I have been an eyewitness to all of the following tales. I met Sebastian in my home of Gaul when we were both young children. We grew up together and when we were of age, we enlisted in the Roman Army. We were both stationed in Judea when we first heard the teachings of a man named Jesus, who claimed to be the Jewish Messiah. I paid no attention to these people, but Sebastian took a liking to them and to their ideas. I thought nothing of it then, but would later realize that Sebastian would become a Christian. I should’ve come to this realization when he mysteriously went into the desert, away from everyone else, every Saturday evening. One week I followed him, only to find out that he had officially became a Christian and participated in Mass every week. The next day I confronted my friend about his decision to be converted to Christianity. I told him that I would follow him to his weekly worship and keep watch for other Roman officers. After I had assured him that I would not report him to the Roman officials, we continued our duties as normal.

Sebastian had converted many people to Christianity throughout the time we were stationed in Judea. There were two conversions of groups of individuals that were accompanied by miraculous acts that surely came from the hand of God, himself. The first occurred when Sebastian had converted a rather large group of people to Christianity. As I kept watch from a couple yards away, I saw Sebastian lay his hands on a man. The next instant, the man’s wife, who was deaf and mute, could miraculously hear and speak to the others being converted. The second miracle worked through Sebastian came again while Sebastian was converting a group of people to Christianity. As Sebastian said the closing prayer, Chromatius, the Prefect of Rome, was suddenly cured of his excruciatingly painful battle with gout. After news of Sebastian’s healing gift had spread throughout the town, I was questioned as to my knowledge of Sebastian’s involvement in Christian worship. Not wanting my lifelong friend to be executed, I denied knowing anything of these widespread rumors.

Sebastian was able to escape the Roman officers for about two years. On that fateful Sunday morning, Sebastian was arrested and immediately sentenced to death. As all the Roman officers gathered to watch the execution, Sebastian was tied to a wooden post. He was then shot multiple times with about twenty flesh-piercing arrows. Seeing as he was shot multiple times through vital organs, the Roman executioners, along with everyone else assumed Sebastian dead. I stayed with Sebastian’s body until the widow of St. Castulus came to clean his corpse. At this time I was witness to another miracle, the preservation of life in my lifelong friend, Sebastian. I returned to the barracks, not mentioning that Sebastian still lived. When Sebastian had fully regained his health, I met with him at the home of the woman that had nursed him for weeks. It was then that I promised Sebastian that I would preserve his life’s story, so he would not die in vain. Sebastian instructed me to take him to the Roman emperor, and I did. As Sebastian pointed out the wrongdoings in Diocletian’s ways, Diocletian ordered for Sebastian to be bludgeoned to death. Sebastian was in the hands of the One for whom he died. I hope my recollections of Sebastian’s life and death accurately portray his message that we should never be afraid to publicly voice our beliefs. Sebastian was a living example of these essential values his whole life. I hope his story will live on for generations to come.

The image above is a painting of Saint Sebastian as he was getting shot by Roman arrows. It is officially called Hl. Sebastian und Madonna mit Heiligen, and was painted by Il Sodoma, a painter by the name of Giovanni Antonio Bazzi in 1525.  I have picked Saint Sebastian as the saint I wish to choose for Confirmation. I chose this saint because he is the patron saint of athletes, as I am involved in several sports, and because he loved God so much, he was willing to die for the sake of the Lord. I also chose Saint Sebastian because he displayed values, mainly bravery, faith, and selflessness, that I would like to make prominent in my everyday life and because I would like to imitate his strength in mind, spirit, and body. I try to emulate this through working hard on my studies and sports activities. The name I wish to be called at Confirmation is Sebastian.

Hl. Sebastian und Madonna mit Heiligen is located in the public domain. It is currently located in Pitti Palace.

                 The US Stock market is the backbone of our economy, but always changing. If a company wants to be publicly owned, they sell off parts of their company called shares. Investors buy stocks when a company appears it will make a profit, causing the demand for the stock to rise. This causes more people to want it, causing the price to rise. When many stocks rise at once, the market is called a bull market. Likewise, when the market weakens, it is known as a bear market. For more information on the stock market visit What is the Stock Market. For our prject, I chose Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Apple Inc., Seaboard Corp., and LinkedIn Corp. Intuitive Surgical Inc. specializes in healthcare technology, Apple Inc. encompasses consumer technology, Seaboard Corp. is a food distributor, and LinkedIn Corp. is a business website. These specific stocks are in different areas of the market, diversifying my portfolio. Through watching the stock market videos, and tracking four stocks over the course of nine weeks, I have greatly increased my knowledge of the economic capital of America, the US Stock Market. 

