Assignment#16

 The girl with sad, sparkly blue eyes gently pushed aside the frazzled curtains. Her name was Rachel. She peered out at the lime green forest she'd been in deep slumber. She could not go out. The sun rested in the clear sky shining across the forest. Rachel went and opened the cabin door. The only door she encountered since age 5 now, 15. The door was scratched with many holes, which she stuffed with the branches and leaves to keep light out. She draped herself with a silky garment. She pondered if she would ever leave the cabin while darkness lingered throughout the forest. Oh, how Rachel liked the midday's cool breeze. It crawled over her clear pale skin and tousled her long, blonde gorgeous hair. Frogs ribbited softly as if they were trying to sing her a sweet melody. As she walked over to the lake, dirt gathered between her toes. She's come to recognize that lake as if it were the back of her hand. The lake was very long. It looked as if the sand was sucking up all the water. The sun glimmered over the silent waves. For days, Rachel had begun to notice the way the waves trickled south. Her sparkly blue eyes flickered left and right assuring she was alone. Taking five steps backwards, she took a deep breath and dove into the lake. Eliciting a big splash of water.
Rachel got way to rigid so she got out of the lake and began to walk once again. No shoes. Her feet are starting to get a lot of blisters. She stops by the darkest tree in the forest. Takes the thickest leaf and branch. She starts to make a contraption which looks to be shoes. She slowly starts walking forward, but suddenly stops as she sees a huge shadow. She makes a sudden stop and gasps for air. The huge shadow slowly moves towards her. She closes her eyes as if she's just trying to pretned not to be there. It is just a little mouse. She picks it up and names it Fred! Rachel takes him everywhere. As she continued her walk up the long path, Fred bit her thumb! Blood started gushing out and Rachel started crying and threw the mouse at a tree. He was so small, that he died suddenly.
She continues to walk up the path. As she feels that she is getting to the top, she looks to her right and sees the most beautiful flower she has ever seen in her lifetime. She has to stop and just take it off of the vine. She had to take it's only life support. Crack! She ripped the flower from the vine! She gently placed it behind her ear. She now looks like a Hawaiian hula girl. Her beautiful long, blonde hair sways with the soft sound of the cool breeze. Rachel now looks like a model. She finally reaches the top of the mountain. It is very timid and horrid. The top of the hill is so ugly that Rachel starts to cry her sparkly eyes out. She is very sad.

Assignment#18:My Poem

I don't know what to do.

You left me dry and cold.

I should have so much hate for you.

I choose not to hate.

I choose to love.

While you were gone,

I sat there feeling useless and unwanted.

I know you had no bad intentions.

It was like you viciously ripped my warm heart out.
It is now oh so cold.

I knew you would be back.
You really hurt me.
Although I could never forgive you,
I will always love you.


Would you like to know why?
Because you are my father!
That is exactly why!

Where were you when I was growing up?
On drugs or in jail.
When I was going on from elementary to middle school?
On drugs or in jail

I hoped that you would be there
to watch me graduate from the
eighth grade, but you weren't!

You don't know me.
I wish you did.
We have no connection.
I'm glad we don't.
You're all about you wife.
So just be happy with her
and your oh so perfect life.

Assignment#14 Persuasive Essay:Uniforms

Uniforms has been a big topic of discussion in APS schools. Here at Atrisco Heritage Academy, I believe that students should have to wear uniforms because some kids and their parents can not afford to buy other clothes,the kids here could possibly be hiding drugs, and last but not least, it helps with the discipline in students' lives.

Students should have to wear uniforms because maybe some kids and their parents may not be able to afford other clothes. For example if one kid is wearing aeropostale or ecko red, and the poor kid is sitting there wearing torn up old clothes, that is very embarrassing. No child ever wants to go through that.

At Atrisco, students shall not have any type of drugs. Which includes crack cocaine, marijuana, alcohol etc. they should not also have any sort of weapon. When students are allowed to wear their own clothing, it can be very baggy and you cannot see what is under their clothes so they could possibly have a gun, knife etc.

When students are made to wear uniforms, many are very angry. They shouldn't be, because when students are made to wear uniforms, teachers and principles are just trying to show them what the real world is like. When you get a job when you're older and they have a dress code, you can't fight back and say "No I will not wear this" because if you did you would get fired.

Therefore, students should be made to wear uniforms because they cannot afford it, they can be taking drugs or weapons, and because it shows them disciplinary actions.

