LHDR -- Blogmeister

We had a unit on the history, and changes that have gone on in Rye. Towards the end of the unit, we had to do a project that showed our learning. I chose to make an interactive diagram on the changes that have undergone on Ocean Boulevard. I made a small trolley that went around a track that was to resemble the actual road. The buildings on the side would the undergo changes, such as burning, being torn down, and renovations being added.

The Story of Arthur the Archer

Once upon a time, there was a young man known by the name of Arthur the Archer. Arthur was hated throughout the land as a mean, bitter man that would often be obnoxious and outright selfish. He always tried to perfect his hobby, archery, although his methods were quite unorthodox. Arthur was a special archer, no matter how much he practiced and perfected his talent, he simply could not, not even once, beat out Fred the Fierce and Unfriendly at a simple test of hitting a bulls-eye. Arthur the Archer made it his life-long goal being able to finally beat Fred, and here is his story. However, the feared punisher of mortal beings has different plans. This creature can transform into a person's greatest weakness, taking them down with what they love...

It was one fine mid-morning in Greece, and Arthur the Archer strolled down to the market to grab this week's groceries. As he was walking down the street, he noticed, up in the sky, was the biggest and fattest goose he had ever seen. “If I were to shoot that goose with an arrow, then it would feed me forever! I could also work on my archery skills, it's two birds with one stone!” And so with that statement, Arthur raced back to his house, got his bow, took aim at the sky, and fired away. The arrow soared upward with amazing inaccuracy, and the arrow missed completely. Arthur coked his bow and fired again, this time it hit the poor goose in the belly. However, instead of the goose falling right to the ground, it instead went into a feint dive and landed in front of Arthur the Archer. It pulled the arrow out of its belly, snapped it in half, and threw it to the ground. This goose was magical! “I am Morpheus, the punisher of mortal creatures such as yourself, and you have been evil! Your needs to be the best have turned you into a selfish little bug . Now I am giving you a warning, so that you may look at yourself as the evil cretin you are. However, if you do not change your ways I shall make an example out of you, and punish you severely! Now with that, go back to your home!” And so, Arthur returned to his house, frightened to death at that very traumatic incident.

The next morning, Arthur rose out of bed, and immediately remembered yesterday's skirmish as if it had been burned into his memory. “I doubt anyone else has ever been visited by an eleven foot goose before! Maybe I should find a new hobby to do instead of archery.” Arthur walked out the door that day a new man, with a new destiny, a new purpose! He reached the town marketplace, and began to search for something to do. For the next couple of hours, Arthur asked around town to look for a job. He ended up doing more chores than actual work, from cleaning out a well, to manning a cash register at a fruit stand, even helping a pit crew at a local chariot race. None of these jobs provided any interest or good pay to Arthur, and as he was thinking about his boring day, off in to the distance, he saw it. Fred the Fierce and Unfriendly was showing off his skills, shooting arrows at targets as easy as breathing air! Arthur the Archer sprinted right over to the crowd gathering around Fred the Fierce and Unfriendly. “ Pfff, Fred your skills are once again inferior to my superior natural talent! Watch this...” Arthur grabbed Fred's bow right out of his hands, pushed the crowd out of the way, and fired in to the sky, aiming right at the sun. As the arrow traveled at its increasing speed, it suddenly pierced through the clouds, and suddenly, there was a thunderous, high pitched, honk that also pierced the clouds, and what followed it was what looked like a huge white blob plummeting to the ground, and it suddenly toppled on to the archery range, destroying everything in its wake! When all of the dust and debris cleared, Arthur realized with terror that the blob he had hit was actually a giant goose. It had returned! Did Arthur call for help, no. Did he scream, no. Arthur the Archer sprang to his feet, and started running as fast as he possibly could toward the market, not daring to check what would be chasing behind him.