Many people today forget the importance of staying healthy. Some focus on only one portion of health, whether it's eating a nutritionally fit diet or exercising regularly. They don't see that in order to be in truly outstanding physical health, you have to incorporate both a nutritionally fit diet and regular exercise into your everyday life.

Recently we watched a documentary in health class entitled Supersize Me. It is about a man who eats nothing but McDonalds for 30 days and is required to exercise as little as possible, so he can show the harmful effects of fast-food combined with lack of exercise. In the beginning of the experiment, Morgan Spurlock, the man conducting the experiment, is seen by a nutritionist, gastroenterologist, and a normal physician. All of these doctors said he was in excellent physical health. As time passed and Morgan ate more McDonalds, he began to notice that he felt worse and worse every meal. When he saw the nutritionist half way through the experiment, he had gained weight, and his carbohydrate intake had sharply risen. With his lack of exercise, Morgan was told that he would feel worse and worse if he continued the experiment. The gastroenterologist and physician both agreed that he could potentially go into liver failure if he continued eating McDonalds for the remainder of the experiment. At the end of the thirty days, the nutritionist told him that if he didn't start exercising and stop eating McDonalds for every meal, there was a good chance he would die. The Gastroenterologist and physician both agreed that the McDonalds had damaged his liver to the same degree as an alcoholic, but in a fraction of the time it would take an alcoholic to damage their liver so severely. 

This video showed me the dangers of eating too much McDonalds without sufficient exercise to complement the fast food. Ideally, a person should eat a balanced diet comparable to that suggested by the FDA dietary guidelines. They should typically be physically active at a level equivalent to walking three or more miles at three to four miles per hour along with the light physical activity of daily life. This documentary showed me the severe damage eating too much fast-food can cause. It has made me think frequently about my health and well-being. Super Size Me has made me more conscious about my health and made me strive to exercise more frequently than before.

This documentary 

             Throughout the last couple weeks, our class has been working on a project on an assigned European country. This project allows us to learn facts and interesting information about our assigned country. I was assigned France and tried to incorporate as much French history and culture as I possible could. I then converted the project into a PDF file, which enabled me to transform it into the book attached below.

       In 2000, one hundred eighty-nine countries banded together to come up with eight ways to make the world a better place. They created the Millennium Development Goals. These goals were hoped to have taken place by 2015.

         One of the eight goals is gender equality in developing countries. Another of the goals is to have Universal Education. Universal Education would give children who are in poor countries the capability to get good jobs to make more money. Possibly the most well-known goals is to end poverty and hunger. Child and maternal health are also well-known goals. Environmental sustainability is a goal that is highly important because without the earth's natural resources, we won't be able to produce many important projects. Combating HIV/AIDS is an important goal because these diseases claim the lives of so many people every year. The last goal is global partnership. This is working to create a free market trading system in developing countries.

     One foundation focused on the MDG's is the Global Educators For All Initiative. They are working to spread awareness of the goals and to teach you how you can help. The course has educated many people who have in turn, contributed their time and efforts to completing the MDGs.  This is just one of many corporations that are trying to make the MDG's occur by 2015.

    Poverty African Kid

by: Espen Faugstad.

Retreived under CC license.

We recently did a project on roller coasters. My group made a roller coaster called "The Luck of Leprchaun". The following are three basic laws of physics prominent in a working roller coaster.  Gravity is the force keeping all matter grounded on Earth. I learned that friction, the rubbing of the wheels on the track, keeps the roller coaster cart from flying off the track. Finally the most important force on any roller coaster is momentum. Momentum keeps the roller coaster moving after the first drop. 

Our roller coaster is made of steel and metal. You sit in a cauldron of hot water. At first the roller coaster is pulled by a chain, then self-propelled. As the physicist I learned that the human body can only handle a couple of G's without passing out. The design engineer learned that roller coasters are made of steel so they can bear the weight. The  historian learned that the first roller coaster was in Rusia. It was a mere ice slope with sand at the end to stop the ride. 