Assignment #13

Cries of trick or treat. Moonlight, pumpkins and black cats. It is Halloween.
The bright moon shines on. Spooky sparkles in the air. Dead come alive now!
Bats circle dead rise. Full moon, ghouls delight fool's plight. At twilight demise.

Assignment #11

Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?
Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet.
Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.
Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared.

Tupac is talking about a little child who is coming up into the world with no help from anybody or anything. He is practically talking about himself and how he grew up with no help but, he did have dreams so he learned to get along in life. When he died, He did not have anybody to care for him.

I think it's funny how when people with the most support that they could ever have, are the ones who fail and the people with less support achieve more. It just shows how ignorant people could be. Also how they can just take advantage of something so valuable.

I think all of my observations that came from the poem, are hidden in between the lines. For example when he says that proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet. You just have to think deep about this one and it will come to you. It hit me right in the face, saying that he learned everything on his own without anybody's help. Another example is when he says Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared. He is saying that when he dies nobody will be there for him or even care. Tupac is a very intelligent person with very deep thoughts and emotions. I believe that this poem was written after the controversy between him and Biggie. I think this because Biggie was his best friend and Tupac thought that Biggie turned on him so he had no one else to turn too and no family because he got into the music industry and into multiple drugs.

Assignment #10

My Experience

Nobody likes it, almost everybody does it, and no one is taking charge.It happens everywhere you go. When I was in elementary school, I got bullied tons. It was by multiple people. The reason I believe that I got bullied was because of my weight, height and even my skin color. In elementary school, it was very horrible because there were little cliques just like middle school and high school. not everybody got along. They would throw things at me and tell me "Oh you're nothing but a little fat white girl! Go eat some more Twinkies." They would also say stuff like "Don't you belong in some other school you whit piece of trash?" It only got worse in middle school because I did not tell anybody. In middle school, nobody would want to hang out with me. I felt alone inside and out. At that time, i felt like i was worthless. They would tell me that i stink to go take a shower and that they should have used my stomach as the solar system. Once I got to high school I had nothing else to turn to so I started cutting myself. I cut myself one time so bad that my mom had to take me to the hospital and they had to admit me to make sure I wouldn't do something worse. I had hidden all of my cutting from my parents and fellow classmates by always wearing sweaters or long sleeves. My mom had only found out i was cutting because she saw the scars from previous cuts. Now I am just so self conscious about my body image and what people think of me. I think I will be scarred for life because of the bullies.

People need to just stop the bullying already! It is a waste of every body's time! The reason I think people bully is to build up their own confidence by putting multiple people down.

Assignment #9

Out in the desert in Tuscon, Arizona, There once lived a short, wrinkly, chubby, grumpy man named Phyllis who didn't care about anyone or anything but his property. If even a squirrel  tried to take a step on his property, ZAP! They automatically get hit by a spark that kills them once touched. Phyllis has been alone ever since his wife of 42 years passed away 10 years ago. He does not like having any company.

All of a sudden, what looks to be a UFO lands right near Phyllis's property and he cannot believe it so he goes out to his fence and yells "What the hell do you think you are doing near my property?!" A weird creature gets out of the UFO and starts trying to talk but Phyllis cannot understand his language and just stares at it and runs back inside. The creature is an alien and as he is walking into Phyllis's property, ZAP! The alien gets zapped but just keeps on walking as if he didn't feel a thing.It's like he is indestructible. He walks up to the door of the house but Phyllis is hiding in the closet of the living room and tries to make it seem like he is not home. The alien is not stupid so he starts knocking and finally hits the door so hard that he broke the door and just stormed inside. Knocking over everything as he is searching for the short, wrinkly, chubby man. Phyllis finally surrendered and asked the alien "What are you doing here? And what are you?" The alien starts talking in his weird language again and Phyllis said "Wait! Wait! Wait! I cannot understand you let me try and find a translator." The alien walked outside and came back with a machine with a microphone and handed it to him. Phyllis looked very confused. He plugged it in and told the alien to talk. He did. It was very so a translator. The alien was telling Phyllis how his UFO ran out of the stuff used to make it go. It was called googy. It was very similar to gas but it is made to power more powerful machines. All the alien wanted to do was find some googy to power his machine. Unfortunately Phyllis could not help him. The alien was very sad and Phyllis was feeling very lonely so he invited him just to stay at his house as long as he needed to. Phyllis named the alien Guiness. Guiness and Phyliss became very good friends and Phyllis taught Guiness how to speak english. Over the next few months, another alien ship landed and demanded that Guiness go bcak home with him because he did not belong there.

