The Rwandan Debate.

On November 19th we had a debate about the Rwandan Genocide. We each got a group that represented different people involved in the genocide. My group was the U.N. and I was surprised that we didn’t get attacked as much as we did, I was grateful Belgium was attacked the most out of all of us.

What we did in the Rwandan genocide as part of the United Nations was really nothing at all! We sent troops in Rwanda and after 10 soldiers got killed we fled the country to be safe from the Interhamwe and Paul Kagme. It was hard to defend ourselves but after a little bit of understanding from different parts of the debate it just sort of, clicked. WE tried to point the finger at the Interhamwe for killing the 10 soldiers, and Paul Kagme for “brainwashing” the Interhamwe but hey shot us back with some pretty convincing evidence that the killing were someone else’s fault, and of course no one pointed the finger at the Red Cross because they didn’t even do anything wrong in the first place. They could have stayed quiet and no one would have ever noticed or cared.

Belgium was accused so much and I didn’t even know what part they took on the Rwandan Genocide because I completely forgot to figure out what they did when they were there… if they were there at all! I guess they did something wrong though with I sort of figured out in the end. When Romeo Delair spoke nothing he had to say even made any sense or connected to the Rwandan Genocide debate what so ever. I think I learned more from the debate then I did learning any other way, the that was probably the point… wasn’t it?

The American Scholar

Emerson’s argument in "The American Scholar" still holds true today.


Emerson’s argument is, in the past people learned a variety of skills but now they focus on one specific job and define themselves by whatever job they have. People today only do one thing and only learn the skills associated with this thing. “Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all.” Which means we shouldn’t be putting ourselves into a situation where we only learn one thing or have one job, but we should branch out and learn other skills. People don’t need to do other things, but have lost hope in learning other skills by doing so.

People are labeling themselves and other people with their job. For example if someone was a doctor, you would probably think they were extremely smart, and if someone worked at Wal-Mart you would probably think that they are uneducated. If we think of people by their skills and ideas instead of their job we’ll be able to figure out who they really are, and we can define them as smart or uneducated.

Halloween!

Everyone allways gets excited over Halloween, it's one of my least favorite holidays though. Haloween scares me. I get scared at almost everything, and i hate being scared, and when Haloween comes around everything just gets worse. Haloween also breaks a lot of rules that we follow every single day. One of them is to not take candy from strangers, instead of taking candy from one stranger, we take candy from a lot of strangers. Sometimes you don't even get candy, i get pennys a lot of the time. Something else that is weird about Halloween is when parents bring up a baby stroller to the door, and they only have a one year old kid. Can a baby really eat all that hard candy? That would just be silly. The adult always eats the kids candy, and that is taking advantage. I mean theres that part in your life were you have to stop trick or treating weather you want to or not.

Something i like to do on Halloween is watch "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". It's something you just have to do on Haloween, it's a classic. The other good thing about Halloween is candy. That's about it, dressing up is okay too.

Things you have to do on Haloween:
1. Say "Trick or treat". It's a must.
2. Do not use a pillow case.
3. If you have a kid less then 2 years old, don't take him trick or treating.
4. Watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown
5. Don't give out pennys. That's just silly.

Insomnia, Procrastination, and Yogurt.

Today is a yet another day filled with no accomplishments. It wasn't productive what so ever, besides this blog post of course. It's becoming a trend and that isn't good. I say that because I feel like I should always be doing something productive, even if it's nothing important. Coloring in a coloring book is productive and isn't important. Scratch that, point is, I need to stop procrastinating things and be more productive. There, now saying it makes me feel better and maybe I'll actually do it. Just this morning during the M.E.A.P., I almost fell asleep trying to answer the pointless social studies questions of doom. How was I supposed to know how French started in Canada? Most of what I learned last year s about the civil war. Why couldn’t they ask me questions about that? Why do we have to take a test anyway? They don’t bother telling you these things in school, all the teachers say it’s mandatory, that’s about it.


Well I suppose it’s my fault I’m tired at school. Usually I have yogurt in the morning on the bus, which of course, I forgot this morning. It’s the only thing that keeps me awake in the morning, no matter how long I sleep, which I about 2 hours every night, and on top of all that, I have insomnia. I usually get to bed at twelve, and I don’t fall asleep until about three, two if I’m lucky. I told my mom I have insomnia and that I should see a doctor, but I don’t think she believes me. And on top of ALL that, today I woke up at about 6:40 which is when the bus gets here. I scrambled like eggs around the house for five minutes to get ready, do all of my chores, make my lunch, and find some yogurt for the bus, which I left in the car anyway.

