Which did you like better and why (book or movie)?
I preferred the book Night as it described more of the things inside the concentration camps. In a paragraph or two compare (similarities) and contrast (differences) Night and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Night is a book that concerns itself with life inside concentration camps during World War 2. It is a short form of another, longer book on the subject. A Jewish teenager called Elie Wiesel was captured by the Nazis and put in a ghetto for later deportation to a concentration camp. He was separated from everyone in his family apart from his dad. In the camp he sees people get hanged. The conditions were poor and he only got one ration of bread and a small bowl of soup a day. They were put on a train to Buchenwald, another concentration camp. By the end of the journey only twelve out of one hundred people survived including him and his father. His father dies from dysentery not long after. At this age (14) he was very religious, but because he didn't think God would allow such horrible things to happen he questioned his religion and therefore in the end became an atheist. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a film which concentrates more on what happens outside the concentration camps than the book Night. Bruno is eight years old. He is a German boy whose father is in the German army. His family moved to the countryside close to a concentration camp because his father got a promotion. One day Bruno goes to the wire of the concentration camp and makes friends with Shmuel a boy of about the same age on the other side of the fence. They meet every day, usually every morning. Bruno manages to get under the fence into the camp to help Shmuel find Shmuel's dad, who has gone missing. In the end, they both unfortunately get killed in the gas chamber. The story of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is told by a German person, while Night is told by a Jewish person. But what they have in common is they are both set in Nazi Germany and both depict the horrors of the Holocaust.
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My first thought on Bruiser was that it was a fairly good book but it had the same starting as any other one of the millions of fiction books. After I read a bit more into the story it became clear that it wasn't just a regular book, it had different kinds of emotions such as sorrow or happiness or even anger.
If I were president my top 3 priorities would be...
1. Not putting pipelines underground. 2. Making trains available around the country for passengers. 3. Support the Green Party. The reason for not putting pipelines underground is because if those pipelines break then the soil and water will be polluted. Last week in northern Iowa 138,600 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from a pipeline rupture; it's not a major disaster but it shows how risky pipelines are. There have been over 1,000 pipeline leaks between 2010 and 2015 spilling more than 7 million gallons of oil. I think that making trains available for passengers will make people less likely to use cars which means less greenhouse gas emission. It would also cut down on using the earth's resources by only using a big engine to carry 100 people instead of having an individual engine for every 4 people. I would support the Green Party because I believe in environmentalism, nonviolence, gender equality, and I don't believe in war or racism. Global warming threatens both people and animals. The Green Party supports the planet's health and human rights. This article lists basic life skills that 18 year olds should have in order to be able to function on their own without the help of their parents. Talking to strangers, finding their way around, making deadlines, helping with the household chores, handling relationships with with others, dealing with ups and downs, managing money and taking risks are the skills that are mentioned. It also points out the ways that parents sometimes help their kids too much with things. Relying on too much help can prevent kids from being independent.
#1 Talking to strangers I'm usually pretty good at it mainly because Iv'e been to a lot of places and met a lot of people. #2 Finding my way around I'm ok at this but nowadays I get rides from my parents although it's not like I don't know where I'm going at all. #3 Managing assignments I'm great at getting my assignments done, but I'm not good at getting them turned in. #4 Household chores I'm not very good at helping around the house unless I'm really motivated. #5 Interpersonal problems I'm usually good at this unless I'm REALLY angry and then I lose control of my actions. #6 Dealing with ups and downs I'm good at this because I've had a lot of ups and downs in my life. I find staying positive is helpful. #7 Managing money I'm great at managing money. Any money I get I automatically spend. No, just kidding. Actually I save about 90% of my money and let myself spend the other 10%. 8# Trying new things I'm great at trying new things. Like trying out for basketball even though I've never played it before. I wasn't expecting to do much over the Winter holiday apart from relaxing and taking a break from school, so I was pleasantly surprised when my parents proposed a day trip to a geode mine near Keokuk, Iowa. Did you know that the Geode is the state rock of Iowa? I have been interested in Geology and rocks ever since I was a kid. I used to pick up any old rock I could find when I was a toddler. Nowadays I am a bit more discriminating about what I gather; I especially like geodes. I like them because they look boring on the outside, but they look amazing on the inside; it's always a surprise when you crack them open.
We drove to a public park in Illinois called Wildcat Springs, just across the river from Keokuk, Iowa. I put on my rubber boots and searched the area for geodes. We only found one tiny geode there in the stream. I think that area had been pretty well picked over already but I wasn't worried because our next stop was a geode mine. With pickaxes, shovels and hammers, we found over 50 geodes. I was surprised at how heavy the pickaxe was. It was a muddy adventure but well worth it as I now have a lot of geodes to smash open at home. There is rule at home which says that I have a limited amount of screen time. I disagree. My parents think otherwise. I would definitely change it to unlimited screen time because I wouldn't stay on my phone all day anyway, plus I need to check things sometimes even though iv'e already been on my phone for a while. I can sort of see my parents point of view because they think that if I have unlimited screen time then I will be on there all the time. But they're still wrong.
I am not thankful for anything.