Guiness went home and Phyllis had for once thought he'd never be alone agaain. Once again, he was. Phyllis was depressed for the past year and then got over it finally when he met a new friend.. THE END

Book Report

Sloppy Firsts..

This is a novel about a young teenage girl named Jessica. Her best friend Hope moved away because her parents were worried that she would get all into drugs and overdose like her friend Heath. Jessica is forced to go through the rest of her high school year with the group Jessica calls "The clueless crew". There are three girls in this group and they are all stuck up. They all look at the modeling magazines and hate on them because they wish they looked like them. Then there is a guy named Marcus Flutie. He is a strange kid who everyone calls "Krispy Kreme" for what reason? I have no clue. Everyone thinks he will be the next one to die from an over dose. Halfway through sophomore year, a new girl goes to PHS and her name is Hy. Well that's what she goes by. She makes new friend's right away. She soon becomes pretty good friends with Jessica. Then betrays her for the "Clueless crew". All of a sudden, Hy disappears when summer time comes and everyone is wondering where she went. Then the "Clueless crew" finds a magazine saying that Hy went as an undercover celebrity in a "real" school to see how it was because she had never experienced a "real" life. Everyone was mad and Jessica decided to write about her in the school paper about how everyone lies not only Hy. At the end of the book, Jessica and Hope are reunited and that's where the book ends. This book is very good for teenagers because it show's what happens in a teenagers life.

Assignment #8

Thing's are not always what they seem!

The moral of this short story is: Things are not always what they seem. I chose this moral because in the short story The Necklace, a poor girl named Matilde wanted to live in fame and fortune and just be the most beautiful girl in all the world. She wanted to have all these materialistic things and the guy she married, got paid a very low amount of money so he could not buy her what she wanted. So she asked her friend to borrow a necklace, She felt like she was the prettiest in the world. All the guys were admiring her. When they were leaving, she lost the necklace! She freaked out and saved enough money to buy a new one so her friend wouldn't notice and when she took it to her, her friend asked why it took so long for her to take it back to her, and she said because she lost it and had to make enough money to buy her a brand new real one. Her friend laughed and said it hadn't cost her more then a few bucks.
Matilde had practically wasted her whole life trying to make back enough money to buy her a new necklace when in reality the necklace wasn't worth anything. Matilde should have just told her the truth from the beginning. Even though the necklace made her look rich and glamorous, it really wasn't expensive so things are not always what they seem.

Assignment #7

Jealousy is simply and clearly the fear that you do not have value. Jealousy scans for evidence to prove the point - that others will be preferred and rewarded more than you. There is only one alternative - self-value. If you cannot love yourself, you will not believe that you are loved. You will always think it's a mistake or luck. Take your eyes off others and turn the scanner within. Find the seeds of your jealousy, clear the old voices and experiences. Put all the energy into building your personal and emotional security. Then you will be the one others envy, and you can remember the pain and reach out to them. (Jennifer James)

This quote is practically saying that jealousy controls you. There is only one other thing that you have-self value. If you do not show yourself that you are loved and tell yourself you are loved, then you will not feel loved. You will always think that the good or bad things you do are mistakes and the good things you do are luck. What you need to do is stop paying attention to other people, and look what you have inside of yourself. You also have to find where the jealousy is coming from and find all of it and clear all of it from your body. Put all of your energy into focusing on yourself rather than others. Then, you will make others jealous and you can remember all the jealousy you had for them and reach out for them and try and help them.
I just re-wrote the poems in the words that i understood it in and i think that this quote is a very powerful one. The author is trying to tell everybody that you need to stop being jealous of others and clear out all the jealousy from your body. There are many jealous people in the world. No matter how old, young, skinny, tall, fat, short, tall etc. Everyone is jealous of something. James also says that you must love yourself or you will not feel loved. She is meaning that if you are always negative all the time about yourself saying stuff like "Oh I'm fat I hate my body", then other people will not love you, so you have to have confidence in yourself and believe that everyone loves you. James is saying that people need to quit looking at other people and being jealous of what they have and focus on yourself and what you have. This is a very good quote because James is talking about stuff that happens daily and people need to open their eyes and realize that life is too short to be jealous of what other people have. Everyone shall be grateful for whatever they have.