Arthur made it back to town, and looked for the nearest place to hide, which was the local tavern. He flew open the door, raced upstairs, and hid in a storage closet, praying to the gods that he could live another day. All of a sudden, he heard a faint flapping sound that was rapidly growing in sound until it was as if it was right outside the closet. Suddenly, Arthur heard a huge crash, and the door in front of him blasted off in a spray of wooden shrapnel, flour, and vegetables. Arthur opened his eyes, and at first it looked like he was back outside, however he quickly realized that the tavern's roof had been ripped completely off! “ It found me! I gotta get away from this thing!” Arthur was now fueled only by adrenaline and pure fear to get out of this huge mess. He sprang to his feet, and jumped from the bare floor of the tavern to a rooftop below, taking a quick glance above, and noticed that the giant goose was right on his tail. Arthur the Archer began sprinting and hurtled from rooftop to rooftop, noticing the screams of the townspeople below. Arthur felt that he was finally creating distance between himself and the monster, but as he was thinking that, his foot got caught on an eave and Arthur tumbled right into an oddly placed fruit stand, completely dazed by the long and hard fall.

“Arthur the Archer, you were once warned about your selfish habits, and now you are being punished for your ways. To fit the situation, you shall become a nameless wretch that only serves the purpose of showing others the penalty of selfishness. You shall always try but never succeed. You shall want, but never get. You shall give, but never receive.

And so, Arthur has learned his painful lesson, and he has been forever punished for his selfish ways. The moral to this story is that selflessness is much better than selfishness.

Fog is like

Fog is like a diving plane

Twisting, turning, changing shape

Then Crash into our eyes, like a train,

Wearing a wispy, full-body cape.

With its big, gaping mane

It swallows light and dark alike,

Sometimes it seems totally insane

For it knocks the air out of your lungs as it strikes.

Fog is like a deep power nap

It awakes, then rests back into its place

Just like a deadly booby trap.

And you shall always lose the race

No matter how hastily you run

For fog is faster yet, it has already won.

My Martin Luther King Jr Essay

The 1960's and 50's saw one the greatest form of racism toward black people in the United States since slavery in the 1700-1800's. This period between the late 1940's and early 1960's was when segregation, or the act of separating between blacks and whites, was prevalent everywhere, especially in the south. Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted to change this: “I have a dream that this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed”. On the day of August 28^th, 1963 MLK gave his “I Have A Dream” speech that would change the lives of every American, Black and White, Jew and Gentile, Protestants and Catholics, and his speech still changes our lives today. Most everyone felt is was good to give Blacks their rights slowly, if any at all. MLK wasn't happy with that. He wanted change, quick change, and that's what this speech did.

Before that day, African American life in America wasn't anything to brag about. Black people had nothing to do with Whites, they had separate schools, water fountains, buses, everything that any single person ever used was reserved for either Blacks or Whites. There were people in the south that hated Blacks to so extremes, that they would drive them out of town. After MLK's speech, not only did segregation diminish completely, but people realized that you should “be judged by the content of your character, and not the color of your skin”.

My collage combines the three themes of color, line, and shape. The color is represented by the green background along with the yellow and white dots over it. The line is represented by the curvy, wavy frame and the wavy lines throughout the image. The shape is represented by all of the differently shaped magazine cutouts behind the stencil. For the pictures I mostly focused on the main shapes of the triangle, square, and circle to produce a more simple creation instead of complex shapes; however some parts of the shapes I made the bad choice of covering up part of them, making it so some of the shapes take the appearance of regular pictures.

LHDR

A couple of weeks ago we had a program called Project Safeguard. I was out sick for the event, but there is an article about it here.

We made a request to NASA to be lent some moon rocks to study in science class. Our request was granted, so we just had to wait until they came. At first we thought that the rocks would be big enough to hold in the palm of a hand, however they were actually about a cubic centimeter large, and they were covered in a glass case. We were still able to view them through a microscope, which proved to be quite a sight! We were given 3 main rocks, each one was part of the different elevations of the moon. My favorite moon rock was an all white one that actually has some oxygen inside, giving it some of that white color. It is very bumpy, although all of the bumps are rounded. Besides the actual rocks, we were given 3 samples of soil from the different parts of the moon. One sample of soil has a mysterious orange shade, and all of the soil is very jagged, as there is no wind or water to round out the corners. Overall, I think the moon rocks were a complete success.

