Journal #50 Faith

Having faith is a very important part of someone's life in my own personal opinion. Having said that faith is a huge part of someone's life you would obviously think that faith is a huge part of my life, and it definitely is. With faith being in your life you can always can that to guide your life, which during good times of your life can be great but, having guidance during your life during times of turmoil can be even better. If you are having trouble in your life or just going through a rough patch, having faith can give you a path to which you try and hopefully get your life back on the right track. Whenever you say faith, that does not necessarily mean a certain religion or belief. I think that faith is all about your relationship that you have with God and Jesus Christ. In my opinion I do not think you need a certain religion to be considered a religious person. If you believe in both God and Jesus, and look for them to help guide your life I believe that you have the element of faith in your life. Now you may not be considered a religious person if you are not a part of a religion but, if you have God and Jesus in your life that you can still be a very faithful person. Also accepting Christ as your Lord and Savior can also make you a very faithful person since, you realize that Jesus died on the Cross so that mankind could have their sins forgave and go to Heaven if they stayed in touch with Jesus during their life and also live a faithful life. I know that it is everyone opinion on Jesus Christ and God but, the people who have faith in their life, not necessarily religion, can always feel like there is always someone there for them, and that they are never alone.

Journal #49 FAMILY

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I really like the structure of my family. My mother’s name is Rhonda and my father’s name is Rudy. My father’s real name is James but everyone calls him Rudy and I do not know why. I like the name Rudy more than James anyways so it does not bother me that much. My parents are divorced and my mother is remarried. She is married to a man named Jeffery Hooker. He has two children. Their names are Brittney and Quentin. I go to school with these two people so I knew them before my mother even married my step-father, Jeffery. I really like spending time with my mother and she is really cool. Rhonda is a laid back person so she does not get mad at me a lot. Before she married my father she was married to another guy. They had three children together. Their names are Cara, Brent, and Amber. They are all older than me but that does not bother me. Brent is getting married to a girl named Chelsie. I am really close with Brent so he asked me to be his best man. It is going to be really fun because I have never been in a wedding before. Amber has two children named Hunter and Jace. Kara is dating a man named Jason and he is a police man. He is really cool and one time he took me to the station with him. My grandparents are a lot of fun too. My mom’s parents are Marylyn and James. They live in Winchester and that is a one hour drive so it is not that bad of a drive to go and visit. My mom is also from Winchester. Rhonda has two siblings and their names are Rodney and Randy. I like spending time with them. My Uncle Rodney is a doctor and he inspires me because I want to be a doctor when I grow up. I love my family a lot.

Journal #48 My 2010 Spring Break

I am just going to start off talking about spring break by saying that spring break might be one of the best ideas about school that anyone has ever had. School was getting to be such a drag, and having a whole week off plus an extra day was something that I really needed so that I could finish off the school year strong and also keep my grades up. My spring break started off amazing, then through the middle it kind started to suck a little bit, but near the end of it my break got amazing again and ended well. Basically I started off my break by being with my girlfriend for the whole night, and then I was with her until Sunday when she left for Chicago. It was really great to spend so much time with her since she has to work a lot of the time through the week and I have a lot of baseball practices and games through the week. Since I got to spend so much time with her I was really happy especially since she was leaving for Chicago so I would not be able to see her for about four days, since when she got back from being in Chicago I was going to be in Tuscola for a baseball tournament. Before we went to Tuscola we played and beat Routt. We went to Tuscola on Friday for the tournament and when we got there we went to the field to hit and then got some food. After that we went to the mall and I got some Nike stuff as well as relaxed. We ended up losing the game but, we won the next game on Saturday so that kept our spirits up. Overall, I really enjoyed playing baseball over my Break as well as spending with my girlfriend. It was a much needed break and I am so glad that it was a good one.

