World Language

Most people think that taking a second language is going to be useful; I'm not disagreeing with this, because I find understanding spanish useful. The thing that I don't understand is, why do we have to learn spanish starting in 1st grade? We don't even learn anything, and there's no homework, meaning they just waste 45 minutes of the day; I'm not saying that I WANT homework (I'd have to be crazy first), but I wonder why we start in 1st grade. Out of the 6 years I've taken spanish, I only learned how to conjugate verbs and useful sentence structure stuff in 7th grade, and all the rest of the 6 years are wasted. I mean, learning out to say 'horse' and 'apple' is ok, but it's not exactly useful. I think that people should only start taking a second language in 7th grade, or not take it so early in life and not that long of a period of time when you DO take it in 1st grade.
"The time could be spent for more important things; such as math." -my dad.

Math Level Separation

Do you think that separating people into different math levels is a good thing? Are you one of the people who think, "Yeah, it's great, being in an honors algebra class. I don't have any immature people who slow me and my teacher down in teaching us. Everyone is so serious, yet algebra is probably the best subject within our 8 periods of school, besides lunch." or do you say, "I think it's great! Being in a lower level math means that i can get really high grades without even trying! When I get that paper back, I always know it's above a 90!". Or, do you think negatively about this system? "I wish that math class wasn't so hard. And i wish that Mrs. Chemris wouldn't give so much homework, or grade us harshly on tests."

For me, I personally love the separation in math classes. Though sometimes Mrs. Speelman does grade us harshly, and our homework must be flawless in order to recieve full credit, I am glad that I learn something new everyday, rather than the same thing over a period of days.

Calvin and Hobbes

Here are a few of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes comic strips.

The one above is called 'Megalomania' (from 'The Essential Calvin and Hobbes")

'The Alpha and the Omega' (from 'The Essential Calvin and Hobbes') 

'Selfishness' (from 'The Essential Calvin and Hobbes')

'Cupidity' (from Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons)

I'd really rather not say what this one is called... (from The Days are just packed)

'Silly Things' from 'The Essential Calvin and Hobbes'

So, I hoped that you enjoyed these fun comics!

Comic Strips from http://calvinethobbes.free.fr/english/c_defauts.html

Mag-Lev

I've seen many parts of China, especially Shanghai, where we go every other year for summer vacation. If I were to pick one word to describe it, then that word would be: crowded. Almost everywhere we went, there were at least five people unintentionally surrounding one person.
But here, at the tracks of the Mag-Lev, were about ten to fifteen people, all spread apart. It was like 15 people at the tracks of a train. I wondered why that was so. "This is called a Mag Lev," stated my Dad, "It's extremely expensive; not too many people are lucky enough to use it because it's a business class of transportation."
That would explain the men in suits and holding briefcases. I felt like the oddball with my t-shirt and shorts, and the only kid standing at the tracks of the train. 

At least the train would reach the airport quicker. It's a good thing that we can reach the airport quicker to pick up my mom and sister, Alex. Since my mom got the plane tickets, I had to go with my Dad, and Alex with my Mom. I left a day earlier, and they did so a day late. Today, they're arriving.
My dad continued his lecture, saying that the Mag Lev stood for "magnetic levitation", meaning that the train was about an inch off the tracks, levitation using a magnetic force. This is how the train goes so fast; because it's not rubbing against the tracks, so it has no friction.
When the train came, I looked carefully at the bottom it.  It doesn't look like it is levitating, I thought to myself, I hope they didn't rip us off. This train is about thrice as expensive as a regular one. 

Though it was a long train, few people got out. But then again, only a few people got on. 

I walked through the indigo carpet covered floors. Finding a good seat was easy; the blue seats were all spread apart, almost looking like an airplane, but everything all spacious. I'd bet that there were several carts with no one it it. I took my seat as the train started to move. 

At the end of every cart, there is a space where a wide door would have been, and at the top, there was an electric sign with many red pixels to form words, and the speed of how fast the train was going. Since I was in China, I wasn't accustomed to using kilometers instead of miles.

