Blog Homework #3: Trayvon Martin Shooting

I don't know all the details to the Trayvon Martin shooting but I do know some. He was a 17 year old boy who was shot in Florda by some guy named George Zimmerman. The guy was a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain and apparently told the police that he shot martin in self defense. That is why they didn't arrest him. I also know that this has been hgue in the news for quite some time now and there are a lot of sketchy and unresolved issues and details involving the murder. This happened over a month ago so it is getting pretty crazy.

My opinion on this whole sitaution is that it is very sad and it is unfortuante that such an innocent kid had his life taken away from him by some random guy for no reason. It sucks to have to hear about a story like this. I think it's pretty crazy how much opublicity the story is getting and how long the case has taken. I feel bad for his family especially his parents. I can't imagine getting a phone call one night or having someone come up to my house and telling me that my son has been murdered. I don't know what I would do. I think this whole thing ties in with the essential question "How are we, as individuals, products of our environments?" This relates to the guy who killed Trayvon Martin because he had a gun and did a stupid thing with it. Maybe he grew up around violence like that or was not raised the right way in his family or community. This would definitely be a logical assumption because normally people are good at heart and wouldn't just kill someone without a troubled past or a serious motive. It's just an overall sad story and something you hope doesn't ever happen again.

Blog Homework #2

Lesson from the Garcia Girls Book

There were a lot of things that someone can learn from the book How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents but personally I learned that it is never a good thing to hold grudges on people or stay mad at them. The conflict between Sofia and her father Carlos was very important in the story and it taught a good lesson. Carlos was mad at Sofia for a few reason and because she was not happy with Carlos, Sofia ran off and got married in Europe to Otto. They then had two kids. After a while Sofia wanted to make things right with her father so she tried throwing him the best birthday party ever. Although it didn't turn out so well, Sofia still tried and her relationship with her father got better. I learned that life is too short to stay mad at people, especially the ones you love. You can't waste your life holding a grudge on someone when it probably wasn't even a big deal in the first place. You have to try to makes things right with the other person and not be mad at them. You have to learn to forgive and forget, and if you can do that things will work out. Sofia and Carlos did a good thing by trying to fix their issues with each other and it was the best thing they could do in the long run. By being mad at someone, not only does it hurt you but it hurts the other people around you like family and friends. That is why it is never a good thing to stay mad at people and it is not good to hold grudges, especially for stupid things. These are a couple valuable lessons that How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents has taught me. It is one of the many lessons that can be taken from this story.

Blog Homework #1

March Madness

Since it's now March and Spring has just begun, I think it is appropriate to talk about the NCAA Tournament in this blog post. March Madness is the best month of sports in all of sports because of the crazy games and all the upsets and unexpected things that happen. You never know what is going to happen because just because you are the best team doesn't mean you are going to win it all. Actually, the overall #1 seed or the best team overall doesn't win the tournament most of the time. That is the great thing about March Madness and it is the reason why it is the best tournament in sports to watch. You get to see a bunch of college kids playing their hearts out unlike the guys in the NBA who only care about their next big contract or being on SportsCenter's Top 10. These college student-athletes are out on a mission to prove themselves and that their team is the real deal. Over the past few years there have been some crazy tournaments involving a ton of buzzer beaters/game winning shots, "Cinderella" teams going to the Final Four, and a ton of madness. That it was makes this tournament so awesome. This link here shows the pasts tournament winners, best performances, huge upsets, and a lot more...       http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/ncaa-tournament/history. On top of allt hat, every year people all over the world fill out brackets attempting to pick the perfect bracket and there is always that one team that ruins it for everyone pulling off a huge upset and going deep into the tournament. Recently we have seen a bunch of teams ruin brackets such as Norfolk State and Lehigh winning as 15 seeds this year. You can follow all the games and check out all the scores on ESPN... http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/. Finally, here is a link that gives a good summary of everything about the NCAA Tournament... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Men's_Division_I_Basketball_Championship.