Matilda

Matilda is a book about a little girl named Matilda Wormwood who is a little girl with parents who pay no attention to her what's so ever. Maybe if they would pay attention to her, they would find out how smart she really is. Her mother goes out to bingo while her dad would go to his car dealership to "fix up" cars by just turning the mileage around and making it look like it has low mileage and sell them for cheap. Her brother would go to school.Matilda accused her father Mr. Wormwood of being a crook and her father got really angry but just ignores the "ignorant little girl". Matilda wants to teach her parents a lesson for being crooks so every day of that week, she tortures them with something different. One day,she put her mothers bleach blond hair dye in her father's conditioning cream that he uses everyday and his hair starts falling out and turning bright blond. Another day, she puts superglue on the rim of the father's hat and it is stuck to his head all day and night.
Matilda learned to read when she was two, because while her parents were out, she would go to the local library and read novels some that an older person would read. Mr. Wormwood would get very angry when Matilda would be reading books in front of the television while they're all eating their frozen TV dinners. Since he got so angry at her, he rips all of the pages out of the libraries book and tries to teach her a lesson. Matilda was very angry at what her father did so she borrowed the neighbors parrot and hides it up the chimney to make her parents think that there is as ghost in the house and that the house is haunted.
Mr. Wormwood sells a car to Mrs. Trunchbull, the principle of the school he wants Matilda to attend. On Matilda's first day of school, she impresses her teacher, Miss Honey with all the knowledge she has. Matilda knows her multiplication tables and she also knows how to read. She is way more advanced then all of the other students in her class. So Miss Honey went to go tell Mrs. Trunchbull all the amazing things Matilda was capable of but she does not listen and she just thinks Matilda is a ignorant little girl like her father said she was. Matilda quickly sees the things Mrs. Trunchbull is capable of, making a little boy eat a whole cake in front of the entire school for stealing some of hers, throwing a little girl over the fence by her pigtails because you are not allowed to wear those at school. One of Matilda's friends places a salamander in Trunchbull's water and she blames Matilda. Matilda was very angry because she knew she did not do such a thing so she focuses on the glass of water and makes it tip over. Miss Honey did not believe Matilda when she told her that she tipped the water over so she was able to prove it to her later that day and Miss Honey invited her to her house for some tea.
After all this her parents decide to move to the country. Matilda asks to stay with Miss Honey and her parents let her. The End

"I Dream A World"

I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn.
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind--
Of such I dream, my world!

-Langston Hughes

There are many meanings to this poem, for example when Hughes says "I dream a world where all will know sweet freedom's way, where greed no longer saps the soul nor avarice blights our day" he is meaning that he dreams of a world where everyone will know that they have freedom and where greed no longer take one's soul or makes their day. He also says that "a world I dream where black or white, whatever race you be, will share the bounties of the earth" and what he means by that, is that it doesn't matter what race you are, either black or white, you would all have equal rights. This poem is basically saying that he is always dreaming of a world where nobody is greedy, racist or anything bad. This relates to my life because right now racism is a very huge issue in America. Langston Hughes wrote this poem to show the world how greedy and how much racism there is. Langston Hughes grew up in a world where there was a lot of racism and poverty. He grew up where there were two separate water fountains and bathroom's that "blacks" and "whites" had to go in to. So he has seen the world at what he thought was it's worst. But in reality, the world is at it's worst now. There is more racism then there has ever been. Even though places are not separated like back in the days, it still takes place.



Twilight

Twilight is a book about Vampires and Werewolves. The main characters in this book are Bella Swan, Edward Cullens, and Jacob Black. Bella moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington to live with her dad Charlie. Bella quickly adapts to the new school she is going to(Forks High) and makes new friends instantly. Bella gets seated next to Edward the first day of class and Edward is repulsed by her. Bella nearly gets killed by a classmates van when he loses control because of the slick roads but when Edward saves her, Bella is determined to find out how he stopped the van from hitting her. This is when a family friend, Jacob, comes into the story and tells Bella that Edward and his family are vampires who drink human blood. Bella asked Edward if it was true and he said yes and that the reason he has been avoiding her is because her blood scent is too desirable to him. But over time Edward and Bella fall in love.

