Blog Post #3

Recently in Florida, there was an incident about a boy named Travyon Martin who got shot and was killed. A father named Robert Zimmerman called the police and reported that there was a kid outside with his hood on dressed in all black. The kid was not doing anything to harm he was just standing around but the guy felt threatened so he told the cops that he would go after him. Afterwards, a woman called the police saying that she heard a gun shot and a kid screaming not an adult. Robert Zimmerman was accused of killing Travyon Martin for no apparent reason.

I believe that Robert Zimmerman should be arrested and go to jail because he killed a kid who was not a threat. Many other people agree that this man might have been racist and deserve to go to jail. I believe that that is what should be done in this case. An innocent boy was killed because he "looked" as if he were causing trouble when he was not. If the Zimmerman had not attacked him, the boy would be alive today. He was only 17 years old. Robert Zimmerman is claiming that it was all for self defense, however this was a false claim. He went after the boy and he killed him so I believe that he should go to jail. I think that is what needs to be done about this case and hundreds of people will agree with me.

Blog Post Homework 2

A lesson I learned from How the Garcia Girls lost their accent, is a lesson about family. No matter what the girls went through or how bad it was, in the end, they were always backed up by their family and I loved that message. I know that sometimes I may fight with my family, but in the end I know that I do really love them and I would be so upset if anything happened to them. I also learned that no matter how hard some times are, a bond of a family will pull through. The Garcia girls went through a lot of tough times but in the end, they always had their family to back them up. I hope that my family is strong enough to endure tough times together and pull through as still a family. I know some families that do not even eat together or share each others lives but I do not want to be a family like that. I want to make sure that we will always stick together and go through tough times together as a family. In the future, I hope I learn to appreciate my family a bit more and really know how blessed I am to have a family that loves me through the good times and bad.

Blog Homework 1

http://www.mathgoodies.com/articles/teens_sleep.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20322801/ns/health-childrens_health/t/academic-performance-top-cause-teen-stress/

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/tips-reduce-stress

Lately, I have been going to sleep later and later due to the workload given by my teachers, and after school sports. Because of this, I have been tired in school, slower at practice and more and more unprepared for test and quizzes. These three articles talked about the two main things that have been affecting me physically and mentally; stress and sleep. I have been so stressed trying to maintain good grades while still balancing sports so much that I feel stressed all the time. One thing leads to another and because of this stress to do well in school, I began to stay up later and later resulting in lack of sleep. The article talked about how that lack of sleep is very bad and how it can cause other problems in the future. The average child gets about 6 hours of sleep every night then the recommended 8 hours of sleep needed to replenish the body after a long days work. Lack of sleep can also cause stress in school which I have been experiencing. However, stress and sleep can work both ways. A different article talked about how if someone is stressed in school then it can cause lack of sleep. Reading these few articles, I realized how important sleep can be in a teenagers life. Especially if the student is juggling sports and school like myself. I think that time mangement is a key part into less stress and more sleep. This good advice for everyone to take so that they will not have lack of sleep and do better in school. From these three articles, we can conclude that sleep and stress affect many things.

Blog Post 7

Today I watched our school musical The Drowsy Chaperone. That was the musical that was performed by fellow Wissahickon High School students. Going into the play, I had no idea what to expect from it because it did not have any background of the musical. However, as I continued to watch, the musical made me laugh numerous times. I loved the songs that were sung and i loved the excitement in the dance numbers. Basically the musical was about a number of weddings going on at the same time and the crazy stuff that happens in between that ultimately leads to a happy ending. I loved the acting and the singing. The songs were my favorite part of it all. I would recommend this to people because it was fun to watch and really enjoyable. The plot was a little slow at first but soon it was very funny and kept me laughing the whole time. The students were great actors and made me believe that they were actually that character.

Blog Post #6

In ten years i'll be...
In ten years, i see myself as either studying and working as a pediatrician or being a teacher at an elementary school. I want to be a doctor because I want to help people as well as work with kids. I can see myself as a teacher because i love to work with kids and i feel that i can have a lot of fun with them. I picture myself close to getting married because I will be 26 by then. And i also see myself living in my own apartment away from my parents, driving and owning a credit card. I feel that in ten years I will be more independent than i am now just because I will be in out of college and more mature. I cannot wait to start being more independent and on my own. I think I will still around this area because my family is here and family is really important to me. If i were to move, i think i would like in Maryland or New Jersey, not too far from here. In ten years I would hope that I was either a doctor or teacher and helping people. I hope that this can come true for the future.

