not the best. This is done more with a regretful tone rather than outrightly stating it. A quote that sort of shows this is as follows. “I wish my father had not been such a good man so I could have had someone to blame for my mother’s leaving.” (Salamanca’s thoughts from chapter 18, pg. 113). All throughout the chapter, you get hints such as this one which pretty much say that Salamanca thinks he’s a respectable guy, but not an outstanding character. As you can see, Scout worships her father, while Salamanca only respects hers.

Another difference between the two characters, Scout and Salamanca, is their upbringing. Scout was raised as a tomboy. She beat up people she didn’t like, wore overalls, and hated dresses. A quote that illustrates this from To Kill aA Mockingbird states, “She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl.” (Scout’s thoughts from Chapter 12, pg. 124) Scout knows that she is a girl, but she hasn’t been brought up to act like it. Salamanca, on the other hand, never had that problem and grew up as a normal girl. Sal has long hair, so in Walk Two Moons, Salamanca thought, “Everyone kept touching my hair...”(Salamanca’s thoughts from Chapter 3, pg. 12) If Sal had been like Scout, she would never have tolerated that.

These two different characters do have some similarities though. For example, both were were expected to be brave. Scout was expected to be brave by her family. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout’s father said, "It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do." (Atticus from Chapter 11, pg. 106) In this excerpt, Atticus is telling Scout that sometimes you have to be brave and do dangerous things. Likewise, for Salamanca, everybody seemed to look to her for bravery. A quote that illustrates this from Walk Two Moons follows. “All around the room, people were acting as if I had single-handedly taken on a fire-breathing dragon.” (Salamanca’s thought’s from Chapter 3, pg. 14) In this passage, Salamanca takes care of a bug that is terrorizing the class. Salamanca doesn’t let fear get in the way of common sense, which makes her brave. Both Scout and Salamanca are very brave characters.


While both Scout and Salamanca are brave, both of these characters have their differences. Scout and Salamanca are different in how they feel about their fathers and in the style of their upbringing as girls. Even though they are different, they are still both really strong, stoic girls raised by their fathers. I liked the books, Walk Two Moons and To Kill A Mockingbird.

Factory Teens: The Thinking Dilemma

Most of us have by now heard the opinion that the current generation of kids are becoming a mindless generation. We act and think like we're off an assembly line. We all do virtually the same types of things, eat the same types of food, wear the same types of clothes, etc. But what about the people responsible for the creation of these factory-kids? In today's factories (in the U.S.), who is it that usually makes the goods? Normally, it's a machine, programmed to do only a couple of things. In fact, the number of machines in a factory usually outnumber the human beings by a vast majority. This is the world that adults have created for us. So lets, as factory teens, take a good look at our creators...the robot adults. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be disrespectful to adults, I'm just simply pointing out that the reason that we aren't being individual is because the adults in our lives aren't acting any differently. Recently at school, with all the End Of Level testing going on, I'm seeing more and more examples to support this theory. For example, this year in my English class, we have just started the Romeo and Juliet unit. As a part of the unit, we were supposed to learn a dance. It was a dance that was actually created a couple hundred years AFTER Shakespeare's time. While we were in the circle learning the dance, I asked the teacher,"Why are we doing this? Is there any point behind it?" My teacher then rounds on me and says curtly,"I don't know, just do it." I doubt very much that my teacher even thought for a couple of seconds about what to say to me when I asked her that, and that is exactly the problem that I have with adults these days. I'm not even going to pretend to have an idea on how the adults ended up this way, but it has happened.

You don't believe me that adults are responsible for the mindless teen generation? Well, take a look outside and tell me how many kids over the age of 5-6 you see actually playing. Think back to the stories that all the senior citizens tell you about how when they were 9 years old, they'd build tree houses and act out Robin Hood or something else like that. Now you don't even see very many 9 year olds doing that kind of thing, let alone teens. The reason that kids are like this is because adults are like this. With mass media and instant communication, impressionable kids are given the example of how to go through life like a mindless drone. Kids try to mimic the adult world of being overscheduled and no time to think for themselves. It's a well known fact that kids try to do the things their parents do, and if you're a mindless drone, chances are the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

In my geography class, we are learning about South Africa and the Apartheid. We recently watched and learned about Stephen Biko, a revolutionary black man who helped changed South Africa. While watching a the movie called Cry Freedom, a quote that Steve Biko said jumped out at me. It was,"Change the way people think and things will never be the same." This bit of wisdom is like a two-edged sword; it can move to cut down your enemies, or it can cut you down. If you change the way people think, which in this case is by turning people into mindless drones, then you come out with a braindead population and a easily manipulated society. Is this what we, as Americans, want?

Night at the Museum

My trip to the Museum of Natural History was a fun, little adventure. When I had been in elementary school I had gone there on a field trip. So basically, the entire time I was there this time, I was trying to remember things from the last time I had been there. It didn’t work, which is okay because if I had, I probably would have rushed the trip and not learned what I did learned.

The reason that I chose to go to the Museum of Natural History was because my family had an annual membership there. My sister had her birthday party there and my parents bought a membership to save money. This means that we can all get in there for free and in the effort of saving money, I decided to do my field trip for free.

As I walked into the Museum of Natural History, I immediately noticed the glass cases at the front of the museum. Some of the artifacts were interesting and I looked at them for a little while, but I never read the little plaques that they held. I then went into the room on the left hand side of the front desk. This was the area of the museum where they had their ancient man and Native American exhibits. Of all the areas in the entire museum, this was probably my least favorite. I’ve always respected my forebearers and I think it is really amazing and cool that they could survive the rough conditions of the untamed world. At the same time however, I find the exact details of how and why they were able to do this a bit dull. That’s why I rarely read any of the plaques in this section of the museum.

My next stop in the museum was the animal life section. This area was slightly more interesting and I read a lot of the plaques. This area also partly extended upstairs and to the right. However, because my preschool sister, Silly(name has been changed), was there, she found this spot to be the least interesting and put a time restraint on being there. Outside of that display is where I found my favorite exhibit on the first floor. It was a little, old-fashioned telephone booth which you could go into, pick up the telephone, and hear nature sounds through the phone. My sister and I enjoyed it a lot.

Next we went upstairs to where my favorite part of the museum was. In the Rocks and Minerals section they had a gigantic, glass case in which there must have been a million billion rocks and minerals. They then explained the formation of rocks, what minerals were, and how to tell a rock from a mineral. They even showed you the atomic patterns of the different rocks and minerals. My all time favorite part of the museum was the decay meter where you pressed a button over different rocks and it spat out a static sound. The static sound would tell you the decay rate of a rock!

