Summer is finally here!

We are done with ninth grade! Can you believe it? We are done with Jr. High, done with summer and before we know it in high school. Then after that we will be graduated and gone away before we know it too. College in less then four years, it is all just coming and going so so fast. Not a day goes by in my life when I don’t think about the future and where I will be in one year from now, then two years from now and just so on until I get bored thinking. I remember when I was really little, you know like those vacations to Disneyland, first day of school, fun times you had in kindergarten and things like that. It all just seems like yesterday. Well I am really really looking for summer. I think it is going to be a fun one. I just signed up to go to EFY at Weber State. Then only thing is that I don’t get to stay overnight. I will have to drive back and forth morning and night because all the rooms were filled up. But still it will be really fun. Last year I heard how much fun everybody had at EFY when I was an officer last year and got a chance to hang out with the older kids. So in my ward when the young men’s leader said. “Hey everybody we are going to EFY” I was excited cause I had heard so many good things. But I turned out that we were going to this four-hour talk with some churchy guy. It really wasn’t fun at all. So this summer I just decided to sign up with some friends and go with them for the weeklong thing. It should be really fun. Then after that along time into summer I think I will be going to scout camp. This will be well I guess my fifth summer camp. This one is going to be different though. My scout troop is going to go down to Zion National Park and camp for two days. We are going to hike around the park and do the Narrows, which is really fun. Then we will drive down to St. George to play some golf. Then we will stay the night in a hotel and the next mornings go to the St. George temple. They are trying to change it though, I hope they wont cause it is going to be really fun. Then today my mom and I were talking about jobs over the summer. I think im going to try and find one that I can do before I turn sixteen in September. I am already a soccer referee and that makes really really good money. I mow a lot of lawns and ref a lot of soccer games, but the only problem is that reffing only for four or five weeks in the spring and fall. Then I can mow all summer long but still I can only do so much. I make a lot of money in a short period to last a whole year. We decided that my family is going to go to Europe next summer (Not this summer but summer 2009) So I will keep reffing and hopefully find more of a full time job during the day so I have enough money to go. Its going to be fun im so excited. SUMMER HERE WE COME!

This Terms Reading Assignments

Two books teaching the same morals are “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Walk two Moons.” They both teach that you should not judge a person tell you fully know them. A book similar to To Kill A Mockingbird is Walk Two Moons. This is because the theme in Walk Two Moons is “don’t judge a person until you’ve walked two moons in their moccasins.” In both books, this is the reoccurring theme. In Walk Two Moons a girl named Sal judges her neighbor before she even gets to know her. This passage talks about this blind woman named Mrs. Partridge and her nurse Mrs. Margaret Cadaver. (Page 22)

"And speaking of odd, there is something very odd about that Mrs. Cadaver."
"Margaret?" I said.
"She scares me half to death," Phoebe said.
"Why?"
"That’s what I am telling you," she said.
"First there is that name: Cadaver: you know what cadaver means?"
Actually, I did not.
"It means dead body."
"Are you sure?" I said.
"Of course im sure, Sal. You can check the dictionary if you want. Do you know what she does for a living - what her job is?"
"Yes," I was pleased to say. I was pleased to know something. "She is a nurse."
"Exactly," Phoebe said. "Would you want a nurse whose name meant dead body?"

