H3.

                If I had the chance to go back in time, I don’t know if I would do it. It seems like if you do anything it will change the future. However in a scenario where it wouldn’t change the future, I would go to the time of the Mayan Empire. It seems like a stupid thing to want to do because there was no electricity and I don’t speak their language. Still, I would bring high powered guns and modern technology and find a small village on the outskirts of civilization. Armed with only spears and wooden shields they would have to surrender and accept me as a god. I would be a firm, but loving god, and once a year they would have to offer a sacrifice to me. OK not really that’s weird. Honestly what were the Mayans thinking? It probably took the gods a while to create the people and animals they sacrificed. If I was a god I wouldn’t want people to kill and send back something I literally just made for them. That’s just insulting. It would be like that one time I bought myself a goldfish, and my grandmother’s cat, which we were pet sitting, took it out of its bowl and dropped it at my feet. I had to work really hard to get that fish and the stupid cat killed it and gave it back as if it were a present. Anyway, I’m getting off topic. I would have giant temples built in my honor. Festivals with music, games and a lot of food would be held several times per year. At my palace, two beautiful women would feed me my daily feast as I sit on my throne. Imagine Jabba the Hutt’s setup, that’s kind of how it would be. All would be perfect in the land of Mattropolis, at least until the Spanish come.

G2.

                The other day someone asked me what I would do if I had 100 million dollars. Ok that’s a lie, but I was thinking about it the other day. Alright, alright, that too is a lie. I really stole the idea from Leyton. Anyway, there are a couple of things I would do if I had that much money. I would first have the mortgage on my house paid off. Next I would buy myself a really nice car for when I get my driver’s license in a few years. I’d either get a Mustang or an older Corvette. Another thing I would want to do is buy a boat. Boats are good not only for disposing of bodies, but for fishing and hanging out in the summer. With some of this money I would pay for college for both me and my brother. I would frequently go to Bills games and Yankees games. I’ve always wanted to see the Yankees play in New York. I’d also go to a lot of concerts. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jack White, The Black Keys and Sublime are a few bands I would go to see. I would like to travel a lot too. New York City, France, Quebec, and Germany are some of the places I would go to. For some reason my grandma has always wanted to go to Scotland, so I would pay for her to go there. 100 million dollars is more money than I really need, so I would give a large sum of it to a number of charities. A large portion of my money would be put into a safe bank account so that I don’t spend too much of it. When I grow up I would have a huge house with a pool. That’s what I would do if I had 100 million dollars.

G1.

                Elf is one of the greatest Christmas movies to have ever been made. Yes, it is even better than A Christmas Story. This movie is about an orphan, named Buddy, who is accidentally kidnapped by Santa Clause as a baby. He spends the next thirty or so years living among Santa’s elves. Eventually, he learns that he is not an elf, but a human and embarks on a journey to find his biological father in New York City, who happens to be on the naughty list. Buddy soon finds out that New York City is much different from the North Pole and has a hard time adjusting to its culture. What contributes to this movie’s greatness is that Buddy the Elf is played by Will Farrell. To me, Will Farrell was perfect in this movie because he is so ridiculous. He seems to have no problem with acting like a child in his movies, and that is why he is one of my favorite actors. My favorite part was when Buddy got into a fight with a mall Santa. Here’s how it happened: the mall where Buddy worked hired a man dressed as Santa Clause to entertain the kids while their parents shopped. As Buddy approached him, he realized that he was a fake and called him out on it in front of at least fifty kids. Then he stole his beard which led the fake Santa to tackle him into a large table of Legos. The fight quickly escalated, which resulted in Buddy getting fired and banned from the store. I also liked the part where he got into a fight with a little person, and lost, after accusing him of being and elf. It is arguable that Elf is the single greatest Christmas movie of al time.

G3.