The next section that I went to had all the prehistoric dinosaur stuff, along with the creation of the world and Earth’s history. This was especially interesting because of the fact that we just learned most of this in science class. After looking through this section, I decided that I had seen enough and after a brief stop at the gift shop (where I bought nothing whatsoever) I decided to go home. Even though I enjoyed this museum, I probably won’t enjoy going there again until I forget everything about it for the second time.

Utah House

I decided that I was going to do the field trip project for my term project. So I went to the Utah House. The Utah House is an ecology safe modern marvel. It is a really expensive and modernized house that keeps up with all the modern trends, yet it’s still environmentally friendly and energy conservant.

The Utah House was built by Utah State University as the forerunner to their big botanical gardens project. The location of the Utah House, Kaysville, was chosen because it is a nice, little, town smack dab in the middle of Ogden and Salt Lake City. USU decided to build this $600,000+ house because they wanted to show the people of Utah that you can have everything from a normal, not so eco-friendly house put in an eco-friendly house. However, USU does not expect you to upgrade everything in your house. This would cost untold amounts of money which the average Joe doesn’t have. They do encourage you to take advantage of various features- some are inexpensive features. These range from innovative shading of windows, to underground pipe AC systems.

Since the Utah House is so eco-friendly, how does it get its power? Well, that’s a split answer. The Utah House is mostly powered by solar energy. Solar energy is a very clean, abundant energy source. Solar energy is energy that is projected from the sun. The two biggest problems with solar energy are, one, the inconsistency of it, and two, the inability of storing it. Even though one second of its energy is enough to power the entire U.S. for 90,000 years, only a small fraction of that energy gets to Earth’s troposphere. So on a really cloudy day, the solar panels, which are the devices which convert sun energy into electrical energy, pick up next to no usable energy from the sun. Second, even though solar energy is extremely useful, it cannot be stored. If the sun’s energy is not directed somewhere immediately, it is lost. For these reasons, the Utah House is also hooked up to the Davis County Electrical system, so that it can receive extra help if necessary. Because it must sometimes use this kind of energy, the Utah House uses only low power items, like fluorescent bulbs. These, while expensive, have a really long lifetime expectancy and flood the house with as much light as possible.

Now I’ll tell about my personal favorite feature in the house, the underground AC system. Because the surface of the crust reflects most of the thermal energy that it comes in contact with, the sub-levels of earth stay pretty much the same temperature all year round. So, knowing this, some genius inventor decided to stick some pipes underground. Then, all he had to do was get the air pumping through, where it would enter the ground and be either cooled or heated by the surrounding ground. This reliable AC system would keep your house at the same range of temperatures throughout the year. Best of all about this amazing contraption is that it is actually cheaper and more cost effective than a regular AC system.

Personally, I liked touring the Utah House. It has also given me more options to consider when I get old enough to build my own house. I probably wouldn’t go there in my free time or bring my date there for a tour, but it was still good enough to get a decent recommendation from me.

Candy Canes

I think it's safe to say that we all have foods that we really love. For the majority of people, such a food item might be chocolate (milk chocolate). I'm a little different from the majority of people, my favorite thing to eat is a candy cane (original peppermint flavor). This is a kind of shocking revelation for some people for a couple of reasons. One, how many people do you know with a favorite food of candy canes? Two, I think that my entire family's favorite food has something to do with chocolate. And lastly, candy canes are a seasonal treat. Which means that you can't just go to your local grocery store whenever you want and buy them. Oh well, I guess I'm just different from the rest of the world.

Have you ever had a favorite food get tested by another really delicious food that may or may not become your newest favorite? Of course you have! But then, have you ever had your faith in a tasty treat tested by something outside of another food? I think that is a less common occurrence. Yet, with my unlimited luck (I'm being sarcastic there), that's exactly what happened to me. I prefer to call the entire ordeal the Candy Cane Disaster. The events happened as follows...

I was in seminary one morning during the second term. I had walked in and sat down in my seat. At first the class went along normally, and after the devotional was over, I stood up, said my bit, and went back to my desk. Then, Brother Blank says the a kid in the class brought candy canes to seminary to celebrate Christmas being soon. I, loving candy canes so much, took my share and immediately tore off the wrapper to start eating it. Because, for some reason, some people don't like peppermint flavor, there was a lot of candy canes being passed around that no one seemed to want. So, by the end of the class, I had collected three or four candy canes and was happily enjoying life. What I didn't know, was that because I hadn't had breakfast, the four candy canes were too much sugar for my system to handle. About halfway through third period, the class right after seminary, I had nothing but sugar energizing my body. THIS IS VERY BAD. I quickly discovered that having sugar in such quantity is one, very bad for your body, and two, very bad for your citizenship grade. I don't know how to describe the misery that I must have caused in that class that day, but I do know that that was the only time I had ever gotten a red mark in geography. I continued on such a course for the next two periods until I crashed. I pretty much slept through the next couple of classes (which didn't improve how I did in class). So that's my candy cane story...weird, huh?

The Danger of Fun

I recently discovered that skiing is a very dangerous activity. It's really fun and all and I know going down a hill with a forty-five percent grade gives you a thrill like none other. But, how many of you know that while skiing down a hill of just snow, you can slice your knee open so bad you need stitches? Well, I didn't...that is, until this year.

My adventure started a couple of weeks ago, when the ski resorts were still open. My dad and I decided that we were going to go skiing the week before the Wolf Mountain Ski Resort closed. So, we get ready and head to Wolf Mountain around 5 pm for an evening of night skiing. About one hour later we arrive, strap on our skis, and head up the mountain. We go down a couple of beginner runs so that we can get in the groove of skiing. Then we go to try some of the intermediate routes. I have almost mastered those. In fact, I was planning on going on some of the black diamonds for my very first time that day.

My dad is a good skier too. He can handle himself on the slopes pretty well. He's a pretty hardy guy too. Unfortunately, the mountain seemed to be against him that day. It was almost as if it was trying to kill him. Every once in a while, for like no reason at all, his skis would come out from underneath him. The weather was against him, too. The snow wasn't very good. It was either extremely slushy or extremely icy. Neither one of those are very good for skiing. The perfect skiing snow is the stuff in the middle. Anyway, so we were going down this somewhat hard hill that we had just discovered. My dad was having an especially hard time and fell once or twice on that run alone. I was having a less difficult time, but it was still pretty hard. So we made it onto the main path and decided to stop at the lodge to grab a bite to eat. Taking the main path, we headed down the now easy hill.

This is the part that is really confusing to me. I decided to go fast, so I sped down the hill as fast as I could. My dad likes to take things slower and by the time I got to the bottom he was about midway down. In any case, I reach the bottom and look back just in time to see my dad make an especially bad fall. (To this day, neither of us have any clue what happened to actually make him fall.) His skis are off and he goes and gets them. Then he continues down the mountain like nothing is wrong. When he reaches the bottom of the mountain he explains to me about the fall and says it scratched his knee and he is going to put a band-aid on it from the car. I decided to wait in the lodge for him to get done. So, for the next five or so minutes, I stay in the lodge.

