Reading Blog 12/28/08

This Christmas Eve, instead of going to CPC, we went to a family friends Lutheran Church in Bloomington. Supposedly, the preacher was very good. I was enjoying the service until he had his sermon near the end talking about 3 points of the confused, convinced, and non-believers. He was pretty much saying that there are the confused people who don't know what religion they are, the convinced people who are convinced that they know the extent to which god reigns over, and the non-believers whom do not believe in god. Throughout his sermon he talked about the real meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ our savior and how he was brought to this earth to relieve us of our sins. But, with taking European History, we covered the whole Martin Luther and Lutheranism deal, and some of the things he said angered me because they went against what I was taught in class. For instance, he said that the pagan (separate religion from state and science) philosophes or people brought about the wreck of the faith in God. This is not true because without the Pagan philiosophes or the Pagan people in general, there would be no society today pretty much because without them there would have been any scientific, agricultural, or industrial revolutions and no enlightenment which would have kept the world from being modernised. 

Reading Blog 12/24/08

In an online CNN article w/no author titled Rice: People will soon thank Bush for what he's done, was mightily controversial. She claims that even thought he wasn't a very popular president, people will start to realize how many things he had to do with all of this negative attitude toward him. In explanation, she decrees "This isn't a popularity contest. I'm sorry, it isn't. What the administration is responsible to do is to make good choices about American's interests and values in the long run- not for today's headlines, but for history's judgement." Also she said that good historians are making predictions of the lasting effects of president Bush's rule, but in reality, good historians are still writing books about George Washington. 

Reading Blog 12/21/08

I recently read an article in the Star Tribune Newspaper California Surgeon Used Human Fat to Power Car by Carrie Jonson. In this article it talked about how a former Beverly Hills doctor used the fat he liposuctioned out of patients to fuel his car! The California state health officials said that the practice was illegal and that there is an in depth investigation going on to make sure that this actually happened by the California public health department. Former patients are filling lawsuits because they claim that he allowed his unlicensed girlfriend to perform procedures, causing the patients to be disfigured. 

Reading blog 12/17/08- St. Judes candy cane cola

Recently I went to Lunds and I found a display full of cans of Candy Cane Cola. I was curios so I bought a couple. It turns out that during the time of Christmas, St. Nicks beverage company makes a special Candy Cane Cola to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Also, St. Nicks company vows to donate a minimum of $250,000 to be donated to the Hospital. I found this to be a very effective way of raising money. Last year, they raised over $740,000 dollars for the Hospital which enabled them to undergo a new enzyme research program and also to give less expensive care to patients in need. So, this holiday season, when at your local Lunds or Byerlys, take some time to buy a can or to of St. Nick's Candy Cane Cola. It is very inexpensive and it tastes great too!

Reading blog 12/14/08- Acorn Shortage

I recently read an online article Scientists baffled by mysterious acorn shortage by Marsha Walton from the CNN.com/technology section. The article addresses a key problem, a Nation-wide acorn shortage in the U.S. The thing is that oak trees have already shed their leaves, but the usual amount of acorns underfoot is not many. In the far corners of  Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, scientists have found no acorns at all. A cause might be the bumper crop of acorns last year, which many other's say may be one reason for this year's scarcity. Also, another cause is the dramatic increase of precipitation because if there is too much rain for the oak's, they cannot grow acorns. The shortage isn't a crisis level, but it is important to watch it closely. 

Reading blog 12/9/08 Vermont teen vanishes on way home from work

In the news, I recently read an article on a teen who went missing in Vermont on the way home from work. Her name is Brianna Maitland and she was just 17 years old. When Brianna insisted on taking a job and living with s roommate before starting college, it wasn't what her parents really had in mind. She had just started a job as a waitress at the Black Lantern Restaurant when she vanished into the night. She supposedly left work at around 11:20 on March 19, 2004, intending to go straight home. She got into her car and drove off, but has not been seen or heard from since. In 2006, someone reported her to be at Ceaser's Place casino but her parents couldn't tell through the video if it was her due to the grany video. The parents are still hopeful and offer a 20,000 reward for any info leading to finding her or to the capturing of the people responsible for her vanishing act. 

reding blog: 12-7-08- WORLD'S OLDEST ANIMALS

I was online looking at random news articles and I found one that seemed pretty interesting. It's from the website: Telegraph.co.uk. and the article is titled: World's oldest animals by Daily Telegraph reporter. It talks about 8 animals who are supposed to be the oldest of their type. What I found the most interesting was that they classified a clam as a pet. The clam was thought to have been around 410 years old!! It was passed on from family to family in Iceland were it had its own aquarium type living space. Another of my favorites was the Rabbit named George from Tewksbury, Massachusetts who was fourteen years old. The average life expectancy of a rabbit is six to eight years, which made George about 160 years in human years!