                The Walking Dead is one of my favorite shows. Almost everybody I know watches it. If you happen to watch it then you will know that Darrel is commonly the favorite character. However in the finale of season two they introduced a new character. She is a tall skinny woman named Mishone, who is a border line ninja. She even has her own katana. Her mastery in the art of killing zombies is equal to that of Darrel’s. This leads me to wonder who is better: Mishone or Darrel. Since the first season Darrel was my favorite character. He slaughters any zombies that come in his way and feels no remorse for it. Mishone, on the other hand, stabbed The Governor in the eye with a giant shard of glass. The scene couldn’t have been better. Mishone found The Governor’s daughter locked in a cage in his office. She soon found out that the little girl was a zombie. Before she could kill it The Governor walked in the room and begged her not to do it. Remembering how he sent out a team of people to kill her, she looked him right in the eyes as she stabbed her through the mouth. After several minutes of fighting with him she managed to stab him in the eye with a five inch shard of glass and run away. Then again, Darrel got shot in the head after falling off of a cliff… twice. Honestly I don’t know who is better. I think they that if they can escape their current predicament, they should get together and make a super baby who will single handedly rid the world of zombies.

                For my next blog I will write about who I think the worst characters are…….. Just kidding it’s still Carl.

F4.

                Cats are the worst animals to have ever domesticated. Why did people even do it in the first place? How could they have possibly been useful to ancient man? It’s not like they were great for protection. Picture yourself living in a prehistoric, nomadic tribe. Now imagine that one night you’re all siting around a fire when another tribe comes and attacks you, and all you have are a bunch of useless cats. And to make things worse these people were smart and tamed a pack of those ancient wolf-dogs that probably had bear genes mixed into their DNA. Now it’s a classic battle between cats and dogs. What could your cats do to help you? Nothing, the answer is nothing at all. While you and all of the important members of the tribe are fending off the hoard of attackers and their wolf-bear-dogs, all of the cats peed in you tent and ran away. Now fast forward 12,000 years. You’re sitting at home, all alone when a couple of armed burglars break into your house. You have no guns around, but you do happen to have a cat. So what do you do? You call the police and hide under your bed where you find out that your cat took a dump in your shoes before fleeing the scene. So here you are hiding under your bed, thinking you’re going to die, the smell of poop is overwhelming and you begin to think: “What if I had gotten a dog instead?” What if you had gotten a dog instead? So now I want you to imagine the same scenario, but instead of a cat, you have a dog. So what would Lassie do? Lassie would tear that guy’s face off.  But as I am typing this I’m looking at my dogs and thinking that they would never do any of this. Honestly, the best pet to have is a goldfish; they don’t eat much, they stay out of the way and they won’t poop in your shoes. 

F2.

My top three favorite movies are Die Hard, Step Brothers and Anchorman. Die Hard is about a NYC cop who flew out to Los Angeles to see his wife, but when he gets there, he soon gets caught up in a hostage situation and must fight German terrorist… without any shoes. It is one of my favorite movies for a lot of reasons. My main reason for liking it, however, is that like all other 80’s action movies it has at least twenty good one-liners, such as “yippee ki ay….” The first Die Hard movie was really the only good one though. There weren’t any good ones after that.

                My second favorite movie is Step Brothers.  It is about two grown men who live with their parents and must live together after one’s father marries the other’s mother. At first both men can’t stand each other, so they play tricks on each other to prove who the alpha male is. My favorite scene was when they both went into an interview for a job cleaning bathrooms, wearing tuxedoes. Needless to say they both failed miserably. Will Farrel, wqho played Brennan Huff, was perfect for this movie because it was an excuse for him to act like a man-child, something he does best.

                My third favorite is another Will Farrel movie called Anchor Man. This one is about a 1970’s news crew that only consists of men, but because of changing times the station decided to add a female news caster to co-host the news with Will Farrel. My favorite part was when all of the guys from Will Farrel’s TV station got in a street fight with the guys from other stations. Steve Carrell’s character, Brick, even killed a couple people with a grenade and a trident. Out of four stars I would give this movie three and a half.

F1.