Our roller coaster was a success because the conversion of Kinetic to Potential energy was perfect. There was just enough energy to complete the ride. The angles were steep but they worked. There is nothing that could be done to improve it. This is a conclusion to our roller coaster, The Luck of The Leprechaun.

 Image source: Zero at the Bone    Taken By:  Mehan

http://www.zeroatthebone.com/2006_05_01_archive.html

There are certain facts to know when using the internet. These are three that deal with digital law or copyright infringement. 1) If you want to use a copyrighted substance the only way you can use it is if you ask for permission from the owner or pay the owner money for the substance. 2) Books, plays, music, dance, movies and pictures can be copyrighted. An item can only be copyrighted when the idea takes a physical form. 3) Once a copyright is over it becomes part of something called the Public Domain. These are three facts about digital Law that everyone should knnow when using the internet.

I created a glog about my favorite vacation destination. I choose Ocean City Maryland because I have visited there before. I also choose Ocean City because if I could choose one place to live for a month, I would choose Ocean City Maryland. My glog is shown below, but for a larger version click here.

One of my many sixth grade goals for the 2010-2011 school year is to blog as much as I can. I also want to strive to get 100 on all of my tests. One of the many blog projects we will be doing this year is the Bloggers' Challenge. it will be fun and interesting to communicate with people from around the world. This year is going to be one of my favorite school years ever!

                   There are bad people on the internet.

                    Here are my top ten internet safety tips:

                       1) If you have a Facebook account, adjust the security settings so that only friends can see your information.

2) Never post a picture or words that you would regret posting later on.

3) If you find an email that you're not sure that all of the information is true, just deletr it.

4) If you are buying something online, make sure you have heard of the store, and that it has an address and phone number.

5)If a website has information that to you sounds like it is false, don't use it for a report or project.

6) If someone sends you a mean email hit the print screen key, and tell an adult or parent.

7) If someone is cyberbullying you, don't send a nasty message back.

8) Never give out any personal information on the internet.

9) Never meet someone online that you have never met.

10) If you get a threat from a cyberbully tell your parents, and they may have to call the police.

 If you follow these tips, you will be safe online.

There are hundreds of things that are great about my school. If Ilisted them all this blog would be 80 paces long, so I will only give you a few of them.  The third best thing about are school is our gym. It is really big, and you can play any sport in there. You can play hockey, basketball, kickball, lacrosse, and so many more games. The second best thing about our school are the teachers. They will always help you to figure out what you don't get. That rarely happens because they explain everything very well, and keep going over it until you get it. The best thing about our school are the neat projects that we do. Every year we have a science fair. There are projects everywhere. In class we do a lot of projects. Some are better than others, but they are all really fun. For these we are usually in groups. All of these projects seem like a lot of work, but once you get started they are really easy. These are only three of the things that are great about are school.

I went on Eagle1's Cool Blog. I really liked his I Love Animals! . I would say:

I really like pets too. My dad and I want to get a dog but my mom won't get one. She just thinks that they are too much work. She thinks we wouldn't be around with it as much as we should.

I went on jona's blog. I really liked his Capture the Flag by: Jonathan. I would say:

That happened to me once except I was the one getting hit. Although we won it felt like I had lost. The other team had more people and hid everywhere.

I went on Sprintcar Man's blog. I really liked his Operation Christmas Child

We did something like that last year for people who are in poverty. We raised money for five weeks for people in Nigeria. We helped alot of people get food, clean water,and clothes. It felt really good to help people who are poor.

I can't wait to start blogging this year. I am blogging this year to improve my grammar and typing skills. This year I want to blog about sports and other interesting subjects. I would also like to read other people's blogs from near where I live ,to all the way across the world. I hope other people get to read my blogs and see my avatar. I really hope I can complete all of these goals that I had set for myself.

 I am a ten year old and in Fourth Grade. I reallly love wrestling. My favorite wreslters are John Cena and CM Punk. I really like Siamese cats. I have three fish and used to have a snail. My favorite food is pizza. My favorite video game is Guitar Hero three Legends of Rock.