Reading blog: Concerts

Recently, I was looking at many different articles and also checking out ticketmaster about concerts for singers. It seems as though all the "good" concerts are around right at this time of year, but beware of fraud tickets online and inflated prices. One website was offering 1 ringside ticket to Britney Spears and it costs--- $3, 456 dollars! wow! I thought that was an outrageous amount to pay, well okay, if you are a die-hard fan of her go ahead and spend that much but I'm pretty sure you could find tickets close to the front stage for much cheaper. Also, right around the corner is Jingle Ball which many are eagerly awaiting and is december 15th. Another thing that comes to mind is, what really causes this high inflation. Well first off everyone hears about the concert then people think if I don't buy tickets within the next day they'll all be sold out. This in turn causes more demand then supply, so the price and value increases. There are also ticket scalpers who wait until the second they are out, buy them, and re-sell them for outrageous and much higher prices than they are originally worth. It is a sad dilemma in our world, but for some it is a rare once in a year treat and also a chance to hang out with friends. 

 

Novel Reading blog- 11/30/08

Now I will resume with part one of Paper Towns, The Strings. In chapter 5, after they leave the flowers for Karin, they go to Jase's huge Spanish style mansion in a very rich subdivision. Margo takes a fish and writes "MS's love for you lies with the fishes" and throws it through a huge window causing it to break, while she spray painted a huge M on the Wall. They had a great security system so when she broke the window, a deafening siren sounded and the house lit up like christmas. Police sirens were in the distance so they gunned it out of there and made their way to Lacy Pemberton's house, a good friend of Margo's. Lacey's house is in a condo above a nice sushi store, so they have to park somewhere where there is no streetlight. The two of them find her black SUV and Margo has to jimmy the car lock to get the car open. After a minute they are in the car and they both lift up the drivers seat, throw the last of the 3 catfish underneath the seat, let the seat crash down only to hear the sound of exploding catfish guts while Margo closed the door. Q went on top of the car and spray painted a big M on it. Never had he been a fan of vandalism, but he felt it was justice and could not imagine how bad the car would smell the next morning. For part 9, they go to downtown Orlando. Surprisingly, downtown Orlando is not like most downtowns because it mainly consists of only a few skyscrapers owned by banks and insurance companies It's the kind of downtown that becomes absolutely deserted at night and on the weekends, except for a few nightclubs half filled with the desperate. They drive to the SunTrust Building. Margo tells Q that they are there to check on their progress, but Q is hesitant because he thinks that there are too many guards and what not. Fortunately, Margo knows the security man whose name is Gus. They race up to the top of the building to find themselves in the Conference room with the best view of the city. Q says that everything looks perfect from far away, how things get ugly up close. But, Margo goes off saying that it's fake and how it's a paper town with paper people and a mania for owning things. Sitting in the minivan, Margo lets Q decide who to take punishment on next for part ten. Q picks Chuck Parson, a jock who was a bully to everyone except the social elite. Margo asked him if he remembered the Crown School of Dance. Q goes on in his head to explain what it was. In sixth grade, a bunch of kids including Margo and Chuck were forced by their parents to take ballroom dancing lessons at the Crown School of Humiliation, Degradation, and Dance. And how it worked was the boys would stand on one side and the girls would stand on the other and then when the teacher told the boys to, they would walk over to the girls and the boy would say, "May I have his dance?" and the girl would say, "You may." Girls weren't allowed to say no. But one day Chuck convinced every single girl to say no to Q. He has been forever embarrased till this day. They snuck in through his window which was relatively low to the ground. Then, they put veet on his right eye brow and vaseline in his hand. Q proceded to slather vaseline on all doorknobs, windows, and surfaces of his room. As he softly wiped away the veet, Chuck woke up in time just to have Margo slam a comforter on his head while Chuck blindly screamed, "MAMA! DAD! ROBBERY ROBBERY!." After the flew out the window, they sprinted to the minivan. In the minivan, Margo tells Q that the last part, part 11, is breaking into SeaWorld. Q freaks out at this but Margo tells him to think of it as visiting SeaWorld in the middle of the night for free. Margo planned their entrance, they were to go across the highway, through a moat, and into SeaWorld.  As they pulled themselves out of the moat, Q noticed Margo's achilles tendon flex and then he saw the snake bite her. He wretched it free from her ankle and started sucking the blood from where the bite was. Margo yelled to stop because she saw that it was only a garter snake. They both thought of it to be an insult to their ninja like ways. When they get into SeaWorld, an old security guard catches them, but Margo sweet talks their way out of him calling the police. He leaves them alone. Margo tells Q how the pleasure isn't in doing things, its in planning things because they never turn out to be as great as you expect them to be. Then, the speakers turned to a song called "Stars fell on Alabama" and the two danced for a while before they went to a 7-eleven to buy dish towels to dry up the inside of the mini-van. When they were at home in the driveway, Margo told Q "I. Will. Miss. Hanging. Out. With. You." Q told her that she didn't have to but she gave him a smile climbed the tree to her bedroom window and went away.