In this story there turns out to be a long explanation about Mrs. Cadaver and why Sal and her father moved to be closer to her. I have had many friends who I though were really weird until I really got to know them. And other friends who I thought were cool or something and wanted them to be my friend. But when I really got to know them I found out they were not the great person I judged them to be but something else. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley are both judged before anyone actually gets to know them too. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point-of-view -until you climb into his skin and walk around in it,” these are the words spoken by Atticus Finch when giving advice to his little girl, Jean Louise, “Scout.” This theme, “do not judge a person before you get to know them,” is something most children, during this day and age, are taught when they are very young, and is the reoccurring theme in To Kill A Mocking Bird. The two clear examples of this theme are with Arthur “Boo” Radley and Tom Robinson. When the characters are first met, they are introduced as bad and maybe even evil people. However, when the characters start to develop, it can be noticed that they are actually good people. In To Kill A Mocking Bird, from the time Arthur “Boo” Radley was a small boy until the time he was a grown adult he was a very misunderstood character. When the children of Maycomb, like Jem and Scout, were young, people would tell horror stories about Boo. One of them was when Boo allegedly stabbed his father with scissors, but throughout the book, it was foreshadowed that Boo really was not a bad person. The first example of the foreshadowing was when Jem got his pants stuck on the fence, and Boo sewed them up and folded them for when Jem came back to claim them. Then, when Miss Maudie’s house caught on fire, Scout was standing outside watching, and Boo put a blanket around her shoulders, so she would not get cold. Finally, Boo kept giving Jem and Scout “gifts.” “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives.” The greatest thing Boo Radley did, that definitely made him a good person was he saved Jem’s and Scout’s lives from a crazy Bob Ewell. To both Finch children, Boo was a very scary person at first, but in the end, he was a kind and caring person. “I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it-seems that only children weep. Good night,” declared Atticus about Tom Robinson’s verdict. Tom Robinson was a character that was found guilty of raping white women. In the South there was a division, based on name and race. Tom Robinson was at the very bottom of this division, because he was black. Even with the evidence that pointed to his innocence, he was found guilty. In a way Tom Robinson was found guilty even before he walked into the courtroom because of his race. Many people, including Atticus, knew that verdict would be “guilty” even before the trial started, unless a miracle happened. Tom Robinson was “judged” before anyone knew anything about him. If the jurors would of kept in mind, “do not judge people before you get to know them,” an innocent man probably would not of lost his life. The two books “To kill a Mockingbird” and Walk Two Moons” were written at two completely different times in history, referring to how life was for everyone, but yet the themes are the same. This shows throughout history people have looked at and written about not judging people, making it a very important moral and topic through the years. “Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?” These are the words spoken by Jean Loise Finch about turning in Boo Radley for Bob Ewell’s killing. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing busting their heads out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” “It’s a sin to kill a mocking bird,” and “do not judge people before you get you know them” are two themes that are intertwined and actually can make one theme. In both Tom Robinson’s and Boo Radley’s cases it was like shooting a mockingbird, because they never did anything wrong, but they were judged before they walked two moons in their moccasins. So, by judging them, it was like killing them, and in Tom Robinson’s case it did result in his death. All of these stories and examples somehow relate to us from experiences we have had, but they all say the same thing over and over again” Do not judge people before you get to know them.” These words can be worded in many different ways, and put in many different contexts, but it still means the same thing, and the books To Kill A Mockingbird and Walk Two Moons convey this moral very well.

LOL!

Discussion board today brought up a lot of thoughts about the life of teenagers. Friday I was talking with a friend about teenagers. When I was little I would always say and think “Stupid Teenagers” when I saw them riding their skateboards or walking around causing trouble. It seems weird when I think that we now are the teenagers causing trouble around. I write a lot about growing up and stuff and this is just another thing I have to say. Anyway back to the Discussion Board question I had to think that article. Think for a minute about what you do in your day. I am not a big texter but I know that others out there are. How many text messages do you use a day? How much time do you spend on the computer a day? How much of that time on the computers is spent emailing or IMing? All of these studies out there show that even though Americans are getting really social by cell phones, emails, texting, IMing and everything else, but do you really think that we are more social? Or are we becoming more unsocial by always having to be entertained by our phones, or computers? IM's, text messages, e-mails, and every other way of electronic communication are taking over teenager's writing and in my opinion their lives. Everybody now uses "text talk". (lol, thnx, nmu, idk,) I have never used text talk, and actually I find it really really annoying. All my friends laugh at me when I text, IM and Email, because I always use correct spelling, and grammar. Think about all the people you know. Who spells out every word and has every punctuation mark in the write place? Not many that is why I get made fun of. (I guess I am just making Mr. Thompson proud.) I think everybody has his or her own opinion about this subject but I think that America is become very unsocial. I don’t know everybody has their own opinon about everything and that was mine! GO JAZZ!

