5-31-12 Juliet's reaction

I think that Juliet will not believe what has happened and will think that Romeo must have had a reason to kill her cousin. My thinking why she will do this is that she loves Romeo and knows he is a kind person and will only kill for a very good reason.



P.S.  You showed us that part of the movie and told us what happens.

5-24-12 All the worlds a stage

I do agree with the article when it says that Shakespeare is still an ever present part of peoples lives. His works apply to modern problems that people face. His characteristic as the typical dead white male is false since he wrote his works to show the empowerment of women and the weakness of men. Overal Shakespeare is very relevant to modern day.

5-22-12 Romeo and Juliet

I think that this means that anger of Romeo and Juliet's parents will end after their children kill themselves.  The anger that the parents have is related to an ancient grudge that is set in Verona, Italy. To summaries, the anger of Romeo and Juliet's parents are supplemented when their children kill themselves.

5-16-12 The sniper

This short story tells the story of a Irish sniper who is facing off against another sniper. This story begins with the sniper stationed on a roof overlooking a street. The sniper eats a sandwich and then lights a cigarette. The other sniper fires at him and misses. Next an armored car arrives and is told by an informat that the original sniper is up there. The gunner is about to open up on the orignal sniper, but is killed along with the informant. The other sniper takes the moment to wound the first sniper in the arm. The original sniper cleans his wound and sets up a ruse to capture the other sniper. He places his cap on the edge of the roof he is hitting on and then waits until the cap is shot to play dead. The other sniper thinking his adversary is dead stands up and is shot by the original sniper. The other sniper's body falls to the ground. The original sniper is curious about the identity of his adversary and goes to investigate. He finds the body  of his brother on the ground.

5-14-12 tax cuts

I think that they should not cut the funding as much funding from Maine care because all of those people who are being cut may need it and so will have a harder time getting needed medical care. My feeling is that these medical programs should have less money cut from them and the remaining deficit should come from other programs. By cutting the funds from these programs people who need the help are dropped for no reason and so will have a much harder time paying for medical fees.

5-10-12 Parking increase

I think that the city should not increase their fees for the parking garages because it forces people to park in other places or to not even drive around in Portland. By increasing rates in city owned parking garages it forces people to park on the street and potential increase the number of parking tickets written. This would also increase the number of tourists who walk because with higher parking rates, people will walk more and clog the streets.

5-8-12 Essay introduction

Literature like most creative outlets builds upon its self with one author writing something then another author piggy-backing on that idea. This concept would explain the similarities between Robert Burns' poem To a Mouse  and John Steinbeck's book Of Mice and Men. Both of these pieces of literature have similarities in their ideas, differences and both of these pieces of literature share some of the same themes. Both the Robert Burns poem and the book by John Steinbeck are quite similar in recurring themes and both focus on life's randomness.

5-4-12 of mice and men

This poem by Robert Burns relates to the book because in both life intervenes and messes up the plans that each character had. In the poem it is the mouse who had the plan to have this house for the winter and Lennie has a plan to have a farm with George. In each story these plans go awry and in the poem the house is destroyed and in the book Lennie dies.

4-30-12 The end

What will happen at the end is that Lennie is shot by George in the back of the head. George does this so that Curley will not slowly kill  Lennie for murdering his wife. Another reason that George executes Lennie is he realizes that they will never achieve their dream because Lennie will continue to get in trouble and get them kicked out of their jobs, so George will always be moving from job to job trying to raise money. By killing Lennie, George would no longer be moving from jobs and he could live a normal life. Lennie was saved from a slow and painful death and George became free to spend his money, so they both kind of won in the end.

4-26-12 College debt

I think that college is worth the debt because with a college degree one can get almost any job that will help you pay off your debt. One other alternatives for not going to college are working a job like construction or working at a fast food chain that do not require a college education and are easy to do. Another alternatives is to work as a mechanic or waiter because those jobs only require a little education.

Vacation time

Over vacation, I mostly hung around with my brother Lionel. We played frisbee out in the yard for around an hour every day, watched videos on youtube a lot, and did work for school for not as long as I should have. I did enjoy my vacation because it was very laid back and I wasn't bound to any commitments that forced me to rush out of the house early in the morning. I am not really glad to be back because it have to wake up early and spend much more time on homework. 

4-10-12 Maine switch

I think that this is a bad idea because if a person is able to complete all of the classes needed to graduate and they can show a proficiency in these subjects they could graduate early. The problem with this is that colleges would probably not except a seventh grader with a high school diploma until that person had aged more. So all of these people would be living at home and just hanging around.

3-6-12 Slim

Slim is my favorite character because he seems the most pleasant person of all of the characters so far. Slim seems to give off the air of being kind and a good boss, whereas all the other characters such as the boss and Curly's wife seem to have a dark side that Slim has not demonstrated yet. The character of Slim has demonstrated to George and Lennie that he will not be cruel towards them which I would find reassuring in an employer.  