Things to note:

First, finish homework before anything else. Second, convince my mom I have insomnia. Third, get an alarm clock. And MOST importantly, DON’T EVER forget the yogurt.

Polar Pandemic!

“Stop global warming!” I’m sure you hear this a lot, but do you actually know what global warming is? Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere. Global warming wraps around the world like a blanket, especially the arctic regions like Antarctica where animals like polar bears and seals are struggling to survive. Though polar bears aren’t critically endangered they’re still vulnerable to high risk of extinction if we don’t take action to try and protect animals like polar bears, and the environment. Global warming also increases chances of flooding droughts and other naturally occurring storms. Hurricanes could also increase and could also be more damaging when they do.

I got concerned about global warming when I was in 7th grade and since then I’ve tried to make a difference by recycling more and buying environmentally safe products. I believe that we can all make a difference if we just give it a shot. We just need to take the time to put in our fair share. Throw away some litter found on the street, or recycle some clean empty pop cans, and take a cold shower once in awhile. If we all pitched in, we can make a difference and save those polar bears from extinction. We could even protect the world from deadly hurricanes, floods and droughts. Save the environment, save the world! To learn more about global warming click here. To see what you can do to help the enviornment click here.

Lunch-OUT

I left the unfamiliar surroundings of German class as the hallway practically exploded with people. Everyone knocking into each other, like bumper cars at the fair, except it lacks the smell of elephant ears and pizza. I was on my way to lunch, and I only knew one person in it. The rest were in the lunch after mine. I couldn’t spot her in the hallway as I was edging towards my locker; it was like spotting out a rabbit in the snow. Once I got to my locker about half of the hall was empty and I was hoping I could find a spot at a table when I saw my friend, she poked me and said hi as she sped down the hallway, I could barely keep up and before I knew it I lost track of her. I always wondered how she could walk that fast, anyways, I wandered down the hallways and finally found the lunch rooms, except they were both completely full, there were already people eating in the hallway.

I desperately looked for my friend but I couldn’t see her. I must of walked in and out of each lunch room about 20 times so I gave up, slid on the floor in the hallway, and munched on my food, hoping that I would see someone I knew, or at least be fast enough to catch up next time. I never even thought you could even eat in the hallways, so it was a new experience I guess. It was a slow lunch but it was sped up from my thoughts on how the rest of the day would go. People started leaving the lunch rooms and bunching up with their friends, filling the hall with conversation and laughter as they waited for the teacher to let them pass. I had nothing to do but get up and wait with them.

They let us thru and I made my way to 4th hour, slowly, but surely. I walked in the room just in time for the bell to ring, the loud shaking of metal against my ears like two symbols playing over and over again. My teacher had just announced that our schedules were messed up and we were now having the next lunch. My smile must have been pretty big considering the look I got from the person next to me, but I didn’t care because I had so many friends in that lunch that I was bound to find someone I knew in it. When I heard that, all my lunch troubles drowned away. Next goal, drown my academic troubles away.

My Alphabet

A is for Acoustic Guitar. I love the way the music flows through me, not just when I play it, but also when I listen. I love the gentle sound of the strings vibrating, and the melody that comes out of these vibrations. Each note and chord, having its own personality.

B is for Bed. I love to sleep even know I have trouble with it. Sleeping relaxes me and gives me a break from life for about 6 hours. It takes me a while to fall asleep but when I do I have the weirdest dreams. I always like to think they mean something but they almost never do.

C is for Clowns. I can’t stand them… with their giant red noses and big fake smiles. They freak me out. Whoever invented them must have been a complete whack job. Whoever made them scary must have really liked them, and wanted to make them superior or something.

D is for Darkness. I’m completely afraid of it. And it’s all because off Bloody Mary. Someone told me about it in 3rd grade and now I’m terribly afraid of bathrooms at night. Just at night, because that’s when it’s dark. That’s probably why I have trouble sleeping.

E is for Elephants. They are one of my favorite animals. I always wanted one when I was little, until I saw one up close, then I wished I had a mini version, like the size of a hamster. I used to be so proud of myself because I could spell it in first grade. It was the most advanced word I knew.

