Sports

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/mid/1508/ArticleId/880/Default.aspx

http://www.therichest.org/sports/most-popular-sports-in-america/

Well its game day night and people are starting to crowd around TV’s to watch their favorite sport, but how much of us really watch the sport? According to harris interactive about 66% of adults in the Midwest watch football on TV.  While that’s over half the Midwest population I think that what we really like about game day is more than just the sport.  

What I find that happens when we go over to a house to watch a football game is that we watch it but also we talk and catch up on what has been going on in really life. Not just what is on the TV. This is also a time when you see ideas being exchanging. WE talk about more than what we see on TV but work and school also.

While what sports we play is very similar to what we watch.  Football was the top played sport followed by baseball and basketball. These games both loved to be played and watched by Americans all over. What I like about playing a game of a certain sport is that it has a lot more actively add into it more than just watching the game.

Some sports that you don’t see every day that become very popular every four years are Olympic sports. Like swimming and ping-pong which, when you have normal cable you can’t watch every day. But when the Olympics come around you see sports you have hardly thought of as a sport.

The most watched Olympic sport this past year was track and field, however I know I watched not just track. I also watched diving, volleyball, and horseback riding which was one of my favorites. Once again when you look back didn’t you also sit with either some friends or family and watch either the opening or closing ceremonies for the Olympics? What we have here is a ting that brings the whole world together. Sports.  

So as you gather around the TV next time to watch any sporting events think about what you are doing. Not just watching a game but helping spread a culture with ideas exchanged around the TV. This is why  I think in the end maybe I should go to that football game party next week so that I can see and enjoy people. 

When in doubt act sick

When in doubt act sick

For my Ap biology class we have to read a scientific novel on a biology subject. I am reading “The Great Influenza” by John M. Barry. It is about the Influenza epidemic that would hit the US during and after WWI. But this book doesn’t look at just the disease but who studied it and how the disease spread so quickly. 

The first part of the book, look at the development of how we trained or lack of training we required of our physicians. This lead to a lack of good health care in America; while in Europe they were starting to rethink and explore why the body got sick and how to prevent and fix it.

One of the major thing that I think they talked about is some doctors got their degree and never even touched or worked with either a cadaver or live patient till they started practicing.  My book emphasizes that this changed with the opening of John Hopkins medical school.

The main person to head this institution was William Henry Welch. Welch would become one of the most important people in this book. He would encourage other people to be great   and his idea of having a medical school with a laboratory to do nothing but research would help America change its ways of looking at medicine. Just in time for an epidemic that would be greater that any we had seen before or after.

 The influenza that would be the star of this epidemic would be Spanish influenza.  Spanish influenza didn’t start in Spain but Spain was the only country that kept a real record of how many of its people died from it.  One thing about Spanish Influenza that is important is it is a virus meaning that it can’t be treated very well with antibiotics. This meant that if a case broke out it might spread and physicians would have no way of combating it.

The Spanish influenza started in Fort Riley, United states. It started in an army camp because when we were mobilizing to join World War I, the army base camps were packed with new recruits who wanted to stop the German. This is how   the disease spread to other parts of the world with soldiers traveling to Europe to fight.

The camps where not ready for this; Meaning that overcrowding was in every camp. Also that winter was a cold one so men huddled around stoves to keep warm sharing there germs.  One thing that was bad was that at these camp the men who were there were from all over the country. So the immune systems where all over on know what kind of bacteria and virus it could fight.  That meant these means immune systems were up against now thing there body had seen.

I haven’t finished the book yet but it is very interesting so far have looked at not just doctors but military men and even Wilson who was president during the epidemic.  

New Year

Happy Holidays

          Well Christmas and all other holidays have come to past and we have one left; New Year’s. With the saying “Happy New Year!” you reflect on the past year and look to a brighter future.

What we forget is the past. This past Christmas was great. I spent it with my family at home. We didn't leave to go anywhere that day. My grandmother came and we had a Christmas dinner that was Delicious  So to celebrate the birth of our lord savoir, I think it was pretty good.