Job Shadowing

We had a day for all the juniors to job shadow some place that they were interested in going into. I found out that all the juniors got to do this and that we got to be excused from school to do it so I was very happy. Not only did I get to miss a full day of school on the week before spring break, but I also got to learn very valuable lessons and experience about the career path that I was interested into going in. The first step to getting this whole thing going was to fill out an online sheet so that Mrs. Reynolds could know the area we were interested in, so we could learn about our career. I filled mine out that I was interested into going into the medical field. I was anxious to know were I was about to be shadowing at for a whole day. I found out that I would be going to Memorial Hospital to shadow and I was very excited. I worked at the other hospital in town over the summer, so for me to go to Memorial was very exciting because, I got to see how another hospital worked and what there working environment was like. I got all the information that I needed to know about my day working there from the head person in charge and I was ready to go. I got to the day and I rode with John and Hannah since we were all working at the same place so it made sense to all ride together. We got to the hospital and I found out that I was working on the second floor in post surgery. I got there and the person I was going to shadowing was nice. He was a nurse and told Jadlyn, who was working on the same floor and shadowing the same person I was, all that we needed to know about going into nursing and what we needed to do. He helped out patients and we got to go into rooms and see the problems that the people were having to deal with. It was also very neat to see all the tools that they used since he took us into the medical supply room and showed us all the things that they used. After that, it was time for lunch so we met up with all the people who were from Plains that were working at the hospital. We finished lunch and went back up to the floor where we were working and basically did the same thing that we did in the morning. At about two the person we were shadowing told us to explore the hospital, so we went to the morgue and got shown around which was really a neat experience. That was probably the best part of the day for me. Overall, it was a very good day and a great experience for me to learn about some of the odds and ins of the medical field.

Journal #47 American Lit. Sites

My experience on the American Literature sites has been kind of a mixed result so far. At first it was very confusing, having not known what exactly I had to do for this project, where to get to get that information for this project, and also how we were supposed to present that project in our website. I think at first my other group members of Jenna and Atlee had a way better handle on this project than I did, but now I think that I have caught up to them and I think that I have got a pretty decent handle of what is going on. This project is not exactly hard I would say, but it is a lot of work. Analyzing ten poems is going to be a lot of work for our group to get all completed by when this project is due on March 31. I do like how we have some time in class to work though, because of learning something new we can direct all of our focus onto this project and Emily Dickinson, that being the best possible way to produce the best results on this website. I also have greatly enjoyed working with my group. The other people in my group are really nice, and I think that overall we work together pretty nicely. We all seem to have the same ideas about things, and seem to all be on the same page about this project. I have to do a PowerPoint about Emily Dickinson’s writing style, and I think that I found all the information that I needed to, to cover all the areas of her writing that need to be covered. Also, as a group we are all starting to work on analyzing her poems in class so we can all do it together. Overall, I think that now that I understand all the concepts of this project it has become a lot easier to me.

Journal #46 My Favorite Car

When it comes to dealing with cars, I am not mechanically inclined what so ever, with all of those skills going to my older brother who is a straight beast when it comes to fixing anything that has to do with an automobile, but I do know what kind of cars that I like. For some reason I have always had quite an obsession with the Land Rover Range Rover. It looks so sweet from the outside, with the inside being just as tight. I almost got a 1999 Range for my first car, but there is not a place around here that fixes them and I have heard that they have a lot of small issues that come with them. I have been trying lately to get my dad to get a new Rover for his next car but, I think instead he is leaning toward a Cadillac like that one that he has right now. As well when it comes to SUVs I also really like Escalades. They are so sick, when you are in one you know that you are riding in style. My mom was thinking about getting one and if she does I will have to steal it from her sometimes to drive. When it comes to cars my favorite has got to be a Lambo. I know that I will never ever own one in my life, but hey everyone can dream in their life so you might as well dream big. A new Lambo with a classic yellow paint job would be so beast. A more realistic car that maybe I could own one day, would have to be a BMW 7 Series. They are so nice on the outside, as well as being luxury on the inside. If I ever own anyone one of these cars I would be so lucky and take such good care of it, it would be unbelievable. You can always dream big.

