Christmas

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s a time when people get presents for other people and when people can get together and see each other. There are many reasons why I like Christmas a lot. First of all, I like seeing the lights decorated on people’s homes. I also like seeing all the snow that comes down and also I like having snowball fights, going sledding, and going snowboarding. It’s also fun having a two week break off of school so there's not a lot I need to worry about and I can do what I never get a lot of and that is sleep a lot more. The best thing I like about it though is that my birthday is five days after Christmas.
The one major thing I am asking for and I really need is a new hockey stick. I’m using a one 55 now and that stick isn’t good at all. If you know anything about hockey sticks, is that you can’t really do a lot with this stick, because one it is pretty heavy and you want to use a light stick when you play, and two it’s pretty hard to use. One more thing I want is an iHome for my iPod.
I usually go to Maine for Christmas but this year I’m not but that’s okay. My mom’s whole side of the family lives in Maine so that’s why we usually go. I usually have a good time when I go there for Christmas but sometimes it can be boring there because I have no cousins my age that live there so I usually do stuff with my uncle. My uncle is the head coach of a team that’s basically in the same league as the Plymouth whalers so it’s fun to go see those games. We usually go to a game on my birthday so it’s like a birthday present for me. Other than that though I like visiting my older cousins who are all mostly in their twenties so it’s fun talking and catching up with them. I usually stay at my grandparents house but sometimes I stay over my uncles so it’s like I’m back and forth between the houses because my uncle lives right down the street from my grandparents so it’s nice being able to go to both houses. I really enjoy seeing my relatives from my moms side.

Rwanda

The Rwandan genocide discussion made me realize a lot more about what really happened between the Tutsis and the Hutus and who actually started it (Belgium!!). I really found out how Belgium came in and basically started the war and then just decided to leave. It’s not right what they did and they’re the big people to blame. I also learned about the Interahamwe and how they killed many people which still isn’t right even if they say that they had to kill which I think is a load of bull. The U.S.A said they didn’t do anything wrong but that’s a lie too because yeah they just stayed out of it but they’re the number one country in power and they’re not going to help anyone? Well that’s wrong because they could have basically ended the war with all the power, but they didn’t so that’s the main thing they did wrong.

I like the way we did this discussion because it helped me learn a lot better about it. I liked this a lot more instead of just taking notes on this and then taking a test because I seem to learn a lot more in an interesting way because I like interacting with what we are doing. I would like this way more often and it would help me a lot more learning about it. There were some things that I didn’t like though like the way some of the information was put out and also how we just got a little jist if each group we didn’t get the whole thing, I think I would have liked learning a little more about each one, like maybe we should have talked about our groups more than just a little introduction. I’ve never done this in a class before so it was a new experience to me so I really enjoyed it a lot. If we could learn it this way all the time I would be a lot more informed about what’s going on because when were having our “debates” in class, I really would like to get involved but I don’t know what to see but this new way I actually knew what I was doing and what was going on. I really would like to do this more often in class.

"The American Scholar"

Emerson's argument in "The American Scholar" about American society still holds true today.

One reason Emerson's argument still holds true today is that people can be good at doing more then one thing and they can like doing more then one thing. In the story The American Scholar, it says this, "That the gods, in the beginning, divided man into men, that he might be more helpful to himself; just as the hand was divided into fingers, the better to answer its end." I believe this because its saying how a man could do more with five fingers instead of just with a hand and how a man could do more then just one thing. I can relate to how Emerson is saying that a man can do more then just one job because my dad was an engineer but when there was something wrong with the house like craftsman job or an electrician's job, my dad could fix it.

Another reason Emerson's argument still holds true today is that just because someone went to college to do one specific career doesn't mean they have to stay with that just one career, if they wanted to they should be able to because we have the capability of doing more then just one thing. I can relate to this because my aunt was a teacher but ended up getting tired of doing the same routine everyday so she ended up quiting her teaching job and went looking for another job. Its like if someone was playing baseball and started getting sick of the sport, then the person should go and try a different sport that they actually like. This relates to this situation because its like the tennis player is man looking for a new job because they're sick of the one they already have.