I get bored. When I go outside to the car to see what's taking him so long, I find he has mysteriously disappeared! I spend the next five to ten minutes exploring the lodge looking for him. I was about to go talk to the lodge staff when one of them approaches me and says,"Are you Moe Joe?" I tell him yes and he says,"Follow me." All the while I'm thinking that this must be a mistake. I didn't do anything wrong. My dad didn't do anything. So where am I going? We end up going to the first aid room, were one of the doctors just finished putting a gauze pad on my dads knee and taping it on. Apparently that scratch was a little more than a scratch. My dad had a huge wound to the knee caused by the ski blade. I then learned that my dad would need to go to the hospital to get stitches. That night he had 13 stitches. Sounds fun, huh?

Grrrrrr, Siblings!

OK, before I get anywhere in this I'd like to just clarify the title. I do NOT dislike my siblings. I'm actually glad that I've got them. (One reason being that if they weren't there I'd be expected to do a lot more around the house.) No, what I meant with the title is that sometimes they can try to pull annoying little phases of irritatingly weirdness on you. Know what I mean?

Like today, my brother got a new game. I had decided that I was going to invite a friend over to go to a BYU Ballroom Dance performance down in Provo. Well, my seventh grade brother decides that he won't let my friend touch the new game during his brief stay at my house. Now, I don't really care about his stupid game, I've already got a game better than his anyway, but I'm one of those people who are all about the principle of "why"*. So I asked him. He then goes on to explain that the reason is because he thinks that my friend is a nerd. Then, pretty much mid-sentence, he say's that my friend isn't a nerd, but a geek. And that's not even the end of it! A little while later he has completely abandonedthe idea of my friend being a geek, and say's that he's just weird. So I ask him, slightly indignantly, "Why do you say that?" He couldn't even give me a half-decent answer! His reasoning was along the lines of, "He just is," or, "Because." Not a very solid response. Nothing bugs me more than a unsolid response to a question.

When you accuse someone or something of something, I believe you'd better have a really good reason to the question, "Why?" Otherwise, your argument is a waste of breath. So, even though I don't intend on playing his game anyway, I argue away with that kid. Finally, realizing that it's pointless to argue with me, as it almost always is, he relents.

I still don't plan on us playing that game...unless my friend wants to play it, but that isn't a terribly likely scenario. Siblings are really weird, huh? I can't even begin to imagine the time that I would've done something like that. I probably did though. Maybe I still do...I don't know. I can't actually remember! So... I will write myself one of those challenges (and hopefully remember to keep it) to devote myself to never being a complete and utter idiot.

*Actually, this is only the case in instances when there are no bad consequences for me. For example, if the principle that I want to debate is a federal, state, city, household or public office law or rule, I will try not to askwhy, because I hate getting in trouble.

Book Report on DragonFire

The book that I chose to read is called DragonFire by Donita K. Paul. The book takes place in the land of Amara, a fictitious world of dragons and magic. The two main characters in the book are Kale and Bardon. Kale is a Dragon Keeper from a slave village, someone who is attached mentally to dragons so that she is able to commune with them. She’s about 19 years of age and married to Bardon. She is a very kind, gentle and compassionate person, but is not afraid to defend herself. Bardon is a knight of Paladin and uses his skill of fighting and clever intellect to lead the forces of Paladin against the evils of Burner Stox, Crim Cropper, and Pretender. He is about 20 years old and married to Kale. I think that the main conflicts in this book are Kale trying to overcome her feelings of awkwardness around her father, who she just barely got to know and Bardon’s conflict with pride.

This is the fourth book in the series and continues to describe Kale Allerion’s journeys in the land of Amara. In the previous books, Kale, Bardon, Dar, Leetu, and others join forces to stop the evil wizard Risto’s plot to take over the world. They find and hatch a Meech dragon, Regidor, and undermine Risto’s own Meech dragon, Gilda, turning her on their side. They end the journey with a final battle, and the wizard Risto is destroyed. Risto’s minions, Burner Stox and Crim Cropper, now become the split up Risto’s armies. While Kale and Bardon are searching for their families, they have to avoid getting captured by the evil minions.

In this book, Kale and Bardon are married, and are reunited with their families. Evil, however, has not yet been vanquished. Bisonbecks, one of the low races which are the typical warriors of Burners Stox and Crim Cropper, are burning and plundering the countyside. Kale and Bardon are called to Paladin’s castle for a meeting and are given tasks for the upcoming battles between Burner Stox, Crim Cropper and Pretender (who is another force of evil). Kale is to be sent with her father, Kemry, a fellow Dragon Keeper, to find and recruit dragons for the battle. Bardon is sent to prepare the rest of Paladin’s forces for the battle against evil. During Kale and Kemry’s search for dragons they meet up with Burner Stox, and through a complete coincidence of circumstances, defeat her, find her dragons and recruit them, sending them to Bardon for the battle with Crim Cropper. Bardon successfully prepares his men for battle and Crim Cropper is defeated, but with much loss for the good guys.

The main theme of the book is the same in all four of the books in the entire series. It is about family. Throughout the entire book there were instances with Kale and her father, learning how to be a productive and close family. There was a part in DragonFire where Kale and her father were both almost killed because they didn’t have any experience working as a family.

I loved the book, DragonFire. This is actually my favorite series of all time. It’s totally fantasy, which is my favorite genre. It also doesn’t do an overkill amount of descriptive detail, which I think would ruin the book. It’s got a really good plot line because the author doesn’t have to make up a new crisis every single time because she slowly draws out the existing crisis through the series. I think that the only way anyone could not like DragonFire is if they absolutely despised fantasy literature.

Revenge in Great Expectations

Great Expectations is a story about the life of Phillip Pirrup, more commonly known as Pip. He transforms from a blacksmith’s apprentice into a gentleman because of an unknown benefactor. Though the book has several themes and lessons to be learned, I believe that the main theme is about revenge and all of its destructiveness. The passage that follows is an early foreshadowing of the theme. Herbert Pocket says this during Pip’s first visit to his house:

I don’t say no to that, but I meant Estella. That girl’s hard and haughty and capricious to the last degree, and has been brought up by Miss Havisham to wreak revenge on all the male sex. (Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations Ch.22, pg.186)

In this passage, Pip is asking for information on Miss Havisham, who he believes is his unknown benefactor, and Estella, the girl whom he admires and wants to impress. Herbert gives him the information, which should be a warning to Pip. It was intended to be a warning, but Pip doesn’t listen to the advice. This is an important passage in the book because the book has been dropping hints that Miss Havisham is using Estella as revenge, but this is the first time Dickens has it stated outright.

