Blog homework 1 The discussion that I hate is when people say Tom Brady, or Eli Manning are better quarterbacks than Peyton Manning which I think is not true. The reasoning for people thinking that Eli and Tom are better than Peyton is that they have more Super bowl wins. Overall even though Eli Manning has one more Super bowl than Peyton his statistics and records don't compare to Peyton's achievements. Out of the eight years that Eli Manning played he only went to the Super bowl twice while Peyton went 11 times out of the 13 years he played. The "who's better, Tom or Peyton" is a better discussion but Peyton is still a better quarterback. when Tom Brady got injured Matt Castle took his place and took there team to a 10-6 record which is good. The same happened to Peyton but instead they went from being one of the top teams in the NFL to the worst. That showed right there that Peyton was the team and basically was the offensive coordinator. A lot of the receivers that play with Peyton look good because of his accurate pinpoint passes. He also threw for more than 4,000 yard 11 times in his career with the other two being in the high 3,000's. With one more season Peyton can break Bret Favre's all time passing yards which is tremendous since favre played in the NFL for 19 years and Peyton played for 13 and Favre is a future Hall of Famer. Manning having four MVP awards in his career which is the most in the NFL shows that he is a more superior quarterback than his little brother Eli and Tom Brady.

Blog 5Absent In the book "How the Garcia Girls lost their Accents" one character who's had their identity shaped by events in the story is Sofia. With the love letters that Sofia's dad read and with her disobedience, she was the youngest out of all the daughters and the frist to leave. She's the only daughter who didn't confront their father before getting married. All the other daughters in the book got the dads acceptance before getting married. She was sent to New York which definitely shaped her identity because she had to adapt to her environment like anyone else who moves to different areas. Sofia getting married to Otto shaped her identity because Otto is German and not Dominican so just from that she follows some what a different culture because of her husband. I think all the negative events in "How the Garcia Girls lost their Accents" helped in a positive way. The saying "What hurts me only makes me stronger" definitely relates to the events in this book. An example is when one of the girls were being made fun of everyday by American boys from her school. I know from experience that it helps you in a positive way. Now in the future if she gets made fun of it won't hurt her as bad as it could. Also Sofia getting married to a man who is German is positive because it shows the family that you don't have to marry somone of the same race to find true love. Another positive event that happened was when Sofia was sent out of the Dominican Republic. It's always good to raise your horizon by visiting different places and meeting new people. In the situation in the world I think race and stereotypic comments have alot to do with the "National Conversation". In the world that we live in people think that if your black your fast and can jump and for white boys they can shoot when it comes to basketball. Also for Asians people think that if they play basketball they have to be extremely tall like Yao Ming. Obviously that is a false statement since Jeremy Lin really showed that he can be a scorer this past basketball season. Like Kobe Bryant or michael Jordan they just weren't accepted into the league. They got into the league because of hardwork and dedication and thats what people should think about instead of race. Jeremy Lin showed that he could play and worked on his skill nonstop for him to make it to the NBA, so I think overall people need to be less stereotypic.

The art of work that I recently heard was "Take Care" from Drake who is signed with YMCMB. Take Care is definitely my favorite Album from 2011. The songs in his Album were simply outstanding. A lot of the songs were slow beats except HYFR feat: Lil Wayne. His songs all have meaning and have a catchy hook. Even though most of his songs were love songs there were songs that stuck out more than others. "Look What you've done" was Drake rapping about the hard times with his mom, Grandmother and Uncle and how they used to argue but Drake's family loved him and took care of him throughout all the hard times. A quote from the song is "After all the things that we been through, I got you. Look what you've done,look what you've done, Look what you've done for me now. You knew that I was gonna be something We stressed out, and you need some, I got you. Look what you've done, look what you've done" He raps about how his family helping him out and how if his family members needs anything, hes going to help them out. Another song that stands out in Drake's Take care Album was "Shot For Me". It has a clever hook and attracts you to repeat the song over and over again. "Shot Foe Me" and "Take Care" Feat: Rhianna are probably the well known songs from his album. I also enjoyed Drake's work of art because just when you think the song is finished, a short interlude of another song comes on. Drake's "Take Care" album always relaxes me because of the soft and smooth instrumentals he plays behind his deep lyrics. The first track on his album is "Over my dead body" which really reached out to many people I know who heard his album. A memorable quote from that song is "Jealousy is just love and hate at the same time". Quotes like those are what draw me to music like his and the strong lyrics that make me think.