There are 3.5 months left of junior year...
There are 3.5 months left of junior year, i hope that in this time I can really get my act together and start focusing on my future. Throughout all my high school years, this is the year that I have most slacked. My grades are not as good and I am not trying to my fullest potential. I hope that I can really get my act together by the end of the year and be able to leave with good grades. I also want to motivate myself to study hard for the SATS. I hope that i can really focus and drive myself to do really good. I know that I can do really good if I try but I just got really lazy this year. I hope that I can shake that off and really dive head in to my work and make up for all the work that I slacked on. There is no other junior year, and I really do not want to regret not trying when im applying for colleges later in the near future. I know I can do this and I am going to pick up the slack and end with a bang.

The thing that annoys me the most...
The thing that annoys me the most is when people are rude, obnoxious and they think they are better than other people. I know everyone has a little bit of that in them sometimes but I feel that some people go overboard with it. For example, people in my lunch always yell and dance and rap and I do not find that necessary. It obnoxious, its rude and they do not consider anyone else but themselves. Also some people just think because they have nicer clothes or richer parents that they are better than other people and that really makes me annoyed. It annoys me because its not true and even though they might be a little more spoiled, it does not make them better. It just makes them seem more glamourous and ultimately makes the kids unable to be independent without their parents money. But, I get really angry when people are unnecessarily rude to other people for no reason. I don't understand why its so hard to say thank you, or hold the door once in a while. Some people just grew up with no manners and disrespect teachers and I do not appreciate that.

Blog Post 5

1. The character I want to analyze is Sofia Garcia. Sofia being the young one has always been the baby of the house. However, she had always been noticed by boys and never went a day without a boyfriend. As the book progresses, it is shown that Sofia is known as the rebel child. She drops out of college and gets a job somewhere else and she runs away with a boy she just met. Her father knows that she is a rebel child and continually tries to control her. But, in reality has very little power over her. He finds the letters that she wrote with her lover and tries to confront her but, Sofia is embarrassed and hurt that she was exposed that she runs away. She ends up marrying the man from the letters and having a child with him but still her relationship between her and her father is still very tense. As the book goes on Sofia still continues to do rebellious thing such as licking her father in the ear instead of giving and innocent kiss like the other sisters. It is shown through various events that throughout the book she is staying rebellious but also growing up and learning more at the same time.

2. Something positive that happens in the book is that Carlos is finally trying to mend his broken relationship with his daughter Sofia. Through all the things that happened, he is trying to bring her back into his life. He makes this gesture by allowing his 70th birthday party to be at her house. He also shows much love to her baby boy and her husband a world known scientist. This example of positivity is person to person because it is a specific relationship between Sofia and her father. Although it affects the people around her, for example her family it primarily focuses on their private relationship. This gesture shows that Carlos is willing to begin putting things in the past and move on to fix their relationship. It will greatly affect the relationship her kids or her husband will have with him since they are all family now.

3. The United States has become a place filled with different races and cultures. Now, there is many different ethnicities and races present. Even though it is beneficial in someways, it can also not be beneficial as well. In the article it talked about how people didn't know how to treat Jeremy Lin, a rising basketball star from Taiwan. It was called "A question of idenity" and talked about exactly what the title is. What the identity of Jeremy Lin is. I think this question has been brought up numerous times in the book How the Garcia girls Lost their Accents Being from the Dominincan Republic and living in the United States, it is understandable that they have an identity crisis. They don't know which country is theirs and which people they should act like. I think that we as Americans need to understand the situation that immigrants are in and instead of showing discrimination, we should show compassion. That way, we can better understand their culture and traditions and learn from each other.

Blog Post #4

1. Jeremy Lin
This particular article contained detailed information on the rising basketball star Jeremy Lin. It talks about how a boy unnoticed at Harvard University caused a sensation called "Linsanity". It talks about Lin's past and how he got to where he is today. He played at a small high school in Silicon Valley. He also played at Harvard and got signed for Golden State Warriors. Afterwards, he was traded to the New York Knicks and is currently still with that team today. There is also a lot of attention brought to him as well due to his Asian American background. His ethnicity is Taiwanese and was born and raised in Taiwan before he moved to the United States. As the article continues it talks about Lin's strengths and weakness. He can effectively get through a crowd using "pick and roll". This article is using facts but also has opinion in the beginning paragraphs when it describes how he came to write about Jeremy Lin. I am interested because he was also an immigrant and made it big here in the U.S. I agree that he has an amazing back story. I would recommend this article to any sports fans because it struggled reading it because I am not a big sports fan.

