Outside Reading Post #6

After Tally gets dropped off by the rangers at the special meeting place, she is reunited with Shay, and meets her friends David and Croy. This is the legendary David that Tally had heard about all the time with Shay, and she gets to know him and the Smoke better. Tally feels it's kind of suspicious that it took her so long to get to the Smoke, so she makes up wild stories of adventures that she encountered on her journey. Tally explores the Smoke, and finds that everything is done by hand, nothing is given automatically, like at home in the city. At first this is hard to get used to, but this way of life begins to grow on her, yet she still is supposed to press the button on the tracker Special Circumstances gave her to be able to find where she is. David starts to like Tally, which makes Shay jealous, he even introduces her to his parents, who were former doctors in the city. At the part I am, Shay is mad at Tally for taking her love, and Tally is confused about whether she should stay, or expose the whole city to Special Circumstances.

Outside Reading Post #5

Tally sets off on the journey to find the smoke with the very confusing directions that Shay gave her. It was a kind of riddle, so that Special Circumstances wouldn't be able to decode it. Tally starts out her journey, and encounters obstacles along the way, such as almost being sucked under the current of the river, getting lost numerous times, having her clothes fly away while bathing in the river, and almost being torched in a field of flowers. The field of flowers was on fire because a group of elder Pretties set fire to them to prevent them from spreading like a virus. They pick up Tally in their helecopter, and she finds out that they are in alliance with the people in the Smoke,and they drop off any runaways they find at a special place where the Smokies come retrieve them. Tally doesn't really understand why they don't report these people to Special Circumstances, but they are Rangers and that's what they do.

Outside Reading Post #4

This book has taken a new spin in the pages I have read since my last post. Tally was sent back to Uglyville after being denied her change into a Pretty, and she has had visits from her parents, and surprisingly, her old best friend Peris. All of these visitors have tried to convince her that she should just forget her promise to Shay, and become a Pretty, which she is destined to do. Finally, they succeeded in convincing her, even though in the back of her head Tally knew this was wrong. So Tally goes back to the Special Circumstance building and tells them that she will tell everything she knows about Shay. This isn't enough for these people however, they tell her that she has to follow the directions Shay gave her to escape, and then call them so that they can bust Shay, and everyone else who has escaped. Tally doesn't really want to do this, but will do anything to be a Pretty. So Tally sets out on her journey following the directions Shay gave her...

Blog #4

A howling quartet
stood in the shape of a quadrangle
on the fourth of may
when four great whales came by on a quadcycle
they were drinking butane
and fell off their quadcycle

Outside Reading Post #3

When Shay brings Tally out to the Old Town- "Rusty Town", she tells Tally of a guy named David that she knows that she wants to meet there. He doesn't show up after they set a flare, so they go home, but Tally is left wondering about the world outside her own city, and the fact that there could be other cities and people out there. It's almost time for Tally and Shay to become Pretties, but right before the operation, Shay tells Tally that she's running away to find David and stay Ugly forever, and she wants Tally to join her. Tally is appalled by this, she's been waiting her whole life to become pretty, so she stays behind while Shay escapes forever. Shay had given her directions to meet her if she changed her mind, but Tally just ignored them. When Tally goes in to get her operation on her birthday, they tell her that there's a problem with her surgery, and she has to meet with a lady about "special circumstances". She finds out that Shay was involved with some kind of gang, and they know that Tally was friends with her, so until she reveals where Shay went and how she got there, they wont perform the operation. Tally sticks to her promise with Shay and doesn't reveal the secret, so they send her back to Uglyville. This is how far I am, but I wasn't really surprised that Tally didn't go with Shay because it's pretty obvious that she's anxious to become pretty. Now I am excited to find out what will happen next.

Blog #3

Number 1 poem:

There once was one singleton
who rode a unicycle through the woods.
He came across a unicorn with a unibrow.
They decided to race eachother out of the forest, and our solo singleton
came in first place.

Outside Reading Post #2

Tally reaches the Pretty party, and finally finds her old best friend Peris, but not after many peopole see her and realize she is an ugly. Peris helps her escape, and tells her she can never come back until she's Pretty, to stay safe, and Tally believes thats the only reason he doesn't want her to come back. On her escape away from the party, after bungee jumping off the roof of the party tower, and running through the "pleasure gardens" to get out of the Pretty Town, Tally runs into another Ugly, Shay, who becomes her new best friend. They find that they have the same birthday, and start connecting even more. Tally is so excited to become a Pretty, but it seems that Shay is kind of hesitant, and thinks that the whole idea of the operation is wrong, and everyone being the same is not appealing. I kind of agree with Shay, because I really think that everyone getting an operation at age 16 so that they can all be the same is a really weird idea, but to everyone in this book, it's normal. At the part of the book I am now, Shay has convinced Tally to sneak out into the "Old City" on their hoverboards. I'm beginning to realize that this book is about sometime in the future, and whenever they talk about the "old city", it's one of our modern cities today.