This is the end of part one, The Strings. 

Novel Paper Towns Reading blog- 11/26/08

As noted from a previous blog post, I am reading the novel Paper Towns by one of my favorite authors, John Green. 

     For a recap, the book is about a boy named Quentin Jacobsen who has lived next to Margo Roth Spiegelman in the same Orlando subdivision since they were very young. As children, they played together, until one day when they were nine. That day, Margo and Quentin found a body in a nearby park. Neither of them knew this man, Robert Joyner, who killed himself in the park that the two were playing at. This changed their relationship. Now Margo and Quentin are high school seniors. They still live next door to each other, and Quentin still adores Margo and thinks that she is amazing/gorgeous, but they don't really talk. Margo is the pretty and popular one who is very adventurous while Quentin hangs out with the bandees and has a bright future. One night, Margo climbs through his window and takes him on an adventure, consisting of pranks on the people who betrayed Margo through all her live/popularity, and takes Quentin along to have some fun. 

The book is divided into 3 sections: The Strings(chp: 1-9), The Grass(chp: 10-20), and The Vessel(is broken into hours and then when they reach their destination, Agloe).

The Strings.

This section is only about the night of pranking which consists of 11 separate pranks. First, They go to the 7-eleven and buy: 3 whole Catfish, wrapped separately, Veet, Vaseline, six-pack mountain dew, one dozen tulips, one bottle of water, tissues, one can of blue spray paint. Next, they go to walmart to buy "the club" which locks a steering wheel in place. When they are at the store, Margo blows an air horn and a manager comes up. He mistakes Q for Margo's younger brother which makes him mad, and Margo says that they are a happy couple which makes the manager stop flirting with her. When they leave, they head to Becca Arlington's house. Margo doesn't like her because Becca stole her ex-boyfriend Jase Worthington from her and he was also at her house that night. Margo proceeds to Jase's car and puts the club on the steering wheel of his Lexus. Then, Margo makes Q call their house so that Becca's dad answer's the phone and tells his dad that his daughter and jase were having sex in his basement. This got her dad to go downstairs and yell at them. They hide behind bushes next to the window of the basement for when Jase runs out. Q manages to snap a picture of him making an escape to his car. Then Margo climbs through the window to take his clothes in case he decided to return to get them. On their way out, Q puts a catfish in her closet and Margo spray paints a giant M on their wall and they take off to Karin's  house, where Margo leaves the tulips on her doorstep to apologize for how she said horrible things to her when she delivered the news to Margo about Becca and Jase. 

reading blog-11/23/08

I recently read an article "Why delay till summer?" by Harry Westall. In this article it talks about why Warner Bros. is delaying the release of Harry Potter 6 until summer. The movie was supposed to come out this winter. Many people believe it to be that they want a summer blockbuster, but the Company says otherwise. A main reason for this is the usage of their set. Since it is located on an island, the weather was very extreme and caused damage to the property which had to be repaired. Another is the changes in the script which has been revised more than 2 times. Although this has dissapointed many fans, it will still be popular whenever it is showed.  

