My Live Hero

As the war in Afghanistan rages on, more people die, and as more heroes are exposed, many die. My hero is Salvatore Giunta, a former Staff Sergeant in the US Army. He was bestowed the prestigious and honorable Medal of Honor on November 16,2010. The former soldier was born on January 21, 1985 and is currently 27 years old. He was born in Clinton, Iowa with a line of Italian family members. He grew up in Cedar Rapids where he graduated from John F. Kennedy High School. In October 25, 2002, Salvatore  and his team finished an overwatch of the valley. As they walked back, they were ambushed by Taliban forces. Three men were immediately hit and wounded. Giunta charged into the wall of bullets and sprinted towards the squad leader, Erick Gollardo, and helped him find cover. The Staff Sergeant quickly ordered his men to use grenades to disrupt the attack. After seeing the Taliban retreat, Giunta sprinted forward to find Brennan. He was being dragged away by two Afghans and Giunta quickly shot the first one, and the second one fled. I admire him because in the face of adversity, he gallantly fought against an outnumbered enemy. Not only did he try and save many of his men and risking his life at the same time, but he also caused them to retreat. I admire his valiance and audaciousness  because if I was in such a ferocious firefight, I would have taken cover for almost the whole time instead of returning fire and running against the enemy and facing a gigantic barrier of bullets would be out of the question.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/11/salvatore-giunta-medal-of-honor.html
http://abcnews.go.com/News/25-year-iowan-recieve-living-medal-honor-valor/story?id=12160138
http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/giunta/profile.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2010/0916/Medal-of-Honor-recipient-Salvatore-Giunta-tells-his-story
http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-awards-medal-of-honor-to-afghanistan-war-hero-108509249/130670.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvatore_Giunta
http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/giunta/profile.html

Textbook Revolution Blog Post

Textbook Revolution, from their website, is a student-run website that is dedicated to increasing the use of free textbook materials by teachers and professors. From what we see, Textbook Revolution seems to be a website that is filled with high end information that is not focused towards education for the young aged. Many of its textbooks, from what we see, are very hard and although the subjects for the website are very spread out and diverse, ranging from subjects like Biology to Environment. There is a broad range of textbooks from which you can choose from. Many of the textbooks found are not only textbooks but also .pdf files or websites. Some of the textbooks are also some books that may be used in college. However, not only do they have textbooks, they also introduce college courses with a brief overview and a website and the name of the institution to give you a rough idea and give you a view on the course. Although there actually is quite some amount of textbooks, that would be nowhere close to acting as a database of textbooks. Textbook Revolution could improve if there were some high school or middle school textbooks to add to the varying assortment of textbooks.

Quickwrite p.820

• Sacrificing something for someone’s else good without the wanting of something like a prize.
• A hero doesn’t have to have super powers or fancy costumes. It can be a normal person who has a good heart. 
• A person who performs a selfless deed in the face of adversity. 
• It doesn’t have to necessarily save someone’s life but it could be instead to educate someone or care for someone. 
• Someone who is honest. 
• Someone who fights for what they believe in (someone that most people want and agrees with their morals or fighting for positive impact and the better of society)
• Someone who helps you when you need them.
• A person who is genuinely concerned and kind about someone else’s welfare or other people's. 
• A person who inspires others to be better.
• Someone who puts themselves before others. 

List of Criteria to Evaluate Writing

1. Is the writing on topic?
2. Does the writing have correct grammar?
1. Are there any run-ons or fragments?
2. Are the sentences passive or active?
3. Are there any problems with punctuation or capitalization? 
3. Does the writing have correct spelling?
4. Is the writing in paragraphs?
5. Does the writing have a thesis? 
6. Is the thesis clear? 
7. Are the ideas of the writing in order?
8. Is the word choice right?
9. Are the sentences in logical sequence?
10. Does the writing have an ending/conclusion?
11. Are there any facts/details needed to back up their claims/story?
12. Does the writing have a hook?
13. Does the writing captivate you? 
14. Are there any sentences that could be rephrased? 
15. Are their any parallelism errors? 
16. Is the audience clearly stated? 