                My favorite book is A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. It is about a fifteen year old boy named Alex who is a member of a street gang in futuristic England. They would go out at night and steal, fight and drink. Eventually his gang turned on him and left him for the police after an unsuccessful home invasion.  He was then arrested and sentenced to 14 years in a harsh prison. After two years in jail, Alex was offered a chance to get out early. All he had to do was go through an experimental “reform treatment” and he would be set free. Not knowing what he had gotten himself into, he agreed to the terms and began the treatment. The purpose of the treatment was to strap him into a chair and force him to watch ultraviolent videos that were played with the music of Mozart and Beethoven for several hours each day until he became sick. Once the treatment was complete they would send him back into society and if he heard classical music or came into contact with anything violent, he would become violently sick and incapable of misbehaving, and that’s exactly what happened to him. Later in the book, Alex becomes homeless and finds himself living in the house of a man whose wife was murdered by him and his gang. The man soon found out who Alex was and locked him a room where he was exposed to classical music. The pain it made him feel caused him to jump from the window in an attempt to kill himself. He ended up surviving the fall and learned at the hospital that the people who gave him the “reform treatment” had undid it. For a short time Alex went back to his old ways, but realized that it was time to give it up and start a new life.

                What I liked about A Clockwork Orange was that it was suspenseful, adventurous and full of danger and violence. However, what I didn’t like about it was the slang the characters invented because it made the book difficult to read.

E2.

                My favorite music genre is rock. What I like about it is its diversity. There are all kinds of forms of rock such as classic, metal, acid, alternative and punk. Most bands have their own style and sound. Some other genres are not as diverse. To me all country music sounds exactly the same. The singers have the same voices and they sing about the same things, which normally involve a tractor. This is why I can’t stand listening to it for more than five minutes. With Rock, however, if you compare a band like Santana to a band like The White Stripes, you will find that they are both very different in the style and influences of their music.

                Some of my favorite bands include The Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beastie Boys, Tom Petty, Jack White and Pink Floyd. One of my favorite songs by The Red Hot Chili Peppers is “Can’t Stop” and Jack White’s new album Blunderbuss is one of his best albums in years. What I like about the Beastie Boys is that their lyrics are smart and funny, like in “Paul Revere” and “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”. Tom Petty may be the ugliest man alive, but what he lacks in his looks, he makes up for in his music. My favorite song of his is “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”.  As for Pink Floyd, their music is sometimes weird. Their songs incorporated strange techniques and have a darker vibe to them, which is why I like them. One of their greatest songs, I think, is “Dogs” on their album, Animals. I also like The Dark Side of The Moon, but there are definitely better Pink Floyd Albums. Rock n’ Roll is the best genre of music and there is nothing you could say to make me change my opinion.

E4.

                A common debate between my friends and I at lunch is whether or not Burger King is Better than MacDonald’s. I am on the side that firmly believes that Burger King is the superior fast food restaurant. First of all, their food tastes better. Their cheese burgers are way less greasy. If you go to MacDonald’s the wrapper is always soaked in grease. Their french fries are better too. They are better because they use enough salt. In the last few years the quality of their fries has sharply decreased ever since they decided to make their menu healthier. Also Burger King provides more options. When BK says “have it your way”, they mean “have it your way”. There are 256 different ways to order a whopper. I will admit that MacDonald’s has a better breakfast menu. Their Egg Macmuffins and breakfast burritos are better than anything Burger King has. Another reason why Burger King is better is because they serve onion rings. The best experience at Burger King is when you order a box of their French fries and you find an onion ring at the bottom. It makes your day. This doesn’t happen at MacDonald’s. Also their sandwiches are bigger and cost the same as one from MacDonald’s. Lastly I like that most Burger Kings give you free, unrestricted access to the soda fountain. This is good because it means there are free refills. Also I sometimes like to mix my drinks. This way I don’t have to feel weird for ordering a large mix of root beer, Pepsi and Sprite. I can also control the amount of ice that gets put into the cup. I’ve noticed that at places like MacDonald’s where they fill your drink for you, they tend to fill your cup all the way with ice so they use less pop. This is all undeniable proof the Burger King is better than MacDonald’s. 

E3.

