Q4.

                There are and have been a lot of people on earth. In fact, that number is in the high billions. Few of them have achieved fame, but even fewer of them have achieved the status of iconic. So what does it mean to be an icon, and how does one earn that status?

                According to dictionary.com, an icon is something or someone that is regarded as a symbol of something else. I think of an icon as someone who changed society in one way or another. To me, an icon does not necessarily have to be a good role model. He or she just has to remind me of something they did or stand for. Take Nelson Mandela for example. This man spent 27 years of his life in a South African prison because of his beliefs about human rights. Now go type “human rights” into Google. I guarantee that you will find either a picture or article about him. Next type in “space exploration” and you will find something about Lance Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin. Why? Because they were the very first people to set foot on the moon. The moon is 238,900 miles away from Earth. Before July 16, 1969, people would have thought you were crazy if you said that we would put a person on the moon. These men helped change the way society thinks about space travel.

                An icon is not some over-rated celebrity who starts a dumb trend on Facebook or goes out and wears an outfit made out of meat because she wants attention (or is just into that kind of stuff). No, a person becomes iconic through hard work and action. Is it safe to say that anybody can be an icon? No; but who knows, maybe you or me could become one. 

Q2.

                This summer will be an excellent summer. I haven’t made any specific plans yet, but I’ve been thinking about what I might want to do all school year long. The first thing I think I’ll do is just lay around by my pool. We are currently putting in stamp concrete where a flower bed used to be, so there will be more places to sit. I think it will look really nice when it’s all done. I probably will invite my friends to come hang out with me too. Then, in the end of June the carnival is coming to town. I go there with my friends every year. The best part about it is that I live in the village, so I can just walk there and back whenever I fell like it. Also, they have fried dough. That has to be my favorite fair food. The few things that I don’t like about the carnival are that the workers smell like B.O and regret and I always blow all of my money there. So, to replenish my personal funds I’m going to continue working with my dad on roofs. It’s not a bad job at all. In fact it’s extremely easy. I just have to do what they tell me to and I get paid for it. With some of the money that I’ve already earned doing roofs, I’m going to buy myself a Darien Lake season pass. In the summer I spend a lot of time there, so it is a good purchase. The only other thing I can think of is the beginning of the football season. I’m excited to play football again. This season will be good because I won’t be freshman on the team, and I’m bigger than most of the 8^th graders who are moving up. It’s going to be an awesome summer.  

Q1.

                Whelp… I’m out of ideas for choice blogs. So here’s a picture of Jack Nicholson on a banana.

 

 This picture of him appears to be from the scene in The Shining when he uses an ax to break down the door between him and his wife and says “Here’s Johnny”. Why anyone would ever think to put a picture of Jack Nicholson on a piece of fruit is beyond me. I don’t understand how one would even do such a thing, for that matter. It seems like the banana would just get smooched. Unless, maybe it was done with one of those fake tattoos you can buy at the dollar store. However, the picture indicates that this person may have used a safety pin to get the picture on there. If that is the case, wouldn’t that rule out the possibility of it being a fake tattoo? This truly is an art form. It must take some level of skill to be able to take a picture and somehow get it onto a tropical fruit. This should be in a museum somewhere. If I had to critique it however, I would say that it would be rather difficult to determine who this is a picture of, without the other picture next to it. If I were to look at the banana alone, it would look more like a sleep deprived trucker with a beard and mustache than Jack Nicholson. Which, in and of its self is quite cool. Another problem with it is that you would have to eat it or it would spoil. It seems like a waste of time to make something that just goes bad in a week or so, like ice sculptures. However, this is probably something I would buy, but for the right price.

Q3.

                What is the best book I’ve ever read in an English class? That’s easy. The best book I’ve ever read in English class was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I read it in Mr. Cox’s class last year in 8^th grade. The Outsiders is a novel set in the late 60’s in Oklahoma. It is about a Greaser named Ponyboy who lives with his two older brothers, Darry and Sodapop, and hangs around with other Greasers. They enjoy going out at night and drinking, smoking, partying, and especially fighting their rivals, the Socs. Just to clarify, Greasers are the people from the poor side of town who wear leather jackets and have long, greasy hair. Socs are the opposite of that. They are from upper class families, drive nice cars, wear nice cloths and have short, neat hair. The whole point of this book is to describe the division between the two social classes at that time.

                What I liked the most about the book were the characters. They were all similar in many ways. They did the same things, they went to the same places and they all had similar backgrounds. Yet they were each distinguished and unique. For example, Johnny was describes as a scared puppy, while Two- Bit Mathews was always making jokes and having a good time. I also like that it was suspenseful. When Johnny killed Bob, it made me want to read more to figure out if they what they would do or where they would go. At some points it was hard to stop reading it.

                The most interesting thing about, this book in my opinion, was that S.E. Hinton was only 15 when she wrote it! Not only is it amazing that it got published, but it went on to win awards and they even made a movie out of it.

                   

P5.