Journal #45 American Literature Sites Project

With this American Literature sites project, I guess it has been okay so far. It was pretty confusing at first about what we were supposed to do, how we were supposed to accomplish doing it, and when this whole big long project was due. Down the road I understand it so much more now and things are starting to finally get put into place. I am in a group with Jenna Sudeth and Atlee Sprague and so far that has been really enjoyable. They both work really hard on the project, stay on task very well, and also I think that we work pretty good as a team all together. It seems to me that we all get along well, with us having the same ideas for the project, as well as each of us contributing equally to getting this project moving along to get it done. I am still a little confused as to what this project is all about and why we are doing it, but it seems as though my group has a pretty good handle as to what is going on so as long as they get it, I am sure that our project will move right along and we will hopefully get done on time. I do not know how we will present all of this information. There are only so many essays that we can write for this thing, so I guess we will have to find some other means as to get this information out on our website so we are completely done with it and hopefully receive a pretty decent grade. I have to make a PowerPoint for our group and I like that. I am usually pretty decent at them so I think that it will turn out nicely with all the information that is needed on it. Overall, this has been an okay project as far as material goes but, I am really glad that we are working in groups.

Journal #44 Imagery and Personification in an Animal

When you talk about animals the first animal that comes to my head is a dog. I do not know why but, they are just the most popular animal to me. My family has one dog and I have no idea what kind it is but, he is white and has a lot of hair. His name is Pinkee, which I also have no idea why we call him this but, things are what they are and his name just so happens to be Pinkee even though he is a little bitty white dog with no traces of pink on him at all. We have some cats too, so it is very interesting to see how he interacts with him since, both my cats and the dog are territorial so they get into a lot of fights. I find it hilarious when they fight each other even though that is probably bad for morals, but for some reason I find a glistening white dog fighting a midnight dark black cat, to be hilarious. Pinkee almost got hit by a car the other day. I saw it happen first hand with him running out of the house, into the neighbor's hard, which just so happens to be separated by a busy road. Right as he crossed my dog was probably about four yards away from being road kill on the side of the road. I do not know what I would have done if he would have died. I would have probably cried myself to sleep over the very tramatic accident and never been able to look myself in the mirror. I love that dog like a brother/sister, because I am not really sure if he is a dude or a chick. I am guessing he probably a dude, but then again who knows. I really hope that he does not father any little puppies if he is a guy, because I really do not want the responsibility of another dog on my hands. Pinkee is enough.

Journal #43 My Favorite 2010 Olympic Moment

The best moment of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics would have to be my boy Apollo Anton Ohno breaking the record for most medals in a career in the winter Olympics. He tied the previous record of six in the 1,500 meter short track final when he took the silver medal after being in fourth through most of the race but, when two teammates tried to pass each other and took each other out, moving Apollo from fourth all the way to second and the silver medal. This was an unbelievable race for everyone who was involved, and I was extremely happy to see that he was able to get his sixth career medal and a silver medal at that. In the 1,000 meter short track final, Apollo was in fifth throughout most of the race but, near the end he really picked it up and passed up two Canadian skaters to take control of the third spot. With that medal he now holds the record for medals won by any athlete of the United States in Winter Olympics history. That is pretty amazing to think about when you think about all the great athletes that have participated in the games for the United States. I really like Apollo because, he is a very hard worker along with the fact that he is very fan friendly and an absolute tank on the ice. I also liked watching other speed skaters such as my other boy Shanni Davis who also happens to be from Illinois. He won gold in the 1,000 meter long track final but, lost in the 1,500 meter long track final. He got second but, it is still considered a disappointment. I really enjoy watching speed skating especially my favorite skaters that I already talked about. I also really liked watching the new event of ski cross. It was a very exciting event to watch with a lot of drama in it. Overall, I really enjoyed the Olympics.

Journal #42 Evaluation of A Narrow Fellow in the Grass

In our English class we are focusing on Emily Dickinson poems. As we read some of these poems that she composed, you start to see many similarities in her poem to the one that you last read. They pretty much all deal with nature in some way or another, and similarly they all have much imagery to them. In this blog I am suppose to evaluate the poem A Narrow Fellow in the Grass. Just like all the other poems by her, it talks about nature and has much imagery in it. In the first stanza, it talks about a narrow fellow in the grass who rides through it. He also says that you may or may not have seen him. These details of it being narrow and riding through the grass tell me that this fellow is probably just an everyday earth worm that Emily Dickinson saw while walking and decided to write a poem about. As I read the next two stanzas of this poem I am starting to realize that I was right about the conclusion I had about this poem when I just read the first stanza about it. They talk about more characteristics of the worm but, they are many characteristics that I would have never thought to write about a worm, and are very creative to say the least. As the person in this story notices more and more about the worm, it becomes evident just how amazed this person is at just a simple earth worm. My conclusion is pretty much proven when the very last line says that this animal has zero bone at all so it pretty much can only be a snake or worm with the description that was given to me. With this poem it is pretty amazing the detail that you can get out of just an everyday normal Earth worm. The person in the story was pretty amazed with it and near the end of the story I was too.