Blog #7 Work of Art

The Blind Side

There are many fantastic works of art out there in our wonderful world, but I would like to focus on a specific move: The Blind Side. This is a movie (and book) based on a true story of the early life of Michael Oher, who is now an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL. Michael Oher started out living a troubled life in Memphis, Tennessee, bouncing from school to school with a microscopic GPA and struggling to live basically on his own without knowing his father and having a mother that was a drug addict and alcoholic with a bunch problems that didn't allow her to take care of Michael the proper way. Anyway, the movie does a great job of depicting the life of Oher and the hardships he went through. It is truly an amazing work of art and had so many people in tears by the end. It is a heartwarming, feel-good story because Michael Oher was able to overcome all his obstacles and receive a full-ride football scholarship to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and eventually was a first round draft pick of the Ravens a few years later. The movie, starring Sandra Bullock as Leanne Tuohy as the women that took Michael under her wing as well as Quinton Aaron who played Michael, is arguably one of the best films I have ever seen and was an all-around success. The way they told Oher's story was wonderful and there were a lot of times that you didn't know what was going to happen, which kept you watching. What was really cool was the fact that you got to see what went on during Michael's earlier years and you could feel what he felt at some points, which is what made the film so great. The actors were spectacular and because the movie was so good, it made me read the book which came first and is written by Michael Lewis. The book was just as good as Michael Lewis really kept the reader involved and she knew exactly what was going on all the time as he went in-depth on a variety of topics and explained everything well. All in all, both the Hollywood film and the terrific book were incredible and they are both amazing works of art that everyone should see and read at some point in their lives. Michael Oher's story is a feel-good story and you will not be disappointed. I give it 2 thumbs up!

Blog #6

Best Food Item

The best food item in the area can be found at... Sonic! Hey, maybe it's not the absolute best food ever and it's a fast food place, but it's some good food. It's new in the area and I have eaten it at a couple of times and I really like it. The have quality milkshakes and a variety of other menu choices to help you out with your food desires. This was the first thing that came into my mind by the way so i'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me on this, but who cares. The cool thing about Sonic though is that you have the ability to pull up to a menu outside in your car, order your food, have the workers there bring it to you, and then you can sit in your car and eat. Thy also have indoor seating so you can really do whatever you want. Sonic is different than most fast food places which makes it a cool place to stop every once in a while. I have only been there a couple times but I liked it so you should all give it a try sometime when you are hungry and need somewhere to stop. It's not your average McDonald's or Burger King so you will enjoy your Sonic experience I guarantee it.

Thing That Annoys Me

The thing that annoys me the most is... being woken up early on the weekends! I mean seriously, it's bad enough that we have to get up at like 6 am every morning for school, having to get up early on the weekends just adds to the problem. I am a very deep sleeper and I absolutely hate being woken up, especially in the early morning. This happens way too often whether it's for a sporting event, a trip that i'm taking, the SAT's (damn they are coming up soon!) or the screaming and yelling from my 9 year old brother downstairs at the 7 am on a saturday or sunday morning, it's the worst thing ever. My brother Jack wakes up way too early and he is literally the loudest individual I have ever met!!!! His nonsense wakes me up far too often and it's a killer to have to turn to the clock when he awakes me and see like 7 am or 8 am on the clock when I usually sleep in until 10:30 or 11 o'clock. That child needs a muzzle when it comes to weekend morning because he is always yacking about something and I CAN"T STAND IT!!!! Seriously he has issues. Anyway, that is hat really annoys me, being woken up early. 