At first, the sign read from 1 to 32 km, but only in minutes, it had reached 100 km. 200. 300. 400. 

By the time it reached 410 km, the scene outside was a blurred vision, and my Dad said, "I think that this is the fastest the train is going to get. Go stand under that sign, and I'll take a picture of you."

I stood unwillingly, and walked under the sign. If there weren't  other people in the cart, I would  have done so enthusiastically. But I smiled anyways. Not many would pay 30 yuan to ride an extremely fast train, so I was lucky. 

He took out my favorite black Nikon as I flashed a small smile, and I pointed to the sign above me, which said "410 kilometers". Somewhere in the back of the cart, a person laughed and I flushed in embarrassment, and as myself, I'm usually good at covering my embarrassment. That person took out his own camera and started to take pictures. But I looked at my dad instead, trying to forget about the other irritating dude.

Once he was done taking my picture, my dad put away his Nikon as I took my seat. The train started to slow, and the outside scene became clearer. Soon, it was only 30 km. And slowly... slowly... the train stopped.

The doors slid open quickly, almost unnaturally, and I started to stand up. Quickly walking down the aisle, out the door, and through the small group of people waiting to board the latest form of transportation.

I know that this story seems a little random, but I figured, it's not something everyone experiences, and it's been a while since we published stuff on this blog.

Sarah Palin...if you did this in the LA debate...

You have probably seen and heard Sarah Palin and her, shall we say, interesting interviews and debates (unless you happen to have never even heard of her...we won't mention any names, Jill). You may notice that she doesn't always answer the questions that she is asked, but usually she will just repeat herself and bring up something that has almost no connection to the question. But you haven't seen the last thirty seconds of this video yet, particularly the last five seconds...

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4476649n

100 Degrees: An environmentalist story Continued

I was in a daze for that whole school day, reading passages in English, and getting to the middle of a paragraph, realizing that I hadn't understood a single sentence I had read. Doing half of my Math problems wrong, and not sparing a thought to what I did in Science because I knew that everything we did while not caring about the world was wrong. Eating one bite of food without realizing that you may be living off of tropical fruits in just a few years was terrible. It was edging towards impossible to live through the school day knowing that only palm trees could grow in people's yards just because we didn't care. I went through the school day, my ears turning each lecture into a slurred monotone, thinking about what I could do about the world.
I didn't say one word on the bus. I couldn't think about anything besides how unfair it was that a few important people's non-caring lives could make the world be like this...60 degrees for the coolest winter in the United States. That always seemed like it was normal; how it should be. But, as I had learned in school which, at the time, had seemed to be useless information, it had to be 32 degrees or cooler to snow. That was the freezing point of water. The coldest winter temperature would have to half in order for it to ever snow again. I was eager to see snow – more than eager – but wouldn't it be a bit...frightening for it to suddenly be 32 degrees for an entire season, an entire three months? It would be like living in a freezer for a quarter of a year. Was that what it was like in the winters when it did snow? How long ago was that? I had so many questions about snow on my mind, but I had one burning question that made me freeze when I even asked it to myself: Would it ever snow again?

Words from My Brother

My brother loves science. So, here is a small bit of information from him to you (from here on it's his words only that I typed).

Mars has the most hugest volcano in the Solar System. Its name is Olympus Monz, named after the mountain of the Greek Gods. But Olympus Monz is three times bigger than Mt. Everest. And right now Olympus Monz is extinct because it's never erupting again. Olympus Monz would be safe to climb up because Mars has less gravity than Earth to pull you down. And Olympus Monz could have once been very, very active, and it may have also had life on the very bottom of it. Olympus Monz would make all of the other volcanoes on Earth look like babies. And it would fit 2.5 Mt. Everest's to go up and down Olympus Monz. If you don't believe in this, Olympus Monz has a crater inside itself. And Mars is a very interesting place where you can see Olympus Monz. And Olympus Monz still has a lot to be discovered.

So, those were my brother's words of wisdom to you. Use them wisely!