Journal #41 PPHS Allusions to Greek/Roman Mythology

In the ancient Greece traditions, they believed that there were many Gods who watched over them. For almost everything in the World there was a God who controlled it or was the God of it. The most powerful god was Zeus, who had many sons and daughters who just happened to grow up and be gods of something just like their dear old dad. At Pleasant Plains High School you can make illusions to the Gods, as to how they pertain to some teachers at the High School. When you are talking about Zeus, the first person I think of is Mr. Ward. Zeus is the god of the sky, and the ruler of Mt. Olympus where all the gods live. This makes me think of Mr. Ward because, like Zeus he, takes in everything from a far but, when something big happened or is happening he, like Zeus, steps in and makes the situation be back under control. Just like Zeus, Mr. Ward is mightier and more powerful than all the other gods, being the most important person or god. Ares is the god of war and while it would be very easy to say that he is like our teacher Mr. Ares because, of his last name, he is not like him but he is like one of the teachers. Ares is most like Mr. Tadla. Every day he brings war to the people in his gym over such sports as badminton and crazy ball. Children that are normally friends are lost in the war and no longer friends. Mr. Tadla is a lot like Ares. The final god that I see a lot of similarity to Pleasant Plains High School is Hermes or the messenger of the gods. The office helpers remind me of him because, the helpers take messages to the teachers from the office staff. Like Hermes they tell the teachers very important information about the students in their own classes.

Journal #40 How I Make Important Decisions

How to make an important decision is a very important tool to have in this world. In every aspect in life you have to make a very important decision at one time or another, so learning how to make important decisions early one in life can be very beneficial to someone as they progress throughout their lives. In my life right now, I have very many important decisions that I have to make in the near future. A couple of these are where I want to go to college, what I want my major to be in college, and also what I want to do whenever I finally get out of college and into the real world to have a job. I already have many ideas on these decisions but, a lot of thought will go into the final decision that I make because, these things are very important to me at this point in my life. The first thing I always do when I make an important decision is, think about all the possible choices that I have in this decision. There could be two choices to maybe ten choices that I could possibly choice concerning the decision. The next thing I do about in this decision is talk about my decision with someone that I trust. That person could be my mom, dad, family member, friend, teacher, or anyone else that knows maybe something about my choices or cares about me a lot. After I talk it over with someone, I think about it a lot with myself about all the positives and negatives with the situation. After weighing my options down with all the pros and cons, it is time to make my decision. Every decision I make I go after one hundred percent. I go after everything I put my mind to one hundred percent, making sure that I go through with the decision that I made. I think that these steps help me out a lot.

Journal #39 Multi-Tasking

I think that I am an okay multi-tasker. I do a lot of things while I am texting. Like when I write blogs at home I text sometimes, and I also text sometimes whenever I am talking to other people I text. I think I am very good at texting on my phone while I am doing other things, but other than that I do not think I am that good of a multi-tasker at all. It is very hard for me to focus on other things while I am putting all of my focus into some other event. When I am doing something very important such as writing a paper for school, doing my National Honor Society form, or doing something other that is very important to me or the people that are around me it is very hard to do something else while I am doing this important that thing because, all of my focus is on the thing I am doing. I can, however, listen to music while I am writing or doing a school assignment. Also, sometimes whenever I try to go to sleep it helps me very much to listen to music while, I am trying to get a lot of sleep. When I am doing homework or other assignments, I can listen to music but, one thing I cannot do however is watch t.v. All of the music and visual movements distract me very easily and make me take away focus from the thing that I should be focusing on most which, is the work that I should be doing. I think that it is very odd how I can listen to music and text while doing other things, but when it comes to watching t.v. while I am doing homework or any assignment, I just cannot seem multi-task very easily because, my focus gets to lost on the t.v. instead of focusing on the thing that is more important to me.