                I was watching the National Geographic Channel when a commercial came on. This commercial was advertising the National Geographic Magazine, which is actually a very cool magazine. My sisters used to get them, and I’ve started to read them. That’s not my point though. My point is that in this commercial I happened to notice that there was a flock of ostriches on the cover. I never thought too deeply about ostriches before, but this time I did. They are really ridiculous animals if you think about it. They have fat bodies, useless wings, long legs and even longer necks. What good does that do them? They can’t fly. They only run around on their goonish legs and make some awful squawking noise. I’ve never heard anybody say that they wanted to be an ostrich before. I don’t even think ostriches want to be ostriches.

                If I were to die suddenly and be reincarnated into an animal, there is one that I would not mind being. That animal, my friends, is a grizzly bear. The only word that I can use to describe one is… majestic. Do you know why I would be a grizzly bear? Because nobody messes with a grizzly bear. How many woodland animals have you ever seen try to take down a grizzly? Not Many? Right, because a grizzly bear would tear it apart. These creatures have been known to take down fully grow bison! You can’t get much more hardcore than that. Some of the only things that can kill a grizzly bear are other grizzly bears and people… with guns. If an ostrich ever approached one of these majestic beasts, it would not live to squawk another day. In conclusion, ostriches are no better than chickens, and grizzly bears are amazing, killing machines.

P4.

                Do you want to know what really drives me crazy and fills me with rage? When I open a bag of potato chips, only to find that the bag is like half empty, that is just the worst. No, it is not half full, and if you think so, you’re wrong.

Today after school I walked up to the gas station that is around the corner from my house because I was hungry and wanted a bag of chips. When I got to the store, I walked down the chip isle, and gazed upon the wide variety of potato chips. There was Barbeque, Sour Cream and Onion, Cheddar, you name it, and it was on that shelf. I scanned the whole isle, and then I found it: a bag of Salt and Vinegar chips. This was not just any old bag of Salt and Vinegar chips though; this was the last bag of Salt and Vinegar chips. If I was still writing my Acts of Kindness blogs, this story probably would have ended right then and there with me giving them away or something, but I didn’t, and this is not how my story ends. I snatched the bag, went to the counter and paid a whopping $4.09, but that didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that I had my chips. I walked all the way home, went out by my pool, turned on the radio, and pulled on the top of the bag. I looked into the bag, and to my dismay, I found that half of the bag was empty. Why does this always happen? Is it really just because the chip settled to the bottom? No, it is because Lays is a truly evil company. So don’t look down upon me when I eat an entire bag of chips, because really, I only ate half a bag of chips.   

P3.

                I do not know much about teaching, but if I had to give Ms. Chryzanowski some advice, it would be to have a short memory. What I mean is do not hold a grudge against your students. Kids tend to do a lot of stupid and irresponsible things. It is best to forgive and forget, that way they don’t hate you and write mean blogs about you, like Ben Hoy did in the beginning of the year. It will make both your and your students’ lives a lot easier. Another tip is to try to keep your class as interesting as possible because it will keep your students interested. The more interested your students are, the more they will learn.

                I think that if you can do that, you are an ideal teacher. I also think an ideal teacher doesn’t give a lot of homework. I don’t mean to sound cliché, but I’m a busy guy. I have other things to do with my spare time that doesn’t involve homework. An ideal teacher doesn’t assign two choice blogs in a single blog group either, but hey, nobody’s perfect. Lastly, I think a good teacher is always able to set time aside to help out his or her students.

                If I could say something to Ms. Chryzanowski, it would be that I enjoyed seeing around school and working with you in class. I think you will make an awesome teacher. On an unrelated note, your dog is really weird. What is it like half Labrador and half Weiner Dog? What do you even call it? A Weinador? A Labra Weiner? I’m not sure how I feel about that combination. Anyway, it was cool seeing you as a student teacher, and I wish you the best of luck in the future. 

P2.

                I didn’t think it would come so fast, but it is already May. It seems like I say it every year, but this year really did fly by. In September, one of my blogs for Blog Group A was about what I would like to accomplish this year. In that blog, I said that my goals are to make honor roll every quarter, earn a starting position in football, and join a few clubs. Were any of these goals met?

                Well, my first goal, to make honor roll all four quarters, was not a complete failure. However it wasn’t a success. I missed honor roll by less than two points for both the first and second quarters. Then I made it for the third quarter with two points to spare. The way I see it, if I can make it again this quarter, I’ll be batting .500. Not too shabby. My second goal, to earn a starting position in football, did not go exactly as I planned either. I really did work hard to get the spot, but it never happened. I did get a spot on goal line defense, where I made several good plays. Is it really a starting position though? That’s debatable. Anyway, my third goal, to join a club, ended up just like my other goals. I was interested in joining Science Olympiad, so I went to the first few meetings. However, I learned that it would conflict with my swimming schedule. So, I decided that it was not the club for me.

                It may seem like this was a total waste of a year, but I accomplished things that I did not originally set out to do. For example, during swimming I went to ECIC’s for the 100 meter Breaststroke. It was there that I beat my best time for that event. I also received my varsity letter because I was on the Varsity swim team. Lastly, I made more friends and have had a lot of good times since I wrote that blog.

So, did I meet the goals I set in September? Kinda.