Over the past two weeks, we have taken a drug and alcohol abuse program taught by a former drug and alcohol user Joe Flood. He talked about how drugs and alcohol kill your brain, and they can cause permanent, not just temporary damage to your system. Joe has firsthand experience with drugs, and alcoholism, so his program is to keep us from going down the same road that he did. He talked about not just that they are bad, but he gave specific examples as to what has happened, and what exactly happens to your brain. He talked about what alcohol poisoning is, and it is basically when your blood mixes with too much alcohol, and when it goes to your brain, the brain starts to shut down. Once that happens, you will start to become intoxicated, and eventually pass out. If no one bothers to treat you, you will most likely die. The program was a huge success, and it definitely helped my understanding of drugs and alcoholism.

Yesterday we went to Strawberry Banke to learn about the history of Thanksgiving over the years in Porstmouth, and the rest of America. I learned a couple of things. To point some out...
Thanksgiving was never an actually set date, instead the local governor would make a proclamation that would specify the date.
Around the Victorian era, wealthier families would fill baskets full of foods, ingredients, and knitted goods to deliver to poor people.
The Macy's day parade originated as a way to bring different peoples' celebrations of Thanksgiving together, and it is still going strong today.

Hi, I am an avid football fan from New Hampshire, and I think the one thing that we need to substantially boost New Hampshire tourism isn't something like a new ski mountain, a skate area, or some new beach or a state park. We need an NFL franchise. Why do we need a new team in the NFL? Well, a better question would be why don't we want an NFL team, specifically in New Hampshire? The answer I cannot think of, because there isn't an answer to that question. A team in New Hampshire would bring thousands of jobs to the area, from people building the stadium to new team executives, it would be huge to the community job market. Now if I were pitching an idea for any other sport, it would be impossible to find enough investors to pay for a stadium, but there is this magic about football that attracts people, as if they know that they are making the right decision, from going to a game to rooting for their team. The first thing you are probably thinking is who would support such a monumental move like this? For starters, most of the New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and maybe the Canadian fan base of football would love to have their own team, players would love to have a whole new team to get a chance to play for. Why should we put a team in the small suburbs of New Hampshire, as opposed to a big city like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Santa Fe, or Providence? Well, why is there a team in Green Bay, or Foxboro? This is because back in the golden age of football, teams were based in small towns to bring tourism to them, and it worked! Football isn't the same as basketball or baseball football is a small town sport for a big city audience, and that is exactly what every town in New Hampshire is. The final, literally big matter, would be a stadium. However, I think a stadium would be more of a good side to this idea than a bad side. There are so many empty lots floating around Portsmouth, that room for the stadium, parking, transportation, etc would not be a problem. A perfect example of this would be the Peas International Air Force Base. It is a decommissioned facility anyway, and a stadium with parking and a big 5 lane highway like in Foxboro could definitely fit. Also, the merchandise that could be sold, besides regular football stuff would be tremendously helpful to gain money. Bathing suits, local store coupons, boating gear, all kinds of products that you can't find in any other team complexes would only help. In the off season the stadium could be used by the community if a membership was bought, allowing free use of field throughout the spring and summer, not to mention large events such as concerts, circuses, and high school sports. This could drastically boost attendance in the regular season, and memberships would pay for the caring of the field as well as other renovations. Sales of tickets to big events would be able to be split between the actual event, as well as a stadium. Now, the next question would be what do the players think? As mentioned before, free agents and potential draftees would certainly love a new chance to play. But what about the current players? Rivalries would certainly increase, and besides that I don't really think it would impact them. OK, so back to the original question: Why shouldn't we have an NFL team in New Hampshire? Some of the cons to this, such as a smaller fan base, no large cities, and need for investors have easily been proven to be irrelevant, I cannot think of a single reason that we should not carry out this bold move. Even the mere announcement of an NFL team would fuel a huge fire that would spread across the press and make a ton of money! The press would be flabbergasted, but they would love it at the same time!