Alejandro's Blog

Final

2010-06-07T18:43:00.001-07:00

Final Blog questions that are going to be answered.

How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?
Has blogging had any other effects on your life beyond strictly your "school life"? If so, explain.
For the second semester only: Do you plan on continuing to publish writing on your blog this summer, next year, or beyond? If so, what are your writing goals and how will you use your blog in the future?

Throughout the school year my writing has been improving. I would have never guessed that i would write like i am currently writing, in the beginning of the year. At first i thought about dropping the class when i heard that we would have to start a blog and write 300 words every week. Writing was the number one subject that i have always hated. I was never good at it and i was always get stuck and would not know what to write. The only reason that i stayed was because Mr. Sutherland was cool. And mostly because it was a pretty chill class and we could eat, listen to our iPods in class, and also text in class. This ended up being one of my favorite classes, one of the reasons was because it really helped me out with my writing. Blogging has made me more comfortable with writing. Towards the beginning i was not comfortable with sharing my blog with other students. I made my blog private for that reason. But i soon turned my blog public so i could have people comment my blog, because i knew that it could potentially help me and my writing. Now i want everybody to see my blog. I even customized my own Blogger profile to show what i like. For example I put a picture of my chickens , because it thought it would be helpful for the people who are reading blog to actually see what my chickens look like, because i also write about them a lot ( I also plan on posting up a picture of my dog and my newly hatched chicks, they are so cute!!!). I definitely think about writing in a totally different way. Before this year and semester i hated writing. Ever since i was in middle school, i had always struggled with writing and i always got frustrated with it. I always tried to evade writing in all possible ways. Now writing is a bigger part in my life. I have gotten used to writing 900 words a week, weekly blogs plus lit circles. I love having a blog.

One of my struggles with blogging this year was writing in paragraphs. My first blogs are written in one huge chunk, for example the 49er blog, My Introduction blog and My Chicken blog. Now I am able to write and create paragraph in my blogs. Another problem I am still having trouble with is extending my vocabulary. So far I am getting a little better, but I still have a lot of work to do. Fortunately I think if i continue blogging I will also continue extending my vocabulary and steadily get better at it. Also one of my main problems and struggles I had early in the year with writing blogs every week was procrastinating. I would always just wait until the last possible minute to write and post it. Now I write a little bit a week and then post it Friday. The times where we went to the lab I would just waste time there, but now I think i manage my time well.

I think that other teachers should consider having their students use Blogger.com and blog every week like Mr. Sutherland because it could really help other student like it helped me. One of the biggest ways that blogging has helped improve my writing, is with the 500 words. At first, i thought Mr. Sutherland was crazy when he said we had to start writing 500 words. Know i think that 500 words is easy. And that 300 is nothing. Like when we use to write our lit circle letters, it always took me a very short amount of time to write them because i had gotten used to 500 and now 300 is nothing. Blogging and doing quick write have made writing much more easier than it use to be. Now when i write everything just flows out. Before i would take a while trying to think of what to write sometimes, but now i do not have to that much anymore. Now i can just keep on writing and writing, and i do not get stuck.

Hopefully next year that i do not have this class anymore, or anytime else in the future i will still write some blogs. Maybe they will not be as long as 1000 words or 500, but i am pretty sure i will keep on writing after this school year is over. And i also hope that Mr. Sutherlandia will keep following my blogs about my pollas (which means chickens in Spanish). Obviously, have a blog has made a huge impact in my writing and in my English class, but there was also other benefits of having a blog. Having a blog is a good thing to too when you are bored. Usually when i was bored in the beginning of the year, i would go on my computer and log onto Blogger.com. If i had not done my blog, then i would start writing my weekly blog or lit circle letter. If i had already finished my blog for that week, then i would get a head start for next week's on something that i was interested in that moment. Blogging gave me a fun thing to do when i had nothing else to do at home, and it also benefited my English grade. It also gave me a way to express how i was feeling. Before having a blog, i would keep my feelings to myself. But with having a blog, when i was excited about something or something was bothering me, i would quickly start blogging about it. Some examples are when i got new chickens. When i got them, i was so excited that i blogged about it. Also when everybody was saying that Lebron was a better player than Kobe. It was bothering me so i blogged about how Kobe was the better player.

Monthly Review

2010-05-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

For this monthly review i am going to write about my interesting book called, A Walk to Remember, is a tragic but very great novel that was written by Nicholas Sparks.

What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

The book is about two very different 18 year old high school kids who end up falling in love with each other. The boy's name is Landon. He is "bad boy" who got into a lot of trouble in the beginning and had to do many extra curricular activities after school to avoid getting expelled. He had to tutor and be the star of the school musical. This is where he met and fell in love with Jamie. She is the Reverend's daughter. In school she has no friends and this is the major difference from her and Landon. At the start of the book, Jamie specifically told Landon not to fall in love with her. In the beginning of the book, Landon and his so called friends her having a small party in private place. They were going to welcome another boy who wanted to join there group of friends. They tricked him into jumping off of a high place into a shallow pool. Since they were trespassing in a private property, the police came and initially all of the kids left accept Landon, who was helping to save the kid who jumped. Eventually he tried to flee , but was caught by the police. Ironically that horrible incident changed his whole life around in a very good way.His school offered Landon a second chance, but he had to do a lot community service. Tutoring middle schoolers, attending church, and being in the school musical play. Jamie was involved in all of the same extra activities, not because she got into a lot of trouble but because she really enjoyed helping out. Since Landon was part of the popular crew and was used to getting all the popular girls, he never had met any girl like Jamie. Jamie was not like his ex and his other friends. She had many ambitions. She wanted to be at two places at once, to get married with her dad taking her down the aisle. A think the list of goals kind of foreshadowed what Landon would do. He made be on both sides of a border so she could be at two places at once and he eventually marries her. Being in love with Jamie truly changed his life. She shows him to have goals and to start to love. In the end of the book, they set aside their differences and face criticism from the other peers at school and become boy and girlfriend. Everything seems great until Jamie tells Landon the truth. The truth about her health is that she has cancer. Landon's world falls apart. Jamie had set a list of goals and wishes she wanted to accomplished before she passed away. Landon tries to fully satisfy all of her goals and wishes. One of them is getting married. They end up getting married and are happy together for a short while. When it was time for her passing, Landon was sad but accepted the fact. Jamie had a long list of goals that she wanted to accomplish. During the little time she had with Landon she accomplished all of them but one. To witness a miracle. Being with Landon and going out with him was alone witnessing a miracle. Landon barely found this out at the end of the book.

In this great novel there are many motives of writing this book by the author. I think that the most obvious reason was to show that miracles can happen. And also to show how love can be found anywhere even with the most unexpected people. No one would ever guessed that Landon would fall in love with Jamie. They faced massive criticism from the other students from their school. Landon was made fun of because he left his "popular" ex girlfriend and started going out with a "nerd". Jamie faced bullying from his ex girlfriend because she was very jealous. Another great purpose of this book was to show how one person that is sick and know he or she will die, can make a big difference in some one's life, mainly Landon. She truly changes and turned Landon's life around. Without ever meeting, Landon would have surely went back to his "bad boy" days, and would have gotten in more trouble. But instead she made a difference in his life by making him see life a different way. He also influenced Jamie's life. Jamie never thought she would fall in love. Mostly because she knew that she did not have much time to live. The sad part of this book was that Jamie did not tell Landon she was very sick until he was madly in love with her. She probably did this to make sure Landon would stay by her side until her final day, which he did. The miracle of this book was the turning around of Landon's life and the love between two completely different individuals. Another miracle in this book was the relationship with Landon and his dad. In the beginning Landon hated his dad, but toward the end he began to bond more with his dad. He also found that he had two dads. His biological dad, and Jamie's dad. At first the Reverend, did not want his daughter being with Landon because of his past, but when Jamie turned his life around and he saw how much Landon truly cared about Jamie in her last moment, he learn to accept him. These were the reason for writing this book. This book goes to show that miracle can really happen.

Lit circle letter

2010-05-21T20:10:00.001-07:00

Dear Edwin Mora and Yvonne Oliva, i have just finished our lit circle book, A Walk to Remember. It is a great book, i loved it. The book is about two very different 18 year old high school kids who end up falling in love with each other. The boy's name is Landon. He is "bad boy" who got into a lot of trouble in the beginning and had to do many extra curricular activities after school to avoid getting expelled. He had to tutor and be the star of the school musical. This is where he met and fell in love with Jamie. She is the Reverends daughter. In school she has no friends and this is the major difference from her and Landon.

In the end of the book, they set aside their differences and face criticism from the other peers at school and become boy and girlfriend. Everything seems great until Jamie tells Landon the truth. The truth about her health is that she has cancer. Landon's world falls apart. He tries to full satisfy all of her goals and wishes. One of them is getting married. They end up getting married and are happy together for a short while. When it was time for her passing, Landon was sad but accepted the fact.

Quote: Landon says "Now i believe, by the way, that miracles can happen. this is coming from a boy that used to be trouble maker and had a "popular ex girlfriend". Jamie had a long list of goals that she wanted to accomplish. During the little time she had with Landon she accomplished all of them but one. To witness a miracle. Being with Landon and going out with him was alone witnessing a miracle. Landon barely found this out at the end of the book.

New Chickens

2010-05-20T17:33:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago my grandpa took a trip to Fresno to visit some family. While he was there he thought of me when he was at his brother in law's ranch. He had a lot of chickens, and said it would OK if he took a couple back. When i heard that he was bringing me back two chickens i was very excited. They can be seen to the left of this blog post on my profile. I did not know what to name them. They were twins and i could not tell one apart from the other. With few other choices i decided to name them "Las Gemelas", which means the twins in Spanish. They are bantam chickens, which means that they are miniature chickens. The very first day the arrived at my house their were problems. The other chickens were trying to fight them. And also my dogs was chasing them because he was not used to their smell or seeing them. But after a couple of days they began to fit in. So far they are doing good with the other chickens and Buddy, my dog, has not been messing or chasing with them.
Even more great new that weekend. My favorite chicken, "La Chiquiada", went broody again. For those of you who do not know what broody means, it is when a chickens started sitting on her eggs. The soend three weeks or until the eggs hatch in the coupe and the chickens only comes out to eat quickly once a day. This only happens 3 or 4 times a year. I have been waiting for her to go broody so we can give it another shot. For those of you who follow my chicken blogs, you may know i tried having chicks, naturally with my chickens warming the eggs for three weeks straight. The last time was a couple months ago. i did not work because the eggs were not fertilized by a rooster. I must have placed the wrongs eggs for her to warm up. Well this time i am 100 percent sure that the eggs will hatch. this is because the eggs i placed are not from her. they are from a chickens that mates with a rooster everyday. My uncles hen layed those eggs and he gave me 8 to try out. i am hope that at least half of them hatch. but the more the better for me and of those some are hens. the rooster i will probably have to give back to my uncle because me neighbor are little................ Unless the eggs get damaged for any reason the eggs are due three weeks from the first day that they were warmed. this means they will probably hatch on the 1st or 2nd of June. My hands are going to be full that week with Formal debates, final chemistry project, geometry project, english final. and now the new chciks. it dont matter cuz it will be worth have small cute chicks that will follow me around. CANT WAIT.

Lit Circle Letter

2010-05-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

Dear Edwin and Yvvone i have just finished reading section 1 and section to of our book "A Walk To Remember". So far with what i have read, it is a fantastic book. The book is so sad, but also is very romantic. A lot of parts of the book through me off.
The book is about two very different 18 year old high school kids who end up falling in love with each other. The boy's name is Landon. He is "bad boy" who got into a lot of trouble in the beginning and had to do many extra curricular activities after school to avoid getting expelled. He had to tutor and be the star of the school musical. This is where he met and fell in love with Jamie. She is the Reverend's daughter. In school she has no friends and this is the major difference from her and Landon.
Quote: "Being in love with a girl like Jamie Sullivan was without a doubt the most strangest thing I'd been through". Since Landon was part of the popular crew and was used to getting all the popular girls, he never had met any girl like Jamie. Jame was not like his ex and his other friends. She had many ambitions. She wanted to be at two places at once, to get married with her dad taking her down the aisle. A think the list of goals kind of foreshadowed what Landon would do. He made be on both sides of a border so she could be at two places at once and he eventually marries her. Being in love with Jamie truly changed his life. She shows him to have goals and to start to love. So far i am loving the book and i hope the end is awesome.

The Cavs

2010-05-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

On the other side of the standings in the eastern conference the Boston Celtics are playing the Cleveland Cavaliers. Both of my enemies have ended up facing off in the second round against each other.

The Boston Celtics have always been the lakers rivals. Ever since the beginning of basketball the lakers and the Celtics have always been the best teams in the league. The lakers have 16 championship wins and the boston celtics have 19 champuionship wins. Since the days of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers have always been enemies. I never really had a problem with them until 2007. This was the year that Kobe lead the Lakers to the NBA finals and Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett lead the Boston Celtics to the Finals against the lakers. The los angeles laker were not well prepared. there defense could not match up with bostons offense. This was Pau Gasol's first year with the lakers and he was still adjusting to the lakers system. This was the year where they had barely gotten fisher back from the Utah Jazz. This was also the year that Bynum did not start because of an injury. All of these combined contributed to the Lakers loss in the Championship that year. Kobe alone could not do it all. The Boston Celtics took the title that year with 4-1 wins against the Lakers in that series. This is what cause me to hate the Boston Celtics. But the lakers redeemed themselves when they came straight back to NBA Champion ship the next year (last year) and took the title against the Dwight "Superman" Howard and the Orlando Magic. Their defense was much improved thanks to Trevor Ariza and so was their offense.

The reason i do not like the Cleveland Cavaliers is because of their superstar player. Lebron James. Do not get me wrong, he is super raw at basketball, but i hate when people say that he is better than Kobe. The only reason he won the title of MVP this year was because Kobe was banged up throughout the season. He had a knee injury and his ankle was hurting, but most of all he has been playing with a broken finger in his shooting hand. He has been battling with this finger since he first injured it in 1999. He re-injured it again and it now has arthritis in it. Even with all of that he better than a healthy Lebron. The one thing i hate the most is when they compare him to Michael Jordan. NO ONE COMPARES TO MICHAEL JORDAN. Not even kobe. Jordan is the best that ever playing and i think no one will pass him in that. Kobe has obviously a better shot, has better post up moves, has more experience and most importantly, Kobe i way more clutch than Lebron. Kobe has had way more game winning shot than Lebron.

Currently the Boston is winning the series with 3-2 games. But it has been a close series and i am interested to see who wins.

Lakers

2010-05-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

They made it to the second round of the 2010 playoffs. This next round will not be as easy as the first round was. This basically means that it will be very difficult because the first round with Oklahoma City Thunder was much longer and harder than everybody had originally thought.

In round one the Los Angeles Lakers faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder. everyone thought that this round was going to be a sweep for the Lakers because the Lakers finished with the best record in the west and the Oklahoma City Thunder finished with the 8th position in the playoff standings. The first two games of the 7 game series was dominated by the lakers. Kobe contributed but not as much as Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. The second two games were dominated by the Oklahoma city. Everyone was in shock! Could the Thunder really beat the Lakers? NO! The next two games the lakers beasted. The series winning game, the Lakers won by one point with a tip in by Pau Gasol in the last second after Kobe missed his shot. They advanced to the next round after a one point game. But hey, a win is a win. In this game, Kobe did not play well. I was worried at the time because they could not with another 4 games in the next round with Kobe not playing. But in the next round He answered back. In the whole series, Pau Gasol was the most consistent in both of then teams. I was relieved with the advancement of the Lakers to the next round, but i was also worried on who they would play next. They Lakers ended up playing with the winner of the series of Denver Nuggets vs. Utah Jazz. I was wishing then whole series that the Utah Jazz defeated the Nuggets and played against the Lakers in the next round. The reason for that is because the Denver Nuggets had cause many problems to the Lakers in the regular season. The lakers lost to denver every time they met up in the regular season. And with the Utah, we had beaten them in the regular season and we had also beat them several times in the last few years when they met up in the playoffs.

My wishes came true when the Utah beat the Denver Nuggets in there series. I knew they would have any easier time with Utah than with the Oklahoma City Thunder, but i did not predict the lakers sweeping them. The Lakers have advance the the third and final round of the Western Conference. This time it was Kobe doing the dominating. The regain more of his health and he averaged more than 30 points in each of the games with the Utah Jazz. In this series many other players contributed like Shannon Brown, veteran derek Fisher, Ron Artest, Jordan Farmar, and always Pau Gasol. the one player who was quiet and a non factor in all of then games was Andrew Bynum. I am worried that he will continue like this and negatively affect the Lakers chance of winning the next. And the team will face off against the Lakers next Monday will be the Phoenix Suns. It was either them or the San Antonio Spurs. Honestly both could cause trouble for the Lakers. Most Lakers fans are confident of the Lakers winning this series, but i am a little scared. They did beat the Suns 3-1 in the regular season but it will be hard. I think that if the lakers do not win the NBA Championship this year i will surely cry.

Monthly Review

2010-04-23T19:15:00.001-07:00

For this week i am going to write my monthly review of my lit circle book

Question that are going to be answered: For what audiences was this book intended for and how can you tell( in other words for whom would you recommend this book?).

The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, is a fantastic book about a little girl who was murdered. This book is also one of the most interesting books that i have ever read. Here is a little back ground info on the book. The Lovely Bones is sad story about a little 14 year old girl that got murdered by one of her neighbors. These types of books are very sad but they are my favorite genre of books because they have a lot of dramatic and intense moments and they do not get boring like some other books.
In the first part of this amazing and interesting book, the main character Susie gets murdered. This part of the book threw me off because it was very early. I thought the part where she got murdered would be in the middle or towards the end, but it is in the very beginning. The rest of the books explains how she helps her sister and her dad find out who killed her. I thought that it was sad she got murdered the day, her biggest crush had asked her out on a date on Saturday night at the mall. The worst thing of all is that the police make him the number suspect of her murder. Mean while, Susie is in the "in between" a place where she can watch family. She is not in heaven yet. She is accompanied by Polly and Franny, other victims of the same person who murdered Susie. His name is Mr. Harvey. In the second part of the book many other interesting things happen in the book. I hated that no one suspected Mr. Harvey committed the crime in murdering Susie, and that they thought it was the boy who had a crush on Susie because the police had found the love letter he had wrote and given to her on the after noon her was murdered. But in this section of the book the suspicion was heading towards Mr. Harvey. I think it is weird that Susie's sister thinks she knows Mr. Harvey did it, but not Susie's father. He did a lot of investigating but never concluded it was Mr. Harvey until after Susie's sister suspects it was him. Meanwhile in the place where Susie is "being held for the moment" Susie is watching her family and still sad over what happened. She meets her friends Polly and Franny. I think that Polly and Franny are victims of Mr Harvey for two reasons. First is that i do not think that Susie was his first kill. He looked like he had experience in how he planned for Susie's murder. Second is that if it was heaven it would have millions of people but it is only a few of them. In the end many other things happen. Susie's mom leaves her dad and cheats on him. Her sister goes inside Mr Harvey's house and finds evidence her murdered her. But in the end karma hits back to Mr Harvey when he dies. He deserved it. Trying to pick up a lonely girl who might have been his next victim he fails. She does not fall into his trap. He then trips and falls down a steep ledge and dies. Best part of the book in my opinion. There was also parts of the book where i did not understand. Like at the end where Susie comes back down to earth in place of another girl to see Ray, the boy she had a crush on. He immediately knew it was her for some reason i do not understand. I figured out it must be because the other girl would not talk the same . Well in the end they end up have sex and then Susie switches back with the other girl and goes back to heaven.

That book is with out a doubt dedicated to all of the boys and girls who were sexually abused, raped, or tortured in any other horrific way whether they survived it or not. In the case of Susie Salmons, she did not survive. In the back of the book it says that Alice Sebold, the author of the lovely bones, was raped at an early age. I think that the part where she died in the book had to relate to her. it had to relate to how she was feeling after she was raped. I am positive that she adding to the book the feelings that she felt and the struggles with her family. This book was a way for Alice Sebold to vent all of the issues she had after she was raped. This book in my mind is dedicated and meant to be read by all of the people who can relate to her which are people have been raped. I am not sure how the person that raped Alice Sebold died or if he even has died already, but may be the way Mr Harvey died in the book is the way she wanted him to die in real life. I would for sure recommend this book to the many unfortunate people who went through the same things that Alice Sebold went through or even what Susie went through in the book.

Or this book could be useful to people like me and my lit circle partners Yvvone and Edwin. People who are really interested in sad books where tragic things like murder or abuse happens to main charcters like these. There are many great genres of books that are good to read but i like the sad ones where people get murdered or abused because they do not get boring like some other books.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is the most touching stories i have read and i strongly recommend this book to everyone. Boys, girls, teenagers and people of all ages.

Lit Circles

2010-04-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Edwin Mora and Yvonne Oliva, i have just finished reading our lit circle book for this quarter. I really have to say it is one of the most interesting and best books i have ever read. And also one of my favorites. The whole story and the events in the book had me hook on it and had my eyes glued to each and every page. Usually i do not like reading books with a lot of pages because i end up getting bored with it and i stop reading. but this book is very different. The author, Alice Seebold, did a great job mixing in the fictional parts of the book and the parts of the book where she puts in her feelings and experience. The whole story is about a 14 year old little girl that gets raped and killed by one her neighbors. I have heard that this happened to the author. She was raped, but was obviously not killed like Susie inn the book. I think that the reason the book was so great was because of the fact that the author was also raped in real life. She can really relate to her main character, Susie, because it also happened to her. May be some of the stuff that Susie felt in the book was felt by the author after she was raped in real life. I think that these types of books are my favorite genre. I like them because they are more interesting than the others because of the sadness in the books. My favorite part of the whole book is when Mr Harvey dies. He deserved it. Trying to pick up a lonely girl who might have been his next victim he fails. She does not fall into his trap. He then trips and falls down a steep ledge and dies. He is covers by snow where i bet no one will discover his death. This book was very awesome to read and i hope you guys liked it too.

Lit Circle Letter

2010-04-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Edwim Mora and Yvonne Oliva, i have just finished reading part 1 and part 2 of our lit circle book, The Lovely Bones. So far i have really liked this book. It is very interesting and sad at the same time. I do not really enjoy reading books for fun or even for school, but i have gotten really attached to this book. The Lovely Bones is sad story about a little 14 year old girl that got murdered by one of her neighbors. These types of books are very sad but they are my favorite genre of books because they have a lot of dramatic and intense moments and they do not get boring like some other books.
In the first part of this amazing and interesting book, the main character Susie gets murdered. This part of the book threw me off because it was very early. I thought the part where she got murdered would be in the middle or towards the end, but it is in the very beginning. The rest of the books explains how she helps her sister and her dad find out who killed her. I thought that it was sad she got murdered the day, her biggest crush had asked her out on a date on Saturday night at the mall. The worst thing of all is that the police make him the number suspect of her murder. Mean while, Susie is in the "in between" a place where she can watch family. She is not in heaven yet. She is accompanied by Polly and Franny, other victims of the same person who murdered Susie. His name is Mr. Harvey. So far, my eyes have been glued to this book because it is very interesting. i was very excited with my first part of my book. I was happy because i learned that i had made a great choice in selecting this book as my second book for lit circles. I have only read the first third of this book but i can already tell you guys that i like it better than our first book that we picked.
In the second part of the book many other interesting things happen in the book. I hated that no one suspected Mr. Harvey committed the crime in murdering Susie, and that they thought it was the boy who had a crush on Susie because the police had found the love letter he had wrote and given to her on the after noon her was murdered. But in this section of the book the suspicion was heading towards Mr. Harvey. I think it is weird that Susie's sister thinks she knows Mr. Harvey did it, but not Susie's father. He did a lot of investigating but never concluded it was Mr. Harvey until after Susie's sister suspects it was him. Meanwhile in the place where Susie is "being held for the moment" Susie is watching her family and still sad over what happened. She meets her friends Polly and Franny. I think that Polly and Franny are victims of Mr Harvey for two reasons. First is that i do not think that Susie was his first kill. He looked like he had experience in how he planned for Susie's murder. Second is that if it was heaven it would have millions of people but it is only a few of them. I really have enjoyed this book so far. I really hope that the last section is at least half of how interesting the first section was. I hope that they find Mr. Harvey did it and throw him in jail or some murders him.

Playoffs

2010-04-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

For this week i decided that i would write about something i am very excited about. The NBA playoffs. I am very excited that it is only a week away.

My favorite team is the Los Angeles Lakers. I am a serious, die hard laker fan. I try not to miss all of their broad casted games. Ever since the beginning of the year i had a prediction that the lakers would have a secure spot in this year's NBA playoffs. I was right! The Lakers have clinched the number one spot in the west. They currently hold the very great record of 55 wins and only 22 losses. In the west division it is the number one record, but in the whole NBA it is the number two record. The only team with the better record than the lakers is the team i hate the most! The Cleveland Cavaliers with the awesome record of 60 wins and only 17 losses. This means that if the Lakers face of the Cavs in the NBA Finals, then the Cleveland Caveliers would home court advantage. And wht worries me the mot is that during the regular season, the Los Angeles lakers were not able to beat the cavs. They were swept by them twice during the season. Its OK because i know that when it is time to get serious and play excellent, the lakers have a chance to beat the cavs. After all the Lakers have the best player in the world in basketball right now. No joke, kobe is the bet and better than lebron right now and the 4 NBA titles can prove it.

It is hard to say which team will be facing the lakers in the first round of the playoffs because the regular season is not over and the number three spots to number 8 are only separated by a couple of games and anything can happen by the end of the regular season. There is just one big problem. there starting center is out, Andrew Bynum. They can barely win games with out him and they need him back healthy for the playoffs. Another problems is that a few months ago and even a year ago, almost no teams could beat the lakers, but lately the lakers have been playing horribly. They have lost to very weak teams. They are playing almost like with out trying. If they keep playing like this in the playoffs, they will not win back to back championships this year. The bench needs to step it up, Kobe needs to start acting and playing the the all star he is and Andrew Bynum needs to come back healthy and 100 percent and be assertive and dominant like a good center should be. In the west the only team i am worried about is the Denver Nuggets, but the way that the los angeles lakes are playing now, i think that any team in the west of the playoffs picture can beat the lakers in a 7 game playoffs round.

Blog Reflection

2010-04-01T18:19:00.001-07:00

Well for this week on my blog I am going to start it off just like I start off my blog in every single quarter. A reflection of my last quarter's writings and new goals for this last part of my sophomore year.

I think that as the school year has passed, I have been growing stronger in my writing skills. I never thought in the beginning of the year that the last semester I would be writing 500 words a week and top of that 300 words for my lit circle letters. Then also write a 1000 word monthly review for the books I have read. Writing blog posts along with writing quick writes in class has made me write faster with less redundancy. I am proud of how I have been getting better at writing. At the beginning of the school year I really struggled at writing, but I think I improved a little bit this first quarter. Hopefully I will gradually improve more the next quarter and also until the end of the school year too. At the beginning I planned on writing on my original topic in my statement of purpose. But I soon discovered that it was not that easy. My first blog was on my chickens because I knew that I had a lot to write about. After that I had a lot of difficulty. I did not know what to write about so I miss a couple of blogs. I soon discovered that instead of planning on what to write about I could just write about the interesting things that happened during the week.

This new way of writing helped me out more than planning it out. The problem with these blogs is that we get too much freedom and can write about anything. Sometimes for me it is easier if I am told what to write about like this week's blog post. But I think I am doing better on finding things to write about. My knew goals are to think of more things to write about and stop checking how many words I have written every minute and just focus on writing.

I hope to improve with cutting my redundancy more. Sometimes when I get stuck and do not know what to write I sometimes get into the bad habit of starting to create sentences with a lot redundancy. I feel like I will achieve this easily because in class we get a lot of practice, like when we go the computer lab, when we do quick writes, and when we go the pit at the media center and have our writing workshops where we just write the whole. One of the main things I need to do is use my time more wisely. Most of the time I use at the computer labs are not spent writing my blogs but are spent on playing very fun games. That is what I need to work on for the last quarter of this year.

Lit Circle Letter

2010-03-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Edwin and Yvonne, my lit circle partners, i just finished reading the very last chapter or section of our book, named Leaving Home. I am kind of sad that the book is over because it was a very good book. It had a lot of great short stories in the book,and some of them were in the last section. This section was a good one, but i still think that the best section of the book we read was the second section. At least it was better than the first section. The first was short and most of the stories in it were pointless and i did not get some of it. Maybe if in the first section there were better stories or better authors, then the book would have been more fun to read.

In this interesting section, our authors and stories consists of On the Rainy River by Tim O Brian, The Setting Sun and the Rolling World by Charles Mungoshi, Little Saigon by David St. John, Zelzah: A Tale From Long Ago by Norma Fox Mazer, and Recitatif by Toni Morrison. All together, this section had 68 pages with out including the Acknowledgments or Authors background at the end of the book. The chapters i did not like in this sections were On the Rainy River by Tim O Brian and Zelzah: A Tale From Long Ago by Norma Fox Mazer mostly because i did not understand the meaning of the story. One of my favorite short stories from the last section was The Setting Sun and the Rolling World by Charles Mungoshi because it makes sense and it relates to its title unlike many of the other stories in the book. In the end of the story, the sun is beginning to set and he feels the chilliness of the wind and the clouds starting to add up in the sky.

Monthly Review

2010-03-23T12:17:00.000-07:00

For this blog i am going to write my monthly review. I am going to answer some of the questions from the list of prompts. My book is an auto biography and also is a serious of short stories. The book called Leaving Home, by 15 different and creative authors and it is a very intriguing set of short stories who talk about the time they left home, whether if it was literally, figuratively, or mentally left their homes. The stories of this book were picked out by Hazel Rochman and Darlene Z. McCampbell.

Question#2: For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?

Well for this book it is kind of easy to figure out which audience is this book intended for. The book is intended for the many people that have left home. The factor that makes this book great for those kind of people is that it is not just one point of view, but this book has many points of view. What i mean is that there is a thing about my book is that it is very different. It is not like a regular book with one long story with one meaning. Mine was about many different short stories with many different meanings and morale's to them. It had 16 authors and 15 short stories. All of my stories were auto biographies of the author. They talk about how they left home in many different interesting way. This was not so much a bad thing. Some of the stories were great but some were boring to me and had no specific meaning. The good about it was that it was very easy to separate into three different sections. When I first saw the book i thought that it was going to be about stories that were very dramatic. Stories that had to do with children being kidnapped or children being miss treated or sexually abused by one of their parents or by one of their step parents. But none of the stories were like that. Most of them were about kids that moved from city to city and moved from somewhere where they barely started to feel like home to them. Others were about leaving home but in a more figuratively, and the rest were ones i did not even know because some of them were very hard to understand. The first third of the book was kind of boring and the stories i did not get. The second part was my favorite because it had very interesting stories. The third was OK but it was more like the first section of the book.

I am pretty sure that this story was intended for many people that have left home or may be are about to leave. This book would mostly relate to them. There are many different types of accounts of leaving home by the authors and maybe one of them may match the story of a person who has left home or is about to. I think that this book is more better for teens to read. The reason is that teens who feel the way some of these author felt they would mostly relate to some of these short stories.

One of my favorite stories called The Circuit, by Francisco Jimenez, is about a kid who has always been moving with his family from city to city. He has gotten a little used to it. In the story, the kid had moved in to a city were he only started to make a little bit of friends. His best friend was his teacher. Near the end of the story the kid has gotten very attached to his new home and new school. The very last things that happened in the story was that the kid got home and was going to tell his parents about how his day had been going great. When he steps into his house, he sees that all of the stuff in the house has been packed. It is obvious that after the story he is going to move yet again, just as he is getting comfortable in his new home, which rarely had happened to him. This story was intended for the people who are constantly moving and never get used to their new home. These people can relate the most to this short story.

Another one of my favorite short stories, from this one author who goes away from home for a totally different reason. The short story is called Bad Influence, by author Judith Ortiz Cofer. In her story, her and a friends lie to their parents about sleeping over at each others house. Instead they stay over a guy's house with another one of his friends. His parents were out of town that weekend. Some how their parents found out and they were in a great deal of trouble. She claims that she thought about having sex with the boy, but did not actually have sex with him. Both of her parents did not buy that story. So they gave her a choice of going to her grandparents house in Puerto Rico or some other place. She chose to go to her grandparents house in Puerto Rico for the summer. Their she is comforted by her grand parents and an interesting rooster, who can not tell the time of day named, Ramon. I think overall it was a great story to read. I think that this short story is intended for people have been sent away from their home for a short while, because of something they have done or for another good reason. These people would relate to this story more than anyone else.

Out of all of the 16 different short stories that are mentioned in the book my favorite are the two i talk about in this blog. Bad Influence, by Judith Ortiz Cofer and The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez.

Lit Circle

2010-03-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

Dear lit circle partners, i just finished getting to the second part of our book. I think that this part was so much interesting than the first. I did not post my first lit circle letter because of that. It was too boring and some of the stories did not make sense to me. But this part of the book has more interesting and sad stories.

For this weeks section, we were suppose to read 5 stories. The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez, Bad Influence by Judith Ortiz Cofer, Dawn by Tim Wynne Jones, Beautiful and Cruel by Sandra Cisneros, and Trip in a Summer Dress by Annete Sanford. It was a total of 80 pages. Well my favorite stories of the section that we had to read for this are the first two ones. The first one, The Circuit by Francisco Jimenez, was kind of a sad story. The second one, Bad influence by Judith Ortiz Cofer was not that sad, but was very interesting to read. The first one deals with a Mexican American family that usually moves from house to house. The main character is trying to fit in her new school. Her best friend in the school was her teacher. By the time she starts making more friends and learning about English more, she is disappointed. At the end of the story, when she is about to go to tell her parents how much she is excited for her new school, she finds all of the stuff in the house is pack. I am pretty sure this is implying that she will move to somewhere Else again. It was kind of sad because she had just starting liking her new school, but maybe she got use to it. The second talks about a girl that is forced to spend the summer at her grandparents house. What is interesting about this story is why she is forced to be there.

I hope that the last section of this book holds more interesting stories!

Modern Warfare 2

2010-03-14T18:47:00.001-07:00

Last year the best game ever came out. On November 10 of 2009 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released to the PS3, XBox 360, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo. I had been waiting for that day for a long time. I first started playing Call of Duty a couple of years ago. I had bought Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (the first one) for the PS3. After playing with it the first couple of minutes i fell in love with that game. The reason i had not bought the other original call of duties before was because it was about the old wars where the guns were old and the graphics were bad. Soon after its release Call of Duty: Modern Warfare became one of the most popular games all over the world. It seemed like i would never get tired of that game. When i play this game i only play online. The campaign is boring and not as real as playing online. Online you van play with or against your friends and also people and friends around the world.

A year had past and it was time for the creators of Call of Duty to make another game. The name was Call of Duty World at War. I had also been waiting for that game, but i soon regretted the wait. After a couple of weeks i started to not like that game. It was back to the old guns and old war. The reason i liked Call of Duty 4: Modern war fare was because it was modern and had new guns new maps, new ideas, and better graphics. All the basic things such as the controls on how to move. shoot or run were still the same but the main parts like the guns and maps were very different and i did not like it. Me and most of my friends that i play with and against online went back to playing Call of Duty 4.

Another year had pasted since the release of Call of Duty World at War and again it was time for the creators to make another call of duty. Due to the great world wide success of Modern warfare and the little success of world at war, they decided to release Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. When i heard this i immediately ran to the nearest game store and reserved it because i knew that if i did not, there was a good chance they would run out quickly. I bought it the day it came out and immediately started to play with it online. Unlike the last Call of Duty i liked the game. So many things have changed since the first modern warfare. New and better guns, more perks, more equipment, more secondary weapons, really awesome maps, more challenges, more classes, more levels, titles, and emblems. I truly think that right now this is the best game. I hope that the next Call of Duty is even better!

LA Lakers

2010-03-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

This week i decided i am going to write about the Los Angeles Lakers. Basketball is one of my favorite sports. i mostly like playing it for fun with my friend. Not really competitively because i suck really bad at it. My favorite team in the NBA is obviously the Los Angeles Lakers. They have been my favorite team ever since i first watching basketball when i was in elementary. Since i live right next to Oakland i should probably be a Golden State Warrior fan but i never really like them and it is not because they have been pretty horrible . Ever since i have first started watching basketball i think they have only made it to the playoffs one time. Everybody went crazy when they made it and started wearing WE BELIEVE T shirts, but the Golden State Warriors barely passed the first round and quickly was eliminated in the second round.

The Los Angeles Lakers on the other and have been doing very good this decade. I am very sure that the Lakers have made it to the playoffs every single year this decade. The Los Angeles Lakers have not only been doing great these past seasons, they have been one of the top teams in the league ever since they entered in 1948. They have won 4 championships in this decade. Three in a row at the beginning 2000, 2001, and in 2002. Then they came back several times in the playoffs after that, but came in strong to win the championship in 2009. Since their arrival in 1948 the Los Angeles Lakers have won a total of 16 championship. They only team to have more championship titles are the Boston Celtics with 17 NBA championship titles. The Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics have been fierce rivals ever since the start of the National Basketball Association. The Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in the 2008 championship, which is the Celtics' latest championship. But the Lakers came back strong the year to win it against "Superman" Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic.

I think that the reason that the Los Angeles Lakers have had so much success along with the Boston Celtics is that they have had some of the most talented players and coaches ever to play the game. Players like Jerry West, Kareem Abdul Jabar, Magic Johnson, Shaq, and the best player playing right now, Kobe Bryant. They have also had probably one of the best coaches ever to lead a team, Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson has a lot of experience coaching the greatest player like Kobe Bryant and the great Michael Jordan. He holds 9 NBA championship rings.

This year the Los Angeles Lakers have been doing very good. They currently have the best record in the West with 48 wins and 18 losses. Currently that is the second best record in the NBA behind the great Cleveland Cavaliers with 50 wins and 16 losses. Unfortunately, the lakers were much better exactly a year from now but i still have confidence that the lakers will become the Championship team of 2010.

Mexico vs New Zealand

2010-03-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

Mexico played New Zealand yesterday in Pasadena. Both teams are qualified to play in the FIFA 2010 World Cup. But this was a friendly game. I did not count for the world cup. Mexico is in the very first group of the cup. Group A which includes Mexico, Uruguay, France and the hosting country of South Africa. Mexico gets to play the very first game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup against South Africa since they are hosting this year's world cup.

These are the groups and my predictions of what teams advance to the next round. Group B consists of Argentina, Greece, Nigeria and the Korean Republic. Argentina will definitely advance. Group C consists of England, United States, Slovenia and Algeria. I think that England and the United States will be the best. Group D is made up of Germany, Australia, Serbia and Ghana. Germany and Australia will make it. Group E holds the Netherlands, Denmark, Cameroon and Japan. I am not sure but i believe that the Netherlands and Cameroon will advance. Group F is made up of Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia. I am positive that Italy and Paraguay will beat the other two teams. Group G consists of Brazil, Portugal, Cote d'Ivoire and Korea. Brazil and Portugal will surely advance in this group. Group H consists of Spain, Switzerland, Honduras and Chile. I am sure Spain will advance but i am not sure the of the other team.

Of course i want Mexico to go all the way even though its probably not going to happen. Mexico is in a tough group. I think the best team in their group is probably France, but i also have never South Africa play soccer so i am not really sure. I am confident that Mexico can beat Uruguay because Mexico has beat them in the past, but you never know what can happen. The same thing can be said when they play against might France because even though Mexico is the under dog anything can happen.

Mexico vs New Zealand

These were the starting players of Mexico. My favorite Giovanni dos Santos, his brother Jonathon dos Santos, Aldo de Nigris, Rafa Marquez, Andres Guardado, Gerrardo Torrado, Efrain Juarez, Carlos Salcido, Ricardo Osorio, Goal Keeper Luis Ernesto Michel, and team captain Cuahtemoc Blanco. They sticked with this line up the whole first half of the game. This was a good line up, the only thing i would change would be take out de Nigris, J. dos Santos, and Michel. In the second half they made some substitutions. They put my two favorite young players in the game and it was not long until they both made goals. Javier Hernandez at minute 53, and Carlos Vela at minute 57. The rest of the game was just Mexico beasting. The final score was 2-0 Mexico. In the whole game, New Zealand barely touched the ball. It was a great game and i hope Mexico keeps it up for the FIFA World Cup of 2010 in South Africa.

Super Excited!!!!

2010-02-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

I have been waiting for this, ever since i first had chickens. What i am talking about is having chicks. Not just random chicks that you can pick out from a farm, buy from a store, or order online. I have been waiting for my oldest chickens to hatch her own chicks naturally. Not by artificial incubators, but by my chickens sitting on her eggs.

For a chicken to successfully hatch her own eggs, the eggs need to be fertile. A mature chicken will lay an egg every day, but those eggs are not fertile if the chicken has not mated with a rooster. But if the eggs are fertile and you want the chicks to hatch you have two options. The first is, you can buy an incubator and heat the eggs until they hatch. The other option is wait until your chicken goes "broody". This is when a chicken spends weeks on her nest and sits on her eggs to warm them up. The chickens get up once a day to each for a short period of time an then quickly go back to warm her eggs up. A chicken can go "broody" randomly at any time of the month. Usually when this happens to my chicken, I take the eggs away from her because the eggs are not fertile, and she starts acting normal again.

A few weeks ago i went to my uncles house and we took our three chickens. We took them there so that they can mate with the rooster that my uncle has. All day he mated with my two biggest chickens, but not the smallest one because the rooster was huge and she was too small. The next day both of those chickens layed an eggs like usual. But we saved those two eggs because they were fertile. We knew we had a chance of hatching those eggs because our chicken has not gone broody for a while and it could be soon. The most you can save those eggs before they go bad is for about 10 days. Well exactly a week after i found my chicken in her nest warming up her eggs. I was so excited because i knew she could hatch the two eggs that were fertile. I immediately replaced the eggs she was warming with the fertile eggs i had saved. It does not matter that one of the eggs is not from her because a chicken will warm up any egg at her nest.

It takes about 21 days for a fertile eggs that is heated up to hatch, and currently it is the fifth day. I check on my chicken a couple a times a day to see her progress. All i have to do is to make sure she has food and water near because she rarely will get up, she will do the rest like turning the eggs every once in a while. Now that she knows that they are her chicks, she will protected them from the other adult chickens i have that will probably try to kill it. I am super excited and hope everything goes well.

Final Draft

2010-02-19T17:38:00.001-08:00

Human Nature: Who participates in genocide, and why? What does the commonality of genocide lead you to believe about humanity? This is a really difficult question. What is genocide? There is no exact definition for it. Many people have their own perspective and views on what the term genocide really is. My definition of genocide is when one group of people decides to exterminate or wipe out and group of people form no good reason. Even though many people might disagree with me, that is what I think the word genocide means. Others may define it as the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group by another nation, race, political group, or cultural group. Also it could mean violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group. All these definitions have the same idea. One group tries to eliminate another group.

Genocide has 8 major steps. In most of the definitions for genocide these general 8 steps usually happen. First there is classification, then symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination, and finally there is denial. Classification is when one group singles out another group of people into "us and them". Before this step the hatred between the different groups of people start for many unknown reasons. After is symbolization which is when one of the groups of people create symbols to show their hatred towards the other group of people. Next is dehumanization. Dehumanization is when one group of people stops referring to the other group of people as humans. Many times they refer to them as insects, demons, vermin, animals, diseases and other names. After dehumanization comes organization. Genocide is always organized. Organization is defined as when special army units or militias often trained and armed. Next is polarization which is when hate groups start broadcasting polarizing propaganda. After polarization is preparation. Preparation is when Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. At this stage, genocide is already very sophisticated. The only way to stop or prevent it from happening is to declare Genocide Emergency. The next stage is extermination. Extermination is when one group is trying to kill all the members of the other group. To the killers, it is called extermination instead of murdering because they do not believe that their victims are fully human. The very last step in genocide is denial. Denial is when the perpetrators say that they did nothing wrong and denied that they committed any crimes against the other group.

Who participates in genocide? In the book Night, by Ellie Wiesel, two people participates in genocide. The first is the German police and all of the people responsible for the destruction of the Jewish community. The other is the victims, which are all the innocent Jewish people who were taken to concentration camps and were killed. What does the commonality of genocide lead you to believe about human nature? This leads me to think why are the victims of genocide doing nothing about the fact they are about to get exterminated? In Night, the Jewish people knew that they were going to get killed but they never tried to escape of revolt against the German police. Most of the time when incidents like this occurred; the people who are the victims outnumber the perpetrators. It is almost like if they do not care and had a crisis of faith where they have lost their hope of surviving. In the book, Ellie himself had a crisis of faith. He found himself questioning his faith when he was losing hope. I also want to know how people think it is ok to attempt to completely wipe out a whole population of people based on their race, religion, ethnicity, or cultural differences. Why do people participate in genocide? People participate in genocide because of their hate toward another group of people. The question is why people develop hatred so strong that they are willing to kill them off. I think it is because of what they were taught when they were young. Some kids were taught to hate another group of people at a very young age, and from there, the hatred grew stronger.

Quick Write

2010-02-19T17:27:00.000-08:00

This week's quick write was an interesting one. It was totally random but kind of fun to write about. You are thousands of feet above the ground, plummeting super fast down to the earth. Fortunately for you, you have a parachute. Unfortunately for you, you pull the string of the parachute and a couple of seconds pass and the parachute does not open. The question for this week's quick write was what is going through your mind during those 5 to 10 seconds after the parachute does not open?

First of all, i can bet you anything that this problem would never occur to me. The main reason is because i am a chicken. I would never have enough guts to jump of a plane and sky dive. I am really afraid of heights and since i would being thousands of feet from the ground, i was would hella scared. But in my story i somehow man up and do jump off a plane. The first thing i would do is start freaking out. Maybe some people would start crying, but i do not think i would cry because with everything going on in my head i probably would not have enough time to cry. Knowing i am most likely going to die, the next thing i would do is probably pee myself. Time would probably go by as slow as possible as your trying to think about what is about to happen next. As each second passed by, i would slowly start losing hope that the parachute would open. Next i would start wishing to land somewhere where i would not make a splat and instantly die. Maybe if i landed in the water i could back to shore. Finally i would just close my eyes and await my death.............................
What would go through your mind??????????

Debates

2010-02-07T08:03:00.000-08:00

This semester in history, we are no longer doing quick writes in the morning before starting the lesson. Instead we are starting something new, debates. When our teacher told us we were going to start doing debates every week for the rest of the semester (with some exceptions) i got a little nervous. Since i am really afraid to stand up in front of the whole class and talk, i even thought of transferring out of that class. I eventually stood up to my fear of talking in front of the whole class and actually did my first debate. I discovered that it was actually pretty easy, as long as your well prepared. Being well prepared for my class' debate means to be prepared to fight for both side of what ever topic the debate is about. I learned that you have no reason to be nervous because everyone is going to go up and debate every week and it only lasts for like a minute. I found out that the debate topics were easy also and our teacher even gave us the site where he gets the topics. This site gives us the pro argument and also the con side of the argument.

One of the topics that i debated on last week was "are social networking sites good for society?". Even though i used a social networking site (a myspace), i really wanted to fight for the con side side saying it was bad for society because there was a lot more information to fight about. I ended up fighting for the pro side, but since i was prepared i still think i did a good job. The next topic i did was "do violent video games cause youth violence?". I wanted to fight for the pro side this time saying it does cause youth violence, but i ended up fighting for the con side. But i was still prepared and did a good job again. So far we have only done those two topics, and I'm glad they were both interesting. In the future i hope to do better and to get some more interesting topics.

My Chckens Part 2

2010-01-26T12:00:00.000-08:00

I use to have the four best chickens you could ever ask for. Even though there has been some problems with raising my chickens like, animals like cats and hawks attacking my chickens or having to clean up the chicken coupe regularly so it would not smell that bad, everything has been going great. But just when there is not any problems sure enough another emerges.

I used to have four chickens. All of them are unique in there way and names. I have 2 bantam (miniature) chickens which are the oldest and had 2 young chickens. First there is "La Chiquiada", which means spoiled in Spanish. I have had her longer than all of my other chickens. My uncle gave me her and her brother. For a while i only had those two chickens. Then when when they got older the male chicken started singing or crowing. Unfortunately it was not only in the morning but all day. Sure enough one day one my neighbors came and told us to shut it up. It was clear we had to get rid of it. We gave it back to my uncle and La Chiquiada was left alone. The reason we called that is because after her brother left she was very lonely and we kinda spoiled her. I love all my chickens but she is my favorite because she has been the longest with me and out of all of them she is one of the smallest but is the Chingona or the boss of all my other chickens. Then comes "La Gavacha" which means a white person. We call her that because she is white. Out of all my chickens she is the oldest. I got at a flea market. They told me she was young, but when my dad took a look he said she was really old. He told me not to get attached because she was too old. Well its been like 7 or 8 months that we have her and she still looks really healthy. She also has been through the most. She was the one that got attacked by the hawk and the cat. I like her because she is tough and the most beautiful of my chickens. Then comes La Camello which means the camel. We call her that because she has a bump on her back like a camel's hump. Of all my chickens she is the rebel. Because she was the hardest to catch. Little by little i gained her trust and now we are cool! She is pretty young but just yesterday she layed her first egg.

Then comes her brother. His name was La Chana or i guess we should have called him El Chano because he was a rooster. We called him that because of its color. It had black and white rings all over its body. When we first got him and his sister La Camello we thought they were both female. As they started growing my dad immediately notice the difference between the both of them. HE said that it was a rooster. I told myself he wasn't a rooster even though i knew my dad was right. I didn't want to get rid of it because i had gotten attached to him. Out of all my chickens he was one always at my feet. He followed me around like a dog. We were gonna wait until it started to sing but we couldn't. Pretty soon we were gonna go to Mexico and leave the chickens alone. My dad said we had to get rid of it before we left because if it started to sing when we gone we could have problems with the neighbors. I was sad but i know it had to be done. One day when i was gone my aunt killed it and prepared a chicken soup. Everyone ate it except me and my dad because he had gotten attached to it. So far my other chickens have been do good and hopefully no other problems emerge.

Final Exam

2010-01-21T08:25:00.000-08:00

Question #5: If you used any quick writes as blog posts, how did they change from what you wrote by hand in class to what you published on your blog? In other words, how did you go from rough draft to final draft? Explain your revision and rewriting process.

I think that blogging about quick writes that we wrote in class already has really changed and helped the way I write now. Sometimes I would get stuck on what to write for my blog on some weeks, but when Mr. S started making us write quick writes in class it helped me find new topics on what to write about. It is good that Mr. Sutherland chooses interesting topics for quick writes because if he did not I probably would get stuck finding out what to write about most of the time. It also has helped me because most of the blog I already had written it in class and I just have to finish the rest of it, which is mostly only about 100 words.

Quick writes also helped me revised my rough drafts. Before I started blogging about the quick writes we do in class, I always struggled with revising my own pieces of writings, I could easily revise anybody Else's work but not my own blog posts. I do not know why it is just too hard. But when I started blogging about the quick writes I at first found many minor mistakes like spelling and grammar. After a while I would see that I had other mistakes and soon I would find myself rewriting and revising my whole original quick write. Now it is easy for me to see my mistakes and rewrite and revised them. I found out that quick writes helped me in a lot ways this year in my writing. When I am rewriting my quick writes on my blog i feel like it I have a lot more to say and write and it all pours out. For example, the blog i did that had to do with the war in Afghanistan and in Iraq I had really revised from the original quick write.

Question #1:Explain one or two ways your writing has improved over the semester. Include a few examples from your posts over time, with analysis, to illustrate how the improvement(s) happened.

I think that this semester my writing has definitely improved. Ever since I was in elementary I also had trouble with one subject, writing. I was good in math, science, PE, and reading but I always struggled in writing. I hated writing because I was always really bad at it. I got a little better at it in middle school, but I still hated it at the time. I did not start feeling comfortable with it until high school because here I learned how to improve at it. Now with this year where I have to blog ever week I am getting more comfortable with writing and I am steadily improving at it. Hopefully as the year goes on I will improve even more so by the end of the year i will have had a lot of practice with writing already.

One of my struggles with blogging this year was writing in paragraphs. My first blogs are written in one huge chunk, for example the 49er blog, My Introduction blog and My Chicken blog. Now I am able to write and create paragraph in my blogs. Another problem I am still having trouble with is extending my vocabulary. So far I am getting a little better, but I still have a lot of work to do. Fortunately I think if i continue blogging I will also continue extending my vocabulary and steadily get better at it. Also one of my main problems and struggles I had early in the year with writing blogs every week was procrastinating. I would always just wait until the last possible minute to write and post it. Now I write a little bit a week and then post it Friday. The times where we went to the lab I would just waste time there, but now I think i manage my time well.

Question #10: Where do you get your ideas for your blog post topics? What inspires you to write?

The topics I blog about and how I get them is totally different from how I thought I was going to do it in the beginning of the year. In the beginning of the semester I thought i was going to plan on what I was going to write each week. It was way harder than how I had originally thought it was going to be. Every week I would be very frustrated because I did not know what I was going to write about. I even missed some blog post because of that. I was stuck! After i talked to Mr. Sutherland about that I started to regain ideas on what to blog about. I started to get more ideas on what to write about.

I mostly get my ideas from what occurs to me during the week. For example, one night I was watching the colts game and when they reached 14 wins and no losses along with another team I was amazed. Immediately I knew I should blog about that, because I am a pretty big football fan. Another example was when my poor chicken got attacked. As soon as it what over I stopped worrying about what I was going to post on blogger, because I knew it would make a pretty good story. But it is not every week that a team reaches 14 wins and no losses or my chickens get attacked. When there is a week where nothing interesting happens to me i turn to quick writes. Since we started doing quick writes in class I have not missed a blog because whenever I get stuck on what topic to write about for my blog post I know I can always write about one of the quick writes we have done. It is good because I have already written most of it in class. All I have to do is revise it and finish it off.

Kobe vs. Lebron

2009-12-31T16:01:00.000-08:00

Many NBA fans argue which is the best basketball player out there now. Some say Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and others say Lebron James of the Cleavland Cavaliers. Of course there are other great basketball players in the NBA, such as Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat, Kevin Garnet of the Boston Celtics, Carmello Anthony of the Denver Nuggets, and many more, but when it comes to the best player i think it is mostly between Kobe Bryant and Lebron James. In my opinion Kobe Bryant is the best and he is the closest to Michael Jordan there is.

Both of these players came into the NBA straight out of high school at the young age of 18. Kobe was the youngest player to make it to the All Stars in his rookie year, 18 years old. Lebron was good enough at 18 in his rookie year too but he did not make it until the following year. Both players have been awarded the NBA MVP of the year once in their careers. When Lebron entered the league in 2004 he instantly became recognized as a star because of his skills. He has yet to win a championship title at age 25. When Kobe Bryant entered the league in 1996 he also became noticed instantly as a star. By the age of 25 Kobe had already won 3 championships in a row with the Lakers in 2000, 2001, and in 2002. Kobe would go the NBA finals three more times after in 2004, 2005, and in 2007 but would come up short. Then last year Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA Championship yet again, and Kobe Bryant was awarded the Finals MVP. Lebron has not even been to the NBA Finals. In my opinion Kobe is the obvious better player between the both of them. The best thing about these two players is that they are very good friends and do not hate each other like some may think.

Attempted Terrorist Attack

2009-12-29T16:47:00.000-08:00

Christmas was a happy day this year most people. This was not the case for the people who were on bored flight 253 of the Delta Airlines plane from Nigeria to Amsterdam to Detroit. On the plane was a 23 year old Nigerian man who tried to blow the plane up. Fortunately, his plans fails and volunteers such as, Jasper Schuringa, helped subdue the man.

It all started on Christmas day, on a plane headed to Detroit coming from Amsterdam and Nigeria. When the Delta Airlines plane was in the final hours of landing, all the passengers heard a loud pop. After there was a small fire on the plane. When the passengers realized that a man tried to blow the plane up they rushed to subdue him. He Nigerian man was badly suffering from the burns he received from the fire in his legs. Somehow the explosive didn't go right and only cause a small fire. He was planning on creating a massive explosion and killing himself along with the whole plane. Apparently ,Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian terrorist he went through airport security with some kind of powders and liquids taped to his leg. He then later on ignited them on the plane. But for some reason the explosives did not work. He man was taken the hospital to treat his burns. The shocking part of this story was how he could get a visa and get on the plane if the was on the Terrorist Watch List. What was more shocking was that his father had warned the CIA about his son's terrorist views and his plans. The not so shocking part of this story is that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab claims to have tried to blow the plane up by Al-Quaida orders.

Immediately after word got out about the attack, airports around the world have been seriously stepping up their security.

Indianapolis Colts or New Orleans Saints

2009-12-15T11:40:00.000-08:00

There is a debate going on with many NFL fans, about whether which team is better, the Indianapolis Colts or the New Orleans Saints. Both teams right now are undefeated at 14-0. Since the beginning of the NFL, in 1920, there has never been two undefeated teams this late in the regular season. Unfortunately, the only way these two teams will meet is if they both make it to the Superbowl because they don't play each other this season because they are on separate conferences. The New Orleans Saints are in the NFC south while the Indianapolis Colts are in the AFC south.

The reason for the great success of both of these teams are in the most important position in the national football league, the Quarterback. The Indianapolis Colts have quarterback Peyton Manning. The New Orleans Saints have quarterback Drew Brees. Both quarterbacks are considered the best that are playing right now. Peyton Manning was born into a family of quarterbacks. His Father was a great football quarter back who played for the New Orleans Saints in the 70's and 80's. His older brother could have been an NFL great but was diagnosed with a spinal condition. His younger brother is also a good quarterback who currently plays for the New York Giants. Each has a Super Bowl ring. Drew Brees is a great quarterback who played in Purdue University where we won the award of Academic All American Player of the Year. He was drafted in 2001 by the San Diego Chargers and after a few years bouncing around a few teams, he landed at the New Orleans Saints in 2006. Since he has been a consistent quarterback.

Both teams are on route to finishing the regular season 16 wins and 0 defeats. The Saints have every intention of finishing the regular season that way because it has never happened to this franchise ever. On the other hand, the Colts plan on sitting out Peyton Manning and their other very important player so that they do not get injury ed. Even though it is a long time from now i hope these two teams make it to the super bowl so their the debates can end and we can see which is the better team this year.

QuickWrite on Quote

2009-12-11T18:42:00.000-08:00

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth". This is a quote by Oscar Wilde. Born in Dublin, Ireland on October 16 1854, Oscar Wilde was a very successful playwright, poet, journalist and author of numerous short stories during the writing period of the Victorian era. He died at the age of 46 from cerebral meningitis on November 30, 1900 in Paris, France. The most interesting fact about this quote is that Oscar was gay. It makes sense because he might not have wanted to reveal that to people.

During Oscar Wilde's years in coming up with poetry, plays, journals and writing various short stories, he may have written many great quotes, but none like this one. I think that this quote means that most people that you are not familiar with will most likely lie to you. This is not necessarily a bad thing because i think that the vast majority of people are like this. We lie because we are really afraid of what other people might think of us. "Man is least himself when he talks on his own person" This part of the quote means that we are afraid to show our real selves. "Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth" means when a person is speaking anonymously or without other people knowing that it is a certain person and that speaking anonymously is the only way people will seriously show themselves.
I agree with this quote and think it is true. Most people are not comfortable with being themselves. We should just show are real selves to everyone and not care if someone thinks less of you. An example is blogger.com. Someone may state a controversial statement on a non private blog. most people would rather comment on it anonymously because they can truly write what they think without other people knowing it is that person.

Quick Write On The War In Iraq and Afghanistan

2009-12-04T17:21:00.000-08:00

This week i decide to post a blog on the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am going to write about the war that is going on in the countries of Iraq and Afghanistan. Also about the big announcement that our President Obama made. On the day of December 1, 2009 President Obama made an announcement saying that he will send 30,000 more troops to the war in Afghanistan. According to our president this is the next necessary big step for our nation's security and safety. Obama stated that he personally does not like the idea of sending more troops because he believes we must exercise restraint from military force and always consider the long term consequences of our actions. He also can see that our nation is experiencing the worst economic state since the great depression, and that we should be focused on that instead of sending more troops to the war in Afghanistan. It seems that the main reason he will be sending more troops is because we need to attack the center where al Quaida are plotting their next attack against us which is in Pakistan and in Afghanistan.

Personally i am not quite sure whether sending 30,000 more troops to the war in Iraq is a really great decision or a horribly wrong decision. It would be good if they were not sent because the lives of those troopers would not be at skate or in any kind of danger, and because It could help us a lot with focusing on our economy and the recession we are experiencing now. If we sent those troopers it might also help because it is protecting us over here, but I am not sure it worth the lives of our soldier out in the wars. I am still not sure which would be better. I think Obama is telling the truth about the fact that he does not want to send more troops, but if he says it is the best choice right now then maybe it is. I could we will have to wait to see if it is.

The 49ers

2009-11-20T13:28:00.001-08:00

This week i decided to write about football. I love playing and watching football. even though i suck really bad at it, i like playing it with my friends. I mostly like watching it though. In my opinion football is the most exciting sport to watch. Baseball is too slow, basketball is too fast, and soccer is too boring. Football is exciting because anything can happen at any second and it is fairly easy to come back than other sports. Also there are many different fun positions. On offense there is the offensive line, the half back, full back, wide receivers, and the most important position, quarter back. On defense there is the defensive line, middle line backers, left and right backers, corner backs, and safeties. then on special teams there is the punter, the kicker, and the returner.

When it comes to sports i like to watch the professional leagues. I do not like watching college sports. I am a die hard San Fransisco 49er fan. I try not to miss any of there games. Ever since i was little i was a niner, my older brother and dad taught me to go for them and they taught me everything there was to know about football. Unfortunately for the past six or seven years the niners have not made it to the playoffs. Which means that since i first start seeing them when i was like 8, i haven't seen the niners make it to the playoffs. I doesn't matter cuz they can lose or not make it to the playoffs every year, but i will continue to watch them. But hey at least we are better than the Raiders! The problem with the niners is at the quarter back position. Niners have great tight end, a really talented number one draft pick wide receiver and one of the top 5 running back in the league. They also have one of the best defenses in the NFL, but the reason they suck is because of the lack of talent in the most important position in football, quarter back. Currently there record is 4 wins and 5 losses. Hopefully they will get better in the quarter back position. But even if they do not, i will keep watching them because i am the number one niner fan!

My Chickens Are In Danger

2009-11-10T13:15:00.000-08:00

When I first got my chickens i never thought about the predators that would be after them. The only thing i could think about that would hurt them was my dog, but i was really wrong. First i had problems with a raccoon. It killed the very first chicken i had. Then the problems began with my own chickens. One of my adult chickens kill a baby chick i bought. This is something very normal for adult chickens who have not yet had their own chicks. After i started having a problem with my dog. He killed a baby and attacked my chickens various times. After a while i trained my dog to take care of them instead of kill them.

A few weeks ago there was another problem. This time with a cat. One Saturday morning my dad woke up at three in the morning because he heard one of the chickens yelling. He went outside to the chicken coupe and saw a cat attacking our chicken. When the cat spotted my dad it ran away. Fortunately, Nothing happened to our chicken. A couple of days later the same cat returned to attack the same chicken. After i heard the yelling, i got my dog and he scared the cat away. Since that incident, the cat has not returned.

Just when i thought the problems were over, another predator starts stalking my chickens. This time it is a hawk. It all started when i first spotted it. One morning i was making sure my chickens had food and water. I was heading back into my house from the chicken coupe when all of a sudden i hear large wing flapping. I turn around and its a huge hawk. I flyed away after i scared it. Then last Sunday something horrible happened. I was in my room when suddenly i heard my dad yelling saying that a hawk had one of my chickens. I ran outside ,without any shoes, as fast as i could. It flyed onto a tall post. I hit a sign on the post as hard as i could and it got scared and started flying again. It flew for about 5 minutes. the whole time i was sprinting after it. As soon as i was starting to lose hope it stopped on a fence. I got a big rock and hit it. Immediately it lets my chicken go and fly off. I came back home exhausted but happy. The chicken was bleeding but it was OK. Currently she is doing fine and trying to grow back a;ll the feathers it lost during the attack.

Blog Reflection

2009-11-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

As the school year has been gradually developing, my writing skills has been changing. My statement of purpose is very different from my latest blog post. Some topics that I thought I was going to write I did not. Such as music and friends. I did stick with sports though. Some of the goals i accomplished, but some i did not. I did not extend my vocabulary enough in the blogs as much as i originally wanted to. A goal i did not write about was writing in paragraphs i managed to fix after the first two blogs.

At the beginning of the school year I really struggled at writing, but I think i improved a little bit this first quarter. Hopefully i will gradually improve more the next quarter and also until the end of the school year too. At the beginning i planned on writing on my original topic in my statement of purpose. But i soon discovered that it was not that easy. My first blog was on my chickens because i knew that i had a lot to write about. After that i had a lot of difficulty. I did not know what to write about so i miss a couple of blogs. I soon discovered that instead of planning on what to write about i could just write about the interesting things that happened during the week.

This knew way of writing helped me out more than planning it out. The problem with these blogs is that we get too much freedom and can write about anything. Sometimes for me it is easier if i am told what to write about like this week's blog post. But i think i am doing better on finding things to write about. My knew goals are to think of more things to write about and stop checking how many words i have written every minute and just focus on writing.

My Mexico

2009-10-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite time of the year is winter break thru new years because i go to Mexico. I do not go to a big city in Mexico like Mexico City or Guadalajara. Instead i go to a remote small town called a "pueblo" called Santa Maria del Oro. It takes 4 hours for the plane ride to Guadalajara and after that it takes another 4 hours to get there in a car. The road to get there is a little dangerous because its high up in the mountains there is a lot of curves. When i was little my family used to go there by car. Going there by car takes about 3 days with minimal resting stops. I like getting there by airplane because it is faster and less dangerous.

Santa Maria maybe small but it is very beautiful. It has a beautiful church, a unique plaza, great small restaurants, and a stunning "kiosko". My grandparents own the popular store at the plaza named La Paletera. It's cool because whenever I'm hungry or thirsty and do not have any money, i can just go there and get free stuff. They even have a few arcade games and 2 Foosball tables. I only enjoy going to that small town during the first two weeks of January, and it's called "La Funcion".

When I'm there my day goes like this. In the morning i wake up really early and go to my uncles ranch and milk his cows. Then we add some chocolate and some alcohol and then drink it with the fresh milk. During the day i sleep because its really hot and also to get some rest for the big night. At night is the funnest, because there is mariachi bands playing, fireworks going off everywhere, the banda is playing in the "kiosko", and the guys and girls circling the plaza.

Usually when we go there, my family stays at my grandparents house. Since i have 11 aunts and uncle's that go, we all fight to stay at the nice guest room that has a bathroom. Sometimes we do not get. But recently we started building our own small house there with the land my grandpa gave my dad. It is now finished and i cannot wait until the coming new years to go.

Mexico Is Going To The World Cup !!!

2009-10-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite sports to watch is soccer. The only teams I like to watch is the Chivas from Guadalajara and the Mexican National Soccer Team. On the tenth of October Mexico was playing against El Salvador to qualify for the World Cup in South Africa. Currently Mexico is ranked number 18 by FIFA. The highest ranking it got was in 2005 when it was ranked number 6. The lowest ranking Mexico ever got was in 1979 when it was ranking number 47 by FIFA.The Mexican Nation Soccer team was in third place before entering the game. They were at risk of note entering the 2010 world cup in South Africa. After their win they climbed to second place, while USA their place at number one.

There are many really talented Mexican players that play in the Mexican soccer league. They have one of best goalies, Guillermo Ochoa. Their defense consist of Jony Magallon , who plays for Chivas, Ricardo Osorio , who plays for Stugartt, Carlos Salcido, who plays for PSV, and the team's captain Rafael Marquez ,who plays for Barcelona. Their midfielders consists of Gerrardo Torrado, who plays for Cruz Azul, Efrain Juarez, who plays for UNAM, Andres Guardado, who plays for La Coruna. Their forwards consists of Cuatemoc Blanco, who plays for Chicago Fire, Carlos Vela, who plays for Arsenal, and their star Forward Giovanni dos Santos ,who plays for Tottenham. This is the usual line up for when they play. Recently Mexico's star forward was injured during practice and he did not played the last two qualifying games.

A win against El Salvador is all The Mexican National Soccer Team needed to qualify. If they did not win that game then they had another chance against Trinidad y Tobago. Mexico knew that they had to fight hard for the win because El Salvador was also on the verge of not qualify. The fist half ended 1-0 Mexico leading with an own-goal from the other team. Then Mexico went into beast mode. They finished the game 4-1. Goals were made by Palencia, Blanco and Vela. The Mexicans were extra excited because they qualified to go to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Tatum's Article

2009-10-06T11:51:00.000-07:00

(3.) Some examples will highlight the process. Several years ago one of my students conducted a research project investigating preschoolers’ conceptions of [4] Native Americans. Using children at a local day care center as her participants, she asked these three- and four-year-olds to draw a picture of a Native American. Most children were stumped by her request. They didn’t know what a Native American was. But when she rephrased the question and asked them to draw a picture of an Indian, they readily complied. Almost every picture included one central feature: feathers. In fact, many of them also included a weapon—a knife or tomahawk—and depicted the person in violent or aggressive terms.

This research project is a perfect example of how even three-year- old children already have a set of stereotypes. The children were confused when they were asked to draw a picture of a Native American because they along with most young children refer to Native Americans as Indians. Also it was not surprising when the children's drawing had feathers, knives, tomahawk and involved violence in them because that is the stereo type for Native Americans. This shows that even children that are in preschools already know a couple of stereotypes even though they may seem innocent. I do not think that those children are prejudice because they just have internalized those ideas about Native Americans. I am sure that many of those children have never encountered Native Americans so they just draw what they have heard of them.

Article

2009-09-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hounding On the Innocent by Bob Herbert is an article about racial profiling. Racial profiling happens all over the Unites States of America and is mostly directed towards African Americans and Latinos, but this article specifically talks about it in three places. They are Oklahoma, Chicago and New York. From 1992 through 1995, 42,00 people were arrested in Chicago due to an anti-loitering law. In New York, police were frisking Black and Hispanic people in the thousands for no good reason.They were also stopping and harassing Hispanic and African Americans motorist. In Oklahoma state troopers humiliated an African American and his son.

In the summer of 1998, member of Oklahoma state police spent about two hours harassing and embarrassing former army sergeant Rossano Geraldo and his twelve year old son Gregg. Sergeant Rossano Gerald was ordered out of his car, handcuffed and then interrogated. Before anything, they police separated Gregg from his father by locking him up in the back of the police car, where they interrogated him. The police asked if he had any weapons and when Rossano denied permission to search to car, they searched it any without having a search warrant. The Oklahoma state troopers dismantled parts of Rossano's truck. After, they brought drug sniffing dogs to make sure that there weren't any drugs at the scene. When everything was negative the police said that Rossano and Gregg were free to go. No arrests were made and twelve year old Gregg was petrified and cries uncontrollably after the terrifying ordeal ended. The only thing that they were guilty of was for being born black.

In New York the same kind of racial profing was happening. Unlike in Oklahoma, motorist were not being targeted, but instead pedestrians were. In amazingly high number, Young African Americans and Hispanic males were being stopped and frisked for no good reason. According to the police record, more than 45,00 people were being stopped and harrased by the police, but only 10,00 of those stops leaded to arrests. That means that more than 35,000 innocent people were stopped for no reason. Racial profiling happens all over the U.S.A. and it needs to stop.

My Chickens

2009-09-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

It all started last summer when I went to my uncle's ranch. He had many farm animals like cows, chickens, goats and pigs. While there we decided to bring a chicken home to eat. We brought it back and thought it would be better if we fattened her up before we killed her. It was my responsibility to wake up early, feed and tend to her. I also had to make sure my dog didn't kill her before we did. One night I went to check on her and I didn't find her. After searching for a long time we found her on the street. After that happened we tied her to a tree in the back for a weeks. When she got used to being in out front and back yard we untied her. She never tried to escape again. My parents and I decided not to kill her because I had gotten really attached to her. Her routine was being in the back all day ,until I got back home school, then in the afternoon she would be in the front and in the morning she would sleep in a tree in the front yard. A couple of times , in the morning, she would be making a lot of noises for a long time, and every time we checked and everything would be fine. One morning we heard her yell and when we checked she was missing. We found a trail of feathers leading from where her food was, over the fence and into the street sewer. We knew it was either a raccoon or a possum. I was sad because I had gotten really attached to her and I had gotten used to having a pet chickens. A couple months later I received two miniature chickens, a hen and a rooster. They were barely chicks when I got them. They got attached to me but more to each other. The rooster was definitely the boss between the both of them. Because of what happened with my first chicken, I decided to keep them in the backyard. Everything was going good until my rooster got old enough to sing. Every morning and sometimes all day my rooster would be crowing very loud. It wasn't long until one of my neighbors knocked on our door and told us to shut him up. We didn't want to kill him so we just took him back to my uncle. My other chicken got really lonely and started to get more skinnier. We brought two more chicks, both hens. Unfortunately both were killed. The first was killed by my other hen. It is really common that hens kill chicks that aren't theirs. The other was killed by my chihuahua. My dad spanked him so hard that he doesn't get near our chickens anymore. I was really sad because before my chick was killed ,by my dog, she had barely gotten used to being around me. Since then I have added three more chickens to my backyard. One is too old to lay eggs. The other is still young and is the only one that lays eggs so far. The other two are still too young to lay eggs. I enjoy having chickens as pets and I hope I have more in the future.

Introduction

2009-09-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

I hope to write about many different topics this year. The main topic I want is sports. Eventhough I am not good at them, I like playing sports such as basketball, football, baseball and soccer. I feel comfortable blogging about them. Some other topics I plan on writing are music and friends. I enjoy many different genres of music. I also want to write about my friends because i have many friends and it might be interesting what i can blog about them. I also would like to improve my writing skills. I hope to improve them by adding more and better vocabulary. I want to better my writing skills with all the exciting topics I will be blogging about this year. I always had difficulty with writing, but this year I am sure that I will improve.