King Arthur and the Sword in Stone Quickwrite p.792

There are many different ways on how people can become legends in today’s world. In our modern era, we are faced with many problems: world famine, global warming, bad economy, bad relations between countries, limitation of oil, and terrorism, just to name a few. If someone were to, for instance, create a device that would make food easy and quick and healthy, his/her name would live on in whatever form people would communicate or hold information in. That person would be doing the world a huge favor and helping a countless number of people and prevent violence from spreading between the resources. Also, if someone found a way to “make” oil at an extremely cheap price, that person would not only make millions but everyone in the world and most likely as long as humanity would live, his/her name would live. Finally, if someone were to strengthen ties between countries and go as far as to create a unified Earth, not only would they get a huge clap of hands and bravado but create a safe place for all humans and people to come in the future and to live with unity and peace. 

Creation Myth

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/japanese-creation-myth.html

List of Aspects in Nature Quickwrite p.589

• sky
• dirt
• grass
• clouds
• plants
• sunrise
• sunset
• moon
• sunlight
• water
• trees
• stars
• birds
• dog
• vines
• paper (trees)
• vegetables
• mountain

Oni and the Great Bird Quickwrite p. 698

Superheroes in comic books are different from real-life heroes in many ways. Many superheroes are very famous and have many people stare at their powers, speed, strength, and courage and are dressed in fancy costumes and seem to be showing off in some ways. However, many real-life heroes do not seek adulation after they accomplish something big such as taking down a robbery of a drugstore. Those people, unlike fictional heroes, have to face true death and make a choice whether to risk their life or allow someone else’s life to be taken by the hand of Death. A true hero is one that has a normal life and when he/she sees a crime, will find a way to comfort them and bring out true courage to actually confront the criminals. Also, fictional superheroes seem to have super human qualities already and whereas normal people simply use what they have to adapt to their situation. Super heroes, in my opinion, are just fake cowards with undeserved super human qualities but true real life heroes are people that are faced with a moral choice of their own happy life with the chance of a family and happiness against risking all that happiness and life to try and safe another one’s. The true courage is the courage of standing up in the face of death when it is drawn out from your heart instead of having super powers which allow you to be invincible or invisible. 

The Flight of Icarus Quickwrite p. 675

I long to fly like a seagull because I get to feel the air blowing against me and  I get to look at things from a different perspective. I could see things that I probably never noticed but only from the air. Near the ocean, I could easily feel the cold air and wind cooling me. We could find a way to feel and see the world from a different view. I would want to fly because it conveys feeling of freedom and from that different view up there, it deludes and gives me a feeling as if I am the king and the people below are ants.  People would be like THAT GUY IS SO COOL! Mostly, we want to fly because we can’t. 

Quickwrite p.664-Orpheus, the Great Musician

I believe that music can touch your heart and also make you feel happy and sad and give you a variety of feelings. It can drag your whole mind into sadness and fear and pessimism and negativeness or it can cheer you up and make you feel glad. I had a very heavy experience with music before but it didn’t really touch my heart. Instead, it made me feel depressed. The songs were from Halo and the songs made me feel so sad and depressed that I didn’t know why, but made me feel like there was no more hope for me and the world and that I wanted to die. I felt that everyday was another day of hell and I was about to crash into hell. However, I listened to some Classic Rock and Pop and it profoundly increased my spirits and brought me hope and inspiration into my mind. I also had other experiences with music. For instance, many times after I get scolded by my mom and can’t think properly, I reach for my violin and soon after 3 or 4 times of playing my mind begins to calm down and I begin to understand what I did wrong and accept my failure and change. And to this day on, I do not underestimate the powers of music. 

The Origin of Seasons Quickwrite p.654

Seasons are sections of a year that are indicated by their weather and light amounts. They depend on the time of year and the location of the planet and its angle to the sun to determine what season it is. The northern and southern hemisphere have exact opposite seasons at same times. For instance, while in the northern hemisphere we might have summer, down there in New Zealand for instance, it is probably winter. Our seasons are also split into 4 parts, each taking 3 months. The seasons in my area are basically rainy in the spring, typhoons and slightly rainy but most of the time hot in summer, slightly cold and windy in winter and somewhat cool in autumn. There is in fact one thing I don’t really know why about seasons which is why they are split into 4 seasons, not 6 or even 7. 