                Watching the Bills lose every weekend has made me think about how tough it is to be a fan of Buffalo sports. Almost every professional sports team in Buffalo has a losing record. The Sabres can’t make it past the second round in the playoffs, while the Bills haven’t even been there since 1999. However, the Bison’s are an okay team, but nobody actually cares about minor league baseball. The Bills, in my opinion, are the most disappointing team. Every game they look like they’ll win until the second half. That’s when they always screw it up. It happens all the time, someone either fumbles the ball or Fitzpatick throws an interception. In previous seasons the Bills have won the first five of their games only to lose the rest of them. Then to make it worse, they promise to add new players that will save them in the post season. Some of these players include T.O. and Mario Williams. Neither of these players has made a difference in their time on the Bills. T.O. didn’t seem too motivated to do anything, especially when he didn’t play in a game because he “woke up sore”. As for Mario Williams, he hasn’t done anything impressive, but he has made some big plays. It is difficult to be a Bills fan, but because they lose so much it becomes a lot more exciting when they do manage to win. There best game in the past five years was last season when they beat the Patriots. Before then they haven’t beat them since 2003. As hard as it is to be a fan of the Bills or any other Buffalo team, I’m proud to be one. In my opinion these teams have the best fans. The fact that people still want to come see them play says enough.  

E2.

                Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, behind Christmas and New Years’. My family doesn’t really have any specific traditions for the holiday, but this is how the day will usually unfold. Every thanksgiving morning we all sleep in and watch TV. They always play the best TV shows on Thanksgiving. The one exception might be the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I wouldn’t watch it if you paid me, it’s just terrible. Spike sometimes plays Band of Brothers, which is a great show. At around two o’clock my mom starts to prepare for dinner. She is responsible for making the squash, apple pie, and mashed potatoes to bring to my grandparents’ house. We always go to my grandparents’ house at five o’clock. When we get there we watch the football game and wait for everybody else to arrive. In total there are about nine people who come, me, my parents, my two older sisters, my uncle and of course my grandma and grandpa. My uncle, for reasons unknown to me, is always an hour and a half late. It’s a personal tradition of my brother to make fun of my uncle on holidays, and for some reason he is especially mean on thanksgiving. One year he almost made him cry. His face got bright red as he went into the other room. I thought he had taken it too far, but my mom and grandpa were laughing. Anyway, once my uncle does show up we all sit down to eat. For dinner we always have turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, squash and cranberry sauce. For dessert there is apple pie, pumpkin pie and birthday cake. We always celebrate my mom’s birthday on Thanksgiving. I like pumpkin pie the most. After dinner my mom opens her birthday presents. That’s pretty much how thanksgiving goes for my family. 

E1.

                My favorite holiday is Christmas. Most people who say that Christmas is their favorite holiday say that they like the extra time they get to spend with their family and how Christmas represents the brotherhood of man. Both of these statements are true, but it’s not really why most people prefer it over other holidays. I think people just say that to sound unselfish. Think about it, the main themes of most holidays are more or less the same; be good to other people, be thankful for your family and be thankful for what you have. They just have different histories behind them. So why is Christmas a consistent favorite among Americans? The real reason behind people’s love for Christmas is the gifts they receive. This at least holds true for most people. To be fair, there are some people who genuinely love the feeling of togetherness and practice good will toward all men, and that’s great. However, Christmas is my favorite holiday because of the free material happiness. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family, but I love them a lot more when I get that new video game I’ve been waiting all year for. The best part of Christmas is waking up to a stack of presents under the tree. I also enjoy Christmas dinner. I like Christmas dinner more than any other dinner in the year. Every year we go to my grandparent’s house at about five o’clock. When we get there we normally sit around, talk and wait for my uncle to arrive, who is always an hour late. Once everyone is there we sit down to eat. Our Christmas dinner consists of prime rib, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pie. After dinner it is time to open more presents. My grandparents always give great presents. That is why Christmas is my favorite holiday.

D4.

                I was sitting at home the other day and I could not for the life of me think of a topic to blog about. Nothing exceptionally good or bad had happened to me in the recent past. I had reached a complete mental block. I was staring at the screen of my computer, trying to come up with an idea when I heard a shriek that could shatter glass. I looked up from over the screen to see my brother sprint out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel around his waist. His face was as white as a ghost. When I asked my brother what happened he said “There was a spider”. Really? A spider?  That’s what made my brother, the starting linebacker and guard of the Alden JV football team, screech like a prepubescent girl?  I would understand if it was a fist sized Tarantula that just crawled up the drain, but it wasn’t. This spider was maybe the size of a quarter, and I’m being generous when I say this.