Best Person At Their Job

There are a lot of ways I could go with this statement but I am going to say that the best 6th man in all of high school basketball is... DRUMROLL PLEASE... JESSE HUNSICKER aka Kevin Love!!!! Let's be real here, Jesse is just a stud, he does it all. Everytime he checks into a game I swear its the Minnesota Timberwolves' power forward Kevin Love. The resemblance on and off the court is crazy, they could be twins. Anyway, Jesse is a efficient shooter when he gets the ball in his hands, drilling baseline jumpers like it's his job. Aside from his dirty jumper, he has a variety of post moves and contributes to the stat sheets with solid rebounding and the occasional steal and a few blocks. Like Kevin Love, he can do it all. Love is a human double-double in the NBA and has the ability to shoot 3's even as a big man (he won the 3 point contest). Jesse will surprise people when he pulls up behind the line, just like K-Love. Not to mention, a recent survey showed that Jesse resembles Love more than any other high school basketball player in the world!!!! In other words, he's just a boss. Finally you can follow the best 6th man alive on twitter at @J_Hunsy!!!!!! #KevinLove

Blog #5

1. Yolanda has definitely had her life shaped by some events in the story. Back when she was in college when she was going out with Rudy Elmenhurst, she came to the realization that Dominican guys are different than American guys. In America when she was in a relationship with Rudy, she figured out that he didn't care about her as much as she thought. He wanted to have sex with her and kept trying and trying but she kept saying no and that she wasn't ready. He didn't like that and she didn't like the fact that he only wanted to have sex with her and do things she didn't want to do. They ended up having a huge fight and it led to them breaking up. When he came back years later, he tried again but she kicked him out and said no. Yolanda learned from this experience and she learned that you can't trust everybody nd that you don't have to do anything that you don't want to. This helped her experience life in American and a tough situation so it moved her forward because of these experiences and made her stronger. This encapsulates her identity in this novel because of her experiences after this situation. It shaped Yolanda's life.

2. Something positive that happened in the story was that Sofia tried to make things right with her father. After she ran off to Europe to get married and then had a kid, her relationship with Carlos was strained and tainted. They didn't talk to each other and there was a ton of tension between to two. After Sofia had her second child though, things got a little better. Due to this, Sofia really wanted t fix things so she decided to have her father's 70th birthday party at her house at as a big celebration with the whole family. She spent a lot of time on the part arrangements and wanted everything to be perfect. Although the party didn't turn out as a huge success and did not go as planned,  I still think it was something positive because Sofia tried to make things right with Carlos and reached out to him. I would consider this a person to person and a person to self positivity because she needed to do this to be at peace with herself and her father. This can be looked at as a positive because of the love shown by Sofia and how she did this herself  and acted as the bigger person. 

3. Linsanity once again! I am 100% on the Jeremy Lin bandwagon and I love the whole story about him and think he is a great player. His story is great for the NBA and the fact that he is an Asian-American makes it even better, showing that Asians can play in the NBA at a high level. The issue about race with Lin and the issues in the Garcia Girls is like the same thing. They deal with similar problems like the teasing that the girls recieve in the story and how Lin is percieved in the NBA as an Asian. A recent headline came of using a racial slur about Jeremy Lin and there was a controversy about all of that, which is like the ridicule and harrassment the Garcia girls recieve. But, Lin didn't let it bother him and the girls in the book didn't let it effect them that much either. All in all, Jeremy Lin is a boos and he is changing the game of basketball one game at a time. How we look at our own identity today varies from person to person and how other people look at you depends on your race a lot of time which isn't always fair but it is how our society works these days. 

Blog Post #4

M.I.A and the Impossibility of Selling Out

The article about "selling out" was very long and at times boring, but there were a few parts that stood out to me. After a female singer who goes by the name of M.I.A had her year-old song "Bad Girls" debut, she gained popularity and fame. It first aired on a music video channel called Noisy aired by VICE. By the end of her hectic week, she was performing on stage with Madonna, Nicki Minaj, and many other famous and successful people in the music industry. To be able to come straight out of the blue like she did is crazy and I found that to be very interesting. One video got her to perform on one of the biggest and brightest stages and gave her a big break. The article makes me think about topics like making the best out of a situation and working hard to get to the top. This article is stating all facts for the most part with a small touch of the author's personal opinion. He says we get hung up on authenticity and we are disappointed when someone proves to be a hypocrite, or more complex than we expect. I can agree with that to an extent because we do tend to get hung up on certain things but it is not as big of a deal as the author makes it seem. I would recommend this article to people who like the music industry because this is big news for stuff like that but I think most people would be disinterested like I was for most of the article.