One reason to support that Estella is meant to wreak revenge on men is when Herbert tells you her characteristics. Up until this point, there has only been enough evidence to support that Estella was “hard and haughty and capricious” to Pip, but she may have acted different around other company. In this passage it clearly tells that she is “hard and haughty and capricious” to everyone.

Dickens has the character, Herbert, describe how Estella is a stuck-up and unloving person. The phrase “to the last degree” would imply that Estella is incapable of any compassion because she is so completely consumed by Miss Havisham’s revenge. The words “hard and haughty and capricious” are very descriptive of Estella’s personality. They give you a close picture of how she acts. Dickens also makes good use of alliteration in this passage by the phrases “hard and haughty” and “wreak revenge.”

The tone of the passage is informative and friendly. Herbert was telling Pip this as a warning. Herbert is trying to prevent Pip from being hurt by revenge. The way the character Herbert stated the passage leaves no alternate interpretations. I suppose it is all a matter of opinion that Estella is the way she is, but the way Herbert said it in the passage doesn’t leave much, if any, room to disagree. He states it as fact and I’d assume that he would only have said it this way if he had been sure that he wasn’t the only person with that conclusion.

This quoted passage supports an overall theme of the novel- revenge. This is because one of the main plots throughout Great Expectations is how Estella, because of being raised a “hard and haughty” girl by Miss Havisham, is incapable of loving anybody. Miss Havisham had been hurt by her fiance and so she lives out her life in revenge to the world, but especially to men. Estella’s coldness ends up hurting many people emotionally, including Pip and even Miss Havisham herself. It is she who was responsible for Estella ending up like that. Miss Havisham, having been hurt by her own tool of revenge, realizes her mistake, and is extremely distraught.

Revenge never gets you anywhere. This book is only one of many books to have repeated that message. Still, our world today continues to revolve around many things and one of them is revenge. With a world in which revenge is such a large factor, the novel, Great Expectations, is still a great reminder to us of the danger that you risk by participating in revenge.

Sad, But True!

Well, Third term is over! We're on the home stretch of fourth term. Has anyone noticed, but this school year has gone by so fast? Why? This has been the only school year that I've wished could've gone a little bit slower because next year the ninth grade gets split. Is it because I want it to go slower that it goes faster? I've given up trying to find the answer to that particular mystery.

I've noticed in myself that as the school year goes on, it becomes harder and harder to blog about something. It's not that I'm running out of ideas to blog about! I've got plenty of those. It's just that as the year rolls on, I find myself not writing nearly as much as I was at the beginning. I'm not sure if it's because I'm feeling like I don't have the time or if I'm just stressed about school. Has anyone else come across these "writer's blocks"?

The Infamous "Flu"...with a little Bubonic Plague.

I just never seem to get better. A week ago I had "The Black Plague" (actually, it was Shingles)... this week I have Influenza. As a result, I've completely given up any hope of being a total optimist(which I wasn't ever all that good at anyway because I was always too skeptical.) Instead, I figure that I should continue down the much more effective role of sarcastic optimist. That way my disappointment will hopefully be less disappointing...but who knows? Anyway, my week has been terrible. I hereby state that if you want to be freezing and burning to the extreme at the exact same time, you should get the "Flu". If it doesn't kill you first, you'll find out just how miserable that experience is. So, if any of you start feeling really bad about this time, you might want to go see your local doctor and maybe book a spot for yourself at the morgue...O.K., it isn't that bad. Not that any of you at school should worry about catching it at school. I knew it was possible that I would get it because my brother had it, so I distanced myself and warned most everybody. See, I DO care! Anyway, since I've got nothing better to lecture you on, I might as well "knowledgify" you all on Influenza.

O.K., so the flu dates back two thousand four hundred years, maybe even longer, in Italy. The Italians, known at that time as the Hippocrates, were the first ever to recognize the symptoms of the "Flu", and named it Influence, which has since changed to Influenza. However, the first proven epidemic of the flu was in the 1500's. It started from Asia and came from there to Europe. The next major flu epidemic was dated in the late 1800's and titled as the "Russian Flu". Unfortuanely, next to nothing is known about it, other than approximately 1 million people died. This lack of information was likely due to a lack of organization in Russia at the time.

The next "Flu" epidemic was the infamous "Spanish Flu", which was by far the most deadly of all the flu epidemics. It was dated at 1918-1919, right smack dab at the end of World War I. The close quarters of the soldiers and the intercontinental transporting of troops provided a perfect spreading opportunity for the virus. It killed approximately 25 million people in its first 25 weeks and overall killed 50-100 million more people. This was a very strange flu epidemic. Not only did it have an unusually high death toll among its victims, but it seemed to spread exceedingly fast and was more contagious than other strains. It also had hemorrhagic properties. This version of Influenza hit almost every part of the globe and equaled the death toll of the Bubonic Plague. Although Influenza didn't kill 90% of everyone who got it like the Bubonic Plague did, Influenza had a much longer period where a person did not yet shown symptoms but was already contagious. This allowed for a all together larger number of people to get it over a much longer time. The Bubonic Plague however, killed its victims so fast that as soon as it reached Europe's boundaries, there weren't enough masses of people to keep it alive.

Anyway, I hope you learned something about Influenza and didn't fall asleep! So, get a flu shot before the flu spreads to you. At least wash your hands a lot.

German Bombers of World War II

This is the longest piece of writing that I've ever written....ENJOY!


It's a calm, quiet day on May 21, 1940. A little boy on the beach listens to the beating of waves and the excited rippling of water. Then, in the dead calm, a noise is heard. What is it? It gets louder, louder, and then, a huge screeching noise. Other people, grown-ups, are yelling. BOOM! Bright light flashes as explosions light up the sandy beach. People are screaming, lights flash for brief moments, and then calm. The noise fades out leaving only the moaning of the dying and the sight of the dead. The once bustling town is in ruins when the German troops finally come in. Nobody left alive has the strength or resources to resist.

Many towns, such as this one, have experienced such devastation. What caused it? Airplanes - in particular, bombers. As I was reading a book on World War II, I read that bombers were a very essential part of World War II. I said to myself, "Why is that? What, besides the ability to fly, could have made these metal monsters so formidable?" I knew that bombers were used in both sides of the war and I knew that the Germans were eventually repulsed. But what part did they play in the war? With these questions in mind, I've decided to look into World War II bombers and how they became so important. First, I needed to do some research. I went to the library and studied some of the World War II books. Then, at the computer lab, I found a couple of websites and thoroughly read through them. These are the results of my search.