It’s the time of Halloween again. A time when people can dress up as scary monsters or ghost and go collect candy. It’s a very fun time of the year for me because for one you get all the free candy you want and it’s a time where you can go out and get scared and I like getting scared. Also on Halloween I like to go to haunted houses with people because it’s not scary when you’re with other people and you can enjoy it better.
This Halloween I’m still not sure what I am doing yet but I’ll probably find out tonight. Two classic Halloween movies that I enjoy watching is Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. I also like seeing all the houses decorated with Halloween decorations and seeing it at night all lit up. Another funny thing is seeing all the little kids getting scared running around as they come out of a haunted house. Their faces all filled with tears because of being so scared is not I’m going to say funny but is just another way it puts the mood into Halloween.
One thing almost every kid likes doing is going out on devils night and vandalizing people’s property. Even though I don’t do it, it seems a lot of fun because it’s like you have a big sense of adrenalin pumping through your body and you just want to get out there and do something. It ranges in a variety of stuff like kids could TP peoples house or egg them or anything like that many kids enjoy doing all this stuff.
The only bad thing about Halloween is about all that candy kids eat after they get it. All the kids just eat and eat the candy and then they get cavities and that’s when the dentist love it because they have more and more people that come in and have cavities. Halloween is a very fun holiday for many people and everybody likes it because it’s just a fun holiday for us kids where we can go out and just have loads of fun. Either it’s with family or friends you still have fun either way. One thing I know for sure is that I’m at least going to one haunted house that is right by my house and is actually quite scary for a homemade haunted house. I am going to enjoy it.

Space

My favorite subject in science to talk about is apace. In my eyes I think space is a very fun subject to learn and you can learn a lot of interesting new things about it. The reason I like space so much is because I am pretty good at it and its fun learning about the new planets and how we are sending many rovers out to different planets to learn more about them. It would be pretty fun being an astronomer because you get to study and learn new and interesting things about space and the interesting things that are out there.
One new thing that seems really exciting is how they found water on the moon. If there’s water and then moon then there can be some proof that there was once some life on the moon. It would be very exciting to find life on the other planets not just in our solar system but in the other galaxies there are in space. It would be very new and exciting if some day we can find life on some other planet or if we can actually get out of our galaxy and into another one because we have never even been out of our solar system so if we could get out of our galaxy it would be great news and it would make history.
The thing that I think is really cool is the rings around Saturn. Even though we can’t land anything on the rings of Saturn it would just look really cool seeing rings around a planet. Even though we will never be able to even land anything on Saturn, I think it would be really cool to get out there and see it but the bad things is, it would be way too far and long to go all the way out to Saturn.
If I could live on one planet in our solar system I would pick Venus because it’s always warm there. Even though we can’t really go to Venus because of the dangerous gases and because it way to hot, I would still like to be there if we were able to live on it.
In the long run I hope we are able to land any rovers on a planet that we have never landed on because we, landing a rover on another planet will be history and because it would be very exciting.

The Conflict of Swine Flu

The news conflict I’m writing about is the case of swine flu. I feel like this disease is over rated. So many people are making a big deal about this swine flu disease but honestly in my opinion I think the regular flu is worse. The reason the swine flu seems so much worse than the regular flu is because we’ve never had a vaccine or medications for it so people can’t get cured right away so it just seems like that’s it’s a lot worse. The normal flu just seems a lot worse than swine flu anyways because the swine flu is what a high fever?

I have a connection to this because I know someone who had swine flu and they looked absolutely fine to me. They were still joking around and they told me they felt fine. The only thing the person had was just a high fever and from that the doctor said this person had swine flu. In my honest opinion to this subject I think people are freaking out over something that’s actually not that big of a deal. When this subject first came at hand I thought oh my god if someone gets this they’re dead. After awhile though when they started talking more about it and when someone I knew got it I realized it’s not very that deadly. Ever since this flu has started many people have been worried about getting the swine flu so some people wouldn’t even send their kids to school because they didn’t want them getting exposed to the other kids because they didn’t want their own kids catching the disease.