This got me thinking though. Why are people so afraid of spiders? Not once in my life have I come into contact with a spider and thought “Wow. This thing might kill me”. I’m not saying that I’m abnormally brave or anything, because that is not the case. All I’m trying to say is that of all of the scary things in the world, why would you waste your time being afraid of that? We don’t live in an underdeveloped country with baby-sized spiders crawling around that have the power to kill a grown man with no medical supplies around for miles. The worst spiders around here can do when they bite you is leave a tiny bump that can sometimes itch. All it takes to solve that problem is a trip to the gas station for some cheap ani-itch cream. Also, the saying that spiders are just afraid of you as you are of it is completely ridiculous. Would you be afraid of anyone who screamed like my brother did?

D1.

                It’s hard to decide which teacher has impacted me the most. In one way or another I have been impacted by every one of my teachers. The teacher that I have picked may come as a surprise to some people, but believe it or not, that teacher is Mr. Papagni. I was in Mr. Papagni’s science class for both seventh and eighth grade. Although his teaching methods are different and sometimes just plain weird, I found them to be very effective. Some of his antics included kicking the recycling bin, crawling on the floor and shouting at students in an imaginary alien language. He is also known for putting his head in the sink and being quite amused at how it amplified his voice. He would deal with students who acted out by being just as ridiculous as they were. I remember hearing the most bazar thing one day during science. I was making up a test in the room across the hall and toward the end of the period I heard a loud scream coming from Mr. Papagni, followed by a  three minute song about why he hates it when students start to pack up before it’s time to go. This song even included several kazoo solos. I found myself sitting in front of my unfinished test, unsure of what just happened. I ended up getting a 100% on the test, by the way, proving that his methods of teaching are effective. His original composition later became known as “the paper shuffling song”. I believe that it was his odd sense of humor that made it easy to learn about science. His unorthodox way of teaching is why I still like this subject so much. I can’t say that about every other teacher that I have ever had.

D2.

                My favorite class without any doubt is biology with Mr. Kasper. Every day we go over homework, review what we did in the last class, learn something new and have a class discussion. The best part of bio is our class discussions. We can start out talking about the main lesson of the day, but end up talking about something totally different. For example we were talking about urbanization one day. Then someone asked a question and another person had a comment after the question was answered. One thing lead to another and before I knew it the discussion turned into a heated debate about whether or not McDonald’s is better than Burger King. I personally believe that Burger King is way better than McDonald’s. This happens all the time with a variety of topics. What also makes this class my favorite is that I’m interested in what we learn about. Science is my favorite subject and has never failed to amaze me. I have had to take a lot of classes that I didn’t have an interest in or even care about. I tend to pay more attention in that class than in any other. Because I can focus, my bio grade is one of my highest. The material that we go over is relatively easy. We were taught a lot it last year. What I don’t like about bio is that we have homework due almost every class. At least it’s simple and the answers are in our notes. Tests are not a problem for me either. They consist of only forty multiple choice questions and a couple short response questions. We go over everything in class so much that it’s almost impossible to fail. I can’t wait to take more science classes like this in the future.

C4. Why I am not a morning person

                I am not a morning person, I have never been. I can’t stand waking up a six thirty every morning for school. It’s unnatural for me to wake up before the sun is out. When I have to get up that early I am never completely awake until about noon. Every morning I have to rush to get to school on time. This normally results in me forgetting something or at least me thinking that I did. Last week I was in a hurry to leave I grabbed my shoes from by the back door and went to get my water bottle for football from the freezer.  When I opened the freezer door I set my shoes down to retrieve the water bottle. I then put it in my backpack and went to brush my teeth. Once my teeth were brushed I was ready to leave, but then I realized that I had not yet put my shoes. Frantically I searched the entire house and even the back yard in case my dog took it out there. I was about to put on an old pair of shoes when remembered that the last time I had them was when I got my water bottle out of the freezer. Quickly I ran upstairs to find both of my shoes sitting in the freezer. Relived, I put on my shoes and got to school with less than a minute to spare. That is just one example of the stupid things I do in the morning. My sisters never had this problem when they were in school. My brother doesn’t have a problem with getting up either. Even my parents are used to waking up early. Everybody in my family can function in the morning except for me. 

C3.