What am I supposed to be thankful for? Friends? Family? Food? Life? My dog? Wifi? Xboxes? My cat? Phones? Animals? Math? Science? Chairs? Roads? Rap music? Pencil cases? Zoos? Dora The Explorer? Particles? Sheep's eyeballs? Donald Trump's $60,000 weave? Video games? Teachers? The theory of everything? Bioluminescent squid? Ok, let us say I am thankful for one of these or any other thing. Who am I supposed to be thankful to? Is it God? Or a god? Or a spirit? A ghost? According to Wikipedia, Thanksgiving has its roots in religious belief. What does this mean? It means that people gave, and give, thanks for the harvest to a supernatural being. Without their religious belief systems the harvest isn't going to happen for these people. Who actually makes the harvest happen? Is it the priest? Is it the King? Of course it isn’t, because a lot of religions that many people believe in say that some people are more valuable than other people. Giving thanks to religion for the fruits of people’s labor is like turkeys voting for Thanksgiving. Donald Trump is going to be the next US President. I think that the things that Donald Trump said disqualifies him being POTUS many times over. I do think that he is smart because he got the Republican vote by being a Republican and being more outrageous than any of the other Republican candidates. To be honest, he could have even been an independent, but then he wouldn't have gotten the Republican vote.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate, was overconfident going into election day and Trump was gaining on her in votes. Even though more people voted for her, Donald Trump won the election because of the electoral college system. She was winning in the polls during early voting, but early voting doesn't happen in every state. To be precise 37 states allow it. It is possible that the overall number of voters would be bigger if people knew that the winner was decided by the popular vote. This is hypothetical, however. When I was at elementary school in 2011, I was working on an assignment that my teacher gave me and I heard my name on the loudspeaker to come to the office and to bring all my stuff. I was confused at the time because my mom didn't tell me about any appointment that day. When I got to the office I saw my parents there, they said I had to go to the dentist. After being in the car for a while, I realized it was taking longer that usual to get there. I felt something was off, like they were hiding something.
Thirty minutes later we arrived at the airport. I asked why we were there and they said that Dad was going to go to Europe for a vacation and they would take me to the dentist after. I honestly wasn't complaining since I didn't really want to go back to school and do that assignment. At the time I was eight and I didn't really know what you did before you went on a plane in airports; so we went through security, me thinking it was normal, and proceeded to find the gate. Then we got on the plane and I asked why because I said I still had to go to the dentist and I wasn't leaving. My dad said that we would get off soon. At first I didn't believe him but sure enough we all got off the plane back into the airport. It turned out there was something wrong with the plane and we had to change gates. So after not believing my dad the first time and being wrong, I decided to trust him. After changing gates and finally getting on the plane again my dad said they would take me off the plane before they took off. Me, believing him, was surprised when we were zooming down the runway. Before I knew it we were sky high, literally. We arrived in Chicago a while later where we got some food, near our gate to a connecting flight going to Greece. Then it came to me, it just popped into my head that we were on vacation and it would be in Greece. I was amazed and happy but most of all I felt gullible. We continued on to our journey and we arrived in Athens around midnight. My dad said that we were going to Crete in two days because he said he wanted to explore Athens for a bit. After spending a couple fun days in Athens we decided to go to Crete, the biggest Grecian island, for a week. In Crete it was probably my favourite time in my life because everything was so fun, eating out at different places, ordering different things, enjoying the warm weather, and amazing atmosphere. One place we went to had grapes as one of the choices. I didn't like or didn't know some of the other stuff on the menu so I decided to order them. They came about five minutes later with my mom and dad's food. They were such massive green grapes that even my parents were amazed by the size of them. At the time they were the size of three of my fingers scrunched up into grape form. After having bellies' full of grapes and baclava we went back to our "hotel". It wasn't much of a hotel, more like a house where an old lady lived which let us stay there for a week. After Crete we continued on to some other islands. On one of the beaches, on some island which was so small that it didn't even have a store on it so the people there had to take a boat to get to a bigger island with a supermarket on it, I found some black coins on the ground which I picked up and it turns out, those coins were old Greek currency called "drachma". I still have them today, and that was my souvenir from Greece. About three days later mom said that we were going to visit one of her friends in France. Our next destination was Paris where we almost missed a train from Paris to Lyon but we made it. Just. In Lyon, a city with a population of half a million people, my dad and I were sort of lost because my mom was the only one who knew how to speak French. We stayed at my mom's friend's house with her six year old daughter, and young son. Unfortunately a lot of the attractions there were closed due to the heavy downpour the day before. Finally, the last place before going home, England. When we got there we got to see my paternal grandfather. Fortunately, unlike in France, we had nice weather where we could go out and see swans going down the river in the town nearby. It made me feel really nostalgic because when I was five I went there and I remembered seeing the swans, stream, and the village-like feeling with the bumpy cobbled road. Although I was sad to be going back to America, I missed my friends at school a little. After a long, tiring nine-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean we arrived at Chicago O'Hare airport. Our flight to Iowa was supposed to be at 2:00 AM, but the airport doesn't employ people from 2:00 AM to 4:00 AM and our flight was delayed so we had to spend the night on the floor to get a flight around 10:00 AM. At last, we were home and due to jet lag I had two days' rest and then went to school. All my friends were excited to have me back after being gone a month. Three character traits most important in a US president are...
