Every second week of October, we celebrate a holiday based on mass genocide. Columbus Day, a holiday celebrated for Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of the Americas, is a controversial holiday, and for multiple good reasons. One reason that this holiday should not be celebrated is because Columbus did not actually discover America. If he discovered it, then why were people already living there? All he did was conquer the people living there!

The next big reason that this holiday should not be honored is because once Columbus got to the new world, the first thing he did is killed all of the natives! Native Americans celebrating Columbus day is like Jews celebrating Hitler Day! Anyway, Columbus thought he had found India! I-N-D-I-A. not A-M-E-R-I-C-A. He went and told the whole world that he had discovered a whole new way to get to India, when really he found a whole new way to kill innocent people. Why would we celebrate an accident? Columbus just took credit for Europe's newly discovered, resource filled playground.

The biggest reason that this holiday shouldn't be celebrated is because all Columbus went and did is replaced true American culture with European Culture. Columbus Day is a holiday that should not be celebrated, because it doesn't represent American culture! America's oldest inhabitants were the natives who crossed over on a land bridge from Asia. Aren't these Americans? Why do we act like Europeans are Americans when all they did was stole America from its natives, took all the natural resources, and settled all of their people there? That doesn't seem much like its in the American spirit, but is Columbus is considered American, I guess this country isn't so great after all.

 BOOK                                              AUTHOR                            GENRE

Lord of the Flies ..............................William Golding ................... Realistic Fiction

Mister Monday ......................................Garth Nix ...........................Fiction

King Dork ..........................................Frank Portman ...............Realistic Fiction

The Chronicles of Vladmir Tod .............Heather Brewer ....................Fiction

The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy ............Douglas Adams .............Sci-Fi/Humor

Bridge jumping is an excellent pastime for the extreme. This awesome hobby involves jumping off of bridges (duh), but not off of bridges that are so high that is will kill you. For example, you would not jump off of the Golden Gate Bridge in California, because it would kill you to death. A good bridge to jump off would be Rye Harbor Bridge.

           Stock Market Essay

The earth is really, really screwed up. We are polluting it and destroying ourselves, and doing it on purpose. Earth day was 2 weeks ago, and on that day, we accepted that fact, and had a huge, worldwide, “Earthcast” to discuss ideas for the earth to be a greener, better place. The Earthcast was April 22^nd, and lasted all of the day; almost 24 hours. Kids and adults from schools all around the world participated, and there was a great turnout.

Another part to our earth unit in science class was a film festival. In this we watched three different films, all having to do with the earth, marketing, and how screwed we all are. The first video was called “the story of stuff”, and showed us the life cycle of the stuff we use. The second video was on marketing techniques, and the shopping culture of America. The third video was on how we disposed of trash after we used it. These films all tied together a unit which came with one conclusion: we are destroying the earth.

We did a project on stocks in math class. You got to spend 10,000 dollars on different stocks. I bought 28 shares in Invuitive Surgical, 27 in Best Buy, and 21 shares in Target. Since when this speadsheet was made, I have made 3,323.32 dollars. Not to brag, but I am one of the biggest winners in the grade.

A couple days ago I did a speech about an important event in my life. I did my speech on when, last year, my band and I played the song "welcome to the jungle" by guns and roses, to get extra points when we did an african unit in sixth grade.

The biathlon is an Olympic event that involves skiing a certain distance, stopping at certain points to shoot a rifle for an accuracy competition, and then skiing some more to reach a goal in the shortest amount of time possible. It started as a training exercise for the Norwegian Military, and was first introduced as a sport in 1924. The sport was good, but did not have a big enough fan base until the 1960 winter Olympics, when it was inducted as an Olympic sport. The equipment used includes a 22-caliber rifle, an arm sling, and a pair of skis and poles. The athletes ski for a length of track, and then stop at a certain point and shoot at targets from different positions, prone and standing. Missing a target means that you will have to ski a penalty lap as a penalty, which takes away from your goal of completing the distance in the shortest time possible. However, in a different kind of race in which the competitors compete alone, one at a time, the penalty is simply an addition of one minute onto their time.

    The biathlon is a difficult sport that requires athletes to be in peak physical condition, and to train constantly. The cardiovascular fitness of a competitor is crucial, but even more important is their ability to focus. While shooting, you are on skis surrounded by more athletes shooting, and the crowd cheering behind you. Because of this, you must have the ability to concentrate on your target, or BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN. Competitors also train in two main areas, marksmanship (accuracy), and Nordic skiing, two equally important parts in an incredible sport.  

     The 2010 winter Olympic biathlon events are: Woman's 7.5 km sprint, Women' 10 km pursuit, Women's15 km individual, Woman's 12.5 km mass start, and Woman's 4x6 km relay. Mn'snts are: Men's 10 km sprint, Men's 12.5 km pursuit, Men's 20 km individual, Men's 15 km mass start, and Men's 4x7.5 km relay. In 2010, the medals in curling were: Germany; Gold, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. France; gold, Silver, Silver, Bronze, Bronze, and Bronze. Slovakia; Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Austria; Gold, Gold, Gold, Silver, Bronze. Norway; Silver. Sweden; Gold. Croatia; Bronze. Russia' Gold, Gold, Silver, Bronze. Kazakhstan; Silver, and Belarus; Silver, and Bronze. Up until 2010 the Olympic events were extremely limited, with few competitors, and this year held a competition with many, many more events and countries.