Last month I celebrated Thanksgiving up in Chicago, with my mom’s family. We had turkey, and assorted food of the thanksgiving type. I was thankful for my family, along with my health.  I forgot to thank god for the blessings other than that so never year that will be a goal; to be more thankful.

I spent some of break with my family and it was nice to see them. I saw cousins from both sides of the family and they loved to see me too. Family brings people together in  ways that no sporting event can. We feel a little closer to the People we love this time of year, but new year’s will pass and the feeling of family will pass and it will be back to the old grind of school and work till next Christmas.  

Now that Christmas has passed and I have seen my family I wish and hope that you had a great Christmas.What I hope is by this time next year I can look back at the year and feel like I have achieved more than I want, to have done something worth a year’s time. For when time pasts you can’t go back. What is in the past is in the past and we must look to the future to find a better us.

Fatal flaw

We read book and watch movies. In them we have characters who are people. They have fatal flaws that make them less than perfect.  But in the books by J.R.R Tolkien you find that whole races are less than perfect. The elves of middle earth are prideful and that is their fatal flaw. They get themselves in to trouble with this pride and it kind of leads to the fact that the ring is still there.

 One great fatal flaw is the dwarfs love for precious metals and gems. It leads to the lost of two of their great cities. Moria and the lonely mountain, both which are lost due to their greed of. Moria they dug to deep, and awoke both goblins and a beast of the deep. While in the lonely mountain the great metals brought a dragon to their door step which drove them out.  The dwarfs tried to reclaim both, Moria was a good try but in the end it is lost. The lonely mountain is reclaimed and they get that but the dwarfs have to split the gold.

The humans of middle earth are power hungry and that is there fatal flaw. It leads to them being easily corrupted by power and the one ring.  You see that with the ruler of Gondor and the ring which he takes for himself and is kind of his death.  It is the fear of most that if the ring was to fall into the hands of a human the war and middle earth, would be lost. The ring doesn’t fall into the humans hand but of that of the hobbits.

Hobbits are very simple folk. In the books they don’t have a fatal flaw. They can’t be corrupted by power, greed or pride. They are simple folk, who just want to live in peace. What you find is that hobbits are what we might find as pure innocents. With the fact that in stature they are like children. Where they live the worst thing that can happen is you miss a meal, or are too much of an outgoing person. When I think of both the hobbit and the lord of the rings, I think for hobbits as the pure folk of middle earth. The ones that no one thinks of; all hobbits want is just a nice place and a good meal. 

a hobbit

There and Back again by JR.R. Tolkien.

With all these movies based on books coming out, I was a little worried about how they would do the hobbit.  After seeing it I can say it was very good almost the whole time. IT had some great moments that were from the book and some they added to it that were great; some that just weren’t that that’s what we are going to look at.     

The beginning doesn’t start right at the beginning of the book it takes it into the future right before where the lord of the rings starts with Bilbo’s birthday. You even see Frodo at the beginning going to the place where you first see him in the first lord of the rings book.  

Once you get the movie going it gets good, the chapter of the unexpected party is like the book, it even starts with the exact word from the book. “In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit.” The arrive of Gandalf confuses Bilbo just as much in the movie as in the book and you can laugh out loud when he finds himself with a house full of dwarfs’. The dwarfs sing a song from the book as they clean up and it is very well done.

A scene that was needed to be well done was the one between Bilbo and Gollum during their battle of riddles. The first meet between the both of them is very similar as it is by the great lake and Gollum doesn't eat him first.   They go back and forth with riddles until Bilbo asks that fateful question, “What is in my pocket.” It’s the ring of course; the ring to rule them all. But Bilbo doesn't know that.

The back drop for this movie is great. You see places from the first movies and new places that are new to the viewers. One of my favorites is the shire. It looks like a place of safety and even very innocent in the idea of the worst thing happening is missing a meal. While as you go place you see the change from the great underground kingdom of the goblin king, where Bilbo gets lost and come across the underground lake were Gollum lives. To the Rivendell were we have been multiply times.  