READING BLOG-11/19/08

Recently I read an article called "The revolutionary women: Marie Antoinette" by Sofie Aburgene. In this article it talks about Marie's life starting from before she was sent to France to mary Louis XVI to her death at the Guilleton. As a young girl, she grew up in Austria among her many brothers and sisters. At the age of 10, Prussia had become a threatening power to Austria. At 14, Prussia had joined forces with Russia and had taken over the Austrian possession of Silesia. Austria had felt threatened that Prussia might try to take over more of their possessions so they joined forces with France. This was a big deal because they were both originally enemies. For this, Austria sent Marie to be wed to Louis XVI as compensation. Marie felt like an alien at Versailles. Her position was vulnerable until she had made an heir to the throne. She did not do this for 7 years, but she did have a girl in 4 years, but the daughter did not count. Marie had another boy 2 years after the 7 years but he died at the age of 2. Also, Marie's mom died between the death of her son and the birth of her daughter. She became a court favorite by indulging in much jewlery, clothing, shoes, dogs, food, and much more. Also, Marie was a fan of Opera's and had a talent for singing. Unfortunately, her husband was very indecisive about things so he agreed to send aid to the American's in the American Revolution. This put a huge strain on government resources and caused the well being of France's peoples to go down. In turn, all prices of grains went up which to the Middle and lower classes was outrageous. People started to blame Marie as the Queen of debt and that she put them in this trouble. In her later years, things did not get better, and when the French Revolution started, Marie and Louis XVI were killed by the Guilleton.

Reading blog-11/16/08

In Last Christmas, chapter 9, Ariana tells Daniel that she needs to stay later and can meet him in Vermont the next day due to her paper. Ariana gave Daniel the hat that she bought him but he was to pissed of at her being late to care. At breakfast, Daniel offers to help her get out early, but she tells him that he can take up her luggage and try on his hat. But during the conversation Ariana gets a text from thomas that says "Old chapel, 7 p.m. Don't be late, naughty girl." Daniel asks her who it is and she says no one but he wants to know. Ariana tells him that she should get privacy but Paige says that he has a right to know. Ariana says that it's her mom and everyone buys it. When everyone starts to leave Daniel says that he'll come by to pick up her stuff. She says yes and kisses him in front of Thomas to show him that she doesn't care about him. 

Reading blog-11/12/08

I am recently reading the book Last Christmas by Kate Brian. It is a prequel to the private series books. This book is about Ariana Osgood's love life with Thomas Pearson a year before Reed Breenan showed up, and before Ariana attempted to kill Reed. So far, I am at chapter 8. The book starts out with october of senior year, when she killed Thomas Pearson. It says how after Noelle, Kiran, and Taylor had tied him up and beaten him, she had went back to untie him. Since they had a previous relationship, she thought that he still loved her. But, when she says these things Thomas starts telling her she's psycho, crazy, and just like her mother. This hits her hard and she picks up a baseball bat and kills him. Then it goes to december of Junior year where all of the easton students are at the Winter Ball having a good time. She is going out with Daniel Ryan, Paige Ryan, the president of Billings, brother, both of whom are seniors. At the ball, the Billings girls and their boyfriends are sitting, eating, talking about winter break plans when a new Exchange student, Segei who is a photographer, starts taking pictures of the girls at the table. Daniel gets upset when he see's pictures of Ariana on his camera so he takes his camera away. After everyone left, Thomas met with Ariana alone and they talked. She realized that even though Daniel was perfect on paper he wasn't in life and that she wanted Thomas. When she got back to her room, Noelle told her that a fool would pass up Daniel for Thomas. Later, Ariana was trying to write her paper on Madame Bovary, when her mother called. They talked about her plans to go to Vermont with Daniel and how proud she was of Ariana. After the assembly, Thomas catches Ariana and tells her that she likes being called his nicknames and the like, but Paige was there to witness it. When walking back from english, Paige said that Ariana better not be late to Vermont, but Ariana still needed to write her paper in a matter of hours. At chapter 8, Noelle and Ariana go to the North Face Store to get Daniel a christmas present. Noelle leaves to a different store. Thomas surprises her by going into the store also. Ariana didn't want to be seen with him because Paige would get really mad. Then Thomas leans in to kiss her but a girl knocks a rack into them. All of a sudden Ariana fells like someone is watching them and tells Thomas to leave. After meeting up with Noelle, they see Sergei with his camera coming out of the North Face with a shopping bag and Noelle thinks that its cute that he has a crush on Ariana but she knows better.