There are three main types of bombers: light, medium and heavy. There are also torpedo and commando classes, but there are only one or two types of plane in each class. Light bombers are the fastest types of bombers. They don't carry a very heavy bomb load, but they are more effective at traveling long distances. Heavy bombers travel at slower speeds and are more easily caught by enemy aircraft, but that's only if they survive getting bombed first. They carry between 3000 and 6000 pounds of disposable cargo (a.k.a. bombs), whereas light bombers carry only 1000 to 2000 pounds. Then, there are medium bombers. Medium bombers are a mix between the two. They aren’t super fast, and their bomb load ranges from 2000 to 4000 pounds of cargo. Torpedo bombers are sea-based bombers that specialize on boats. Commando planes usually were intended for one-item drops (Wikipedia). Those aren’t the only methods of classifying bombers either. There is another common way: level bombers and tactical (or dive) bombers. Level bombers are very dangerous to infantry troops. They just fly in a straight line and drop their bombs. Tactical bombers are very different. Instead of flying over the target, they come crashing down on the target, pulling up and releasing a bomb at the same time. It tends to do more damage in a smaller area. This has made it extremely well-suited for attacking armored vehicles (Air). In my opening scenario, I believe that those bombers were probably level, medium bombers. Level bombers did more widespread damage, which made them ideal for cities and towns. It depended on the size of the city being bombed if a heavy or medium bomber was used. If it was a large, relatively undefended city, a heavy bomber was used. If it was big and heavily defended or a smaller city, a medium bomber was used (Jablonsk). Light bombers generally went after the soldiers or performed armed recon. I also learned that World War II bombers usually belonged to one of three main airforces: the RAF (Royal Air Force), the Luftwaffe (the German Air Force), or the USAF (United States Air Force). Of the three, the German Luftwaffe was the most advanced, had the most skill, and were the most feared. The only advantage that the RAF and USAF had on the Germans was that they could replace every man that the Germans shot down, and the Germans couldn’t (Wikipedia).

During World War II the German Luftwaffe always had the upper hand in battles. Since before the war, in 1935, the Germans had better aircraft. Bombers and fighters alike were more advanced than pretty much any other country. The German Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Junkers Ju 87 are examples of their early air superiority. Then, as the war rolled on, they started producing better and more revolutionary aircraft such as the Junkers Ju 88 and Messerschmitt Bf 110. The Junkers Ju 88 was rolled into hurried production as a heavy bomber because of the Germans first real defeat on the British Isles. This defeat was because of a the lack of heavy bombers weakening the ground resistance. The Bf 109 was an extraordinary airplane. It was originally designed as a fighter, but it soon turned into a multi-role aircraft. It soon became the Bf 110, which was kind of like an extremely light bomber, only carrying a couple hundred pounds of cargo. But along with strafing (which actually worked very well against enemy vehicles), it became one of the most deadly semi-bombers of the war. The Germans kept air superiority throughout the war, and when the war was in its final stages, the German Luftwaffe was using the Heinkel He 162, and Messerschmitt 262, both fighters. Most bomber production was given up because they were now on the defensive. The Germans now focused on anti-bomber aircraft. The Messerschmitt 262 was especially effective with this because it now had the ability to shoot down allied bombers, which were becoming much more effective. They were also jet powered, which allowed them to outrun almost any other aircraft. Unfortunately, even with their superior technology, the Germans lacked sufficient numbers, which contributed to their loss of the war (Jablonsk).

The German Luftwaffe’s bombers weren’t usually heavily armed. This would prevent the bombers from getting annihilated but also slow them down considerably and reduce their payload. The Junkers Ju 87’s and 88’s usually were not armed except with the occasional wailing siren that caused extensive fear for their enemies. However, the later models that were used in the war as the Luftwaffe was being pushed back were armed with heavy cannons to prevent them from being destroyed by the increasing number of enemy fighters. The main bomber of the war was the myth of the “Stuka”, more commonly know as the Junkers Ju 87 dive-bomber. The Ju 87 got the name “Stuka” from the German word for dive-bomber, Sturzkampfflugzeug (Wikipedia). While sturdy, accurate and effective, a few flaws, including being slow and somewhat unmaneuverable, allowed many of its number to be shot down. This taught the Germans that air superiority had to be accomplished before they brought in the Stukas. Because air-superiority could not be effectively established in Britain, the Stuka was not used there after one, first, disastrous attempt at invasion. After its defeat in Britain, the Stuka’s fame was ruined, and the model of the Luftwaffes bomber core was ruined as well (Einsteins Emporium, Air).

The bombers of Luftwaffe during early World War II were first used during the invasion of Poland. They were mainly Junkers Ju 87 “Stukas” and were highly effective. Their first real success was in the Battle of Bzura, when the Poles were threatening to break the German lines and set the Germans back prematurely. During the ensuing battle, the Stukas managed to destroy the bridges across the river, stranding the Polish forces out in the open. The Poles were then subject to four days of extensive bombing. Poland fell shortly after and the Luftwaffe turned to Norway and Denmark. Denmark, having only eighty-nine combat planes compared to the Luftwaffe’s five hundred twenty-seven, put up minimal resistance and German air-superiority was established in twenty-four hours. Norway, however, put up more of a battle. However, after the first day of fighting, their air strength fell by twenty to only fifty-four combat planes. As the Luftwaffe continued to invade, they began to encounter heavy resistance and the Germans failed to destroy some anti-ship batteries, which led to the sinking of a German destroyer. However, the Germans still had air-superiority and Norway surrendered in June of 1940. The Luftwaffes next targets were in Belgium and France. The France and Belgium campaigns only lasted about a month with considerable losses for the Luftwaffe, but devastating losses for the French and Dutch. France was totally unprepared for the German Stukas and their trenches that they’d prepared were mostly useless. Britain was siding with the French but they soon decided to cut their losses and pull out so that they could resist Germany’s impending invasion on their country. When these countries were won, Britain became their next target. Göring, the commander of the Luftwaffe, got a little overconfident, and sent in his troops. Unfortunately, the Luftwaffe was not meant for this kind of long-range attack. As a result, the Germans suffered heavy losses and caused Göring to reevaluate his strategy. When the Luftwaffe came back, they were better prepared and the Luftwaffe was soon bombing RAF airfields. Britain was weakening fast and if Hitler had not switched his troops to terror bombing cities, the RAF Fighter Command would have been irreversibly crushed. Or, as Air Marshal Sir Robert Saundby said, "...had the Germans persisted in their policy for another fortnight the result would have been disastrous for Fighter Command."(Wikipedia) Fighter Command soon regained momentum however and managed to push back the Germans. This was the first major defeat for the Luftwaffe. Soon after the German invasion of the USSR, the Germans bomber core took a backseat as the Germans started to get pushed back.(Wikipedia, Jablonsk)

What part did the German Luftwaffes’ bombers play in the war? Well, they seem to have caused a lot of terror and damage. I’ve also come to the conclusion that it was due to the bombers that Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium and many other countries all fell to the Germans so quickly. I don’t believe that the Germans could have expanded their empire as far without the Luftwaffe. Even though World War II was a time of terror, it’s kind of awesome that a country could’ve advanced their air machines to the point were they could almost take over an entire continent. This has impressed upon me the importance of bombers and given me a new respect for flying machines.