To conclude, the biathlon is an awesome sport, created by the Europeans and enjoying popularity among them. The event has enlarged much in 2010, and hopefully will become bigger and bigger, and become one of the largest Olympic sports there is.  

MY LOVE FOR YOU IS LIKE CIRCULATION: IT ALWAYS GOES AROUND.

MY LOVE FOR YOU IS HIGHER THAN CIRRUS CLOUDS, THICKER THAN CUMULUS CLOUDS, AND POURS FROM THE SKY LIKE RAIN FROM A NIMBO-CUMULUS CLOUD.

MY LOVE FOR YOU IS THROUGH THE THERMOSOHERE.

    Hello, my name is Arthur, and if you are reading this, you are the reminants of the Celtic civilization. Many years ago, i fought the Roman conquest with the Celtic army, the fighting force of all the united Celtic villages. We did not entirely stop the roman conquest, but were fierce enough to stop the Romans from destroying all of our culture. This is my story of the differences between the Roman empire, and us, the Celts.

My love for you is higher than cirrus clouds, thicker than cumulus clouds, and pors from the sky like from a nimbostratus cloud.

My love for you is throught the thermosphere.

My love for you is like circulation: it always goes around.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY AND STUFF

In 1963, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech in Washington D.C. This speech protested the way black people in the United States were treated, and demanded that they be given equal rights and segregation eliminated. This dream quickly became a reality, with the destruction of segregation and equal rights to blacks. Martin Luther King Jr. Had done his job well, and his message of equality and what the future held for us came across very clear and true. Close to fifty years later, Segregation is no more, but there is still racist people in this world. Although there is no way to have done his job perfectly, and eliminate racism, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a speaker more sensational than Ozzy Osbourne a singer, and he changed the United States Of America Forever.

Fog mixes with lights.

We won't take that I can't see.

Twisted sister rocks.

I wanna rock hard,

But no, I can't see.

But I will Anyway.

Turn it down, you say,

but I can't, cause fog's in the way.

That's good, now lets rock.

Hey, this is our life,

But the fog clouds the whole song.

But I wanna rock.

The dark light starts off,

The drums shrouded by fog

Twisted sister rocks.

Prologue:

Back in the late 50's, music had an issue. No one knew where the light jams and stupid country music was going to end up, would it make music terrible, or would it end up giving birth to the greatest genre of music ever created?

There was once a man, an awesome man, like really awesome, who was insanely skilled at guitar. His name was Jimi Hendrix, and his skill did not come just randomly. He had to work for it. Jimi had an average childhood, not like Michael Jackson, with early fame, Jimi was just an just an average kid. He grew up, became a young dude, and like all young dudes had a coming of age ceremony, dinner with the gods.

So he and his minion buddy dudes went up to the god's cloud-fortress to begin the dinner. It was delicious, and he had a seat next to the awesomest god-dude of them all, Chuck Norris, the king of the gods. They were talking and stuff, and Jimi was stoked to be talking to the greatest person in the world and like the universe and stuff, but then he noticed an object in the corner of the cloud room. It had two horns, and a long neck between them, with six strings. The object had very interesting color, with orange fading into black, and a brownish color in the combination. There was a white shield type thing on it, obviously designed to protect against something.

Little did Jimi know, he was looking at the first fender stratocaster, one of the god's own tools of rock. He instantly knew he had to have it. When they we leaving the dinner party, he managed to grab it without being seen. He got back to earth and formed a band.

At first, his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was just a bunch of dudes, but like every good band, it grew, and eventually became popular, and more popular, and more popular, until it was insanely awesome, and it was just missing one thing, rock as we know it. He knew only Chuck Norris would have a thing so awesome, so he decided to steal it, for the good of mankind.

As he infiltrated the cloud fortress, he sneaked across the wall, flat as a pancake, a recorder in hand. He began to hear a great sound. Booming, rockful, awesome rocking rock! He turned the corner and saw a band, a live performance of the song that we now know as purple haze. He hit the recorder, and right as the song hit the one minute mark, he was spotted. “HEY!” Chuck yelled “ROCK N' ROLL IS A GODLY THING AND YOU CAN'T HAVE IT. IN TEN YEARS YOU SHALL DIE IF YOU LEAVE WITH THAT!” Jimi didn't believe him, and ran off with the recorded music.

That element, the gods form of rock was the last remaining element of the band, and they quickly went on to be the greatest band in the world, and rocked, played gigs, and was totally awesome. They were the greatest band at at Woodstock, a three day music festival of rock and stuff. But in 1960, everything came to an abrupt stop. Jimi had just played a very long gig, that totally exhausted him to like, the bone. He sat down on his bed and gulped down a couple of sleeping pills to help him get to sleep. The lights in his eyes began to dim, obviously a regular occurrence in getting to sleep, but he felt something else, an inner peace, and that he would never feel the evilness of the world ever again.