The best (person at their profession) of all time is... 1.In my eyes the best at there profession is my favorite player Peyton Manning who is the quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. A lot of people debate saying that Peyton Manning does not have enough rings to be considered the best but Superbowl rings aren't the most important aspect of being the best for a quarterback. For the last 9 years Peyton Manning lead his team to 9 playoff appearances and 9 years with 10 wins or more. The year that he's injured the Colts went from top 5 teams in the NFL to the worst. Also Peyton holds the record for the most MVP's awards in NFL history with 4. Peyton Manning has a Superbowl ring and was the Superbowl MVP. Peyton is the Colt's all time passing leader and 3rd in NFL history behind Bret Favre and would of passed him if not injured. Overall Peyton was basically the Colt's team and in the past he made ordinary receivers look good. He also has 11 pro-bowl selections out of the 13 years he played. That's why he's considered the best at his profession. The thing our junior class needs to do as Seniors next year for the Wiss community is... 2.The thing that we probably need to do for the community as Seniors next year is helping out the poor and the less fortunate. I think that the school does a very good job setting up fundraisers and different things that can help the poor. I think that us individually can help the poor more in the future. Another thing is many groups of Seniors should set up fundraisers to raise money for the poor or other organizations. The students should make ways to have the fundraisers fun by competeing against other student group which would help make more money. I also think as the future Seniors of Wissahickon, we need to help the elderly. We should do things like visit the old, especiaslly the ones who don't recieve that many visitors. Without the elderly we wouldnt of been born and for that reason we should show support to all the elderly. We could also set up fund raisers that could help cancer or Aids. There are 3.5 months left of my Junior Year of high school (we hope). During this fleeting period of adolescence, before I leave for the summer, I plan to... 3. With 3.5 months in my Junior year, there are many things I plan to do before the summer starts. Before the Summer I plan to go take my Sat's at Plymouth Whitemarsh high school. I also plan to improve my academics. By the end of the school year I want at least a 3.0 Grade point average. By the end of the summer I want to have my drivers license and own my own car. For football I want all my maxouts to increase and for me to work hard and become faster. Me being in concert band automatically makes me attend my concert but before the start of Summer I would like to attend a jazz concert, musical, or play because I always heard they were good but never went. My cousin goes to Murcyhurst University and I was thinking about goin to so before the Summner I want to at least come and stay with her to visit for a weekend. I also want to have a job before the Summer so I can support my own habbits like eating and other things.