                Getting a swimming pool was one of the best things to have ever happened to me. I like having a pool for a lot of reasons. First of all really like to swim. I have swum for the school’s swimming team in the past and spend most of my time swimming in the summer. It is normally warm enough to swim in from early June to mid- September.  My favorite thing to do in the summer is to blast the radio and go swimming. Sometimes I get in at ten o’clock in the morning and stay out there until three o’clock in the afternoon. There have been days where I’ve stayed out there for longer than that. I also like to have my friends come over to swim. A lot of the time they just show up at my house to go swimming without even asking. Most of the time I’m in the pool anyway, so it doesn’t matter. We almost killed Matt Myzka on several occasions while playing chicken. When they sleep over we normally go midnight swimming. One time when we did this we were too loud and my neighbors called my parents. My mom and dad didn’t let me have a sleepover for weeks after that. It’s also great for after football practices when I’m hot and tired. This year we had four hour practices. Every day after football I would go swimming for at least an hour. I am always the one who has to take care of the pool. I have to vacuum it, keep the leaves out, empty the skimmers and replace the bromine. For all of the fun it brings me it is worth the work. I hate having to close it for the winter in late October because I have to wait for seven months until I can go swimming again.   

C2.

                It is tough to say what restaurant in Alden is my favorite, there are at least ten. Five or six of them are pizzerias. I would have to say that the best restaurant is Carbone’s. I've been eating food from there for my entire life and it has been consistently good. I like there pizza because it isn't too thick and it isn't too thin. The pizza at some other restaurants comes out too doughy and under cooked, but at Carbone’s it is cooked perfectly. I also like the array of topping that you can choose from. It’s not that they offer you anything different from other places; I just think they taste better. I’m not a fan of their chicken fingers, however. I think that they can be a little bit under cooked sometimes. Their wings, on the other hand are great. My two favorite ways to order them are medium, cooked extra crispy and BBQ, extra crispy. I always get them with extra bleu cheese. It is debatable that LaPaloma’s wings are better, but that is for another blog. It is certain that they make the best subs. Although I just said I don’t care for their chicken fingers, my favorite is their chicken finger sub. Chicken fingers in general always seem to taste better on subs than they do by themselves. I also like their steak subs. They are best with fried onions and mushrooms. I also like their subs because my sister works their and gives me one for free. Free food always tastes better than when you have to pay for it.

                It is a tradition for my friends and me to go to Carbone’s on Fridays after football practice. It’s a great place to hang out at and kill time before we go to the varsity football game.  

C1.

     Tacos from Mighty Taco are my favorite packed lunch. Whenever I go to out to Mighty on a school night, I always make sure to pick some up for school the next day. My favorite thing to order is an El Nino Burrito. I look forward to eating it all day. Although Mighty Taco is unhealthy, I would eat their tacos every day if I could. The very evident risk of contracting type-2 diabetes doesn’t discourage me from doing so at all. I’ve talked to a lot of people about how great their food is, and almost everybody agreed that it is delicious. There is, however, a small group of people who don’t like the food there. What’s not to like about it? You can have anything on your taco that you could ever think to put in one. Even if you don’t like tacos, their menu is full of other great items. Some of these items include fajitas, nachos, salads and empanadas, which are all great tasting. Naysayers of this establishment also swear that they don’t put real meat in their food. These people must not have heard the expression “don’t ask what’s in your sausage”. Sometimes it’s just best not to ask. I wish that there was a Mighty Taco in Alden. It would make a lot of money here. People from here and several other towns would go to it to fulfill their needs for cheap Mexican food. It would also create jobs, which is good for Alden’s economy and would even bring some diversity to a town dominated by pizza joints. Then I could bring tacos to school every day. The moment they decide to build one in this town will be the happiest of my life. That is why Mighty Taco is my favorite packed lunch.

B3.