I knew a blond that was so stupid . . .

“How can you tell when a blonde has been using your computer? Answer: By the white out on the screen.” Has anybody ever thought about where blonde jokes came from? I just did a half-hours research and this is what I came up with. There are no proven theories about where blonde jokes came from but here is the most common theory. The story originates in areas where blondes are not common and dark skin and hair dominates. But when blonde people would travel and would be seen by people who have never seen a blond person, they would look at them and talk to them and wonder why they were different. They would group around them feeling and touching there hair and asking stupid questions about where they came from and why their hair was like that. But stupid questions lead to stupid answers. Really in the end the blondes had nothing to do with themselves being stupid. It was everybody else’s fault. There are no reasons that girls are the characters in blonde jokes, and there is absolutely no scientific evidence that suggests that blondes are not as smart as everybody else. Sorry in advance to all the blondes out there, but since blonde jokes are so much fun here are some.

I knew a blonde that was so stupid that.......

she called me to get my phone number


she spent 20 minutes looking at the orange juice box because it said 'concentrate.'


she put lipstick on her forehead because she wanted to 'make up' her mind.


she tried to put M&M's in alphabetical order.


she sent me a fax with a stamp on it.


she tried to drown a fish.


she thought a quarterback was a refund.

she got locked in a grocery store and starved to death.


she tripped over a cordless phone.


she took a ruler to the bed to see how long she slept.

she asked for a price check at the Dollar Store.


she studied for a blood test.


she thought Meow Mix was a CD for cats.


when she heard that 90% of all crimes occur around the home, she moved.


when she missed the 44 bus, she took the 22 bus twice instead.


when she was leaving on vacation she saw a sign that said 'Airport Left' she turned around and went home.

The Amazon

In Geography we have been talking a little about rainforests. After we watched the National Geographic on rainforests I figured out how amazing they really are. There are very little places in the world like it. The Amazon is unique because it replenishes almost all of the earth oxygen. It is the home to many unique plants and animals that are only found in the rain forest. The Amazon is being cleared at an alarming rate: Well over one square mile in an hour. We have to save the rain forest before it is to late. Did you know that all the sickness that kill the most people in the earth most likely had cures. Such as AIDS various types of Cancers and many others. Do you know why people are still dying of theses diseases if there is a cure? Because of the destruction of the Amazon. There are so many different species of plants and animals in the rain forest most likely among them there is some sort of a cure to illnesses. But since the forest is being cleared at such a fast rate, theses species are not being discovered therefore never being tested as an effective drug. Many drugs used today are only found from sources in the Amazon. The rainforests of the world are disappearing at a rate of 80 acres per minute, day and night major climatic and other environmental changes will occur if this continues. The destruction of the rainforests cause carbon dioxide to be released, which in turn allows the greenhouse effect to occur. The greenhouse effect raises the temperatures all around the world, and can cause ice caps to melt. When ice caps melt, the sea level rises, causing major flooding around the world. There are three major causes of destruction to the rainforest: farming, ranching, and logging. Worldwide boycotts are the most effective ways of stopping rainforest destruction. Boycotting fast food restaurants that serve hamburgers that came from cattle raised on rainforest land. Also another way that could help is to not buy furniture products made from rosewood, mahogany, ebony, and teakwood, because they come from the rainforests. It is believed by many ecologists that some tropical rainforests can be harvested without causing damage to the great variety of plants and animals that live there. I hope that people will understand the importance of the Amazon Rainforest and respect it like it should be. At the very fast destruction rate anything could happen because somehow everything can be traced back to the Amazon. I am worried that people will finally realize that when it is too late and everything is already gone.