Journal #38 The Origins of Valentine's Day

The origins of Valentine's Day and no one really knows how it really got it started. No one even knows what a "Valentine" is since the translation has been lost over many centuries. Since all there is speculation about what this word means and who started this tradition, I will just have to make due with the information I have to try and give readers the best possible origins of this marvelous holiday we know as Valentine's Day. Somewhere along the line in World War II there was a young private, who got sent over to Europe to fight the battle. He was a very brave soldier, would do anything for his country, and above everything else just wanted a chance to help out his country any way he could. Along with being scared out of his mind to be going away from home for the first time, and along with the fact that he was going into a war, the young private had a hot young relationship back in his hometown. The couple had been dating for as long as anyone could remember and they hoped to get married. Whenever his girlfriend heard the news of him being shipped off to another country, she refused to talk to him until the day he got back. The private was very shaken up that his girlfriend would not even talk to him, even though they would not see each other for a very long time and he had the possibility of not even returning home for them to every see each other again. So the private went into the War without even saying goodbye to his sweetheart and within a few short days of duty, his plane got shot down and he died tragically. The day before he died he mailed a letter to his girlfriend with only one line written on the paper. He wrote this following line"Will you be my Valentine?" See his last name happened to be Valentine and he asked her to marry him through that line. See was already devastated by her loss when she got the letter, and tearfully she accepted it. Ever since the day she received his letter, February 14, lovers sent their loves valentines to express their love to each other on that same day.

Journal #37 My Favorite Meal

I think that my favorite meal would have to be shrimp and steak. I really do not get to eat it that much though because, it is pricey for steak or shrimp and especially if you eat them both together but, when I do get to have it is so good. I personally prefer a juicy New York strip steak cooked to medium so it is still juicy but, also cooked to where it is hot, probably about a twelve once steak. For the shrimp I would have to go with jumbo wild Gulf shrimp and have about six of them. I do not really like fried shrimp that much because; they lose a lot of their taste so my favorite meal’s shrimp are either or grilled. Of course with shrimp you have to have cocktail sauce that has some spice to it but, it so much that it burns when you eat it. It was also be better if the shrimp were fresh so they taste better, and that also goes with the steak being fresh. So along with the steak and shrimp you have to have some sides to go along with that. My two favorite sides would have to be mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. The mashed potatoes should have some cheddar cheese and bacon on them and be freshly made along with the macaroni and cheese. I also like both of these sides to be home made because, that makes them both so much better than something that you just make out of a box or something. With all this food you have to have something to drink and my drink of choice would have to be an ice cold coke. It’s the best soft drink by far. After all of my course is done, I got to have dessert so it has to be some New York Cheesecake. I do not know why but cheesecake with graham cracker crust, vanilla beans, and a little chocolate is so amazing.

Journal #36 Preparing for the ACT

The ACT (American College Test) is probably one of the biggest tests someone will take in their high school career. There is not one college that I know of that does not at least glance at your ACT test score. People that go into a profession such as a doctor or lawyer also have to pass tests to become certified but, to get to those tests you have to graduate from college first, which you would have had to of taken the ACT to get into college. Since the ACT is such a big test with a lot of impact put on it, a great percentage of the population who takes it, prepares it for it in some way. There are really two ways to prepare yourself for the ACT and they are either prepare by yourself or take a class. Having already taken the ACT in September, I did a little bit of both. I took a class in the summer that was over the English and Reading parts of the ACT, and I think that it helped me greatly. It told what to look for in these subjects and also covered the most common things that both of these tests will have on them. Basically for the reading the instructor just told us the way to pace our time and how to attack the test. In the English the instructor just went over common questions and answers that should be found on the test. The other way to prepare for the ACT is to prepare by yourself. The way I would do this is to buy a ACT Prep guide over the Test. I looked over the book and I think that looking over it weeks before I took the test helped me greatly. The night before the Test I made sure that I ate good that day and also got a really good night's sleep. I woke up extra early to give myself extra time to get there and prepare for any unseen roadblocks that would get in my way. I think that the best way to prepare for the ACT is to take a class because, I think that is the one thing that helped in the most in taking the test with the helpful tips and tricks that the instructor of the class taught me.