The sad part was that it ends at a very bad moment. Right before you start to get to the great scenes. With the giant spiders and Dragon. I can’t wait for the next movie and the dragon is going to be great!

review of pottermore

A review over pottermore

This is a website that is made by J.K Rowling for Harry Potter Fans. I found myself having problems with signing up on my nook so I tried it on the computer. It still had some issues with giving me a username I liked but other than that it was a pretty easy sign up.

When you start their goes on a lot of info thrown at you about the web site but once you get into reading the material that is given to you from the web site it is eye opening.  Pottermore gives you insight from Rowling on subjects that you wouldn’t expect. Like how the Dursleys house was her second home as a child. 

One thing about the site is you go in book order. So you don’t get to read about random content. You have to get through the books. I having read all of them find it interesting to read about how Aunt Petunia fell in love with her husband but some might not. 

One thing that has been happening is that I have been showed by the web site to collect stuff.  These thing I don’t know what I’m doing with yet but I hope to find out. One of the cooler things about this site is that it was made by .K Rowling. Like how as she was writing the book she came up with subplots for other characters.

What I have found that  the site follows the books to a T even better than the movies, when you get to the end of the book and have to do the challenges  to get to the philosophers  stone, is one not includes in the movie it’s the potions, logic one from the book. The riddle is the exact one from the book so to pass it I just need to look at how Hermione solved it in the book and it was right!

This whole idea of going into the book is great. It is exciting and adds a whole new level to the books. The content that is in the site that isn’t in the books in new and great, I just love this site and if you are a fan of harry potter you will to.

A book to read

Hope is a hard thing to find. We think we have yet at the slightest moment it can be gone. To be wining something then in one swift moment have your hopes dashed. But what if what you’re hoping for is something you can’t lose.  I have read a book like that. It was the Daughter of Smoke and bones.

That is what happens to Karou. She has a past like no other where it has been that her hopes and dreams have lead to her death. She dreamed of ending a war between angles and monsters; for when you all in love with the enemy, it will almost always end in tragedy.  

She had loved a angel, who also didn’t want to fight any longer. To be children of was which they both were a thing that had made them unwilling to just see blindly. They found hope which is something that all people can find, but to hang on to it you must give it more than just a little hope but more like a reason to hope for.

When we finish the first book we find that Karou must take hope to find the people that she might have lost. The only person who she has loved may have killed her people. That is betrayal and she loses hope and faith in him. Then she switches some of the bale to herself; for she let him live.  

The book is very good and I love it. For in it you find a strong female character who becomes a girl who kind of falls apart then has to piece herself back together; For now in her second life she is not just one but also something else.  The second book is also out and I say it is just as good with plot twists and unforeseen changes in people. You get to spend more time with the main characters but you also get to look at what warfare does to people, and how a great person can go from being very good to having self loathing of themselves over something they had done a long time ago.

The book at the beginning is kind of one for finding yourself but then if shifts to that of looking at warfare and its setbacks.  War had ruined life for both sides in creating armies of parentless children whose only purpose was to fight and then there was the Wishmonger who would bring back the dead

In the next book I’m hoping that the author will bring in a way to have the characters   come to terms with themselves. With self forgiveness and that of other and how do you put a society back together after a long war. These are thing that we can all learn from even if it isn’t in the real world but that of a place not even real. People can  grow form book if they just read to learn.

A movie to look at..

Look down, look down, and don’t look them in the eye. In a tone of rhythm that creates the idea of hard labor we find ourselves in the story of les miserable. It is in truth a tragic for most of the characters.  These characters threw song tell us of their feelings of hurt, betrayal, and love.   Characters come in all ages in this tale; from a young Cosette who dreams of a castle on a cloud to her adopted father Jean Valjean; He sings more often of redemption and mistakes of the past.   

