My Ending to Hook

Author’s Note: I wrote this piece to show that what comes around goes around. Please look at my sentence beginnings.

When Cody Miller took Mr. Clarence Buchanan’s gold hook, he sold all of the gold in exchange for money. He went down to a wealthy town and bought a house on a lake, lived nicely for a few years he golfed, fished and ran in races. One day out on the lake he caught a trophy fish it bit off his hand and he lived the rest of his life with a hook. Cody grew old and he too could not work as he could before, he hired a servant but once the servant had realized that he could steal his Codys' wealth he did. And the hook curse had its' next victim.

Character Analysis

Author's Note: I wrote thus piece to show that sometimes you just need to stand up for yourself. Please look

at my word choice.

For my character analysis I am doing Stanley Yelnats from the book Holes. In the beginning of the book Stanley is a weak overweight nerd who gets bullied everyday at school and doesn't do anything about it. But then Stanley is accused of stealing a famous baseball players shoes but they really just fell on him, and he must go to either jail or camp Green Lake. He decides to go to camp. When he gets to camp Green Lake he expects to just drag along and go with the flow for 18 months. But then he meets Armpit and X-ray. Armpit and X-ray have been there for a while and they show Stanley that you can’t drag yourself along you have to work for it. Stanley loses weight gains mental and physical strength. When Stanley came home he surprised everyone with how in shape he was and how intelligent he was. Back at school no one wanted to bully him but if they did Stanley could stand up for himself. 

Creative Ending To Thank You Ma'am

Author's Note: I wrote this piece to show that it is nice to thank people especially if they didn't have to do it for you in the first place. Please look at my grammar.

After the boy was given the money he decided he didn't need the shoes. He needed the knowledge that Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones gave him. So he went to the market and bought flowers and chocolate for her. He set it on her doorstep, knocked on the door and ran. He was trying to give her an anonymous present. But Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones was quick on her feet, she got up to the door looked down and saw the flowers and chocolate but no one there. She looked down the street but her vision was blocked by a truck but she could see the running bare feet of the boy.

Overcoming Conflict

Author’s Note: I wrote this because it has a clear conflict and resolution. Please look at my word choice in the piece.

In the book Gender Blender by: Blake Nelson the main characters, Tom and Emma are in an accident together and when they wake up their minds are in each others bodies. They have to live someone else’s life. Later they find that if they stay in the wrong bodies for more than three days it will become permanent.

On the third day they still haven’t found a way to go back to normal. They are at a party and feel hopeless and might not ever get back their bodies. But when they knock into each other at the party they go unconscious and wake back up in the right bodies! Tom and Emma can now live normal lives and be themselves. 

George Washington Time Travel Letter

Author’s Note: I wrote this ‘time travel letter’ to George Washington because he may certainly have been the greatest leader in the history of this nation. Please look at my word choice.

Dear George Washington,

            I’m writing you this letter so you can have an idea of how great of a president you are and I’d like you to know how the decisions you made shaped the United States of America into a great nation. I would just like to commend you on some of your greatest accomplishments. This will include war strategies and establish a federal government in an eight year, two term presidency.

Recognizing your great war strategies means a lot to me because you are one of the best in history at this and I hope it means a lot to you also. The best decision in my opinion that you made was to stay neutral during the French and British war. Swaying to a certain side could have been the unraveling of such a young country.  You were receiving recommendations of taking a side. If you did sway to a side and that country went on to lose the war that could have proved catastrophic for America.

Establishing a fair government was most likely your greatest feat, post war. Much of the laws you and some of the other founding fathers still stand to this day. Your efforts to make rights and laws is why we now have a nation where you will be punished fairly for doing something against the law.

What you have done for this country will forever be remembered and you will always be the first and one of the greatest presidents in this nations history.  You need to remember to do what you think is right because you are one of most wise men I have ever known existed. This country will become a power house around the world partially because of what you and other founding father have done. Lastly I would like to say thank you for all you have done for this country.

Into The Gaunlet

39 Clues, Book Ten, Into The Gauntlet

Author’s note: I wrote my retelling on this book because there is so much going which made this an easy book to write a retelling about. Please look and see if I held you in suspense so that you would want to read it because that was my goal.

Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix

Genre: Fiction

 A family with a long violent past, split into five groups. While Amy and Dan try to bring everyone together a mysterious prize for a cue hunt could split them farther apart. The family must learn, if they want true power they must all work together. 

White Fang

Author’s Note: I wrote this piece on this book because White Fang is an outcast and it’s sad to see outcasts in the world. Please look at my sentence beginnings.

In the book “White Fang” by Jack London the main character, White Fang was going through some problems in this book. He was abounded when he was just a little half wolf half dog puppy. White Fang went to go find a new home but that didn’t work out the way he hoped. While hunting a rabbit he finds a tribe of native Americans. The young pup attempts to run away but he can’t help his curiosity to try to find a new family. One native American takes him in but all the others in the tribe including the other dogs didn’t accept him.

If everyone in White Fang’s life that hurt him or made fun of him he wouldn’t be as furious, strong and smart as he could. The book made the Native Americans look like bad people but what they really did is turn him into a great wolf. His family wasn’t there to teach him the native Americans were the ones to do that. 

Why There Are Rails on Escalators

Author's Note: I wrote this piece because every year I remember less and less about this so if i write about it I will never forget it.

When I was four years old I was at the mall with family friends. We just entered the mall and were deciding where to go first. While my sisters were looking at a map two older boys and I decided to have a contest, who could go on the outside of the rail and up the rail the highest. I'd have no idea what would've happened to me that night.

It was the first boys' turn and he made it about four feet and he thought it was pretty impressive. I knew I could beat that. The second boy made it about six feet up I wasn't so sure I could beat that but I was sure I was going to try. I wish I hadn't though.

Now it was my turn to go and I was determined to beat six feet. I did. But I didn't come back down. When I got to a certain point it was too high to jump down! I had to keep going up. Luckily there was a lady who pulled me up over the railing and took me down to my sisters!

I was twenty to thirty feet up in the air if that lady hadn't saved me I might have died. One of the worst things about this is I don't even know who saved my life. If only I knew so I could find her and thank her.

Teepeeing Gone Wrong

Authors Note: I wrote this piece because when I thought of life experiences this stuck out. This is my first piece of the year so I am trying to have a proficient piece so I can get to advanced later in the year.

On a very swampy like early morning, two of my friends and I wanted to go teepeeing, for those of you who don’t know teepeeing, teepeeing is throwing toilet paper rolls into a house’s trees. The ground was soaking wet but only a slight drizzle was falling from the sky. Perfect teepeeing weather. My friends and I packed duffle bags and set out to teepee a house that a girl in our grade lived in. That night I could’ve gotten in the biggest trouble that I’d ever been in.

While we were walking to the house that we were going to teepee, we had two main concerns, a bar that we had to pass and any patrolling cops. We made it to the house while evading the bar and we didn’t see any cops. We set up our bags in her backyard and started throwing toilet paper rolls into her trees. We threw about ten rolls when the slight drizzle was turning into a major storm. Luckily the side of her hard had two willow trees that my friends and I used as cover for the toilet paper that hadn’t yet been thrown. Even though it was raining cats and dogs we decided we had to throw all the rolls to make this one of our best jobs yet. My friends and I were about halfway done when we saw head lights. My friend whispered to me “We need to find a spot to hide.”  So my friends and I hid on the front porch of the house we were teepeeing all we had for cover was some patio furniture. The patrol car defiantly saw that the house was teepeed and the cop must’ve only been there for two minutes but it felt like an hour.

My friends and I were still waiting behind the patio furniture and the cop had turned on its brighter headlights to look but didn’t see us. So he drove away and the only reason he didn’t get out of the car was probably because it was raining so hard. After the cop drove away we stayed in the same spot for about another minute before we decided we should move and try and get back to one of our houses. We had successfully made it through the neighborhood and now we had to get through a bars parking lot without being seen while each of us were carrying duffel bags half full of toilet paper. At two A.M. on the weekend that’s not so easy. We found an opening where no one would see us and we shot through it like a lightning bolt, just like the ones in the sky above us. We just had one obstacle left, a major street.