Blankie

What I have to show and tell about is the blanket that my great grandmother made for me when i was born. This means a lot to me because I love her so much and she has been gone over the past two years. When I was little, I would go over to her house and help her bake cookies and make blankets and stuff. I remember one moment when we were sitting in the living room, I had my blanket in one hand and a cookie in the other and my grandmother started to yell at me in spanish! Ha ha I miss my great grandmother very much. I love her. I wish no one ever had to die. But, if that were the case i believe that the world would be way too crowded and over populated. The blanket that my grandmother had made me was out of a bunch of little cloth pieces that she had sown together. It had winnie the Pooh(my favorite back then lol) and Tigger and Piglet. The she sowed in the date and year and month that i was born in. So she basically personalized it for me.

The Basketball Diaries

The Basketball Diaries is a book that deals with a kid who was about 12 years old until he was about 15. He was a rebellious teenager living on the streets of New York City. He was writing this diary in chronological order. In this diary Jim Carroll writes how he plays basketball, hustles, steals, gets hooked on drugs, gets high, and also how he searches for something pure.

This book stuck out to me because i love playing basketball and i wanted to learn how other teenagers play and how their life stories are different then mine. Jim Carroll's life was way different then mine when i started playing basketball because i did not get involved in drugs and living on the streets and i also did not start hustling.

Race In America

The controversy that is world wide, is the mosque that is planned to be built in an area near ground zero in New York City. President Barack Obama said that the Muslims have the right to build the mosque near ground zero, but he did not mention if he believes that it is a good idea or not. He also said that the Muslims have the same rights as America did. Governor Charlie Crist of New York says "I think he's right — I mean you know we're a country that in my view stands for freedom of religion and respect for others," Crist said after the Florida meeting with Obama and other officials. "I know there are sensitivities and I understand them. This is a place where you're supposed to be able to practice your religion without the government telling you you can't." Then, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene from Florida, took Obama's Friday speech to disagree with how the president supports the construction.He said, "President Obama has this all wrong and I strongly oppose his support for building a mosque near Ground Zero especially since Islamic terrorists have bragged and celebrated destroying the Twin Towers and killing nearly 3,000 Americans," Greene said. "Freedom of religion might provide the right to build the mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero, but common sense and respect for those who lost their lives and loved ones gives sensible reason to build the mosque someplace else."
Obama said "My intention was simply to let people know what I thought. Which was that in this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion." After Obama had said this, some relatives of those killed in 9/11 supported his comments. Obama is a very wise man and he has done more than George Bush has done in 8 years. Obama has only done it in one year.
I support Obama completely. I believe that everyone that lives in America, should have the same rights. Which one of them are freedom of religion. Even though Islam did all that they did on 9/11, it was not the rest of the people's faults. It was certain people. I guess what I am trying to get at is that not all of the Muslim's in the world are all terrorists and are gonna bomb us again.

The burning of the Quran is also very high  controversy because of the 9/11 attack on America. In protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil," a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida, plans to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The Dove World Outreach Center says it is hosting the event to remember 9/11 victims and take a stand against Islam. The Obama administration weighed in against a Florida church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book, with the State Department calling the plan "un-American" and Obama says it could hurt the troops and travelers overseas. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said that he hoped Americans would stand up and condemn the church's plan to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In my opinion that church is very wrong. It should not burn the Quran. How would that church feel if the Islam's started burning the American flag or the Bible? As a matter of fact, how would the whole world feel if they did that? Because aren't we one nation under God? How is it that the pastor of a christian church can go as low as the Muslim's did when they bombed us on 9/11? isn't he supposed to show leadership for the whole country and not try and get revenge? This world has gotten so bad from way back in the days that now a days, all people want to do when someone does something bad to them is get revenge. AThat is not the way people should be thinking. They should be showing some pride and respect for their country. people are even lucky that we are not a third world country like others. All of the people in America, take for granted everything that we have. They are very selfish people. Including myself. But all they do is complain. For example about their kids' education. They should be lucky for their kids to even get to go to school. Most countries don't even have school's for them to go to.

Citations:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hf9W_ZKuDjwHC1KFuO67hDp0f5vQD9I3A44G0

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-29/us/florida.burn.quran.day_1_american-muslims-religion-cair-spokesman-ibrahim-hooper?_s=PM:US

Death

Car accidents are the worst possible way to die so buckle up.

Most die when they're old, so I don't know why there's an acception for you.

Do not weep upon the dead for they are not with us any longer.