2. US Europe eye risky, unprecedented penalty for Iran over pursuit of nuclear weapons
This article was about the United State and other countries in Europe considering if they should punish Iran due to their pursuit for nuclear weapons. However, if they were to punish Iran, it would have a huge negative effect on the nations economy. This article describes the issue and is completely fact. Both Europe and the U.S are still deciding whether or not they should take action on this issue. The outcomes could be both beneficial but also harmful as well. This article makes me think about the nuclear weapons crisis that is currently present in our world today. All the different countries want to possess the power to destroy other countries and I think that is very dangerous. I also think of the topic of Terrorist and how Iran and its people are viewed as a terrorist country. I chose this article because I think these topics are very important and critical to our world. A lot of problems are centered around this and i feel that this issue must be addressed.

3. Elie Wiesel
I chose this article because it was about Elie Wiesel and I loved his book from last year. In his book, he described the terrible Holocaust and what he went through. The article talks about how numerous amounts of people want to stop performing posthumous proxy baptisms on Jews. I completely agree with statement and feel that everyone should have a right to not be discriminated on anything. This article is mostly stating Wiesels opinion and how he feels about that matter. He feels strongly against it because he is a Holocaust survivor, he is against it. I feel that more people should read this and learn to tolerate one another and accept other people for their differences. 

Blog Post #3

In American society today, most women are getting equal rights as men. It used to be that women were the "house keepers" and played the role of a home stay parent; a parent who stayed home to cook, clean and watch the kids. Nowadays, more women are taking the active role as a working parent while more fathers begin to stay home. I feel like men owe women more respect then they give them. The men has the role of being a protective figure in a household and someone who will take care of the family. The women has the role of being a loving figure and more parent like. Some difficulties of being a man are that they must protect their house and family from and dangers. They will be the one to defend and fight for their family. A disadvantage of being a woman is that they still have to break from this stereotype of being a  "house keeper".  A disadvantage of men are that they are called drafted more when there is a war. A disadvantage of women is that they have to give birth. Although many more women are taking active duties as a working parent, many people still look down upon them as being just a cook or cleaner. Some stereotypes of men include; sports lover, beer drinker, can fix anything mechanical, aggressive and can't cook. Some stereotypes of women include; emotional, talkative, cooking skills, maternal, nurturing and sensitive. Women and men are very different, and both have many stereotypes attached to their gender.  From Sofias perspective, if she were to answer the question about the pill, she would not swallow it. I think this is because to me, Sofia is shown as a free person and I feel that if all her music was taken away, she would not be the same. I think she would have her soul mate and risk getting her collar bone broken every three years instead of having all the music she loves taken away. But i do not think she would give up her soul mate because she is a fighter for love as shown in the book.

Answer to Questions

1. I think this person would be more impressive than Albert Einstein because someone else can make Einstein's discoveries but I do not think that I would ever meet another magician. I would want to ask him questions on how he performs his magic. It would be really cool to see and try to learn.
5. I would not swallow the pill because I do not like that band. I would just heavily medicate myself every three years to prevent the pain. I love music so i do not think i could give that up.
7. The President because he is the most important to the people of the United States. I would put Loch Ness Monster on the second and then the other story. I think they are all important but i think more people would want to know the Presidnets story more.
12. I would give the wizard 50 dollars because i don't know how much a dollar would do and i would not want to regret it afterwards. But, i would not give the wizard more than fifty because i do not want to waste my money on something so superficial. I would give hime fifty just to see if it works.
16. I would watch it because i would try to figure out how I got into watching it so much in the first place. There must be a reason why i enjoy it so much and it would be a good time to figure out why.
I would watch the game and see what is so fun.
19. I would say that there was a really big spider on his stomach and i wanted to kill it because it was posionous. I would say that it would have killed it and i had to kick it really hard to kill it. I hope my friend believes my reason, i just tried to save his life.
20. The first one would be more interesting to me because i would want to know the people around me thought and opinions as well.  It would be interesting to see my life in a different perspective. I like the fact that it would be brutally honest.

Blog post 1

Welcome to my new blog! This blog is will be primarily focused on the book "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez. Just looking at the cover, I am already interested to see what his book is about. The cover has a picture of a dancer and since dancing is a huge part of Hispanic culture i am interested to how that will play in as well. I think this book will be focused on how the girls keep their culture alive in their lives even if they are in a totally different country.  I think it will also show in depth of how they begin to change in their new world and how their new surroundings affect them. I think the title is an interesting title because it keeps me wondering why its named like that and makes me make predictions. I also think the plot will show the transition of their old life to new and how (the process) by which they begin to lose their cultures.The plot looks interesting because it seems like something I could relate to because I am also an immigrant as well. The plot talked about how 3 girls immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic because of their dad.   I could see by just reading from the back cover that they are going through the same struggles and situations that I did. They try to change themselves to fit in and I want to know how exactly they start changing themselves. I look forward to seeing what this book is going to be about.