                I have had a lot of great moments in my life. One of them was when I beat my brother in a swimming race. This, however, was no ordinary race. This was a race in forty degree water with a twenty dollar reward for the winner.  It all started when Chris and I finished helping my dad open up our pool last April. My Dad bet me and my brother five dollars that we wouldn't go in the pool. Neither of us did for only five dollars, so my dad told us that he would give the winner of a race twenty dollars. We agreed to do this after we made sure he wasn't bluffing. The entire time it took us to get ready we trash talked. My brother would call me a girl or something like that and I would retaliate with an oh-so witty comeback. The more he spoke, the more I wanted to beat him. By the time we were ready we were actually angry at each other. It was decided that the race would be two laps long. Then we were ready to race. I dove into the frigid water and was immediately stunned by how cold it was. I felt my muscles start to tense up and my heart rate increased. I was so shocked that I hadn't realized how far behind I had fallen. I snapped out of it when I remembered what he called me and in a second I was in the lead. I steadily made my way to the finish line in first place. I had proved my brother wrong and was endlessly proud of myself. That was not the greatest moment in my life. The greatest moment in my life was when I saw his face when he saw that I bought him a bikini and a pair of water wings with the twenty dollars I won.    

B4. Why Carl is the worst character in The Walking Dead.

                On October 14^th, the popular AMC series, The Walking dead will return for another season. I am excited to see what will happen in the new season, but I’m not excited to see Carl. For those of you who don’t know who Carl is, he is the 12 year old son of the main character, Rick Grimes, who always wears a ridiculous cowboy hat. In every episode, Carl manages to screw something up. Carl’s one and only job is to stay in the house, and he even manages to mess that up.  He is so bad at this job that it has gotten several people killed. Dale’s death was completely Carl’s fault. Carl decided that it would be a good idea to go into the woods alone without telling anybody. He then approached a zombie that was stuck in the mud and ended up getting stuck himself. Instead of killing it, he ran away. By that night the zombie had managed to escape and find the farm where it eventually bit Dale. Had Carl stayed in the house like he was supposed to, Dale would be fine and life would be good, but Carl’s mistakes have caused countless problems for the group. What I don’t understand is why they make Glenn do all of the dangerous work. They should make Carl do these things, since Glenn is actually a competent member of their post-apocalyptic society. Would it really be so bad if Carl was sent to get some supplies from the nearby town and didn't come back? Carl is more of a liability than an asset anyway.                

                Carl is quite possibly the worst person to have to survive the end of the world with. I would rather be stuck in an alien invasion with Dakota Fanning than be stuck in the zombie apocalypse with Carl. He may very well be the most annoying child on television.

B1.

                When people ask me if I use Facebook I smile and say “no”. Facebook, in my opinion, is the biggest waste of time that you can find on the internet. It’s a waste of my time because I just don’t care about what people post about. Seven out of ten posts give out information that I don’t need or want. It seems pointless to me to post something that happened to you on Facebook. Knowing that two girls I vaguely know used to be best friends but never talk anymore will never benefit me in any way. Ever. It’s just not something I’d care to know about. Facebook’s only redeeming quality is that it can sometimes be fun to read the fights that people have. Facebook seems to do more harm than good anyway. People can get in a lot of trouble for the things they post. When people are angry at each other they tend to go on Facebook and post something stupid without really thinking about it. It could be considered cyber bullying and you can get into serious trouble in school because of this. Also, possible employers can use your Facebook to determine whether or not they will hire you. Although I hate Facebook and will never get an account, it is good for some things. For example it’s good to use if you want to advertise an upcoming event. It’s also a good tool for businesses to use. They can use it to advertise a product or a TV show. Other than that I don’t see a reason to use Facebook. The whole concept of Facebook seems completely unnecessary and I want nothing to do with it. 

B2.         

                Of all the seasons, summer is my favorite. Summer is my favorite season because the weather is great and I don’t have to go to school. During the school year I have to do the same things every day. I get up at six in the morning and go to school to sit through the same classes every day. From there I go to whatever sport I am playing until about five o’clock. When summer comes, however, I don’t have to follow a daily routine. I get to have the choice of what to do with my day. What I choose to do varies from day to day. Most days I decide to swim in my pool, play football or hang out with my friends. I start to develop a routine again once football starts. If I have nothing to do, I enjoy relaxing by watching TV and being by the pool.  I can relax better in summer than during the school year because there are no due dates or homework assignments that I have to worry about. Not having to worry if I forgot to do any homework is arguably the best aspect of the summer season. The weather is always the best in summer. Autumn is too cold, the snow stays on the ground for too long in the winter and it rains too much in the spring, but it is just right in summer. The days are longer and the temperatures are higher in this part of the year. Another good thing about summer is that my birthday is in August. Having a birthday in August means that there’s no way it will fall on a school day. I don’t mind fall, winter or spring, but I like summer most of all.