At the street my friends and I were just about to cross until out of nowhere the same cop car turns the corner and all of us immediately jump under a pine tree and drop to the ground. The cop car must of gotten over us and kept on going on patrol because it seemed like a very casual speed. It past us and we went on crossed the street and made it back to one of my friends house at about three A.M. and cover up our trail in the house and we went to bed and we all fell asleep within about thirty seconds of laying down.

All in all what we did was very bad and we never are going to do it again but we were bored and didn’t do the normal thing and just go to bed. We did something out of the ordinary of what we usually do. I’m not saying go and teepee someone’s house I’m just saying don’t be afraid to go against the flow. In fifty years I might tell my grandchildren that story because I will never forget that so that’s why I think it may have been worth it.

Charlie

Three Facts One Fiction

Author’s Note: I wrote this piece because it looked like it would be a fun piece to write. Also please look at my sentence frequency.

I got my fake tooth when I was nine years old. When I was in the dentist’s office I was asked if I wanted to be numbed or have laughing gas. Of course when I was nine I chose the laughing gas. First of all because it didn’t involve needles and second of all my mom told me it would feel just like someone was tickling me.

Unfortunately it wasn’t ticklish, but it tasted like bubble gum!  After half an hour it quickly started to taste like metal. Anyways after one hour of intense pain they finally wiggled the tooth out, but the pain didn’t stop there and I’m not talking about physical pain. I mean the days afterwards when I couldn’t eat anything harder than a French Fry and nothing carbonated when I drink. Although that only lasted a couple days I still can’t eat starburst or milk duds.

What Avenger Am I?

Author's Note: I wrote this because I think this movie is really cool. Please look at my word choice.

If I were an Avengers I would be The Hulk. I would be the Hulk because he is really strong and that means he can lift, punch, kick and run very well. Although he cannot control when he turns into the Hulk I still think that it would be funny to own some people. I could also make money by being the hulk by playing sports.

Symbolism

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/Charlie34-1416219-symbolism-finished/

Semantic Devices

Metaphor- The typical teenage boys’ room is a disaster area   

Simile- Cute as a kitten

Personification- That tree was waving to me

Hyperbole- His brain is the size of a pea

Puns- That’s pretty punny

Oxymoron- Almost big

Irony- Someone got run over by an ambulance?

Alliteration-Sally sells seashells down by the seashore

Three Wishes

If I had three wishes I would spend them wisely. I would find a cure for every kind of cancer, have world peace and be the richest man in the world. The reason I would choose to cure cancer is to save many lives. That is also why I chose to bring world peace, but i chose to be the richest man in the world so I can give money to people in need and live a very nice life.

My Dream Vacation

Authors Note: I wrote this piece because I've always thought about this. Pay attention to my sentence structure.

On my dream vacation I would go on a cruise past Alaska and see polar bears and all the wildlife there. On the way back we would circle around Hawaii and try and surf. I would most likely not be able to surf it would still be fun to be in the water. I hope the water would be warm.

After the cruise that went by Alaska and Hawaii I would take a plane to Jamaica. In Jamaica I would swim, jet ski and snorkel. I would also zip line.

Spring Assessment

 The Wolf-Dog

Author’s Note: I wrote this piece because the main character in this book dealt with bullying and isolation. Please look at my introduction that I am trying to improve.

White Fang by Jack London with an introduction by K.A. Applegate is a story about a courageous and offbeat wolf-dog named White Fang. Wolf pups die 60% of the time before they reach two months old (Source 1)! In White Fang the wolf-dog endures predators, the cold and finally finding out his personality. White Fang dealt with having to stand up to his bigger opponents and trying NOT to fit in.

I like how White Fang didn’t want to fit in because he didn’t like his acquaintances. He didn’t agree with how they were acting so he didn’t put up with it. That is what more humans need to do, people just go with the flow, but they need to snap out of it and do what they think is right. Staying with the flow is almost like taking away your freedom, freedom is the right to talk or do what you want to.