Elie Wiesel: Mitt Romney Should Tell Mormon Church To Stop Performing Posthumous Proxy Baptisms On Jews        

The article about Elie Wiesel telling Mitt Romney, one of the Republican Party's Presidential Candidates to talk to his own church about making changes was interesting. I was interested because last year in language arts we read Wiesel's book about his life during the Holocaust and I was curious to what he has been doing these days. This is an opinionated article because it includes various quotes on the subject at hand and simply tells you the views of Elie Wiesel. Although the comments from Wiesel are biased and opinionated based on his own personal views about life and his religion, there are still some facts to the story. Wiesel wants Romney to stand up to his Mormon church and tell them to stop performing Posthumous Proxy Baptisms on Jews. Since Wiesel is Jewish and survived the Holocaust, you can expect him to be upset with this and have strong feelings toward the issue. I do not agree or disagree with the comments because I have nothing to do with this topic. I also would recommend it to people who are following the Presiedntial race because it involves Romney. This article makes me think about equality between races and how much of a big deal this is to some people who are very religious. 

Person of Interest: Jeremy Lin

LINSANITY!!!! Jeremy Lin is the man! He has completely dominated everyone in the NBA in the past week and has all of NEw York along with everyone else cheering for him. This is a fact-based article with a little bit of the author's opinion tossed in as well. The author does a good job of backing up the article with Jeremy Lin's statistics and numbers while giving out some different perspectives to the readers. This article makes me think about draining some 3-pointers and crossing up Kobe just like Lin has been doing lately because he is such a boss! Everything about this article interests me because everything about Lin's story and where he came from is amazing. It is truly a terrific sports story and the hype just continues to grow. I agree with the what the author says about Lin and why he has done so well for the Knicks. It makes a lot of sense. I would recommend this extremely long article to sports fans and anyone who wants to read about the up-and-coming star Jeremy Lin!!! I really have to go buy his jersey because he is just too nice I wish I could be like that! #Linsanity #Lincredible #swag.

Blog Response: Gender

1. There are a lot of things expected of men and women in 2012 but there are some differences between the two different genders. I would say that by women, men are expected to work more and make the money for their family and do the so-called "dirty work". Even though that sounds sexiest and is not as much like that today as it used to be, there is still a sense that this still occurs. Although, women have taken larger roles in recent years with new high-authority jobs. On the other hand, men expect women to cook, clean, and take care of the things they don't want to do. A good meal is at the top of the list though. Men are perceived as superior to women these days. The difficulties of men are being expected to do many hard "odd jobs" like fixing things around the house that they don't want to do. The difficulties of women are that they have to produce children which has to be very painful, luckily men don't have to do this. Advantages of being a man includes that they can take charge in certain situations and there are a lot more but it would take up too much room to list them all. Advantages of being a women are that they get more sympathy and most people wouldn't try to hurt a women where as men encounter more physical altercations. Stereotypes of women are that they are only good enough to be a stay at home mother and take care of children and make food. Stereotypes of men are that they are hot heads and they only care about drinking beer and watching sports, or something like that. Current gender roles are changing nowadays which is good but some things are still the same between men and women and how and what people think of them as opposed to the other sex.

2. For one of the questions from the last blog response, the question about whether or not your would watch a Canadian Football game if you knew that in the future you were destined to live a life of being a CFL fanatic, I think that Carlos would watch the game. Based in his character in the book and the fact that he is a boy, I believe he would most definitely tune into the game. It wouldn't be a big deal since it is just one game so he would probably do it. Carlos would probably answer without hesitating because watching sports is fun. He would want to get a taste of his future.