So Jimi peacefully died, but his legacy went on, and he is still considered the greatest guitar player ever to live. The gods were angry, but the rock went on, and is the greatest genre of music ever.

My collage was influenced by punk rock culture, which has stuff like messed up things that are normally present in society, like the cover art for the Guns N’ Roses album LIES. I showed my influences by this with the large amount of magazine text I included in the collage. I added shapes of guitars over the collage which added to the punk rock culture that I showed in my collage. I tried to shape the collage with the road going into a bunch of mountains, but the guitars I painted kind of took away from that to the point where you can’t see it anymore. I used the colors green, blue, and purple to paint the guitars, which looked really awesome. All in all, the collage was a success, and I think I deserve an A+.

The Metal. Not just a music genre, a way of life. WHICH IS ENDANGERED! This world needs more heavy metal bands, to bring back the greatest genre of music ever, the sweet, sweet metal that caresses your ears, the lifeblood and soul of true music. Here is why we need to bring back the beautiful genre of guitar solos, heavy distortion, and rock hard drums.

A common misconception of heavy metal is that it is all like, ear bleeding death rock live sacrifice on stage type thing. This is not always true. Did you know that Jimi Hendrix is considered heavy metal? Other examples are Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, Learning an instrument takes skill, and is totally a fantastical pastime that is a great way to spend your time. Also, studies show that learning an instrument will help you academically. Additionally, time spent rocking out is time spent not being juvenile delinquenty, like trashing the town and vandalizing random stuff. Also, heavy metal could lead to a career in music, which would be awesome!

Another great benefit of heavy metal that goes well with this economy is that buying instruments stimulates the economy. We're in a recession, and it would be nice if we could work our way out of it. Seriously, its musicians that keep music stores in business, and they would be , like, out of business if not for heavy metal musicians, that purchase their instruments and tools of the trade, as well as less experienced rockers who have just taken up the pastime and need their rocking tools.

So, whichever benefits fit you, you will love the angel's song, the voice of gold, the calloused fingers of silver, the incredible ROCK AND ROLL! So whether the reason is to develop skill, or give you a pastime, or get out of this recession, heavy metal is the answer! Yeah! Rock And Roll Man!

A couple weeks ago a dude called Joe Flood came in and talked to us in life skills about drugs and alcohol. He began with the phrase “I am a alcohol and drug addict”. I kinda freaked, but then he went on to talk about how he had recovered with therapy and stuff. He had been on both drugs and alcohol since he was 14, and was addicted for like 27 years.

When he talked to us, his method wasn't to tell us something like “don't do drugs or you will be killed to death”, he treated it as if he was giving us the choice, but was biased against drugs and alcohol, and with good reasons he explained to us. “the brain has six parts”, he said “when you sleep, two parts of it shut down, when you die, they all go out”. He explained the order in which they are shut down by alcohol, and that drugs will push the brain aside to make room for their own chemicals.

So he explained how drugs trashed his life, and his brain, and his body, and all that stuff. He didn't directly tell us “don't do drugs”, but his method was terrifying, and showed how terrible drugs were, and how terrible you would end up if you did them, or drank too much alcohol, or both, or anything.

           Our trip to Strawbery Banke taught us a lot of interesting information about the history of thanksgiving throughout the ages and with many different cultures. The different cultures included Jewish people, celebrating with matzo balls, Israelis, who celebrated with a hut called a sukkah, and people from China who celebrate the moon festival. Thanksgiving has always required a lot of work to prepare food in all cultures, and even more back in the 1700's and 1800's. So no matter how it is celebrated, in which ever culture you do, thanksgiving has the same roots.

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These are the Moon rocks that Ms. Adams got from the government. They're kind of disappointing with their size, but they were still none-the-less awesome

Dear Parents, In my math class in module one I learned a lot of things, mainly divided up into 6 areas. Graphs, number sequences, number tricks, exponents, probability, and order of operations. In the graphs unit we learned about bar graphs, line graphs, and how to tell the difference between them. It was a unit that bled into the second area, number patterns. Number patterns are just patterns in numbers. For example, 0, 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21. What is the pattern? You simply add 3, although the patterns we did in class were much more difficult so don't expect our math class to be in in cakeland or whatever. The third area we covered was the number tricks area. Take a number, add 3, multiply it by 2, add four, divide by 2, and subtract your original number. Is your answer 5? If its not, then you did it wrong! The fourth area was exponents, which is a number that tells you how many times to multiply a number by itself, but you probably already know how they work, so I won't dwell on that. The fourth area we covered, which was pretty important, was probability. Suppose you roll a die. How likely is it that you roll a one? That is called probability, and is extended to all random events. Our class did experiments with that, and I worked with *ahem* my partner on our “eggsperiment”. The final area, last but not least, was order of operations, which is the order in which you do longer equations. 9+8x2 would equal 25, not 34, because of the order of operations, and PEMDAS, an acronym for parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction, which is the order in which yo do the problem. I hope you had a good time learning about what I am doing in this unit, but I can just to you about it at home so I won't write any more. Sincerely, BHMA