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