Child prodigie HEROES

When people talk about Child prodigies, little do they know of how many broad categories there are or really what the term in its essence mean. Most people think about geniuses who just memorize everything and get out of college early but really they contribute a mass amount of knowledge to our lives. Also, many child prodigies have the same psychological need for belonging, love, and a sense of community. From Wikipedia, the definition of a child prodigy is: a person who masters one or more skills or arts at an early age. Their work is truly remarkable. 

below is a video link to a You Tube video that shows a 1

4 year old art prodigy. This just goes to show that not every prodigy is a mathematical genius.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf8TW1p-gr0 

Through my research, I have narrowed the broad range of specific prodigy talents into the following 3 categories of child prodigies; 

Mathematic and Science 

A list of notable Mathematical and Scientific child prodigies and their contributions:

Terence Tao- At 8 he was attending year 11 classes and scored a 760 on the math SAT section. He is credited for the Green-Tao theorem which proves that there exist arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of prime numbers.

Jean-Philippe Baratier- He published 11 works and worked on a method to calculate longitude at sea. He lived only 19 years and lived in the 18th century.

Maria Gaetana Agnesi- was an Italian linguist, mathematician, and philosopher. She is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus(ie finite quantities). 

Ernst G. Straus- At age 5 he worked out the formula for the sum of an arithmetic progression. 

Truman Safford- At 10 he could square 18 digits numbers, later in life he was an astronomer. 

Kim Ung-young: By the time he was 4, he could speak Japanese, Korean, German, and English fluently. He went to college when he was 3 until 6 and Hanyang University. At 7, he was invited to the U.S. by NASA. He got a Ph.D. in physics at Colorado State University before he was 16. After, he began his research with NASA, and switched over to civil engineering and today help's makes NASA's spacecrafts. 

Arkit Jaswal: He was India's youngest university student. He carried out an operation at age 7. 

The Arts

"When you're that young and you play with an orchestra-- I debuted with the New York Philharmonic-- they call you a prodigy and that name sticks with you even when you're 15 or 15 and beyond. What I liked even then, though, was that the conductors treated me like a colleague, not like a "prodigy,"...Then, when I would be invited back, it became a wonderful cycle for me: I would create friends at these places, such as New York and Berlin, and they have watched me grow up." -Sarah Chang, child prodigy. 

Some notable musical child prodigies are:

Emily Bear- Discovered her piano talents at the age of 2, composes her own music, and has played at the white house.

Sean Bennet- Won a Disney song-arranging prize at the age of 5.

Cameron Carpenter- Performed J.S. Bach's Well- Tempered Clavier from memory at age 11 on the Organ.

Lang Lang- Began playing piano at age two; entered Beijing Conservatory at age eight; won international competitions at age 13.

Wolfgang Mozart- Played both Piano and Violin at the age of 6 and composed for the king at age 8.

Raphael Severe- Started playing Clarinet at age 8, played Mozart's clarinet concerto in China at 11, won first prize and jury special prize at the Tokyo international competition at 12. 

Linda Brava- World-wide tours at age 8, leader of the prestigious Helsinki Juniorstrings at 13. She played the Violin.

Some notable artistic child prodigies are:

Pablo Picasso- His Picador is from age eight. He started painting at age 3.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini- At 7, his sketches caught the eye of Pope Paul V, he also sculpted Martyrdom of St. Lawrence at the age of 16.

Dylan Scott Pierce- Wildlife art illustrator at 10.

Zhu Da- Prodigy poet by age 7 and later a painter.

Jan Lievens- Painter apprenticed at 8 and an independent artist at 12.

Some notable literature child prodigies are:

H.P. Lovecraft- recited poetry at age 2 and wrote long poems at age 5.