Isolating yourself doesn’t help you. That is just giving in to what the other person wants you to do. They want you to isolate yourself because it makes you weaker. What you need to do is find people who you will have fun with and support you because that makes you emotionally stronger. You also need to help them if people are trying to bring them down.

One of the problems with isolation is that sometimes the person who is isolating someone doesn’t even realize it. You need to tell them that they are isolating you and sometimes solving this problem can be as easy as that. On the other hand in some cases it can be more difficult and you need to ask yourself if these people are isolating me do I even want to talk to them. Obviously White Fang didn’t have that option because there was no other of his species near him; there are only at the most 17,000 wolves in the U.S.A (source 2). Humans are climbing to record highs with over 310 million people just In America (source3). So there are more people out there that will support you.

Lastly if you are isolating someone, put yourself in their life, pushed away by every attempt to even communicate with someone. It is almost as if that person is in solitary confinement but their out in the world. Victims of isolation have to endure trying to make friends and trying getting away from the people who are doing it to you. Just remember if someone is trying to bring you down it just means you are above them.

Source 1: "Wolf Pups." Windows In To Wonderland. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. <http://www.windowsintowonderland.org/wolves2/lessons/wolfpups-resouce.pdf>.

Source 2: "Gray Wolf Population in the U.S.." U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.fws.gov/midwest/wolf/aboutwolves/WolfPopUS.htm>.

Source 3: "US & World Population Clock." Census Bureau Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2012. <http://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html>.

Should We Drill in Alaska?

Author’s Note: I wrote this piece because of the huge debate continuing on whether or not we should drill in Alaska.

There is a controversy remaining on drilling in ANWR which stands for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Many are against drilling for the sake of our wildlife and many are for drilling because of their interest in our economy. I am against drilling because the refuge would cover 19 million acres and the oil could damage most of it (Source 2). Overall destroying most of our arctic wildlife and their habitat would be polar bears, grizzlies, Arctic wolves, caribou, the jeopardized shaggy musk ox and arctic tree lines.

If we drill in Alaska we could see a repeat of the gulf of Mexico oil spill from 2010, eleven people died and 82,000 birds and almost 26,000 marine mammals were killed or injured (Source 1). That could very well happen in Alaska except there is a possibility that even more animals would be killed.If you have ever watched a show on Alaskan wildlife you will understand because the creatures there are truly amazing.

Yes Alaska has oil but experts say that Alaskan oil will only give us a six month supply. Studies show that drilling in Alaska only reduces imports by 4%. Is 4% of oil imports worth killing hundreds of thousands of plants and animals(Source 3, Doc B). After the oil spill in the gulf how could it possibly be worth it?

Alternative energy is the answer; we can’t keep using fossil fuels as our main energy. Especially when we could run out of fossil fuels in as soon as 60 years (Source 3, Doc C). Although we haven’t perfected fossil fuels, it is the future of travel. If we can find a way to perfect electric or solar cars we will save many lives and resources.

All in all we should stop the people who want to drill in Alaska. This state is just too beautiful to ruin for such a small benefit. If we drill in Alaska people will regret that they ruined this astonishing sanctuary. The animals won’t exactly be too fond of it either.

Source 1-    "Gulf Disaster." Center for Biological Diversity. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2012. <http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/program 

Source 2- Starr, Penny. "New Study Shows That Offshore Drilling Could Make Alaska the Eighth Largest Oil Producer in the World – Ahead of Libya and Nigeria | CNSNews.com." CNSNews.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2012. <http://cnsnews.com/news/article/new-study-shows-offshore-drilling-could-make-alaska-eighth-largest-oil-producer-world>. 

Source 3- Should we drill in alaka's wilderness." Should we drill in alaka's wilderness. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. <http://lake.k12.fl.us/16722057105751950/lib/16722057105751950/_files/Alaskan_Oil-Student_Packet.pdf>.

My Response to The Alamo

Authors Note: I wrote about the Alamo to try and show how courageous these men were in what they stood for.