A4 Interest Inventory

A4. Things I feel comfortable writing about. Interest Inventory.

           

There are a number of things that I feel comfortable writing about. I am very interested in sports. I would be the most comfortable writing about football, swimming, track and field, or baseball. I’ve played all of those sports for several seasons and know a lot about them. It doesn’t matter much if it’s for modified, J.V., or Varsity, but I would prefer to write for varsity. I could also write about different clubs and when they meet or what they will do. Upcoming events in the school or community are something that I don’t have a problem with writing about either. For example I could write about Winterfest in February. I’ve already written an article about homecoming. Other than that I don’t really have any preferences. I am always open to suggestions too. 

My favorite school year

A3. Reflect upon your years of schooling: Which one was your favorite? Why?

                Of all my years of schooling, 8^th grade was my favorite year. 8^th grade was better than my first two years of middle school because in 6^th and 7^th I was still getting the hang of how things worked. By eighth grade, however, I knew what I had to do and how to do it. I had a good system of getting things done by then. By getting my work done more efficiently I got better grades and had more time for my friends. It was also a good year because I was given more responsibility and freedom. School is a lot more enjoyable when your hand’s not being held by your teachers. What was the best about that year were sports. It’s a lot better to play sports as an upperclassman because you are on top. That’s when the coaches give you more authority and playing time. I became one of the leaders rather than a follower. I’ve found that I perform a lot better when I had people looking up to me. I think that this year will be more like 6^th and 7^th grade and the next three years will be like my 8^th grade year.    

My goals for this school year

A2. What do you hope to accomplish this school year?

                There are a lot of things that I would like to accomplish this school year. For starters, I want to make honor roll for all four quarters this year. It has become a competition between my brother and me to see who can make the honor roll more times during the school year. The reward for the winner is personal pride and bragging rights. I was the proud victor last year when I beat him four times to three. I made sure to exercise my right to brag. Another goal of mine is to earn at least one starting position in football. As an offensive and defensive lineman there is a lot of competition for a starting spot. There are twenty-five linemen and only five starting spots for offence and two for defensive tackle. I’m currently on the second string offensive line, but if I work hard and continue to improve from week to week I think I’ll have a good chance at getting a starting spot. Lastly, I would like to join a couple of clubs. I’m thinking about joining Science Olympiad. It seems like a good club for me to join because I’m very interested in science and I would like to expand my knowledge of the subject. Students in Science Olympiad make balsa airplanes, gravity powered vehicles and robotic devises. It would also look good on a college application. A couple of my friends are planning on joining it too. I think I will be pretty successful this year.

What I did this summer.

A1. What did you do this summer?

                When the school year ended last June, I thought this summer would be just another in a long line of boring, uneventful summers. However it actually turned out to be one of the best. Just after school had ended, the carnival came to town. Although it was not as good as it was in previous years, I still had a great time. I rode rides and hung out with my friends.  The next week I went to a fourth of July party. There was good food and a lot of fireworks to play with. There wasn’t much to do for a couple of weeks after that. I worked on roofs with my dad from time to time, but that was about it until football started. Starting in mid-August, I would go to football. The practices were long, but rewarding. They normally went from four o’clock in the afternoon until eight o’clock. Having four hour practices were rewarding in that it gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment. To finish off the summer, I went on a trip with my family to Ohio to go to Cedar point and to see the Yankees play the Indians. It took over four hours to drive there. While I was at Cedar Point I had the chance to ride some of the biggest and fastest roller coasters. I rode the Top Thrill Dragster, a roller coaster that in four seconds will accelerate from zero to 120 miles per hour, take you up 420 feet at an eighty degree angle and send you hurtling toward the ground. That was by far the best ride there. Among the other rides I rode were the Millennium Force, the Magnum and the Mean Streak. After two days at the amusement, we went to Cleveland to see the Yankees and Indians play. The Yankees, unfortunately, did not end up winning the game. They Lost 3-0. Aside from that I had a great trip and an overall awesome summer.

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