Lope de Vega- wrote his first play at the age of 12. Could read Latin at age 5 and was translating Latin verse at ten.

William Cullen Bryant- Published at ten, had a book of political satire poems at 13.

Here are some exceptional artistic pieces of child prodigies:

Sports and Games

Here are some outstanding sports and game prodigies:

Tiger Woods- He first won the Optimist International Junior tournament at age 8, playing in the 9-10 age group. Now he is a pro-athlete. 

Michelle Wie- Qualified for the USGA Women's Amateur Public Links at 10 and won the same event at 13, making her the youngest person both to qualify for and win a USGA adult national championship.

Wayne Gretzky- At age 6 he was skating with 10 year olds. By the age of 10 he scored 378 goals and 139 assists in just 85 games. 

Nicholas Nip- Youngest ever USCF Chess Master with a rating of 2207 at age 9. He began chess at age 2.

Here are some pictures about the prodigies I have mentioned above;

Also, there are many references to fictional prodigies, in works of literature, movies, T.V., and video games such as: 

In literature: Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, Battle Royale by Koushun Takimi, and The Chronicles Of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. 

In Movies: August Rush, Star Wars, Magnolia, Dear Brigitte, and Shine.

In T.V.: Zoey 101, X-Files, Malcom in the Middle, Numb3rs, Avatar, Sailor Moon, Max Steel, Heroes, CSI, Bones, Bleach, and The Big Bang Theory. 

In Video Games: Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, Mother, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

Conclusion 

   As my project comes to a close, I would like to point out one last interesting fact about child prodigies. Many of the child prodigies in the world lived in centuries before the 21st. According to a Princeton University Study, child prodigies and plain out geniuses are dying out during the passing of century's due to the fact that in the society we live in today, there is not a big emphasis on the use of self-intellect. Though most people would argue that it is an unfortunate thing, they would also argue that without our current technology, child prodigies wouldn't help us out as much as back then. In my overall findings, I came to a conclusion that child prodigies come in all types, fictional and non-fictional, mathematic and artistic, athletic and poetic, and that most of all, child prodigies are human beings after all in that they feel the same need we do to have belonging, love, and a sense of community. 

Double Bubble Character Map

What I have read recently

10/5/08

The last book I have read was Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. In this book, Pfeffer shows how out of control things can get when an asteroid hits the Moon. Since the moon is responsible for many of the Earth's environmental controls, and when the orbit of the moon changes, so does the environment. Tidal waves destroy cities, killing millions. All electricity is lost. Gas goes up to $35 a gallon for 3 gallons. The main character, Miranda, still tries to cling to a normal life when so many people are dying of starvation, and diseases we never get anymore. Miranda believes that if her family works together, they stand a chance, even if it might not be for long.

10/8/08 

I recently read an online article on the CNN website called "Polar bears resort to cannibalism as Arctic ice shrinks." This article showed how the ice is melting 40% as much as it did 4 years ago, which causes there to be less ice surface for humans, and more importantly Arctic animals in danger of extinction, such as the Polar Bear. Polar Bear's rely on the ice surface to live their lifestyle, such as ice fishing, making dens, and scouring for penguins. But due to the recent loss of the ice sheet, Polar Bears drown, can't get food, starve, and even resort to cannibalism. It is getting so extreme that Polar Bears are now listed as an endangered species, which is very frightening. Another bad effect of the ice loss is that the ice sheets reflect solar radiation which helps cool the earth, but now since the ice sheet is getting smaller, more water is exposed, which in turn absorbs the solar radiation so that the earth is getting warmer. With warmer water, even more ice melts. I think that we really need to do something about this problem.

10/12/08

I recently read the book "Dylan" a clique summer collection book. It was a quick read due to the fact that it is only 120 pages. In this book, Dylan and her mom, a T.V. host of the show The Daily Grind go to Hawaii for the Hawaiian Aloha Tennis Open. Dylan's mom took her there because her mom's show is covering the whole tennis match, but mainly to get an interview with the teenage tennis superstar/wild child Svetlana Slootskyia. Dylan starts to relax in the Hawaii lifestyle when she meets J.T. They become good friends, but when Dylan tries to befriend Svetlana, she realizes that she isn't the sweet person she see's on the T.V. Dylan want's to go out with J.T. but she has to learn tennis first. Will Svetlana help Dylan or not?