F is for Fish. I have a couple. They must be magical because I forget to feed them a lot. I forgot to feed them for a month once, and every winter the albino fish turns black, and then changes when spring starts again, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cosmo and Wanda popped out of the tank. I used to have a goldfish named Swimmy; he started off a couple inches and grew to be 10 inches. We had to buy a whole new tank just for him; he ended up dying a couple weeks later. He was too big to fit down the toilet. I had another fish that must have disappeared of the face of the planet because he was too big to be eaten and he left no bones behind. I don’t buy fish anymore.

G is for Grapes. The GRAPEst food ever. I just love how fruity-tastic they are, I mean they’re basically juice with a skin. That sort of killed my appetite.

H is for Horton Hears a Who. This is the best movie ever. At least I think so. I think it’s interesting how people live on a spec. I mean how weird would it be if we were living on a spec.

I is for Ice Cold. The cold never seemed to bother me. I never needed a coat in the winter because I just wasn’t cold, but my parents insisted. Hey must be cold a lot though because I have to wear a winter coat in fall sometimes, I usually just take it off when I leave though .

J is for Jelly. I never really like it. I never ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I just had peanut butter sandwiches because I love peanut butter and hate jelly. I don’t like how it feels in my mouth.

K is for KandyKorn. I LOVE it a lot of people seem to hate it though, I don’t know why. I especially like the pumpkins there really good. They are only around during Halloween though which is a shame because they really are delicious.

L is for Lollipops. They’re so good. I especially like the ones you get from the doctors, which is bad for a couple reasons. First I hate he doctors; they freak me out, just a little. And second, they won’t give me a lollipop anymore because I’m too old.

M is Music. I love it. I don't think i could live without it. Some of my favorite bands include Owl City, Swimming with Dolphins, Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Beatles. I hate rap music though, it has no meaning to it.

N is for Needles. They are one of my biggest fears. Well, they’re defiantly up there. I don’t like the pain of a needle piercing the skin. I wish doctors would tell you how much it would hurt. That way you expect the worse then it would end up being less hurtful then you thought. It defiantly isn’t a pinch.

O is for Owl City. An amazing band. His music is inspiring and I love listening to it. It’s so peaceful and exciting at the same time. It’s perfect. Every aspect of it.

P is for Ping Pong. I can’t play it but it’s addicting. Not to mention super fun to say. Ping Pong. Ping Pong. Ping Pong. Super fun.

Q is for Quitting. I never quit. No matter what the circumstances are. I will find a way to finish it. No matter what.

R is for Ranting. I like to rant about how my day was just to bother people. I don’t think they really mind though. It just makes me feel better.

S is for Simply Orange. It’s so tangy, Creamy and delicious. I feels so good going down and it makes me feel better when I’m sick

T is for Time. I never have enough of it. Well it’s probably because I procrastinate a lot. I don’t like doing work. This is why I put it off. It usually ends up better though, because I have more time to think about it.

U is for Ukulele. I love the way I sounds. It’s like en acoustic guitar but with a higher pitch.

V is for Vikings. Their style enlightens me.

W is for Wednesday. The worst day of the week by far, It’s right in the center and I’m always really tired on those days.

X is for X-mas. The best of the holidays, where you can wear red and green together without
looking stupid. My dad is kind of a scrooge around this season though.

Y is for Yorkies. Their so little.

Z is for Zebra. I love the way English people say it.

High School

High school is pretty good so far. People fill the hallways, and I've pretty much mastered swerving around them to get to my classes on time. It's so much easier getting too my classes then I thought. If it wasn't for the signs, I would be lost. I made a lot of new friends and there all awesome... to bad none of them are in my classes. All of them are in my lunch, including my old friends, and I only get about 45 minutes with them, and half of the time I'm eating. I haven't seen some of my friends at all yet, but I'm determined to. I always wonder if the food they serve at lunch is any good , I don't want it crawling off of my tray and into the garbage if that's where it belongs.

When people spill stuff no one makes an effort to clean it up and I almost slipped a couple times. Aren't there any janitors cleaning up while class is going on? I mean, I'm not asking them to clean while everyone is in the hallways but I'm pretty cure they can at least clean while no one is. There may be some bad things about high school but it is much better then middle school. I actually think there may be less home work... at least in some classes. One of my favorite things about high school is that we can bring backpacks in class with us. This is way cool because I like taking my stuff to my last class, that way I can leave directly from there. Definately better then middle school.