Blog #2

I rejoice when Annalise thrusts her pencil. Kelly laughs like a potsticker. The sprinkles swim through stone and jump like a boy. The salty apple paints with bleach right on my funny bone. 88 phones boink the golf book, like a running, speeding, painting, swimming, pig i smile.

Outside Reading Post #1

For my outside reading book, I am reading The Uglies by Scott Westerfield. I am 25 pages in so far, but so far it's very good. In this book, there are two groups of people: The Pretties, and The Uglies. They live on opposite sides of a river, and have completely different lifestyles. The uglies work, go to school, and live boring lives, while the Pretties party non-stop and have no cares. People aren't born into a certain group, all Uglies are turned into Pretties at a certain age. Tally is an ugly and her best friend Peris was as well until recently, when he turned the age to become a Pretty. Tally is only 3 months younger, but she is lonely so she decides to sneak over to visit him on the Pretty side. This is how far I am in the book so far, but I think it's really interesting that this is set sometime in the future, and how different it is from the lives we are used to.

Blog #1 (quarter 4)

So much of spring depends
upon

the birds flittering through the
air

the fresh scent of dew in the
morning

the feel of sticky raindrops splattering your
skin

and the rush of
summer

RESEARCH POST #2

I read an article called "Rwandan Genocide Aftermath" for one of my sources, to learn some of the effects of the Rwandan Genocide in 1995. These are some things I learned:
-From a distance, Rwanda looks pretty and unhurt, completely opposite of the past
-Over 18,000 refugees are crowded into camps
-United Nations are pressuring refugees to rebuild their broken country and get on with life, one example of this is cutting off the water source to camps
-Refugees are scared to go home, "we will be killed if we go home"
-about 1 million Rwandans are dead
-aid organizations have swarmed into Rwanda

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0010384

Blog #15 (quarter 3)

On Oprah.com, I found an interesting article about Kanye West overcoming huge odds. In 2002, after Kanye was having a late-night recording session, he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed head-on into an SUV. This was a near fatal accident, and his face was crushed by the steering wheel, and his jaw was broken in 3 places. Kanye barely overcame the odds, but he did learn really good lessons. While his jaw was wired shut, he wrote the song, "Through the Wire". He also decided that he had learned that nothing in life is promised except death, and "If you have the opportunity to play this game of life, you need to appreciate every moment". The lyrics and ideas for his album, College Dropout were all developed during his recovery, and later won 3 Grammys. I thought that this article taught a good lesson, because I had never even heard of this accident, and it just goes to show that you can't take anything for granted.

weblink:
http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/oprahshow1_ss_20050909/2

Blog #14 (quarter 3)

For the blog post about love, I found an article on WikiHow called "How to Love". These were the 5 steps: 1. "Say it" This step says that when you tell someone you love them, that means that you reall want them to know that you do, and it's not just what you feel inside. 2."Empathize" This step says that to love someone, you should put yourself in their shoes, and realize that they could love you back just as much as you love them. 3. "Love Unconditionally" This step says that you should strive to love someone unconditionally, and if you don't want to improve their life, then you are not loving them unconditionally. 4. "Expect nothing in Return" This step says you shouldn't let someone mistreat or undervalue you, but you should realize someone might have a different way of showing that they love you. 5. "Realize it can be Lost" If you realize that love can be lost, then you have a greater appreciation for it when you have it. Those were the things I learned.