3-4-12 Plugged in teens

I do agree that teens should not text and do homework because they will get distracted from their work and it will take longer for them to complete an assignment. From my own personal experience, I tend to get distracted when I am listening to music because I always changing around what song I am listening to. I think that teens who have a social network tend to get more distracted because they are constantly checking and updating their pages.

4-2-12 Dust Bowl

The dust bowl began in the year 1931 when a severe drought hit the midwest and the topsoil of the wheat fields began to get blown around. For the next 8 years, around 200,000 famers and their families migrated to California so as to escape the dust storms. To solve the problem of the Dust storms, the government distributed food to the displaced farmers and had an idea to buy up 2,250,000 acres and retire them from being cultivated so as to stop the spread of the dust. In 1939, it finally rained and the dust storms subsided.

3-27-12 Assisted Suicide

I think that assisted suicide should be illegal because there are to many unknowns because as the article states there is the danger that people could be pressured into doing assisted suicide by relatives who don't wan to pay for medical bills anymore. It is a danger for society because people could take out life insurance  on other people and then force them into doing assisted suicide to collect this policy.

3-23-12 What would you do for your best friend

What I would do for my best friend is probably go into a burning building to save them, protect them if were being attacked, and help them financially.  

3-21-12 Good Friend

What I think that makes a good friend is someone who  will come and help you out when you have gotten yourself into trouble. Another quality that friend should have is that they can talk with you for a long time.

3-19-12 State funding for radio

I do think that the state should fund public broadcasting because it allows people with no access to a television or the internet to receive news that they would have not gotten. Public radio has programs that are both entertaining and compelling to listen which would be nearly impossible to broadcast on a television. My belief is that public radio is not a burden that is like corporate welfare, but an active part of peoples lives that benefits through providing news and broadcasting entertaining programs.

3-15-12 Pink Slime

Yes, I do think that pink slim or "meat" should be banned from school lunches and stores because it is unhealthy to be eating this. The USDA should try to provide schools with healthy food and not try to cut corners by buying food that is made from ground up, unusable body parts.

3-13-12 Rush Limbaugh comment

I do agree that a person should not be silenced because they made a comment that enraged the population, but I also think that Rush Limbaugh should be punished because he has made these types of comments before. Mr. Limbaugh does have the Constitutional right to say what every he wants because of the First Amendment.

3-8-12 NFL bounties

I think that NFL teams should not be allowed to put bounties out on other players because it endangers people and it is unfair if a player is targeted because they are a key part of the team. I think that the saints should be punished because they target players that would have made it harder for them to win. These bounties are dangerous to other teams and promotes more injuries.

3-6-12 Limitation extension

Yes, I do think that the limit for reporting sexual assaults should be lengthened to at least twenty years because these events can be very traumatic for people. My belief is that it is idiotic if the limitation for sexual crimes is not lengthened because six years is a pretty short time to get over trauma.  

3-2-12 Teacher's mean joke

I think this teachers statement and actions should be taken seriously because anything threat could escalate into violence where people die. This teacher crossed the line with his comment about how he would take his students up to the roof and shoot them.

anti-bullying article

I think that school are not doing enough to combat bullying because there are still kids who are making the news because they went and shot a bunch of people in school or this kid committed suicide because he was being bullied on the internet. I am not sure if there is bullying here at South Portland because I have never witness it and don't really notice it happening.

2-17-12 Lepage's proposal

One of Lepage's proposals was to divert state funding to private religious schools. I think this is a horrible idea because it breaks the rule of the separation of church and state. Another reason that it is a horrible idea is that religious schools already have plenty of money. This proposal would not help public schools because it would give money to already rich schools and lower the budget for public schools.

2-15-12 Door in the wall

This short story is told by a man named Lionel Wallace. Mr. Wallace is telling his friend about how in his life he has always been seeing this green door in a white wall. This first time he sees the door he goes in and finds a garden with exotic animals and people to play with since he was a lonely child. Through out his life Wallace has seen the green door and failed to enter because of many different reasons. The green door appears more often as his life progress and then at the end of the book Wallace dies. All of his potential encounters are told to his unnamed friend who begins to question even if there was a green door or if it was a coping mechanism used by his friend to escape reality. the coping mechanism makes sense because Wallace had a hard childhood where his father and mother were not very supportive and he was bullied at school.

2-13-12 Relevance of the Odyssey

The examples the author gives to prove that the Odyssey is still relevant is that modern men still face the problems that hindered Odysseus in his journey home. I do think this is agree with this statement because everyday humans must learn to not completely depend on others, who we must share our feelings with and to focus on the big picture so as to not get caught up in the details.

2-9-12 Super bowl ads

I think that we are in half-time because we are starting to rebound after we took a dive in 2008, we have shifted our strategy to cutting the budget so we can reduce our defect, and more job opportunities are coming into the economy. 