10/15/08

I recently read an article in the magazine teen vogue. The article is called "Breaking Point", by Jane Shin Park. In this article, it discuses how girls may be at higher risk of being "super stressed." For example, on reason is that in one survey of 2,000 college students in the United States, over one-third said they experience stress frequently. The survey found that girls seem to have a harder time keeping their cool than boys do. And also in that survey, it showed that girls were more likely than guys to be troubled by all potential stress triggers such as grades, family, friends, dating, sports, college, work, etc. Also, because girls generally seem to be under more pressure to be looked upon as pretty and fashionable by their friends. In addition, girls are really hard on each other and like to look for things to make fun of in other girls, which most boys don't do that much. Unfortunately, having all these stressers can make you physically sick and in the long run, give you serious health problems like heart disease, depression, and high blood pressure. 

10/19/08

I recently read an article in Vogue magazine called the "Dark Horse" by Annie Leibovitz. The article talks about Daniel Radcliffe's stage debut in Equus, where he plays Alan Strang, a teen who blinds six horses with a metal spike and the psychiatrist who tries to discover why. It is based off of Shaffer's version in 1973. What makes this role so important for Daniel is that it sets him apart from his image as the beloved Harry Potter. He has to be extremely mature for the role, which, the directors and his fellow collegeus say is no problem for him at all. As his director said, "He's got all sorts of hidden depths. He's terribly mature without being remotely boring, and he's extremely complex without being screwed up. All in all, I think he's in for an enviably interesting life."

10/22/08

The book series I am currently reading are the private series. They are about a sophmore girl named Reed Brennan who tries to get in an exclusive private boarding school called Easton Academy. Reed tries to get in to the Billings House, a boarding house for the brightest, smartest, and most athletic girls in the school. Being a Billings girl not only means popularity, but guaranteed admission into the college of your choice. But getting in isn't the hardest part, doing chores and risky tasks for the Billings, staying in is. Reed goes out with Thomas Pearson, a mysteriously good looking senior whom many people disaprove of their relationship. She ignores these precautions and just goes with it. One morning, Thomas dissapears and can't be found anywhere. Everyone is worried and has no clue what to do. After the group comes back late at night from the Legacy party in NYC, a very exclusive party, they find out that Thomas has been killed. While they try to make sense of this, people are questioned on campus. When everyone leaves over Thanksgiving break except for Reed, some other people she doesn't know, and one of her friends Josh Hollis, she is forced to confront her feelings for Josh. One day, Josh is taking in for questioning for a long amount of time and looks pale after it. Just when Reed was falling asleep Noelle comes into her room and tells her that Josh isn't the person she thinks he is. Apparently, he is on heavy medications for depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders and he switched to Easton after being expelled from his other private school when his roommate committed suicide by "hanging himself." Thomas also happened to be Josh's roommate. Reed goes to Josh one night to get an explanation about it all. When she meets him, he hasn't been taking his meds, and he gets constant mood swings, sometimes violent and scary, not like the levelheaded Josh she knows. He tells her that he didn't do anything to Thomas because he was his friend, but later, the cops come in and arrest Josh for the murder of Thomas Pearson. Reed asks for evidence and the detective says they found his baseball bat next to the body. What will happen next? 

10/26/08

Recently, I read an article called "Learning to love or hate the game," by Hal Tearse in the magazine Let's Play Hockey or LPH. It talks about how hockey has changed over the years, and with that how priorities change. Also, it explains that in today's busy society, there is little time to develop the same kind of passion that our parents had for the game. For example, nowadays most children think that hockey involves adults yelling at them most of the time and trying to "coach them." Also, now kids "love" the new jerseys, warm-up suits, hats, personalized team equipment bags and stick bags, sweatshirts/sweatpants with their names and number for all to see. These are nice but they have nothing to do with playing hockey said coach Dennis Green. Many parents assume that their kids will enjoy it just as much as they did, which is another problem. Also, many players are quitting hockey due to time commitments, travel, tournaments, and thousands of dollars spent. Yet after all this, is a child supposed to learn to love the game? 