7 Question Responses

1. This magician is definately more impressive and interesting than Albert Einstein. Although Einstein was a very important and smart man who could really interest people, he is no longer alive and is from the olden days, so an alive magician who is from the current time period sounds more impresive to me. I would rather see a bunch of magic tricks than some science experiements that I wouldn't even understand anyway because magic is more fun and mind-blowing.

5. This question was very hard to answer because either way it affects someone negatively. I hate to be an extremely bad person, but I would not swallow the pill. I would hate to see the person that is my Soul Mate to have to go through the pain of always having their collar bones broken, but I wouldn't be able to go through life having every song sound like that Alice in Chains band. I sound like a horrible person but you gotta do what you gotta do. Plus, bone can heal.

7. I would put Bigfoot/Sasquach on the front cover. There are always rumors and crazy people talking about bigfoot being real and if someone actually found him that would be huge news and everybody would go crazy. I used process of emilination between the 3 choices. I eliminated the President's cancer because people would hear about that anyway so it not being in one newspaper wouldn't be a huge deal. Second, the Loch Ness Monster is in Scotland so the Scottish news would have that covered and all of this would be on the internet anyway.

12. I would give the wizard a small amount of money because the question did not say anything bad would happen so I figure I might as well try it. There is nothing wrong with being more appealing. I would give the wizard around $5 so I wouldn't be throwing all my money away but I can still become more appelaing. It wouldn't be a huge deal if it didn't work though because it's only $5 and it wouldn't matter to me if I wasted such a small amoutn of cash because I wouldn't have used it for anything better probably.

16. Of Course I would watch the CFL game. There is probably nothing better on TV anyway and I have never watched a CFL game before plus they use different rules than the NFL so it would be cool. If that was my destined future it doesn't hurt to learn more about the game. I like watching football so I answered yes without even considering it. The Argonauts and Roughriders are two interesting teams t watch as well.

19. I would tell my friend that I was trying of for the Football team at school and I wanted to play Kicker so I had to practice because practice makes perfect. That sounds like a legitamite excuse plus knowing some of my friends they would probably believe me. I wouldn't want them to die so this excuse just popped into my head and I just went with it. Hopefully it wouldn't hurt them that bad because hurting people is mean.

20. I would be more interested in the documentary than the actual Hollywood film. I would be really interested to see what my family and friends said about me in the interviews and I would be able to relive my past and see all the great times I had again. I would be more curious about that. I would like to see the movie with actual actors playing me because I would want to know who played me but it's not as important in my mind.

Garcia Girls Cover

When I examined the cover of How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, a few thoughts popped into my head. I noticed a girl on the cover but only her legs and feet were visible. She was wearing red shoes and a dress with her legs crossed, making me think that she was dancing or somehow involved with dance. I also saw a bird on a tree branch and I was curious to why it was on the cover. The reviews on the back cover and inside the cover were positive saying that the author, Julia Alvarez, has great storytelling skills and adds a "Spanish flavor" to the story. A good description of the story is also given on the back cover. Another comment said that it was "irresistable" and gave it terrific reviews. The family tree illustration was interesting because there are a lot of people in the family and the lines connecting the family together were all over the place. Some names were in bold and I inferred that they are the mains characters in the story. It starts out with "The Conquistadores" at the top of the tree which made me wonder if it will have any significance throughout the book. On the first few pages of the story, Julia Alvarez uses a couple spanish words and a good amoutn of words in italics. Her writing style so far is not very hard to understand and she uses dialougue efectively. Characters such as Yolanda, Carmen, Gabriela, Lucinda, and Tia Flor appear in the first chapter of the book. Yolanda talks and is mentioned a lot so I think she will be important later on. Other characters that were in the family tree have yet to be mentioned in the story. The length of paragraphs are standard and everything is formatted well.