weblink:
http://www.wikihow.com/Love

RESEARCH POST #1

For my first research post, I read an article about the genocide in Rwanda.
These are some things I learned:
-This genocide took place in 1994 (it surprised me that it was so recent)
-800,000 Tutsis were killed with up to 10,000 killed each day (EFFECT)
-after the Hutus seized power, many Tutsis fleed, but came back demanding that the power be equally shared (CAUSE)
-after the Hutu president was assassinated in a neighboring country, more ethnic tensions grew (CAUSE)
-a United Nations group was sent to Rwanda to preserve peace (EFFECT)
-after peace meetings between the Rwandan pesident and Burundi's new president, the presidents were shot down (EFFECT)
-after this extreme effent, Rwanda plunged into extreme violence (EFFECT)
-killings spread throughout the countryside (EFFECT)
-as United Nations peacemakers were murdered, the others were being evacuated, leaving little help (EFFECT)
-U.N. security unanimously voted to abandon Rwanda (EFFECT)
-by the end, over 1/10 of the population was killed, estimated 800,000 people. (EFFECT)

citation:
http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/Genocide/genocide_in_rwanda.htm

Blog #13 (quarter 3)

For this post about war, I researched about the shortest war in history. What I found, was in a wikipedia article. The shortest war in history was fought between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar, and it lasted approximately 40 minutes. The war started because of the death of the pro-British Sultan, Hamad bin Thuwaini. This happened on August 25, 1896. Involved in this war were 3 cruisers, 2 gunships, 150 marines and sailors, and 900 Zanzibaris. 2,800 Zanzibaris defended the palace, and had lots of artillery and machine guns. At 9:02,the palace was bombarded, and the artillery was destroyed, the British sank a Zanzibari royal yaght and two smaller vessels, and some shots were fired, and then the flag at the palace was shot down and fighting ceased at 9:40. I thought this was interesting to read about, because i've never even heard of this war, and it was only 40 minutes long.

weblink:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Zanzibar_War

Blog #12 (quarter 3)

For this blog post, I read a Wikipedia article about the colonization of Africa. Particularly: the Scramble for Africa. Apparently Britain Portugal and France had already claimed huge parts of Africa, along with Italy and Germany. When the Chancellor Bismark was dismissed, it just became a huge scramble for Africa, and the Berlin Conference was needed. This conference was established to create guidelines and rules for the colonization. What I don't understand is, why wasn't Africa at this conference? And why didn't they get any say in the colonization of their own country?

weblink:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Africa#The_Scramble_for_Africa

Blog #11 (quarter 3)

The global issue that I found an article about was the global food crisis right now. The food prices have been rising, and in lots of countries this has resulted in food riots. In Haiti, the prices have been raised by 50-100%, which is a lot- and the Prime Minister was even forced out of office. Throughout the world, many people have been killed or injured, all because of this crisis. In this article, there were also summarizations of the recent statistics of this crisis. Global prices have risen over 83% over the past few years, wheat prices are 130% higher than they were a year ago, soy 87%, rice-74%, and maize-31%. These numbers may not seem big, but it's amazing what the effects are.

weblink: http://www.globalissues.in/index.php?node=23

Blog #10 (quarter 3)

Today, I found a text online about the 2009 Federal Holidays. I thought it was interesting to read about which holidays federal employees get to take off work. The federal law (5 U.S.C. 6103) states which holidays an employee can take off from work. If the holiday falls on a weekend, then the holiday is then observed on the following Monday. I always thought that if a holiday was on the weekend, then a worker wouldn't get time off. The federal holidays this year are: New Years Day, MLK Jr. Day, Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. Another thing I found interesting was that they reffered to what we call president's day as 'Washington's Birthday', because it is the policy to refer to the holidays by the names designated by the law.

weblink: http://www.opm.gov/Operating_Status_Schedules/fedhol/2009.asp

thinking map

Blog #9 (quarter 3)

Today the article about Bollywood that I read was called: "Bollywood Confidential". This article was interesting because I really got to understand the significance of Bollywood movies in India. It was interesting to me that Bollywood movies are almost as worshipped as the gods. I think it's cool that these movies have spread as far as they have, from viewers like Israelis, Pakistanis, Haitains, immigrants in Queens, and so on. These movies are so popular because Bollywood's style is very family-oriented, unlike the ones that Hollywood has been producing. I didn't know that every single Bollywood movie was a musical, so this was new to me. There was also a quote in this article that I found interesting- My shoes are Japanese, My pants English, On my head a red Russian cap, still my heart is Indian. This just goes to show how fast cultures can impact and spread.

weblink: http://www.suketumehta.com/nytm.html

Blog #8 (quarter 3)

The article about culture that I read was on Eskimo culture. Eskimos are like many other hunting and gathering cultures. What makes Eskimo society stand out from others is that they were known for their especially skilled artists and fine craftsmans. Due to the sparseness of the lands they live on Eskimos live in small bands with a leader selected who is recognized for his ability to provide and protect the rest. The idea of personal property is viewed much differently than most cultures, Eskimo's will share most things besides for the most personal, private property. Just like most cultures though the Eskimo men will build the homes and provide food, while the women will stay home to watch the family. Their religion is rich with mythology, and shamanism is practiced. Shamans are like priests, but they commune with the earth, like many other pagan priests shaman's will use drugs to induce visions. Now a day's almost all Eskimo's live in communities. Instead of the spear the gun is used to hunt, and many communities will even have snowmobiles.