In the movie that will be coming out this month they had to portray that in their costumes.  Cosette in her youth is dressing in nothing but rags but when she is taken by Jean Valjean, his cloths shift to those of the wealthy.  He also ages over time from a convict to a man in the higher part of society. The prostitutes are to have colorful dresses that are see threw. This reminded me of animals showing off their color to get attention.

The set of this show is going to be amazing they have put their heart and soul into it. With real parts of Paris and carpenters who built blocks of imaged parts of pairs the set will help create the illusion of an old city.  It was built at a slant to create uneven feeling of a place that is dirty and in the video it looks it. You go out and walk the France mountains so that you feel the earth and the reality of the movie.  

I can’t wait to see this show. I have been hearing parts of this musical most of my life because it is one of my mom’s all time favorite musicals. The stories of love, hope and faith come into play and they create a sense that these people are real and their dreams are ours as well.

http://www.lesmiserablesfilm.com/videos.html

http://www http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1pGPRDzx8A.youtube.com/watch?v=jd5ffc48RJU

Dreaming of a better future

The hope in the unseen is story of a young man’s journey from bad beginnings to what could seem like a brighter future. That is also the journey of those in the chorus hopes to find. In the song Do you hear the people sing they sing of their anger and long to be free of their life of begging. Cedric also is from a life of the poor but his hope isn’t in a revolution it’s in a good education.

What we also see are the people around him and how his choice affect them. His mother is one of these people who are affected. She has been a single mother most of her life. Having two daughters before Cedric she knows what she must do to take care of him.

A different mother who also goes to great lengths to save her child is Fantine of Les miserable.  She sells everything she possesses from her locket to her own body as a prostitute. While Cedric’s mother doesn’t have to do that to get money that same compassion to her son is there.  She becomes very depressed after her son leaves her losing control of her spending and taking time off of work.  While when Fantine finds out that she has lost her job at the factory, she sings of her lost hope in I dreamed a dream were her hope of finding the man she had loved would come back to her. Cedric’s mother hasn’t died yet for her child but her work is hard.

The Fathers of these two stories are very different from the mothers. While Jean Valjean who is the fatherly character to Cosette, is her strong father threw and threw. Cedric’s dad is also a criminal like Jean Valjean but it is how he takes his parole that if different. While they bothb run away from their parole officer you find that Jean Val Jean takes it in him to turn his life around because of God and redemption. Along the way taking in Cosette and caring for her like a father. Cedric’s Dad on the other hand does none of this for himself or even his own son.  He doesn’t try to change his ways of stopping the drug use and that is the difference, that unwillingness to change in Cedric’s dad.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYizXBQ5EQA

The Best Charater

Reading the hope unseen find myself not following the main characters as much as the side characters. The teachers are the ones I see the person I can relate to most to and it’s not me it is my mother. These teachers deal with kids who all there life have been raised by a low social class.  

                My mom works with these kinds of kids also; they come from the lower class home. But unlike the kids of Ballou they will move on from my mom’s class and go on to better ways. Are schools here aren’t as bad as the one Cedric goes to.

Though my mom works with these kinds of kids; she is not like the some of the teachers in the book. She is strong and she wants them to get better. She works with them and gets them to improve; they study better and also she teaches them ways to succeed; but the teachers of Ballou and even the MIT guy have lost hope. They show threw what I am reading that they have to only teach to the kids who want to learn and instill in them a want to learn and to go to a place better then were they are at.  

My mom has started to feel the way those teachers do. This is a sad thing to watch because she is really good at her job. With her years she has become a great teacher, but the students have started to wear on her good nature and feeling of doing something right.

If my mom were to go to a school that is better in the social class then she is now would that help her? Or would she work there and again feel dissatisfied with her work and the level of help she is giving. I hope that as time goes on that the teachers of the book a hope of the unseen that the teacher will become better and more focused on their kids like Mr. Taylor one of Clerics teachers.  I liked him because he had real compassion for Cedric and showed to challenging him and giving him work to make him a better student. The teachers at MIT were also good for Cedric in that they gave him a wake up call on how far he was behind. A good teacher I think is one who changes but also offers to help when a student asks or needs it.