2-7-12 tell tale heart

This short story is about a man servant who comes to think that his master's eye is creepy. For an entire week, the man servant watches his master sleep and waits for the eye to be open. He also uses a lantern to look if the eye is open by opening the slightly so that a beam of light shines on the eyelid. On the eighth night the servant does the same thing and watches for the eye to be open. The servant when he tries to used the lantern it makes a squeaking sound and his master wakes up and is incredible freaked out. The servant stands in the doorway waiting. As his masters terror of this unknown enemy reaches a climax the servant jumps out of the doorway and knocks his master to the ground and then crushes him with the the bed. The servant then dismembers the body and hides the parts under the floorboards. The police soon arrive because somebody heard a cry from this house. As the police are investigating the servant begins to here the sounds of a heart beat. This continues until at the end of the story when he is being driven crazy by the noise and screams that the body is under the floor boards and that he committed the crime.

2-3-12 Egyptian football riot

I think that it is more than just a sports riot because there is still tension in Egypt because the military has taken over and will not relinquish power. Another reason that I think that it is more than a sports riot is because the sports groups were one of the groups who started the riots that disposed Mubarak.

2-1-12 what makes a Hero

What makes a person a hero is if they perform good deeds without thinking of themselves or personal gain. Heroic traits include being compassionate, selfless, not self-serving, and generous. One of my heroes is my mom because she is compassionate and selfless.

1-30-12 violette's pension

I don't think that he should get to keep his money because he stole thousands from the turnpike industry and used for personal vacations for himself. Violette miss used public funds and so should be punished for that by having no pension. I personally think that all of his pension money should go to paying back what he stole from the turnpike authority.

1-26-12 More healthy food

I think it is the governments obligation to tell children what they should eat because school lunches are currently rather unhealthy and with this bill it would help improve this. I think that if children are not making healthy choices, then somebody should be obligated to make the children make healthier choices.

1-24-12 Job hopping

I do agree with the article that job hopping will hurt your career because it makes you seem like you are disloyal to your previous company and also employers think that job hoppers didn't gather the needed skills from there last job because they were there for a short time. Both of these will hurt you when applying for a job.

1-20-12 Hijack piracy bill

I think that it is important to keep parts of the internet uncensored because it would stifle the flow of information and force people to all flock to a limited number of sites. Although I think that some parts of the internet should be censored such as the pirated music and movies that draw money away from the companies that make them. Over all my view is that some sites such as youtube and wikipedia should not be censored, while other like pirated movie sites should.

1-18-11 Piracy bill

I think that the bill that it is a good idea in theory, but it would destroy most of the internet sites that people use daily. So because of this I think that the bill is not a good idea because it would limit the ability for people to post things on the internet because of fear of getting sued over copyright infringement. Also I think that it is a bad idea because it would destroy sites that are not supporting piracy, but just using what content they have to make money. Overall I think that this bill is good in theory, but will have a negative effect on internet sites like youtube and wikipedia.

1-13-12 greek figure

Nike named their shoe company after the goddess of victory because they wanted to show that their shoes would bring you victory. The goddess is also displayed with wings which would mean that you would fly over the field to victory.

1-11-12 Lambs to Slaughter

In this story, a policemans wife is at home and preparing for here husband to return from work. Once he returns home, he and his wife have a drink and then he tells here something. She is so shocked by this that she goes to the kitchen and gets a frozen leg of lamb. She goes back to the sitting room and kills him by hitting him with the leg of lamb. She then goes out and buy vegetable like she is shopping for dinner. Then she returns home and pretends to find her dead husband. Next she calls the police and they come and search the premises and find nothing. To destroy the murder weapon, she has the police eat it by saying that she wanted them to eat it in her husbands memory.

1-9-12 The Odyssey

Five facts about The Odyssey are that it is the second part of a two part saga. The first part is called the Illiad. Some other facts about The Odyssey that it was written around the 8th century BCE in Ionia, it was set in the Bronze age, the story was original a poem and it was written over the course of four books. 

1-5-12 Georgia Drug Tests

I think that it is not a good idea because it is a waste of state funding and will not save that much money because it will cost money to administer the drug test adding and add an extra cost to the state. The closing quote of this article best illustrates my view. The quote is, "From a financial standpoint, HB 668 appears to lead nowhere but directly to an increased state deficit." 

1-3-12 Vacation time

I went to the Netherlands for the holiday break. My family and I left on December 23 and got to Amsterdam the 24 Th.. We spent three days there and when to the Van Gogh museum and Anne Frank's House. We then meet up with my Mom's cousin who had married a Dutch man and were living in Rotterdam. We then spent five days at their house. Over the course of those five days we went on a boat tour of the harbor, ate croquettes which are a cylindrical breaded meat dish that it filled with a rue sauce and meat. Other things we did were play board games with my mom's cousins kids and bike around the city. To celebrate the new year we the whole of Rotterdam set off a ton of fireworks for around an hour. We then flew back on the first of January and reach Maine around 8 pm. I really did enjoy my vacation in the Netherlands, but I thought that it was to short.