TED Talk 1-Billy Collins 5 Poem Animations

The poem animations by Billy Collins were not what I expected. I expected them to be like anime style and programmed with actions like CGI I still think it’s cool. With the narrator’s words and the pictures combined together, the imagery from the poems have been doubled or even tripled. The poem created a vivid image in my mind and it seemed very real. The animations seem very entertaining and changed the idea that poetry is very boring. His style seems very unique. For some reason, I liked all of his poem animations. They helped me visualize and understand the author’s point of view. His poem about the dead made me wonder if it was and it was the same with the mice about the country poem. The Budapest poem allowed me to see what the troubles were with writing and how the pen seemed to “dance” from the author’s hands. However, my favorite was ForgetFullNess because I could easily relate to it. 

Fame

Advantages	Disadvantages
Gets a lot of money	At an extremely slight risk of being targeted by a murderer
Can possibly get more money from ads.	You have no privacy.
Get special priorities: (special restaurants, hotels, etc.)	People comment on every tiny thing you do. (You get judged by every action and those actions can be subject to extreme scrutiny.
Get to meet other very famous or special people.	Is harder than before to get back to old friends since everywhere you go you’re being followed.

Haiku

Haiku is a type of poem that was adapted by the Japanese. Haiku is supposed to be invented in the 17th century by a Zen Buddhist. It is normally very short and is strictly constructed upon on the seventeen syllables of the poem. There are three lines and it goes with 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the next, and five in the last or third line again. They’re normally written in present tense and include extremely vivid details and explain about nature or about normal and daily situations. Haiku topics are generally uncomplicated and easy to understand. They normally don’t use metaphors and similes.

Here is a normal Haiku talking about a computer crashing:
Windows XP crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

Here is another Haiku poem but about nature:
An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
This poem was by Bashu Matsuo, one of the first great poets of Haiku.

Late-Cultural Differences

Across the world, there are many different countries that have their own types of etiquette, beliefs, and “respects”. However, one thing we do may offend another and what other people do may offend us and everyday, many innocent people unknowingly insult and offend other people. There are many examples of these. For instance, in Taiwan, it is very common to use chopsticks and redip them into the food which is shared by everyone. However, to an American who was probably never experienced this would probably be disgusted. Another example could be shown with betlenut women. To most people in Taiwan, these women are by far prostitutes and instead ways to “attract” beetle nut buyers. However, to a normal foreigner, he/she would most likely be quite shocked by it and be greatly disturbed. Finally, even in the way people talk could make others uncomfortable. In China, many people talk roughly but it may seem normal but to normal Westerners, they may see it as if the Chinese person has something against them.

Description of Fake Genetically Combined Animal

Log Journal of Dr. Howard Y.
Date: February 13, 2012

The genetically combined animal of the Badgephant has been very aggressive. It is the offspring of a male elephant and a female badger. With the combination, the animal has been extremely aggressive, hostile to any scientists that enter its habitat. So far, all five scientists have had their legs and arms torn off by the Badgephant. It is about the size of a skinny greyhound. It is very fast with two long tusks protruding from its forehead. The long legs enable it to catch its prey very fast. Oh yes, something to mention. The Badgephant is unlike its parents, a carnivore. The long tusks enable the Badgephant to slam itself into his prey and quickly sink its teeth into the prey and also ripping out flesh and basically, tearing the victim to pieces. The Badgephant has an amazing rate of growth, around 3 inches a day.

Vocab. MashUp

This is a mashup of Remember Me.

Blog Post 14-Quickwrite p. 356

Hi Confused,

About your friend, Lucy, it might be best to tell her to return the wallet with the money or bring it to the school’s lost and found. Although her family is in desperate need of money, it doesn’t allow her to steal. Besides not being honest, what happens if she is caught? Other people will see her differently and is it worth the money now for a whole lifetime of suspicion? For example, if she steals now, one day, if someone’s belongings are missing, someone could point the finger at her first even though she actually didn’t do it. Also, the money issue is a matter of morals and judgement. It’s not honest to steal money and for what’s right, stealing money isn’t right. You should go and tell her to return the money kindly and explain everything. Thanks!


Sincerely,
Awesome.

Bill Cosby Video Blog Post 13

This Bill Cosby video is very hilarious. It makes fun of people with drugs and he made a very good imitation. Near the end, drugs were supposed to intensify personality but Cosby made the good point, what if you're an ***hole?