Summer

Spring is here and summer is getting closer by the day. Im so excited, its going to be a fun one. We will be done with ninth grade, done with Jr. High, done with summer and before we know it in high school. Then after that we will be graduated and gone away before we know it too. College in less then four years, it is all just coming and going so so fast. Not a day goes by in my life when I don’t think about the future and where I will be in one year from now, then two years from now and just so on until I get bored thinking. I remember when I was really little, you know like those vacations to Disneyland, first day of school, fun times you had in kindergarten and things like that. It all just seems like yesterday. Well I am really really looking for summer. I think it is going to be a fun one. I just signed up to go to EFY at Weber State. Then only thing is that I don’t get to stay overnight. I will have to drive back and forth morning and night because all the rooms were filled up. But still it will be really fun. Last year I heard how much fun everybody had at EFY when I was an officer last year and got a chance to hang out with the older kids. So in my ward when the young men’s leader said. “Hey everybody we are going to EFY” I was excited cause I had heard so many good things. But I turned out that we were going to this four-hour talk with some churchy guy. It really wasn’t fun at all. So this summer I just decided to sign up with some friends and go with them for the weeklong thing. It should be really fun. Then after that along time into summer I think I will be going to scout camp. This will be well I guess my fifth summer camp. This one is going to be different though. My scout troop is going to go down to Zion National Park and camp for two days. We are going to hike around the park and do the Narrows, which is really fun. Then we will drive down to St. George to play some golf. Then we will stay the night in a hotel and the next mornings go to the St. George temple. It is going to be really fun. Then today my mom and I were talking about jobs over the summer. I think im going to try and find one that I can do before I turn sixteen in September. I am already a soccer referee and that makes really really good money. But the only problem is it is only for four or five weeks in the spring and fall. So I make a lot of money in a short period to last a whole year. We decided that my family is going to go to Europe next summer (Not this summer but summer 2009) So I will keep reffing and hopefully find more of a full time job during the day so I have enough money to go. Its going to be fun im so excited. Five more Mondays after today and school gets out Five weeks from Friday! I cant wait!

Why Read?

Children are always being told that books and reading are good for them. Have we ever really thought about why that's true? Exactly what do older children get out of reading novels? What are the benefits of reading to younger children? Does reading really matter? Reading is an important skill that needs to be developed in children. Not only is it necessary in schools, but in adult life as well. The ability to learn about new subjects and find information on anything depends on the ability to read. Internet has made reading more and more a part of people's daily lives. Internet itself is a huge new source of information and fun for all ages. Not being able to read makes a computer completely useless. At any given day 24 million kids are logged on the Internet at a time. I like to be on the Internet and I always find things to read about and research. We all have interests and spend lots of time reading about them. The more children read, the better they will become at reading. It's as simple as that. If they enjoy reading about something they are interested in they are more likely to finish it and develop their reading skills. This year in Honors English I have had a very hard time getting all my reading done for the term. I feel it is because I have been assigned to read certain books that are not my type. I really do love to read but things that are entertaining and interesting to me. My mom used to read my favorite books to me. Even to this day I love it when teachers read books to us for class. I have always loved that. It gives me a little more time to think and imagine what is happening. Studies have proven that the more young children are read to, the greater their interest in reading, and the better readers they will be. Reading out loud, helps people to better use proper grammar and phrasing, helps with their language skills and their ability to express themselves verbally. Reading can provide kids and adults with endless hours of fun and entertainment, and the best part is it’s free! It is so easy to go to a public library and borrow free books. Reading also helps the brain in all ages. There is so much learned by reading. Reading books, magazines or surfing websites, exposes kids to new vocabulary. Even when they don't understand every new word, they absorb something from the context that may deepen their understanding of it the next time the word is heard. When parents read aloud to children, the children also hear correct pronunciation as they see the words on the page, even if they can't yet read the words on their own. Did you know that in one week the average American parent and their children spend only 3 ½ minutes in meaningful conversation? A parent reading a story aloud, whether from a book can be a great opportunity for adults and children to share some quiet, relaxed quality time together away from everyday stress. Reading is a crucial skill for children and adults to master. It is an important source of knowledge and pleasure and relaxation that can last a lifetime.