The Alamo was one of the most historic battles in American history but was shadowed by the Civil War. Although the Civil War happened 30 years later most people think of the major wars in American history as The Revolutionary War, The Civil War and World War Two. Even though The United States - Mexican was a major war that gave us about 30% of the land America has today. I think the reason most people don't think of this as a major war is because America has a tendency to overcome great forces that try control us but in this war we were controlling Mexico and trying to gain their land.

The war was mainly for land but the Alamo was an attempt at freedom from Mexico for Texas because they wanted to join the U.S. Mexicans didn't want that to happen because America was on the rise and Mexico on the fall. If Mexico gave America any land then surely we would become the more dominant country easily. If that happened then Mexico's economy would surely suffer which is always bad.

At the time people in Europe got curious about the about the west and which country was the strongest and so not only was it a war for land but it was a statement war, which country could kill more of the other countries soldiers. A sick thing but both countries thought it was important for other countries to know what they could do with their military. Europe did take a little consideration that America was strong but not much it wasn't until World War Two that America became a world wide powerhouse. So a war that killed approximately 15,000 people could have been avoided.

All in all this war didn't need to happen but both sides governments thought they needed to tell other countries  that they were powerful. Back then all people really cared about was who was powerful near them because no one was going to cross The Atlantic ocean unless it was for a very important purpose such as the revolutionary war. Although America did get some land out of the war was it worth 15,000 lives? I don't think so because our nation might not be as powerful but it would survive without that land but obviously people back then didn't have the same opinion. 

Bullying

What do bullies try and get from bullying? It is hard to answer because there are so many different situations but in the story, even though this story is fictional the same problems come up in real life. A lot of bullies don’t realize what they are doing to the victims. All Summer in a Day written by Ray Bradbury he gave a nice example of a bully situation. Many kids and even adults have to deal with jealousy or low self esteem and that is why there are bullies in this world.

Many people don’t realize what an effect bullying has on the            victims, instead they focus on punishing the offenders which yes, you should do, but you should also try and help the victim. Sadly the victims suffer the most in these cases and need the most help. That is why many people need to step up and stop bullying if they see it happen or if they know of someone who’s being bullied: help them out and ask them how they are doing. You need to help them with all of the things they need to deal with when being bullied.

Why don’t people stand up for the victims when they see bullying happen? Many people don’t want to because they don’t want to get pulled into it. Imagine being on the other side though if you were getting bullied and other people could do something but didn’t. That the bullying could stop just if one person stood up but didn’t. Imagine what that could do for a person.

All in all bullying needs to be held to a minimal or stopped. This can have a long term affect and can put people in bad places. Also bullies need to realize what they are doing to people. This can do a very bad thing to bullies victims and people who see it.

My project with Adam and Alec

Problem- We are trying to see if the size of a ball changes your shot and your form.

Hypothesis- I will make 5 out of 30 because I am not that good at basketball but I think will do better with a men’s ball. I think I will do better with the men's ball because I am more used to the men's ball and the women's ball might be a little too light so I might over shoot the basket!

Experimental Design-  

go to the gym and shoot basketballs 15 each ball per person

have all of us shoot 15 times

add the scores up

Variables-

The balls  

Basketball court

Hoop

Produces- The first thing we had to do was shoot which wasn’t very hard. But then we had to put all our info into bar graph which wasn’t hard again but the results ended up being really close to each other. We all got in 4 and below because it is hard to change our shot in like in like 10 min so we couldn’t make many. All our goals were to make 5 or more but that didn’t happen.  

Observation- What we were trying to do is see if a having to different size basketballs would effect our shoot which by watching it did alot because we were shooting all over the place and we didn’t even hit the rim that much because of the different balls. One thing I saw was how we were shooting because we had a different shoot for both balls. The hard thing is we had to get use to each ball as we were shooting. 

Conclusion

Charlie-  In my hypothesis I predicted that I would make 5 out of 30 and shoot better with the men’s ball than with the women’s. I did both of those I made 3 with the men's and 2 with women’s. I shot horribly but some how i still tied Alec but Adam blew us out. Overall I think we learned that women’s and men’s basketballs doesn’t really make a difference its more of what basketball size and weight you are used to.