Even though they are coming out with the new swine flu shot people are still having reactions to the shot. Since the vaccine is so new they haven’t gone back and revised the shot so it gives people the weird reactions. Just the regular flu shot has been dealt with a lot now and the doctors know what reactions it gives to people and how it will harm them so they know it a lot better then they know the swine flu shot. Right now only 14 states have the swine flu vaccine shot. Some people receive the antidote in a nasal spray. Soon almost all states will receive this vaccine to start preventing the source of swine flu. So People will now actually start getting their cure for this disease or at least prevent it.

Hockey

Have you ever played hockey? Well hockey is my favorite sport. I have been playing hockey since I’ve been 2 years old. I have played for many teams throughout my hockey career. The team I am playing for right now is the Livonia knights. The only bad thing about hockey is that on some nights I have hockey until 11 and the next day at school I am half asleep throughout the day and it’s not like I can even come home and go back to sleep because I have to do some homework and then I have soccer practice.

Hockey is a very fun sport. It’s a very fast pace game and you always have to be alert when you’re playing because if you have the puck and you have your head down, your most likely to get rocked. I really like it because I just love the feeling of skating down the ice with cold air blowing in your face but it’s like you don’t even care because you feel like you’re flying. It’s even a fun sport to play when you’re angry because you can take all your anger out on the ice by either just skating hard or going and just drilling someone. Some of the games can get really intense too. Sometimes when people fight it can get really big and once we had a game where both teams were on the ice and everyone was just fighting. We just stopped the game and it wasn’t even half done yet. That was probably the most intense game I ever had. The other coach was the one who sent his whole team onto the ice. The bad thing about this game also was that we only had one ref so he really couldn’t do much.
I really like to watch hockey too. I usually watch the red wings a lot. Sometimes I just watch whatever hockey that’s on because you can actually learn a lot about hockey from watching the pros because they really know what they’re doing out there. It’s also pretty fun seeing how fast the game speed is because compared to the speed of my games, they are a lot! Faster. My favorite player in the NHL is Alexander Ovechkin because he always knows what he’s doing with the puck and he scores a lot. Even though he doesn’t have the best team he is still really good.

Letters that describe me.

A- I am very Athletic. I play many sports and do many athletic activities in my free time. Also when I play sports I’m very alert.
B- I have a bird as a pet. Also I sometimes like to go and play baseball for fun with my cousins and brother when there’s nothing else to do.
C- I can be very cooperative. I would rather work with other people and be with other people then be by myself. Also if I could have a pet I would have a cat because there fun pets to play with. When I was younger I was going to get a cat but then we moved. Also sometimes me and my brother go in my backyard and go play catch.
D- I am a daredevil. I will do stuff that I know I might get hurt but I will still do it . As long it is fun I will do it but I won’t do something that would get me seriously injured or hurt really bad.
E- On days where I get a lot of sleep I am very energetic and can process a lot better. Also I’m a pretty enjoying person and I’m a very expressed person and like show what I’m thinking.
f- Many people think I’m a funny person. When someone’s in a bad mood I usually can cheer them up and make them laugh. Also I am a very fast runner.
g- I am a pretty great person. I try not to lie and I don’t steal so that makes me pretty great.
h- I am always in a happy mood. I like to make people happy and I like being happy.
I- One thing I love to do is be on the ice. I play ice hockey and I’m pretty good at it. Also I like to eat ice because it’s nice and cold and on a hot day it always refreshing and very tasty.
j- I am always joking around. I like to joke around with people but sometimes I can take it a little too far. Also I am a really jolly type of person.
k- I have pretty good knowledge in math.
l- I can speak another language besides English. I like to laugh a lot and also I like to make other people laugh too because when everybody else is laughing around me, it’s more fun to be around them.
M- I don’t like mean people. If someone is mean to me I usually don’t like talking to them. Also I’m good in math.
N- I am pretty good with numbers. I can add and subtract pretty good and multiply and divide.
o- When I go visit my grandparents in Maine I go to the ocean a lot and walk on the beaches there. Also my favorite thing to learn in science is about outer space.
p- I have great passion for the sports I play. Also I think we should have peace in our world because there’s no need for fighting.
q- I sleep with a big quilt on me at night.
r- I like to run a lot. Also the main time I like the weather is when its raining in the summer because the day is really hot out and then the rain comes and cools the day down.
s- A sport I play is soccer. Other then soccer I like to play many sports because I am a very athletic kid and enjoy playing many sports because if I didn’t I would have a lot of free time and I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.
t- One pet that I think would be very boring to have is a turtle because they’re very slow and they can’t do much when you have them as pets.
u- When I went to private school in third grade, the one thing I hated about it the most was that you had to wear uniforms.
v- I use to play a lot of video games but after awhile I realized they got boring so I don’t so much anymore.
w- If I could be any animal that lives in the ocean I would be a whale because there the biggest in the ocean and no other fish in the ocean would want to mess with you.
x- In my life time I have had a lot of x-rays when I go to the hospital.
z- The first letter in my name starts with a Z. Also an animal that I think looks really weird is a zebra.

