Snape and Achilles Save the Day

The character Achilles reminded me of Snape from Harry Potter since they were both neutral until the end of the story and then they made a huge difference. In the stories both heroes died and they were supporting what they believed in. For Achilles he died for Sparta winning the war and for Snape it was fighting Voldemort and the death eaters so they wouldn't take over the world. The only difference was that Snape pretended to be the bad guy the whole time while Achilles never knew what side he was on until they killed his cousin.
   I think that the reason they have these people is that they need the good guys and bad guys to be going at it and it can't be clear on which side is winning until the end where a hidden hero comes out of nowhere and flips and side so the good guys have enough power to win.

Achilles and Snape Saving The Day

The character Achilles reminded me of Snape from Harry Potter since they were both neutral until the end of the story and then they made a huge difference. In the stories both heroes died and they were supporting what they believed in. For Achilles he died for Sparta winning the war and for Snape it was fighting Voldemort and the death eaters so they wouldn't take over the world. The only difference was that Snape pretended to be the bad guy the whole time while Achilles never knew what side he was on until they killed his cousin.

Solving Conflicts

Author's Note: I wrote for my compare/contrast goal and in the book Brian get's stranded and survives in the wild
Your  body uses twice as many calories when it’s freezing cold and wet. This is just one of many factors that made Brian’s survival in the winter so much harder in the book Brian’s Winter by Gary Paulsen. There are many conflicts in this book acting against Brian testing him to survive but in the end he always had to solve the conflict. 

                Along with the amazing survival fact Brian also had to worry about animals attacking, hypothermia,  his house collapsing, tornados and food supply dwindling.  In the book he had everything going for him until he got attacked by a moose and broke his ribs. Now there’s a pretty big conflict right there but to add to that, he got his house destroyed by a bear that was looking for the meat hidden in his hut. And then it rained for a week so he was stuck in a destroyed hut injured with no food since the bear ate it all. This could be person vs. person since he had to will himself to continue to survive even with broken ribs and broken confidence but also person vs. nature since he had to protect his hut and food from animals and tornado's.

                Since everything in the recent paragraph would be almost impossible to come back from ,Brian still tried and didn’t quit. The resolution to everything was that he rebuilt his hut which fixed the problem of hypothermia and shelter from intruding animals.  With that problem fixed Brian went hunting with the weapons he made from scratch and hunted for food to survive.  He killed food and had food which solved all the problems. Person vs. nature would work well here too since the animal he killed needed food and he needed food so he had to compete with nature to get the food.

                This story compares well to the book Old Yeller by Fred Gipson since the dad leaves and the son needs to survive and will do anything to survive. The person vs. person is similar since each person has their mind on surviving and have the determination survive  . Also they each have to drive themselves in the story to keep living which they do.

                Hunger games by Suzanne Collins shows the same person vs. nature similarity since in the Hunger Games it’s a free for all in nature against 24 other people to survive the wild animals and people that are trying to kill them. In one point in the story a forest fire starts which almost kills one of the contestants but she outran it and got in water to cool off her body. This is similar to the tornado that destroys Brian’s home since they’re both natural disasters.

                Although these aren’t all of the conflicts in the book these are many. From person vs. person to person vs. nature every side has tough hard conflicts that all have resolutions which can be good or bad.  Also in real life Brian escapes before winter so that part was fiction and maybe even impossible.

Works Cited

"Survival Facts - survivor-magazine.com." - survivor-magazine.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2013. <http://survivor-magazine.com/home/survival-facts/>.

Ancient China

Author's Note- This book has points where it differs from Chineese culture and where it stays to it.

In 16^th century Japan they had a Shogun, and leader of Japan young and weak with 6 Shogunate that had equal power and served the shogun although they all secretly wanted to be him. Eventually four were killed or downgraded until there was only two Shogunate and a shogun. The story stays true since this is exactly what happens in the book. There are also some parts that cannot stay true to the story like vampires and ghosts.

            In the book Blood Ninja by Nick Lake a young boy who’s destined to be the Shogun one day is attacked by ninja.  In ancient China they called ninja kyuuketsuki which is what they call it in the book. (pg 7)”The ronin said that a kyuuketsuki had killed a peasant near here”.  This shows how they based their book of ancient China history.

