Pride

From my position as a middle schooler I don’t think too much about my country. I personally am more focused on smaller things like sports and doing well in school. When thinking about it I am proud of my country. The U.S is a very powerful country. It has a democracy, which gives citizens many rights. The U.S is also a very powerful country, and it is always one of the first to help others when they are in need. I do take pride in my country.

Creatoin vs. Evolution

Authors note: For this assignment we were required to write a persuasive argument piece of our choice. My choice was evolution vs. creation.

How do you think everything was created? Some think that it was something called the big bang, others believe that everything was created by god. I personally believe that god is in fact the creator.
The big bang theory states that the universe started at a point and has been expanding ever since. When most people think of the big bang theory they think of an explosion of some sort, which is false. People say that is an expansion that is still happening now. I think that this is not true. Without god how could there have even been a start?
How could the big bang have possibly created life? Earth is full of life. Plants, people, and animals cover the earth. I don’t see how an expansion could possibly be capable of creating life; I also think that it is impossible for nonliving materials to create living things. I think that this shows that god is the creator.
One example from the bible that I think helps prove that god does exist is the great flood. God wasn’t happy with his creation of man so he sent a great flood to cleanse the earth. There is one man that god wasn’t disappointed by and his name was Noah. God instructed Noah to build an ark to save him and all of the animals. God told Noah that he would send two of each animal to the ark. Two of every animal arrived and boarded the ark. God created the flood. There is evidence of the flood all over. The flood would’ve caused any plants or animals that aren’t capable of living in the water to die. Many of the dead animals would become fossils. Thousands of fossils have been recovered. If you are flying in a plane and you look out the window the land would most likely like almost like it’s wrinkled. The flood lasted about a year and drained off quickly which is probably what caused the land to look like it does now. There is evidence that god does exist and that the stories in the bible are true.
God is the creator. He is how it all began. I strongly believe that he is real. To me the big bang makes no sense. It is all made up. God is what started everything.

Scorpia Rising Plot

Authors Note: We were required to write an assignment demonstrating our knowledge of plot structure. I wrote about the plot structure in the book “Scorpia Rising” by Anthony Horowitz.

A well constructed plot involves five steps, exposition, rising actions, climax, falling actions, and resolution.

The first part of a plot is the Exposition, also known as the introduction. The introduction establishes who the main characters are, the setting, the point of view, and the main conflicts. The exposition in “Scorpia Rising” establishes the main conflict that the rest of the story is based on. In the beginning of the story there is a man working for a national criminal organization called Scorpia. He goes to a museum to meet a client. On the way out of the meeting the man is ambushed by British intelligence agency MI6. The man manages to escape. He meets with other members of Scorpia and they developed a plan. Their plan involved getting MI6 to send the main character, Alex rider on a mission. While he was on that mission they were going to capture him and torture him then kill him. MI6 fell into the trap and sent Alex on the mission. This is the introduction. It shows who the main character is (Alex), the point of view is also displayed, both narrative and from Alex’s point of view, and the setting is established. This part of the story is in fact the introduction.

After the introduction comes Rising Actions. Rising Actions are events that take place leading up to the climax. There were many Rising Actions in this story. In my opinion one rising action lead up to the climax more than the others. Alex followed the man that he was spying on to an unknown destination. Alex was almost killed by a bomb when he reached the destination. When he got back to his apartment
Jack(Alex’s house keeper/guardian) was gone. There was a note telling him to go to a cemetery about an hour away from his apartment if he wants to see Jack again. The note was signed “Scorpia”, they had kidnapped jack. Alex did as he was told and was at the destination at the set time. This is an example of a rising action from the story

The Rising Actions are followed by the Climax. The Climax of a story is known as the “point of no return”, which means that there is no going back. The Climax in this story is when Alex goes to the destination Scorpia requested. Now that he is in their hands there is no going back. He can’t just decide to leave whenever he wants, and if he didn’t come they would ill Jack which would have made things never the same for Alex again. There is no going back from where he is now which means that that is the “point of no return”. This part of the story is the climax.

The next part of plot structure is falling actions. Falling actions are events that lead from the climax to the resolution. The main falling action in this story was when Alex managed to escape from where he was being held by Scorpia. After escaping Alex stopped Scorpia from assassinating the secretary of state. This is a falling action because they lead from the climax to the resolution.

The resolution comes last on a plotline. The resolution is when the main conflict is finally solved. The resolution in this story is that Scorpia’s plans had failed and Alex is able to go back home alive. The main conflict is solved at this point which means that this is the resolution.

The elements of plot structure were easily identifiable in this book.