first day of school

The life I’ve Never Had….

ZAID!! ZAID!! The first words I hear when waking up from the 2 and a half hour sleep I got the night before. My mom is in her morning daze, half asleep in her night gown waking me up for the first day of my new life. I get up slowly, body aching like I’ve just been put into a blender and crushed up. I move, eyes still just barely awake and lunge myself into the shower. I get in and it feels like I’m in the waters of the Arctic Ocean with my body shivering all over and the aching feeling your body gets when it’s too cold. Now I’m awake more than ever and feel a little nervous for the first day of high school.

I get out of the shower now and I am looking for something nice but casual to wear. I am deciding between my gray shirt and my white shirt and I decide to wear the gray one because it looks nicer on me. So I throw it on with a pair of cacky shorts and I head down the stairs. As I get down the stairs I look at the time and realize how long it took me upstairs. I quickly run in the bathroom to brush my teeth and then when I finish I go to the garage.

As I get my shoes on getting ready to go to the bus I think of what high school is going to be like. Is it scary being a freshman? Do people really pick on you because you’re a freshman? Well in about 20 minutes I was going to find out. As I walk outside, it’s dark out. I’m thinking it was never this dark out last year when I went to my bus stop. As I reach the bus stop, there are about 9 people at my bus stop, I knew about 5 of them, but the other 4 I didn’t know. As I see the bus coming down the road, I think “Man I’m going to have to get use to this more often.”

As I get on the bus I don’t really know anyone so I just decide to sit in the back by myself. It was interesting going a different way to school because usually I would be going to Holmes but now I’m going to Stevenson. As I arrive at the school, I see many people going into the school. I get off the bus, and follow them into this new school of mine. I walk into the school and find a friend so I decide to walk with him. I finally find my locker and put the stuff I had with me into it.

Summer is finally over. All the late nights I would stay up with my cousins and brother were done now. I walk into my first hour now and find where I sit and sit down. Here are the next 4 years of my life. I hope they are good 4 years.

Stevenson is a pretty good highschool so far. It is very big and I still havent been to parts of the school. Its a lot better in the morning because you have 25 minutes to do what you want. I usually talk to my friends in the morning. Also a better thing i like it is that you can play more sports in highschool. The sport im playing now is soccer.



There are also things I dont like about the school. First off i dont like how you have to wake up so early. I have been getting maybe somewhere from 4-7 hours of sleep a night when i have school. Also its not like i can sleep when i get home because right when i get home i have maybe an hour that i can do for homework then i have to go right back to school for soccer. when i have soccer games i dont usally get home until 9:30 So then when i get home i have to finish my homework which usually takes about an hour to finish sometimes more. One more thing i dont like about the school is that the amount of kids that are in the school. When your walking in the hallways it takes forever because there are so many kids in the hall ways.

At stevenson there are many more things you can do also then you can do in middle school. You could have your phone out in the halls before school and the teachers don't care its out unless when your in their class. Also in the morning you can be listening to your ipods and the teachers also dont care. If you had any kind of electronics out last year they would get taken away.

When your in high school many things are different. You get more freedom then you had in middle school. Teachers also give you more respect and responsibilty but you cant abuse the freedom they give you. So far I think stevenson is a lot better then my old school.