Nuking

On my post, Terrorists, Jojo posted a comment. It was about how in her geography class some kid said that we should nuke the entire Middle East and save ourselves a lot of problems. As Jojo brought up, that's just wrong, it's murder. However, that isn't the gist of it. It goes much deeper than just murdering a bunch of innocent Middle Easterners.

There are plenty of people in the U.S. who either are not bothered by murder like they should be, or they don't view Middle Easterners as human. So if it was just a matter of murder, I'm pretty sure it would've already become a major issue.

I think that one of the main reasons we don't even consider nuking the Middle East is because of China and plenty of the other countries in Asia. We depend economically on China for a lot of our goods. Take a good look at the map.

Look at how close China is to Middle East. Quite close actually. In fact, if we nuked the Middle East, nuclear radiation would probably reach into some of China. Not to mention, China is friends with some of those countries. They have defensive pacts and such with many of them. So by nuking the Middle East, even if they didn't care about the nuclear fallout entering their country, they'd have to declare war on us. If it was just China, we'd probably give them just as much damage as they'd give us, but it isn't. China would bring in several other countries. We can't take on all of them. Not to mention we wouldn't have any allies. If we decided to nuke the Middle East, all the European nations would back off, do economic sanctions, and pretend they never knew us. So if anyone ever says Hey, why don't we just nuke them. Tell them how stupid and dumb they are. Nuking anyone never helped anyone. What makes them think it's going to start now?

"Nobody ever wins a war, they just don't lose as badly."-My Dad

Terrorists

This semester I'm taking the second semester of geography. Right now we're learning about the Middle East. So, as you can imagine, there have been many suicide bomber jokes and "All Muslims are terrorists" comments. Sadly, I've actively participated in them in the past. I know I probably shouldn't have, but I did. So that's why I'm writing this blog. Because I want to prove that I actuallydo know that terrorists aren't all Muslim, and vice versa.

So starting out, a background on the Middle East. A lot of what we know of the early history of the area comes from the Bible, but many historians don't like it because it's "religious". All throughout history, in the Middle East, mainly near Jerusalem and Medina, there have been wars between different people. This is because of two reasons. One, there where some pretty impressive, and largely expanding empires in the olden days. Like the Roman Empire, who thought that they were so civilized, and that it was their duty to make everyone else civilized too! Second, there were the really religious wars like the Crusades. The Crusades are amazing! I'll probably write a whole separate blog on them. (See, I even give you readers something to look forward to! Aren't I such a nice person?) Over the course of the centuries, many religions have popped up from this area. Each has made its mark history, and cause problems for the existing religion.

So, it's basically it's the religions' fault that we have so many problems today. When the government of the time tried to exterminate or make life hard for the people of different religions, they didn't kill everybody, that would only feed the anger of the religion into growing larger. This has happened repeatedly for many religions and we now have two main types of Muslims, Judaisim, a few Christians, and several other faiths. And because the other religions have all, at some point, tried to wipe each other out, they've held grudges. The governments never helped, in fact, they've done the complete opposite. The governments are dominated by single religion and because of an inability to move out of the past, have held immense grudges and caused even more mayhem.

When a government like the U.S. then comes in to help, it makes some of the radicals of the country jealous of not being able to be like us because of their hard-hearted stubborness. (I might add that I think we're a very lucky country to have wise leaders such as Pres. Bush, who don't hold such grudges.) The radicals then focus on everything that the U.S. does, and, if we mess up, even a little, they get even more enraged and determined that they're right, and we're wrong.

But not everyone in that area are radical terrorists. In fact, the numbers of radical terrorists are about one tenth of the normal citzens. The reason we don't normaly hear this kind of thing though, is because the normal citzens don't go blowing up U.S. soldiers and bombing the innocent. In fact, most Middle Easterners live normal, and relatively safe lives. Many of the people in that area have the same likes, dislikes and goals as we do. They want to go to college and live a good life supporting a family. True, most of them are a different religion, but they aren't radical, 'all U.S. citizens must get nuked' kinds of people.

We seem very quick to forget that there are radicals in every religion like Hitler; Hitler was actually a Christian. Granted the Christians didn't like him and liked to pretend that he wasn't, but the truth is, he was. The terrorists are similar to Hitler, they give their area a bad name. In Hitlers reign, he created a very bad name for Germans, who, like the Middle Easterners, were mostly nice, innocent, yet terrified people.

"We live in a world of guns, bombs and terror. To conquer hate seems a nigh-impossible task." -Theodore Bikel

Team Building

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to a YM/YW retreat. It was for the presidencies of the youth in our ward. It was a really fun experience and quite spiritual, too. They had a million good points on how you can become a better person, but the one that was stessed the most was working as a team. So guess what? That's what I'm writing about!

First off, working as a team does NOT mean that you have to do everything together. Instead, you should look at teamwork as a bunch of people with a common goal. An example is during science, while you're doing a lab, notice how you can do things much more effectively and efficiently if you can delegate jobs. This way, you're not all doing the SAME thing at the SAME time. In a nutshell, you only need one person to do a small task, so if you have multiple people, you can do multiple tasks. Another example would be football, soccer, baseball or basketball. Everybody can't be holding onto the ball at the same time. On the other hand, sometimes there's a big task like lifting a giant box, which requires more than just one person in order to lift it. Then you work together.

At the retreat, I learned that the words, teamwork and delegate, build on each other. Teamwork means a cooperative or coordinated effort on the part of a group of persons acting together as a team or in the interests of a common cause or work done with a team. A great example would be construction, every worker's goal is to finish the house, but if they all worked alone, then they'd all be behind on their building timetables and nothing would get done. Delegate means to assign jobs to others to lighten the load. A really good example of delegating would be in baseball. You can't have everybody everywhere on the field, so the coach delegates the different bases and fielding positions.

So, if you think and ponder about these definitions, it leads you to the conclusion that in order to delegate, you need to work as a team. And in order to get things done effectively as a team, you NEED to learn how to delegate.

Dancing

Dancing is a really weird subject for me. Why? Because less than a year ago, you'd have to drag me there in a body bag to get me to go. Now is when those of you who know me are going: WHAT?!?!?!?!? Well, I guess that's one of the many ways I've changed. It's a kind of funny story really. It all started when I was blasting up evil zombie monkeys for the CIA. No, I'm kidding! It was really dumb actually, Marie Derigimore (or however you spell that insanely long name) really wanted me to go to one. So I did, and at first it wasn't so good but then along comes Border Walker. At this point in time I didn't really know him, but after a little while, I was just ROCKIN! So, really, most of the credit of my going to dances is due to Border Walker. So, if you read this, Border Walker, THANK YOU! And thank you, Marie Derigimore, for bugging me so much that I decided to go! Anyway, dancing has now become a defining factor in my life. Now, in order to KEEP me from going, you would have to shoot both my legs, give me an extremely large dose of tranqulizer, and then stuff me in a kevlar body bag! In fact, I'm going to a dance today! Yipee for me!

The Worst Plague Ever-Sickness

You know, sickness is a nightmare! Just when you think that life is at its very worst, sickness comes along and makes it that much worse! Seriously, how does it seem to know the very best times to make a bad situation worse? This week in school I had an AR contract, a math test, a web work and a news article all due on Friday! Due to the new term and the very little grades put into the computer, I now have some really terrible grades. Well guess what happened? No, I didn't go skiing. No, I didn't sluff! Yes, I did get sick!

Starting this Monday I hadn' t been feeling my best. I had a stomach ache and I was feeling kinda tired. But I decided that I'd continue going to school because it wasn't really all that bad. But this week I've been a little out of it and I haven't been doing as well as I probably could have, had I been well. So I kept deciding that, day after day, and I just got a little bit worse, day after day. Come Friday, my poor body was really hurting so I finally missed school- on the worst possible day.

Why do we all hate sickness? I think that it's because of school. If you think of it, it's kinda funny! We all talk about how much we dislike school and how we wish we didn't have to go to school. But when it comes down to it, none of us really want to miss it. We just say that because that's what you're supposed to say. Unless you don't care, missing school is nothing any of us want to do. Why? Because it ruins your grades. You could have an "A" in a class and you miss a day for such a reason as sickness and POW. Guess who doesn't have an "A"? It also makes you miserable. Suddenly, miserable. Like, go to bed fine at night and unable to get out of bed the next morning, suddenly miserable. So stay away from the terrors of sickness and keep healthy!

Time Demons-Religous?

I HATE time! (Yeah, I know that "hate" is a strong word but I'm trying to convey a strong point.) I dislike everything about it. When yoiu want it to go slow, what does it do? It speeds up! And just guess at what it decides to do when you want time to just fly by? It's like there is a little time demon who instinctively dislikes you, and he's been blessed with the power to see everything you ever do for the purpose of making your life as miserable as he possibly can. No...scratch that idea. I think Satan has millions of time devils that, as soon as we cross the veil, are assigned to us to make us as miserable as possible and weaken our defenses so he can crush us! And God lets it be that way as part of our test to see if we're worthy. Now you probably think I'm kidding, and I'm taking a lame stab at humor. Not so. I'm actually deadly serious. Now that I come to think of it, most crimes are a result of lying, which I've found in most cases to be because of a lack of time. Like when someone steals something it's usually because they didn't feel they had the time to earn it honestly. No, I'm not saying that everyone who has a tight schedule is going to end up robbing your local drug store. Just a few messed up, weak, weird people. So I challenge everybody who actually finished reading this to be strong!

BYU Ballroom

Today was the day of the BYU Ballroom Dance Company's performance. They were awesome! I would describe their amazing performance...but...well...I don't think that's possible. You would have had to have gone! Did anyone else go? There were two sessions: a 2:00 one which some of you may have heard endlessly about from Border Walker, and a 7:00 session. I went to the 7:00 show and it was an awesome way to end the day.

Religious Candidates

I recently read in an article that religion is becoming a major factor in this upcoming presidential race. Hilary Clinton, defying all odds, is actually going to church. Obama is making big statements about religion, Huckabee is a born-again Christian, and then we've got Mitt Romney, who is Mormon. In the article, it said a poll was taken to find out if people would vote more or less for candidates if they were a different religion. I'm happy to report that most people said they didn't care. I don't think that it should make a difference if you are one religion or another. I have met many people who are not Mormon, but uphold better standards than some or most Mormons. Why does the religion of a candidate mean so much to some people? Is it because you automatically assume that if a candidate is your religion they uphold your same values? I can't even begin to imagine that being the case. People should be able to figure these things out. For example, there are inactive and active Catholics. There are Mormons who go to R-rated movies and play M-rated video games while others believe in watching only PG movies and playing E-rated games. Instead of looking at the religion of a candidate, you should be looking at the moral standards and leadership abilities of all the candidates and assess each one. But hey, who ever listens to me?

Poetry

So who entered the poetry contest in first term? I did, and guess what?! I was chosen to be published in the anthology for young poets. I didn't think I was any good at writing poems! But, apparently, I am! I'm so happy because this is like one of the only contests that I didn't think I should win anything for and yet it seems to be the one that I'm doing the best at! Happiness! Maybe there were only a few people to enter though and thats why I got chosen........that's probably more likely.......but who cares? I'm still getting published! My sister who is eight also entered and is getting published, too. We are geniuses! We could probably take over the world! Anyway, this is what the poem looked like. It's a free verse, so if you expect every sentence to rhyme...you're going to be disappointed.

Dino Life
Dinosaurs are one of a kind,
With their stomping of feet
And their clashing of jaws.
They throw their heads back,
Way back,
And give a mighty ROAR!
They turn about
With a mighty bound
Dinosaurs off on a chase;
They hunt all day long
And then there's the test,
Of settling down for
A big night's rest.

Disappointment

Have any of you ever had one of those times when you were really impressed with how someone was and then they go and totally disappoint you? Say, for instance, (and this is just theoretical) your sibling is invited to the geography bee. Wouldn't you be really proud of them? Wouldn't you encourage them to do it? Of course, if you were a good brother or sister. Say they then throw away that opportunity by not even showing up. Wouldn't you be really disappointed in them? I mean, how short sighted is that? Extremely, huh. That's all I really wanted to rant about. It' s just that someone really close to me just threw away an amazing opportunity.

Persuasive Essay

This is an essay that I had for English Class. It's a persuasive essay with over one thousand words! That means this is the longest paper I've ever written.

Hands-On Museums
By Moe Joe


Imagine you are a Pharaoh of Egypt. What is it like? You can see an Egyptian Sphinx on the far side of the building. You walk toward it, then run. You’re almost there when, all of a sudden, “STOP”. A museum manager walks over and quietly tells you that you can’t touch anything. There is no touching in a museum. Is this fair? No. Museums really should make their experiences more hands-on. It would attract way more attention and money, would allow kids and adults to gain more experiences and best of all, it can be done without ruining any of the artifacts.

Museums would attract way more attention and make more money if they have more hands-on exhibits. Everyone likes attention. Businessmen want it to have million dollar corporations. School districts want it for the power it gives them over little (and big) children. Museums like attention, too. The more people they get to come in means the more money they get. Museums like admission and donation money because that’s how they get their artifacts and other things. The problem is that many museums don’t usually get enough of that kind of attention. An example would be the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures. It is a very small museum. Most people don’t even know it exists. But, the topic matter that they have could take up a building the size of the White House. Instead, they have their entire museum displayed in a building about the size of a normal classroom. There are almost no hands-on displays or activities. As a proof that a hands-on museum is the way to go, take Jamestown Settlement. The Jamestown Settlement in Virginia is one of the best museums I’ve seen that uses a hands-on approach to learn. It is also one of the most popular museums in Virginia. The building for it is about twice the size of our school and they still have enough money to employ full-time archeologists and the biggest museum staff I’ve ever seen. Its grounds are based like a amusement park with different sections that you can walk through and touch. They have all sorts of activities, like cannon demonstrations, and even let you walk on board the old-fashion style ships that they made at the museum. If that’s not good enough, they still have traditional exhibits for you to walk through, along with tours of the actual Jamestown site! This museum is so successful that they have as many ticket lines to get in as they have to get into Lagoon.

A hands-on approach of learning gives fun, great experiences for everyone to help them understand the past. In today’s world, machines do a lot of our work. This is good because it makes life easier on people and allows them to get more things done in a faster and usually more efficient way. It’s also a bad thing. It has given people a laid back and disrespectful view of the world. People don’t respect the ancient ways of their ancestors or show nearly as much respect for the great accomplishments of historic figures as they should. We’re like the Romans; we think that we’re civilized and look down on the unclean barbarians and the pagan Egyptians. In all actuality, we are probably less civilized than they were. They were kept humble by the land and had to work for everything they had, which wasn’t much. They were probably tougher than we are, too. The barbarians had to carry boulders large enough to crush the skulls of larger mammals and the Egyptians found ways to not only survive, but to build giant pyramids. Museums need to excite people about the past! According to psychologist Muneera Spence, 30% of the world are visual learners, 25% are auditory, and 45% are hands-on. Hands-on learning is more fun. The brain will look for fun things to associate with knowledge and giving a kinesthetic approach would be just the thing. When I was at the Nauvoo Family Living Center, they didn’t just list a bunch of facts about making candles, making ropes, or playing pioneer games. They let you try to do those activities yourself. And while I was at Jamestown, I got to hold an authentic musket. A hands-on museum not only provides better retention of knowledge but could teach lessons that are being forgotten in today’s world. A good hands-on museum will let you try to lift the barbarian’s boulders or try to write on a papyrus. You could learn how to do all these things while in a relatively safe environment.

The best part of the entire plan is that none of the historical artifacts need to be placed in any harm’s way. The museums won’t have to worry about any 2 million dollar artifacts being stolen or damaged because all of the hands-on exhibits can be made of plastic, wood, or other cheap material that factory machines can produce in a couple of seconds. It would still be just as educational because, as long as it is good quality, there won’t be much difference. Only they wouldn’t be as old and breakable. I’m not saying they should get rid of the real artifacts; they should still be displayed in protected cases. I’m just saying we should throw in some fun. Using fakes for interactive displays could also help kids make decisions on future archeological careers. My brother is a paleontologist volunteer and has received a liense allowing him to handle bones. They are extremely breakable and require long training to handle. As a result of his long training, he is the only person I know under eighteen who can prepare fossils. Maybe a lot of other people would like to do this but don’t have the opportunity. By practicing with less breakable, plastic bones, people can decide whether or not that sounds like any fun before they sign up for a course to do it. By practicing with fake items in a public museum before the real ones, it would reduce the risk of taking a class that you don’t want to do because it would give you a better idea of what that job actually did. Being able to experience things is important and having imitation artifacts for hand-on exhibits will help people have good experiences.

As I demonstrated, museums need to change to hands-on exhibits. Museums who use a hands-on approach are more successful because they attract more attention from the general public and make more money. They will provide both fun and educational experiences. People can learn old fashioned ways of life; they can feel them, not just look. Lastly, museum goers can have these great experiences without damaging the real artifacts. So let’s not just look through glass in museums. I encourage museums to go this hands-on route. People will love the new museums!

Debates

Today while I was trying to do my blog, my parents and grandparents turned on the TV to watch the New Hampshire Presidential Debates. I tried to write a good blog, I really did, but I love to argue... so when someone's debating......well, I didn't really write much of a blog. But now it's all done and over and I'm away from the TV, so I'll talk (write) about the debates.

Debating is one of my favorite hobbies. I'll debate anything with anyone. Sometimes this gets me in trouble. Sometimes it makes people laugh. I don't care because I have fun whenever I do it, and my opponent usually does too... I think. There's only one problem with my debating. It's that sometimes the nice, kind, compassionate soul that we all know and love becomes somewhat less compassionate, way more uncaring, and overall somewhat mean. But that's a really extreme case and it has to be over something I have a really strong opinion on. I always feel bad about it afterward, too. Like there was this one time where I was arguing and I swear I was going to make my temporary enemy cry.

But back to the way more interesting presidential debates. First off, I'm a Republican and so I will attack Democratic ways. Second, Hillary Clinton is a Democrat and she goes against most of what I believe in. Not to mention she's married to the worst president in all of history. Bill Clinton's mistakes as president number in such large numbers that I won't even get started on him. Well, in the presidential debates she made herself look like even more of a wacko than I previously thought her to be. Not only did she support the wrong things (think universal health care) but her plans for those things made it even worse. Seriously, how can anybody vote for such a monster-person? Then there was Romney, I think that he's OK, and if he gets elected it won't be the end of the world. But there are some issues about him that I think are really weird. For instance, you never know exactly what his views on a matter are because he seems to change them. But that's all I've got against him. Giuliani, so far he's the one that I liked the best. I didn't actually hear much on him but he seems to have thought things out. I think John McCain is the worst Republican because he thinks that open borders and illegal aliens just walking into our country and getting citizenship is all right. Obama, well, he's the only one I didn't really see. But he's so liberal that he doesn't sound like the kind of guy I'd want running my country. And so ends my boring lecture on presidential debates. Oh, and please don't feel bad if I totally insulted your favorite candidate!

Water Horse

For three weeks now my grandparents have been here in Utah. My grandparents are so neat! Things seem to be less stressful and we have a bunch of fun when they're here. So, during the Christmas break, we went to the theater to see a movie called Water Horse. Most people I've talked to haven't seen this movie so I'll TRY not to give anything away, but I won't guarantee anything. But I probably won't try too hard because, being such a great movie, you should have already seen it. Anyway, I loved that movie! If all of the movie ratings came from me this would get five stars, movie of the year, thumbs up, and any synonyms of those phrases. One of the reasons to why I loved this movie so much is because, if you listen, it has a blend of history and fantasy. For those of you who don't know, history is my favorite subject in school and fantasy is my favorite genre for books and movies. This is the reason to why one of my favorite books is Animal Farm, which I highly recommend to everyone. So everyone go out and see Water Horse!