Weblink: http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/society/A0858029.html .

Blog #7 (quarter 3)

Today I read an article called, "Is Bollywood coming to Hollywood?" on cnn.com. The focus of this article is on the recent movie called 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Indian Bollywood-type movies have been attracting attention with the Hollywood. The movies are becoming known as ambassadors for India, because they give people from other parts of the world a glimpse of Indian cultures and ways of life. This movie isn't even the first Bollywood-type movie to come to hollywood, but it's been reported as the most popular. This is a change, because hollywood hasn't seen this type of movie as much in the past, and this will be a new twist for the film industry.

weblink: http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/23/bollywood.hollywood/index.html?iref=newssearch

Blog #6 (quarter 3)

For this blog, I found a long text about hope on wikipedia. It was interesting, because I didn't know that anyone had taken the time to think so much about hope. "Hope is the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best." This text explained that when used in a religious context, hope is being aware of what christians see as "spritual truth". The idea of hope dates back until Greek mythology, when Pandora's box is opened, and everything escapes except hope.

Blog #5 (quarter 3)

For this week's blog, I read an article on the NewYorkTimes.com called: "How India Reconciles Hindu Values and Biotech". This article talks about how Bush restricted funding for stem-cell research in 2001, but now, it's considered a smart idea to research stem-cell, and how it can open opportunities for the future. The Indian biotech companies are expanding their research companies, and this will create thousands of new jobs for people. The religious significance of this article is that people are critical and noting that these biotechnology companies are having no respect or consideration for religious or moral positions on the idea of stem-cell research.

Blog #4 (quarter 4)

Today I found an article called "The Effect of Gender Specific Social Roles on Recovery from Violent Crime Experiences". This article tells about the hypothesis that women are twice as likely to develop PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). A model including the effect family roles, socially accepted gender roles, sexual implications, sexual harrassments, etc. has been developed,. 14 women and 14 men survivors of a traumatic experience were observed and interviewed with open-ended questions. Many steps were taken in analyzing the data, and the outcome shows that women, indeed, are more likely to develop PTSD. This was a surprise to me, because I didn't think that gender really made a big difference, and I also didn't realize there were that many factors in determining how severe someone's stress will be.

Blog #3 (quarter 3)

Today I read an article on Wikipedia about Candian culture. Canada's culture has always been influenced by European traditions, mainly British and French. The cultures of Canada's "Aboriginal" people have become mainstream in Canada's culture over time, and has also been influenced strongly by the U.S. Immigrant people to Canada have also been a big influence to the culture. This article was interesting because I got to learn about all the different places around the world that have influence this one place.

BLOG 2 (Quarter 3)

For the topic overcoming struggles or facing a difficulty, I thought of the movie, The Pursuit of Happiness, starring Will Smith. This was a really sad movie, about a man who loses his job, but has a little boy and a wife to support. After his wife leaves him, the man searches for work, while trying to sell the last of an investment he made years ago. He goes back to school, but there is no money, and ends up living in shelters with his son. Throughout the movie we see the struggles he faces, but he pulls through, gets a job, and finally starts to prosper. This movie showed a really good message, while also telling a realistic story that could happen to a lot of people.

BLOG 1 (quarter 3)

I read a book called Life As We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeffer. This is a fictional book about the moon coming closer to the earth, causing a huge natural disaster. The main character lives in a town, but all over the world, the schools get closed, supermarkets run out of food, and everyone loses contact. By the end of the book, her family is barely surviving, and the whole town is mostly dead. I thought this was actually a scary book to read, because with all the gloabal warming, environmental issues going on, something like this could possibly happen to us. Of course this wasn't a true story, but it was written so realisticly, it made me really aware of the recent environmental issues.

CITATION: Pfeffer, Susan Beth. Life As We Knew It. Orlando: Harcourt Books, 2006.