Responsibility, self control, and honesty. The POTUS should act responsibly because he or she makes decisions that affect people across the world, not only in the United States. If he or she acts irresponsibly then a lot of people could suffer. Self control is necessary because the POTUS is in charge of some very powerful weapons of destruction which could lead to the end of the Earth. Honesty is important because the people of the United States need to be able to trust their president. If there is distrust the the US could be come unstable.
Blog #4: The Elevator10/11/2016 0 Comments Choose 5 of the following 8 questions to respond to. Make sure to answer in complete sentences and complete thoughts. 1. What do you learn about the main character, Martin, in the exposition? What we learned about Martin in the exposition is that he is twelve years old and he is scared of his apartment and elevators. 2. What event sets the rising action in motion? The eerie fat lady in the elevator sets the rising action in motion. 3. What internal conflict is plaguing Martin in lines 81-84? The internal conflict which is plaguing is that Martin thought she was scary but he had to step up to his fears because of what the kids said at school about him. 4. What details in lines 88-105 help to create suspense about what might happen? One detail that created tension is "He felt her eyes on him as he stared at the numbers... slower than usual it seemed to him". 5. What details in lines 121-139 suggest a conflict between father and son? 6. In lines 145-160 the story takes an unexpected turn. How might this development affect Martin's conflict? 7. Judging only by line 175, the climax of the story, is Martin in danger? Explain your opinion. 8. The author ends this story at the climax. What is your opinion of the plot's development and of leaving the conflict unresolved? Explain. I think that it's disrespectful to the reader because if you are the author and you leave the story at a cliff hanger and I have spent my time reading it then I wouldn't want to read one of their stories again. Also I think it takes away from the story because cliff hangers aren't good endings. List and describe the first 3 things you would do if you were given 1 million dollars!
If I had a million dollars, the first three things I would do are the following: use some of it to reach my goal of travelling to fifty different countries, invest $500,000, and give money to kids who aren't rich enough to pay for soccer coaching. I've already travelled internationally a bit so reaching a target of fifty different countries shouldn't be too much of an ask, apart from money. Therefore the million dollars would help me realize that dream given that travelling is an expensive business. In order to make the money work for me, I think that I should invest half of it to generate income especially as I'm too young to have a regular job. Since I think bonds are safer than stocks, I would invest in those. My first two choices above are in my own interest. However, my third choice is different. I'd donate money to poor young people so that they could afford to play soccer. Why soccer? Because I like it. 1. Aha Moment...
Was when Squeaky realized that she could retire running and just coach Raymond instead. I think this was the aha moment because Squeaky realizes that Raymond has a talent; and because Squeaky cares so much about her brother she would give up running to help him get out of his position of being the laughing stock of the neighborhood. 2. Plot... The exposition was when Squeaky was introducing herself and some other characters in the story. The rising action was when the tension was building up between Squeaky and Gretchen. The climax was when the announcer said who won the race. The falling action was after the race when Squeaky and Gretchen were smiling at each other. Finally in the resolution Squeaky saw Raymond running and thought that she could train Raymond into running rather than running herself. 3. Choose 3 of the following 4 questions to answer. Make sure to type the question as well as your response so the readers of your blog know what you're responding to! a. How do you know if something is worth effort? You can tell if something is worth effort if it is important to you. One time in England I was getting a low score on my test but stayed after school for 3 HOURS and I achieved my grade that I wanted. The only reason I tried really hard is because it was important to me. b. How do you judge someone? For example, if you said "She is a confident person," how would you make that judgement? Have you ever misjudged someone? You can guess when judging people off of little evidence but there is a big chance that you can misjudge them. If they are not stuttering when they speak they are probably confident. I misjudged My Language Arts teacher, Ms. Freitag, because I thought that she was too talkative, but actually she is a great teacher. c. Give an example of an Aha Moment you recently had. (Think of the "lightbulb" going off right above your head) How did this change your situation? Recently I realized that staying on the computer too long is ruining my eyesight. I figured this out because I went for an eye exam and my eyes were not getting any better, in fact they got worse. When I was filling out the form for the doctors to see what type of glasses you were interested in, regular glasses, sun glasses, transition lenses and... COMPUTER GLASSES? I was confused at first, but then I asked my doctor about it, and he said "If you stare at a computer screen for too long at a time it can ruin your eyesight." So after hearing that I stopped using the computer too long at a time and hopefully my eyes will get better. |
Author
Hello, my name is Piers Rodd. I live with my mom, my dad and my two cats, Wasabi and Tippy. Things are culturally interesting at our house because my mom is American, my dad is English and I was born in Japan. I feel at home in Iowa City; mostly because I've grown up with so many great friends here. I spend a lot of my time entertaining my cat, playing soccer and studying Japanese. I like to study Japanese because my mom said, "When you learn Japanese we can visit Japan.". Archives
March 2017
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