10/29/08

I just started reading a bit of the novel I will read for the novel choice assignment. This book is by one of my favorite authors, John Greene, who also wrote Looking For Alaska and an Abundance of Katherines. The book is Paper Towns. In this novel, a boy named Quentin Jacobsen has lived next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman in the same Orlando subdivision since they were really little. As children, they played together, until one day when they were nine. That day, Margo and Quentin found a body in a nearby park. Neither of them knew this man, Robert Joyner, who killed himself in the park that the two were playing at. This changed their relationship. Now Margo and Quentin are high school seniors. They still live next door to each other, and Quentin still thinks Margo is amazing and gorgeous, but they don't really talk. Margo is the pretty and popular one who is very adventurous while Quentin is the exact opposite. One night, Margo climbs through his window and takes him on an adventure, consisting of pranks on the people who betrayed Margo through all her popularity, and takes Quentin along to have some fun. This is where I stopped reading. I think that this book will be a good read with a lot of suprises.

11/5/08

 Recently, I read an article in Lets Play Hockey magazine titled, "Free Ride?" by Megan Bizzou. In this article, it talks about how expensive it is to be able to play hockey, even recreationally. A thing that caught my interest was a picture of a family and their son, dressed in hockey uniform, standing on the side of a road holding a sign that said "I need free ride to the rink." With increasing gas prices, it is more expensive to go to out of town tournaments or away games, which causes more inter-city competition. While not an entirely bad thing, many players can be dissapointed due to the fact that many hockey players look forward to those types of games and tournaments. Another affect of rising gas prices is the cost to maintain a hockey rink. This causes many rinks to minimize the amount of ice time used, and also to clump times together, so that the rink can preserve energy when not in use. Although it has may family's worried, there are always alternatives. Some familys carpool to rinks and have pasta dinners at homes instead of going out to eat. This goes to show that even in difficult times, you can always find a solution to a problem. 

11/9/08

I recently read a section of my european history book for homework that I found interesting. The book is called The Western Heritage by Donald Kagan. The section I read was on Louis XIV and the absolutist monarchy. In this section, it talked about Louis growing up as a boy and how his childhood experiences affected how he ruled later in his life when he was old enough to make decisions by himself and for himself. As a young boy, Louis inherited the French throne at the age of 5 but did not rule until after the death of his regent Mazarin in 1661. During the Fronde, when the French nobles rebelled against Louis as a young boy, he was convinced that big policies could harm the throne. From then on, Louis would concentrate almost entirely on the authority of the monarchy, making it the most important institution in all of France. 

My favorite book is Looking for Alaska

My favorite book would have to be Looking for Alaska by John Green. This book is about a 16 year old boy named Miles Halter, aka "Pudge" who is obsessed with memorizing famous dead people's last words. He's tired of his boring life so he leaves for boarding school in Alabama to find what a dying Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Pudge soon has friends whose lives are anything but safe and boring. At the center of their group is the beautiful and self-destructive Alaska Young, who is a master of pranks and avoiding school rules. Pudge falls impossibly in love with Alaska, who in turn always adores him but has a boyfriend of her own. When Alaska dies in a car crash, driving drunk, it tears apart at everyone, but mostly Pudge. Alaska meant so much more than a friend to him, more like his life and soulmate, as if they were the same person. Only when faced with death of a loved one does Pudge truly discovers the value of living and loving unconditionally. It also shows the impact one life can have on another.

Athletic

Although many people describe themselves as athletic, my live does revolve around sports. Firstly, I am involved in soccer. I have been playing soccer for about 6 years now. Soccer was teh 1st sport I started doing, and it is one of my favorites. The second sport I play is hockey. My sister got me involved in it about 5 years ago. Both of those two sports teach me responsibility, time management, and dedication. They also let me get in good shape and have fun.

Hall of fame

Britta Halvorson graduated from EHS in the year of 2011 with honors. She was an EHS Alumni and was active in many school board events. After graduating, she went to Stanford Medical School for 4 years to receive her Undergraduate Degree. During her Undergraduate years, Britta had a double major in Chemistry and Psychology. Soon after, she pursued a PhD in Anesthesiology, which took an additional 6 years. Upon her second graduation from Stanford, she founded a hospital in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde in Africa. The hospital was dedicated to providing free surgery and anesthetics to families in Poverty. Britta is now retired living on the island of Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean.