12-21-11 Mythology

Mythology are the stories of a culture about their heroes, stories of wars and gods. These are important to these civilizations because they were used to pass their history to the next generation, and explain natural disasters. In todays world, mythology acts as people safe haven from the horrors.

12-19-11 Occupy law

I think that they have the right to file this lawsuit against the city because they are stand ing up for something that they believe in, but I think they should still move because they will be out there in the freezing snow. I also think that they have the right to appeal the cities eviction notice since it is their constitutional right.

12-15-11 Owl Creek bridge

One example of foreshadowing that is present in the story is when the soldier shows up to his house and asks for a drink of water and then proceeds to tell the main character about how he coud destroy the bridge and stop the Federal army from advancing. This is foreshadowing him getting captured because the scout is suggesting that he destroy the bridge and by going to do that getting captured since the scout works for the Federals. Another example of foreshadowing is when he thinks in part one that if only he could free his hands, he might be able to remove the noose which foreshadows him escaping from the Federals into the river. A third instants of foreshadowing is when he is walking home after escaping he describes how he has a bruise on his neck, he couldn't close his eyes, and his tongue was dry from thirst. This would be foreshadowing him dying because those are all symptoms of being hung. One final part of the story when the author foreshadows is when he is spinning and all of his surroundings are blurry. This is foreshadowing that he has not escaped, but the noose is just spinning after he fell through the trestles.

12-9-11 Floating turbine

I think that we should put these wind farms out in Maine waters. We should do this because it will generate more jobs with the building of the turbines and it will provide renewable energy that will move us away from oil. It will not also not impact the tourism industry because people will not be able to see the turbines.

12-7-11 Pran in Cambodia

What I think happened to Pran was that he was either put into forced labor in the fields and has survived on  will power to survive. I think that Sydney will go back to Cambodia and try to find Pran, will not be able to save him because is in a labor camp. He may also have fallen in love with another women and will want to get her out with them and wil be forced to stay to be with her.

12-5-11 Occupy eyesore or noble cause

I think that it is a noble cause because people are protesting injustices that are a growing problem in the United States. Although now the original message has been tainted by homeless people just looking for a housing situation and by people who have other causes.

12-1-11 Winter activity

I think my favorite winter activity would probably be knitting because you can stay warm inside and create a piece of art. I enjoy knitting because it involves only a couple materials and you can do it almost anywhere like during a storm or on a plane. Knitting calms me because it is focusing on one thing and I become very zen.

11-29-11 Word that describes my life

One word that would describe my life probably be organized because my life is very structured because I go to school go through my red or white routine and then I go home and do homework. This happens every week day and then on the weekend I will do homework and hang with my family. If I were to change my word I would change it to exciting and I would do it by doing something different every day so that I have more of an unorganized day.

11-22-11 Monkey Paw

This short story takes about a family who gets a talisman from a friend who just gat back from India. Within the story there are three parts, the first one talks about the family getting this talisman called the monkeys paw. Part two talks about how the first wish that was made which is for two hundred pounds cames true. The final and third part talks about how the last two wishes effect the two remaining characters. I think the main message of the story is that for every action which would be the wishes the is and equal and opposite reaction. In the story that would be when herbert the son of the older couple wishes for the money and that money comes when he is maimed by a machine and the company that he works for pays the money. 

11-18-11 student advice

I think that this article provides a sufficient amount of information about how to adapt to a new environment after coming from a new country or school. Other information that I would add to this article is to make friends at this new place so you can learn the new traditions and another thing I would do is to hold on to your traditions and incorporate the new traditions into the old.

11-14-11 Penn State case

I think the law should be changed so that an issue of this kind could dealt with immediately so that it doesn't go on for so long as this one did. One reason I think that the law should be changed so that these kind of problems will not get lost in the translation through the line of command which happened at Penn State with the football coaching staff. The new law which states that if something like is witnessed, then the witness goes to the government and tells them.

11-7-11 Culture that was hard to adapt to

One thing that Sundra couldn't adapt to in America was how people would openly flirt with each other and any two people would be together no matter what ethnicity. Why should couldn't adapt is that Cambodian culture says that a Cambodian girl must marry a Cambodian boy and that boy must be chosen by the girls parents. Because of this divorce is not common since the girl and boy are forced by their culture to stay together.

11-3-11 Genocide

Genocide: the systematic killing of a group of individuals by a government or a group of people. One example is the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia where the elite military group of Serbia soliders called the Scorpions killed over eight thousand three hundred Bosnia Muslims who were mostly men and boys. The UN peace keeping force supposedly did nothing to stop the execution. 

11-1-11 Selfish Giant

This story begins with children playing the garden of a giant who has been away for seven years visiting a an ogre. Once he return she find the children in his garden and being a selfish giant he scares the children away and builds a wall so that no one can enter his garden. Soon winter comes and makes it permanently winter because he has lost the love of the children which made the garden bloom. Winter continues in the garden until the children sneak in through a hole in the wall and make it summer again. The giant sees who child who can't get up into a tree, so he goes outside , but ends up scaring the children except for the one child who couldn't get into the tree. The giant helps the child get into the tree and seeing this the children return and play in the garden. The giant destroys the wall so that all of the children could play in his garden. The children continued playing with the giant until the giant became old and frail, so he could no longer play. At the end of the story the giant see the little boy he helped into the tree and find the boy has wounds on his hand. Seeing this the giant gets angry because someone hurt his friend, but is love that made the wounds not bodily harm. The next day the children find the giant dead under the tree where he helped the little boy so long ago.

11-1-11 Selfish Giant

This story begins with children playing the garden of a giant who has been away for seven years visiting a an ogre. Once he return she find the children in his garden and being a selfish giant he scares the children away and builds a wall so that no one can enter his garden. Soon winter comes and makes it permanently winter because he has lost the love of the children which made the garden bloom. Winter continues in the garden until the children sneak in through a hole in the wall and make it summer again. The giant sees who child who can't get up into a tree, so he goes outside , but ends up scaring the children except for the one child who couldn't get into the tree. The giant helps the child get into the tree and seeing this the children return and play in the garden. The giant destroys the wall so that all of the children could play in his garden. The children continued playing with the giant until the giant became old and frail, so he could no longer play. At the end of the story the giant see the little boy he helped into the tree and find the boy has wounds on his hand. Seeing this the giant gets angry because someone hurt his friend, but is love that made the wounds not bodily harm. The next day the children find the giant dead under the tree where he helped the little boy so long ago.

10-31-11 Adjusting Behavior

One time when I had to adjust my behavior was when my brother was picking out a video and I tricked him into getting a different video by telling him that it was the original one. He only found that out when we were going to watch it and I said that no it was a different one. Since I had tricked my little brother into getting a movie he had already seen we didn't watch anymore movies and when straight to bed. I had to adjust my behavior because since that event I have never tricked my brother into getting another movie he didn't want.

10-26-11 Civic center bond

I don't think my view changed because I was against the bond to begin with after reading the article. I still believe that the money could go to fund other projects such as alternative energy sources and different forms of transportation. Also the point about how it is going to cost more than 55 million dollars instead of the 33 million that is being advertised.

10-24-11 Children with firearms

I think that children shouldn't be allowed to hunt with fire arms unless they have been properly trained on how to use guns. I think this because then these accidents would happen less often because children would know not to point the gun at his foot and while doing that playing with the safety of a gun. Also adults should stop children from doing that if they see it, which would also help.

10-20-11 Favorite season

My favorite season is favorite season is fall because it is not too hot or cold, but it is just chilly. Another reason is why I like fall is the ground is dry and not muddy, although this year it is cold and muddy. One final reason why fall is my favorite month is that one doesn't have to shovel snow yet, but the grass also doesn't have to be mowed as much because it is dying.

10-18-11 The Lottery

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson tells the story of a day at the end of June in a town with a barbaric ritual called the lottery. The story starts out as the children being to gather in the town square and them filling their pockets with rocks. Soon the adults are arriving and getting their family together. Next the official of the Lottery arrives with a black box and a three legged stool. Then he has the heads of the families draw a piece of paper out of the box and wait to look at it. Once that is finished the family who has the black spot on their piece of paper have to redraw to see who "wins the lottery". In the village that is the Hutchinson's who end up getting the spot and one of the daughters and the mother "win the lottery".  The prize is that you get stoned which is people throw stones at you until you die and that is what happens to Tessie the daughter and Mrs. Hutchinson. This is a barbaric ritual that would have probably never survived into present day.

10-14-11 Grovers Corners influence

I don't think that South Portland is not influenced in the same way as Grovers Corners because South Portland has a much larger population which means that not everybody know each other. Another difference is we have much larger group of religions and Grovers Corner was mostly protestant. One final reason is that we travel much more so we don't want to stay in South Portland. This is total opposite 'of Grover Corner.

10-12-11 Our Town Statement

I don't agree with this statement because I think that all people should go to college even if they are in love with another person. Why I think that people should go to college is that education is so important and I believe that sometimes people should choose their head over their heart.

10-7-11 Maine jobs

I don't agree with Obama's plan because we could be putting our money that would be spent building roads and repairing bridges into public transportation like a light rail system. I also think that we could use all of the cars that would be useless to build these railcars and rails. We would need to repair some of these bridges, but the highways would be useless and our carbon footprint would go down astronomically. 

10-5-11 Maine Casinos

I think that they should allow the Racino in Biddeford because it would create many more jobs and bring income to the area. One other reason why I would allow the Racino is because there is no high stacks gambling and no ability to loss an enormous amount of money. I wouldn't allow the casino in Lewiston because there is high level gambling which might promote excessive drink which may lead to more drinking while driving and people will gamble more meaning that they will loss more money. One final reason is that we already have one casino, why do we need a second.

10-3-11 Grovers Corner culture point

One aspect of culture that influences Grovers Corner is how all of the people who live there, know each other and some people also trust one another. One example is when George couldn't pay Mr. Morgan for the ice cream soda, so Mr. Morgan said he would wait ten years before George had to pay him. This doesn't really impact South Portland daily life because South Portland is so large and not everybody knows each other. If South Portland were much smaller in population, then that would be the case.

9-29-11 Grovers Corners culture

As Mr. Webb said "Grovers Corner doen't have much culture." Although some cultural points are the bible, people who read poetry at the high school commencement, and some they love to look at nature. Such as the sun rising over the mountains, and the sound of birds calling. Their religion is protestant and that is 81% of the town and their political view is republican.

9-27-11 Firework ban

I do think that town should enact a local ban on fireworks because no everyone is safe with them and people can get burns. Another reason why I think that some cities should ban fire works is that it is disrupting and disturbs the peace for most people. I also think that if only some cities have banned fire works and other haven't why can't someone drive to this other city and buy them.

9-23-11 Cultural influences

One aspect of of my culture that influences my behavior is my family and I like to sleep late and stay up late also. So Even when I go to sleep at a decent hour I still want to sleep late because that is how my body clock is wired. This kind of influences a personal belief that one shouldn't be woken up at an ungodly hour. I have had this happen to me on some occasions when my brother who normally sleeps late is excited for something and he will wake me up because he thinks that I should be up for this. Although I will also wake up early and wake my brother up.

9-21-11 Time capsule

If I were to put something in a time capsule in the cornerstone of the new school, I would put a picture of the old school so we could remember how horrible it was. I would also put a five gallon, water tight jug of nitro glycerin and a detonation mechanism. So if we every need to get rid of the school again we would have that option. The final thing is a picture of the single bathroom in the boys locker room

9-20-11 Single gender classes

I think that we should implement this at South Portland. Why we should implement this policy here is that it would improve the learning as the article says because all the boys would move at their pace and the girls would move at theirs. I think it would eliminate some talking in the class, but there might be more talking because the same genders tend to talk more. I also think that it would have to start in kindergarden if it was to be ultra separated.  

9-15-11 Civic center renovation

I think the civic center should not be renovated because there are plenty of other places to play hockey, host concerts and it would just become a money pit were money would just have to be poured in constantly. I think that the city should work with what it has because the building is still sound and it will be a drain. I wonder if we are putting the one million form the jail were is the other 32 millions coming from.

9/13/11-American Customs and etiquette

Nothing really surprised me about this analyzation of American culture and etiquette. Some parts that rang true for me were about the table manners such as that the napkin always goes in the lap before eating, how elbows are not allowed on the table and people are not allowed to eat until the hostess sits down. Another thing that I found true was that most things are eaten by hand.

Culture

My culture is a mix of a bunch of cultures because I celebrate a range of holidays that include St. Patricks day, Christmas, and Halloween. I still celebrate these holiday even though I am not a Christen. Some traditions that my family has are that we watch movies every Friday. Another tradition that we have are that we go out when there is a storm so we can see what is happening. One sport that my family loves is sailing and archery. We love sailing because we love the wind through our hair and we like archery because it is so precise.

9/7/11 Summer reading

This summer I read a book called Corsair by Clive Cussler. It is sixth in its which is called the Oregon Files. The book starts with a historical battle between the US navy and Barbary pirates at the beginning of   the 19 Th. century. It then moves to modern day when the Secretary of State is enroute to a Libyan peace conference when her plane is mysteriously shoot down and she is kidnapped. Soon afterwords Langston Overholt calls the Corporation which is basically this group of people who live on a high tech boat that looks like a rust scow. All of the people who are in the Corporation have all worked for the US government in some form. The story ends where the Secretary is saved and the bad guys defeated.

I loved this book because I lie the action and the intrigue that comes from this series. I especially like how home none of the people aren't pompous or think they own the world. They show compassion will being super spies.

I would recommend this book to people who like spy novels and who need t find a series that will last for a little will.