I Am Number Four essay

" I turn my head. Through the dizziness and blurry vision I see a scout fifteen feet away from me. Long trench coat, hat pulled to its eyes. It drops the coat and takes off the hat to reveal a pail and hairless head. It reaches to the back of its belt and removes a bowie knife, the blade which is no less than twelve inches long. I close m eyes. I don’t care anymore. The scout's raspy breathing comes my way, ten feet, then five. And then the footsteps end. The scout grunts in pain, and begins gurgling. I open my eyes., the scout so close that I can smell it. The bowie knife drops from its hand, and there in its chest, where I assume its heart must be, is the end of a butchers knife. The knife is pulled free. The scout drops to its knees, falls to the side, and then explodes into a pile of ashes." That was one of the many action filled scenes in the book " I Am Number Four" by Pittacus Lore. I enjoyed reading this book for many reasons.

One of the many things I liked about this book was the Topic. At first I thought that I wouldn’t like it because it involved aliens and other make believe things. Once I was about half way through the book I started to enjoy it. It was both uncommon and interesting. I enjoyed the topic of this book very much.

Along with topic was great word choice. Lore used a wide variety of word choice to help you get a better picture of what was going on. There was a detailed description of every thing. I had a good picture of every scene in the book. Lore used good vocabulary to make the book more interesting.

Good vocabulary was one of the many reasons why I liked this book. The topic was both unique and interesting. I enjoyed reading this book for many reasons.

Croatian Eagles

Croatian Eagles
The Croatian Eagles are a soccer team that I play against. When I played them in the fall we won. That was probably my favorite game of the season. The final score was 1-0. There were three red cards, six yellow cards, and three sendoff's. When a referee gives a player a red card it means that they had done something bad. They would not be able to play for the rest of the game. A yellow card is like a warning. If a player gets two yellow cards it’s a red card. Sendoff's are when a referee has to ask someone to leave the field or stadium. This is usually given to fans or coaches. In most games there aren't any cards or sendoff's. When we played the Croatian's there were many. We had one yellow card, everything else was on them. That was my favorite game of the season.

Playoffs

NBA Playoffs
The NBA playoffs have been going on for a while now. The team that I want to win is down 3-1. In the playoffs they play best out of seven which means that two teams play each other until one of the two teams gets four wins. Right now it’s the semifinals. I want the bulls to make it to the finals but I don’t think that they will. I think that the heat will end up winning it all but I want the bulls to.

Stranded

Step by step Tom was making his long journey out of the scorching hot desert. Each step seemed to get harder, the never ending ocean of sand dragging him down. He had nothing to drink aside from half a bottle of water that was in his backpack. He was so tempted to just drink it all now but he knew that he needed to make it last as long as possible. In the distance tom saw water. But he was unable to reach it no matter how far he traveled, it was all an illusion.

Tom stumbled then collapsed. He was exhausted and dehydrated and there was nothing he could do about it. He forced himself to sit up and look around. High in the sky was a helicopter. In an instant tom was on his feet jumping, waving, yelling and doing everything he could to be seen. To be rescued. The helicopter kept on going, Tom watched it until it disappeared from sight. Tom dropped to his knees, and then fell face first in the sand. He fell asleep within the next five minutes.

He woke up hours later freezing. It was pitch black. It must have been sometime in the middle of the night. He even started to feel pain in his hands and feet. Everything was starting to get numb. It was easily below freezing and all tom was wearing was shorts and a short sleeve t-shirt. He was beginning to experience frost bite. Once again tom fell asleep, this time only half conscious.

When Tom woke up again he was sweating. He struggled to his feet. Then started walking. He walked for hours. Hoping to find something. He stopped looked to the left than the right, scanning his surroundings. To his left, nothing. Tom thought that he saw some vegetation a few miles in front of him which would mean food and water. Then tom looked to the right. About a mile away he could see the wreckage of some type of vehicle. That raised his spirits and gave him a reason to keep going.

Once tom got closer he realized that it was a downed helicopter. The cockpit was lying at least twenty yards away from the tail. It had obviously snapped off during the crash landing. All tom could see of the cockpit was a tangle of wires. It was half buried in the sand. Tom went and looked at the cockpit first. He was unable to see inside. He tried the door but it was jammed. He had an idea. Tom had to find something that he could break the window with. He walked around the cockpit, looking for something for him to use to break the window with. He found a small piece of metal that had been torn off the helicopter during the crash. He went back around to the window. With all he had he slammed the piece of metal into the window.

Nothing but a crack. He tried again, but had the same result. Three times after that the window shattered. He dropped the piece of metal, and then moved some wires out of his way so he could see inside. Once he got a good glance he wished he hadn't discovered the helicopter. Inside sitting in the chair was the dead body of what had once been the pilot. It was half covered in sand and had a large number of insects crawling on it. The insects had obviously been feasting on the body for at least a day. Tom was disgusted but he forced himself to look around inside the cockpit for anything that may help him. He found a first aid kit, an empty water bottle, and a pocket knife. He kept all of it assuming that it could help him in the future.

Tom abandoned the helicopter and kept walking. He was no longer headed in any specific direction. The sun beating down on him, it was easily over ninety degrees. All of the sudden he felt a searing pain on his right ankle. He collapsed. Coiled up in front of him was a rattle snake. He had been bitten. Tom was starting to get dizzy. He was losing his vision. The world was spinning. All of the sudden everything went black. It was over.