Recently Read #18

The presidential innauguration was today, and I found an article on Obama's speech caclled the 'report card'. The question was how did Barack Obama do on his presidential speech, and a few famous people answered. John F. Kennedy said "he's good. he's damn good.", and thinks that Kennedy and King are saying that in heaven too. Alex Castellanos, a strategist, said that it was a really traditional speech, and the beginning deserves a b-minus, but the end deserves an a-plus. Hillary Rosen, a cnn contributor gave the speech an A, and said that he really delivered and reminded us of the price and power of our citizenship. I thought it was interesting to read this article and get different people's take on the presidential speech.

Recently Read #17

Today I read an article called, "can sex cause a heart attack?". It was on cnn.com, and it was about the myth that having sex can cause a heart attack. The article says that the chances of that are very low, and sexual activity is a factor in less than 1 percent of heart attacks. It also says if you have cardiovascular disease, to check with your doctor, just to be safe.

Recently Read #16

Recently, I was on cnn.com, and found an article called "9 money-saving travel tips". It talks about how even though the economy is fluctuating, people still want to travel and see new things. The tips are: 1.score perks and deals(hotels want to increase booking-offer deals), 2.take to the waters(cruises are trying to be cheaper and easier), 3. be loyal, 4. go all-inclusive, 5. sleep like a local, 6.follow the incentives, 7.stop hoarding your miles, 8.fly business class, 9.choose a package. I thought these were all interesting, and good ideas for someone who is planning a trip.

Recently Read #15

I finished Tuesdays with Morrie, and I thought it was really good, but it was sad. Morrie has gotten weaker and weaker by the weeks. His joke had always been that he knew he was actually dying when somebody had to wipe him after he went to the bathroom, and that day had come. Morrie had always been welcoming and eager for people to come talk to with him and hear his ideas, but now even that was getting to be too much. Mitch was one of the only people who could visit him until he got worn out, and he realizes how special these last days are. At the end of al this, Morrie feels he is going to die, and Mitch and him say their goodbyes. Mitch decides that he's going to visit Morrie's grave every Tuesday (since that's tradition), and talk with him just as he always had. Morrie dies quietly, his funeral was on a Tuesday, but he will definitly never be forgotten.

Recently Read #14

In Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch has started coming to visit Morrie every single Tuesday, to take advantage of the time he has left with him. He flies out there and flies home every time, and each time he visits Morrie, they talk about a new topic. Morrie is getting closer and closer to dying, and slowly is losing control of his body. Mitch feels so helpless, but Morrie stays cheerful and just wants to get his story out to the world. Since Morrie was a professor and had to quit teaching because of his ALS, Mitch has become his new "student", and this book was Mitch's final 'essay'.

Recently Read #13

Right now i'm reading a book called, Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom. It's a really good book so far, it's about an old man that's dying and he knows he has less than a year to live left. He was a professor his whole life until he found out he had ALS. Morrie tried to keep teaching with the disease, but he became too weak to leave his house. One of his old students (the author), hears about his story on TV and realizes how long it's been since he said he would visit his old teacher. Instead of just mourning and getting weaker by the day, Morrie takes advantage of his time left and he starts to meet every Tuesday with Mitch, who has become a big time sports writer and lost track of what he really wants. Right now they are just starting to meet again, and I will see what comes next.

Recently Read #12

Today I read an article called "the graying of the presidents". It is about a book written by a doctor who carefully studies aging, and he tells his theories about the aging of presidents. One of his theories is that presidents age 2 years for every year in office. So if a president is in office for 8 years, they will physically age 16 years. He says it doesn't matter what their background is, if they played sports, smoked, were republicans or democrats, they will still age twice as fast. One of his examples is Theodore Roosevelt. At the time, his life expectancy was 75, but he barely lived to see 60.

Recently read #11

Today on the internet I found an article about the death of John Travolta's son, Jett. Jett died friday in the Bahamas, when he had a seizure and hit his head on the bathtub. Jett had autism, and the Travoltas had just arrived in the Bahamas to celebrate New Years. Jett had been taking a medication for his frequent seizures, but the medicine slowly stopped working for him after several years. I think this is really sad, and you can tell by his parents quotes in the article that they really loved him and wont be able to get over this.

Recently Read #10

I went to texas over break, and on the way, I read a book called Almost Home. This book is by Jessica Blank, and it's about a bunch of kids living on the streets of LA. All the kids are different types of runaways running from different things, like sexual abuse, parents abusing them, and just wanting to leave. You get to hear perspectives of all the teenagers and they all come from different backgrounds. I thought this book was really good, the stories were based on real stories, and it was interesting and scary to see what some people face.