            Although the book stays on track with the ninja it changes greatly when they start talking about spirits like gaki(ghosts), Ninja Vampire and a Buddha ball which can control the earth. Since all these things are true in the book they obviously wouldn’t have been real in ancient China. They did believe in these things but it never actually could happen which makes the book differ from the real 16^th century China.

            Furthermore the book stays on topic as best as it can considering there is ninja vampires and a ball that can control the world. One way it does is it’s weapons. In both the book and real life the main weapon for the ninja was a katana, which was carried on their back and could be used for more than one reason. Other weapons included darts, spikes, knives, bows, a chain and sickle and sharp star shaped metal called shurikens. This was how the ninja fought.

            A lot of things stayed on track of the book but also a lot of things were different which makes the book easy to get hooked on and a really good read. The way the book stays with the weaponary and tools of a ninja but at the same time makes ancient Chineese folklore true makes a great mix and changes and keeps the idea of how life was back in the 16^th century.

Response to My Dear Alphonse

This shows how everyone has some sort of blind eye and that they even though aren't trying they can be racist  Also this story showed false assumptions towards the negro boy since every time she assumed that he had a bad life he proved her wrong and had it just as good as the white family.

    Since Pewaukee is such a small suburb there isn't a bad neighborhood or a "east side" where races are diversified. This shows that racism shrank to where it doesn't matter where you live or sit but in Milwaukee where it is big there is some bad neighborhood and bad racism. What Shirley Jackson is trying to show us is that everything isn't so diversified anymore and that racism and false assumptions still go on in everywhere.

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

I enjoyed how the older guy appreciated life more but I didn't like when he started speaking Spanish. Also I kind of felt bad for the man who tried to kill himself since he deserved respect and didn't get any and the younger man even told him to kill himself.

Someone said that this could even show three sides of the author, Ernest Hemingway, since the first man he was young, confident and didn't have time to waste. The second man was beginning to understand the older man since all he had was his job and the last man didn't have anything so maybe that's how Hemingway felt in the three stages of his life.

Waking Up For School

Author's Note- This piece is about how people in school need their sleep and the arguments to and for moving the time back to start school.

Waking up and getting ready for school can be one of the hardest things to do in the morning. Students hate waking up early and love staying up late. Some students even sleep in and miss school! The tough part in this is that if schools did start later then it would end later. Ben Franklin once said “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”.

           Although waking up later is great the downside to school's starting later means that they end later and there would be less time for after school activities and homework. For high schooler’s this means no job which can lead to no money to get into college and no money to buy a car. Also this would encourage students to stay up later and therefore cancelling the effects of the extra hours of sleep.  Lastly getting up later means that it doesn’t prepare them well for jobs where they have to constantly wake up and go to work every morning.

            Advantages of waking up earlier is that there is less chance of being late or sleeping in to class. Better sleep could also lead to better behavior in class and less sleeping during class. With students paying better attention it would lead into better grades which leads to better collage offers which leads to better jobs and more money. The last point is that people say that breakfast is the most important meal and sometimes there isn’t enough time to eat a good breakfast. If student are hungry at school it can lead to less focusing and worse grades.

            In conclusion the best option is to meet halfway. Maybe there could be optional resource in the morning instead of the afternoon so students will be getting out at the same time but still having the option if they want to go to school early. Also there would have to be an enforcement to make kids go to sleep earlier since the whole thing comes down to kids not getting enough sleep. Lastly there is a great problem where people don’t like change and if you changed the time school starts and ends parents would complain and maybe even lose the amount of enrollment they got the previous year.

Works Cited

"School Start Time and Sleep | National Sleep Foundation - Information on Sleep Health and Safety." National Sleep Foundation - Information on Sleep Health and Safety | Information on Sleep Health and Safety. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. <http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/sleep-topics/school-start-time-and-sleep>.

"Schools should start later | Debatewise Where great minds differ." Debatewise | Where great minds differ Where great minds differ. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. <http://debatewise.org/debates/1364-schools-should-start-later/>.

Soccer Vs. Wrestling

Wrestlers say that their sport is harder while the soccer players are always saying how their sport is harder. Since

The Ransom of Red Cheif

"Hey, little boy!" says Bill, "would you like to have a bag of candy and a nice ride?"

            The boy catches Bill neatly in the eye with a piece of brick.

            "That will cost the old man an extra five hundred dollars," says Bill, climbing over the wheel.

            That boy put up a fight like a welter-weight cinnamon bear; but, at last, we got him down in the bottom of the buggy and drove away.

I chose these lines since it's right here where they realize they might have a little more on their hands than a little kid. Also it's ironic since when Bill gets it by the brick he talks about how it's gonna cost them another 500$ where he actually ends up paying 250$ to get the kid off their hands.

Stolen Money

I am sorry

For taking your money

That was under

Your bed

And what

You might have been

Saving

For something special

Forgive me

I spent it all

So much stuff

Expensive stuff

Book Talk

Ella oruga comio mucha comida. En el Martes ella oruga comio dos peras. En el meircoles oruga comio tres ciruelas.En el Jueves oruga comio cuatro fresas.
No me gusta porgue es muy aburrido. Es muy abburido porque es corto. El libro esta muy viejo.

Lorien's Hatred

Authors Note: This is from the Lorien point of view and also the Mogadorians but the book's point of view is from Lorien.
Imagine what would happen if all the resources on Earth were to disappear? What if we overused them so badly that they became extinct? Would we sit on Earth and let everything die? Now imagine that there is another solution and that there is a world twice as big as Earth with the same resources? Would we all ignore that fact and wait until we all die? We would obviously take that opportunity to survive and live. In the book I Am Number 4 the Mogadorians were forced to move out of their planet. The only place they could go was to the plant Lorien which was already inhabited. They fought for the planet and won easily since the planet was so poorly defendended. The remaining people from Lorien flew off in a spaceship looking for survival. They then were forced to Earth where the Mogadorians followed him, hunting them.

In the book it’s from Lorien’s point of view were their planet got invaded and were forced to Earth where they are running from the Mogadorians and currently don't have much of a chance to survive since the first three out of the remaining nine are dead. This makes the Lorien's survival look hopeless and thats how they feel at the start of the book Then they grew their powers and now they have hope and while Loriens builds up their hope the Mogadorians start giving up.

In  fact one point of the story was really sad when number four lost his guardian, Henri, by the Mogadorians. This made number four hungry for vengeance and forced him into depression. When he lost his Dad/Guardian it made the whole mood change from worried about everyone dying since the Mogadorians were winning the fight to sad and defeated since he had lost the only person left that he knew from his planet.

Furthermore if the event was looked on from the Mogadorians side they're happy and confident since they just killed number four's guardian and left number four helpless. They knew that they had him trapped in the school and also knew that he was still weak and hadn't developed most of his powers. The mood for the Mogadorians is also excited for the future since after they kill the people from the planet Lorien they are going to go for Earth.

 
In conclusion the mood of the first book is depressed and hopeless for the planet Lorien people and the mood for the planet Mogadore the people are excited and eager to take over the world. The mood almost switches since at the beginning Lorien was hopeful and doing well with hiding and the Mogadorians are hopeless and now the people from Lorien are hopeless to finding each other and the Mogadorians are right on their trail.

Mr. Grinch Is A Mean One

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch!- The reader is showing how much he can’t stand Mr.Grinch
You have termites in your smile- He has a nasty smile, Metaphor
You have all the tender sweetness-Mr. Grinch has no sweetness, Metaphor
Of a seasick crocodile- Shows a crabby crocodile is as sweet as Mr.Grinch
Mr. Grinch!
Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crocodile!

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch!
You're a nasty, wasty skunk!- Comparing him to a skunk which makes him seem unwanted, Metaphor
Your heart is full of unwashed socks- This refers to smelly heart, Allusion
Your soul is full of gunk- His soul is horrible and washed up, Personification
Mr. Grinch!
The three words that best describe you
Are as follows, and I quote
"Stink, stank, stunk!"Alliteration

The reader in this poem is expressing his feelings towards Mr. Grinch. The obvious emotion in this poem is disgust, hatred and disgusted. The reader is portraying Mr. Grinch as a smelly, nasty, horrible person that has no heart. He shows his hatred towards Mr. Grinch by using similes and metaphors.

   In the poem he used metaphors such as sweetness of a seasick crocodile and what he means by that he is mean and easily annoyed. He also says Grinch is a nasty, wasty skunk which is comparing him to something that can make bad odors and is generally thought of as smelly.  The choices of similes is to try his hardest to portray Mr.Grinch as a horrible person and comparing Mr. Grinch as what he thinks of as horrible, no-good animals.

                When this poem was sang in the movie/book the person was angry at Mr. Grinch for wanting to end Christmas and steal all the presents. The tone of the poem is not only hatred and disgust but unforgiving. Maybe this is why the Grinch started to have a heart again? The way the author symbolizes Grinch as skunks, crocodiles, smelly socks, termites which is why this poem shows such hatred. 

Raiders Get Ripped Off

Do you ever think about events that could have happened a different way than how you thought? Take the Steelers vs. Raiders game AFC game in 1972. Although most of the fans from Pittsburgh were happy while also knowing the luck they had just gotten what did the referees feel? Were they confident in their choice? What about the Raiders fans? They probably felt extremely ripped off.  No one has really thought about what happened to the ref’s, fans or players on the Raiders that day.  There has been many missed calls in sports but not many as controversial as this.

                When people think of blown calls they never really think of the pressure upon the referee’s to make the call.  With thousands of people in the stands, it would be a little nerve-racking knowing that if you messed up thousands of people will hate you forever.  Review of the play has in fact shown that the call was wrong and that it should have been a Raider’s victory.  From the referee’s point of view he probably thought that he had the call right while the other two ref’s were wrong.  Maybe he wasn’t confident in his call at all but felt intimidated by the crowd?  No one but the ref will ever know what went on in his mind during that crazy day.

                If someone asked you what are the craziest fans out there most people would probably answer Raider’s fans. They are like monkeys trapped in a cage.  Now imagine yourself stuck in a stadium full with your favorite team while the Ref just blew a call to blow your team’s chances to win the game. Maybe even the Super Bowl. Now imagine that they are crazy and are all angry. The point of view from the fans are that they’re team just got ripped off and there goes all the time they spent cheering for them and trying for the win.
                All-in-all everyone would probably want to take that game back except the Steelers fans and players. What would have happened if the Raiders won that game? That might have been the best team they've ever had. Maybe they could have carried the confidence over to next years and won other super bowls?  From the Ref's point of view, to the Steelers point of view to the Raider's fans point of view, all of them know that the game could have easily been switched and that the play was extremely controversial. That's why the game had so many different sides of things.

Brian's Survival

I chose this book since I really liked it and the main theme was clearly survival so it was easier to make the connections.

In my essay I am going to talk about how Hatchet’s theme is survival and why it is.  In the book a boy named Brian was flying over Alaska to see his dad when the pilot had a heart attack.  The plane crashed and miraculously Brian survived the crash.  The only possession he had was a hatchet.  Here is why the theme is survival.

First of Brian’s troubles were when his plane crashed into the middle of Alaskan wilderness.  The pilot had a heart attack which caused the plane to dip down and no one to drive it.  Brian had to try to steer the plane into a lake so that he still could survive.  When he landed in the lake Brian had to fight his way out of the plane and then swim to the surface before he ran out of air.  That seems like a pretty good example of survival.

After Brian got used to the wilderness and had shelter, food and water a tornado hit his camp and forced him to start all over on surviving in the wild.  The only thing he had was his hatchet, like when the plane crashed and he almost died.  This is a good example about how he was doing good in survival, until everything went wrong and made him start all over again.

Once Brian recovered from the tornado and the plane crush he got up and started all over again.  His whole body wanted to shut down and die but he decided to live.  That later made a good choice since this time when he started all over again he did a better job.  Eventually though, he got careless and a moose trampled him.  He got bruises and broken bones but he didn’t die.  This shows the book displayed survival as unforgiving, hard work and if you mess up you don’t get a second chance.

In the book, Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, Katniss was chosen to compete in a giant arena where everything was woods and twenty-four people battled it out, killing each other until there is only one left.  Katniss was a hunter, which made her good at surviving.  She thrived in the games, only relying on herself.  She had to do what Brian did but on top of that she had people trying to kill her!  This shows how survival was also a theme in the Hunger Games but sometimes survival is harder than other times.

These are reasons why The Hatchet was a book about survival and why.  If you were in Brian’s place what would you have done?  Survival can be the theme in many books, whether surviving in the wild or just surviving High School, although Brian’s situation was a little worse than surviving high school.

Prediction Piece

I will be doing my prediction piece on The Son of Neptune.  I think that Percy will somehow connect with his past and present seven friends and they will work together in to protect the camp and defeat the bad people.  Here are some reasons that I think this.

First I think this since in the first book he battled with three important people and he went on a quest with them, succeeded, and made it to the camp safely.  He then went asleep for 8 months because of a Godess Hera made him sleep.  When he woke up he had no memory and had no idea what had happened to him.  This makes me think that he will somehow get his memory back and meet up with his old friends. 

My second reason is that so far in the second book he has meet up with three more important people and the prophecy said that seven people would come together and kill all the bad people.  If the three people in the first book came to their camp and fought the battle with  them then the seven people would come together and fight and make the prophecy right.

These are my two reasons for thinking that the seven people will connect and fight the bad people.  It is accurate since in Percy’s dream he connected with people but since he had no idea who they were he couldn’t tell if they were his friends or not.  This means that they could be the seven but he doesn’t know yet.   These were my reasons why I thought that it could be them and why it could be them.

Character Analysis

Author's Note: I chose this book since it was really interesting how the main character changed in it.

Raven’s Gate is a very thrilling book and the character I am analyzing is the main character in the book.  He was forced to change by becoming more responsible and only relying on himself.  He started out in the book irresponsible and stupid but ended as a leader and having to have all the responsibility.

In the start of the book he was caught by the police for robbing a CD store.  His friend who always got him in trouble stabbed a police officer.  When they could have gotten away cleanly, the main character Matt went back to save the officer.  That shows that although he was extremely irresponsible for robbing the store, he still had a good heart to come back and try to save him.  He ended up getting caught and instead of going to juvie he went to an old grandma’s farm to work for her and help her as his punishment.

Eventually everything turned wrong and he knew what he had to do.  He was all by himself so he had to have all the responsibility.  He took on everyone by himself and automatically became the leader of his kind.  He gained leadership and responsibility when he escaped the Evil People and attempted to find everyone and bring them together.

This shows how he gained leadership and responsibility throughout the entire book.  He started out irresponsible, robbing banks and not listening to anyone.  In the end he knew what he had to do and became the leader of his group.  This shows how people can change and sometimes it doesn’t take life changing experience.

Patriot's Pen Essay

Author's note: I wrote to George Washington first since he had the right idea of not splitting up the country and he's one of the founding father's.  I then wrote to all the founding father's and thanked them for all they've  done.

Dear George Washington,

 I like your idea of not splitting up the U.S.A with parties.  Then there wouldn’t be all these fights over facebook and other online conversations.  People should just vote for who they want and not having to side with the democratic or republican side.  If you have your opinion on something you can say it but only if you can back that opinion up.  Some people don’t even know what’s going on in the presidential race but while their sitting at home, watching their favorite show they see a commercial about how much Obama has spent and how Romney can change that with his new plan.  That makes them want to vote for Romney although those commercial always give half the truth.  Sometimes not even that!  That’s why I wish that America wouldn’t have gotten separated by which political party they agree with but with who is the better president and who speaks the whole truth and not half of it.

Dear Founding Fathers,

I would like to thank you for all you have done to America and for building America.  Would there even be freedom without the founding fathers?  They wrote the Declaration of Independence and that’s what freed America and gave everyone their  freedom.  How would life today be?  Without our founding fathers we probably wouldn’t have half the stuff that we do today.  Take Benjamin Franklin for example.  He invented electricity!  If he wouldn’t have made the discoveries that he did, who knows what would have happened?  Would we have Ipods and Iphones?  How about computers?  How long would it take for someone else to discover electricity?  What I’m saying is this is why America is what it is today and without the Founding Fathers America wouldn’t be close to what it is now.  

Book Ad

Author's Note:  This book is called Necropolis, by Anthony Horowitz and I chose this book since it was one my favorite books I have ever read.

In this book there are five children and each one of them have a different power and are in a different place in the world.  The evil people are taking over and the only way to stop them is to assemble all five to bring all the powers together.  There are some minor characters that help them get together.  The evil ones are trying to kill the five people.  In the end Hong Kong was destroyed and the good five are split up.

Cause/Effect

Author's Note: I chose this since the cause happened at the start of the book and the effect was throughout the whole book.

The cause in the book, The Hatchet is that Brian's plane crashes into the wild of Alaska.  No one can search for him and he's stuck in Alaska with nothing but a hatchet his mom gave to him.  Another cause was that a tornado whipped through were Brian was staying and tore up his campsite and all his supplies.

The effect was Brian got stranded in the wild with nothing but a hatchet.  He had to hunt and make a fire to survive Canada.  The second effect was that the tornado came through and he barely lived.  He lost everything but his hatchet and he was forced to start over surviving in the wild.