1. Let us assume you met a rudimentary magician. Let us assume he can do five simple tricks--he can pull a rabbit out of his hat, he can make a coin disappear, he can turn the ace of spades into the Joker card, and two others in a similar vein. These are his only tricks and he can't learn any more; he can only do these five. HOWEVER, it turns out he's doing these five tricks with real magic. It's not an illusion; he can actually conjure the bunny out of the ether and he can move the coin through space. He's legitimately magical, but extremely limited in scope and influence. Would this person be more impressive than Albert Einstein? In my opinion I think that the rudimentary magician would be more impressive because people usually think that magic is fake, so for the magician to have only limited magic it’s still amazing. Magic is one of those things that people think could never occur in the universe. 5. You meet your soul mate. However, there is a catch: Every three years, someone will break both of your soul mate's collarbones with a Crescent wrench, and there is only one way you can stop this from happening: You must swallow a pill that will make every song you hear--for the rest of your life--sound as if it's being performed by the band Alice in Chains. When you hear Creedence Clearwater Revival on the radio, it will sound (to your ears) like it's being played by Alice in Chains. If you see Radiohead live, every one of their tunes will sound like it's being covered by Alice in Chains. When you hear a commercial jingle on TV, it will sound like Alice in Chains; if you sing to yourself in the shower, your voice will sound like deceased Alice vocalist Layne Staley performing a capella (but it will only sound this way to you). Would you swallow the pill? I would swallow the pill because I wouldn’t want my soul mate’s collar bones broken. The only consequence I would receive if I swallowed the pill was that the only person I would hear was Alice in Chains. That’s not too bad of a price to pay to save your soul mate from have two of her collarbones broken by a Crescent wrench. 7. Defying all expectation, a group of Scottish marine biologists capture a live Loch Ness Monster. In an almost unbelievable coincidence, a bear hunter in the Pacific Northwest shoots a Sasquatch in the thigh, thereby allowing zoologists to take the furry monster into captivity. These events happen on the same afternoon. That evening, the president announces he may have thyroid cancer and will undergo a biopsy later that week. You are the front page editor of The New York Times: What do you play as the biggest story? If I were a reporter I would make the Capturing of the Lock Ness Monster. The Lock Ness Monster is a myth told in books, cartoons, and movies as a fictional creature of lives in the ocean. This would definitely be the top story because the Scottish marine biologist found it alive which make the topic even bigger. 12. You meet a wizard in downtown Chicago. The wizard tells you he can make you more attractive if you pay him money. When you ask how this process works, the wizard points to a random person on the street. You look at this random stranger. The wizard says, "I will now make them a dollar more attractive." He waves his magic wand. Ostensibly, this person does not change at all; as far as you can tell, nothing is different. But--somehow--this person is suddenly a little more appealing. The tangible difference is invisible to the naked eye, but you can't deny that this person is vaguely sexier. This wizard has a weird rule, though--you can only pay him once. You can't keep giving him money until you're satisfied. You can only pay him one lump sum up front. How much cash do you give the wizard? I would give the wizard no money because I could spend the money on one of my hobbies or things I like to do rather than give money to a wizard who could make me more attractive. Overall you don’t know how attractive you will be, and you could give the wizard money and your face wouldn’t change. 16. Someone builds and optical portal that allows you to see a vision of your own life in the future (it’s essentially a crystal ball that shows a randomly selected image of what your life will be like in twenty years). You can only see into this portal for thirty seconds. When you finally peer into the crystal, you see yourself in a living room, two decades older than you are today. You are watching a Canadian football game, and you are extremely happy. You are wearing a CFL jersey. Your chair is surrounded by books and magazines that promote the Canadian Football League, and there are CFL pennants covering your walls. You are alone in the room, but you are gleefully muttering about historical moments in Canadian football history. It becomes clear that—for some unknown reason—you have become obsessed with Canadian football. And this future is static and absolute; no matter what you do, this future will happen. The optical portal is never wrong. This destiny cannot be changed. The next day, you are flipping through television channels and randomly come across a pre-season CFL game between the Toronto Argonauts and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Knowing your inevitable future, do you now watch it? I would watch the Canadian football game because I honestly don’t think being obsessed with football is a bad thing. With football being my favorite sport, I would like seeing myself in the future with me happy in a room watching football. That’s kind of how I see my future anyways. 19. Your best friend is taking a nap on the floor of your living room. Suddenly, you are faced with a bizarre existential problem: This friend is going to die unless you kick them (as hard as you can) in the rib cage. If you don’t kick them while they slumber, they will never wake up. However, you can never explain this to your friend; if you later inform them that you did this to save their life, they will also die from that. So you have to kick a sleeping friend in the ribs, and you can’t tell them why. Since you cannot tell your friend the truth, what excuse will you fabricate to explain this (seemingly inexplicable) attack? I would kick my friend as hard as I can in the ribs because I would rather make up an excuse than see my friend die just because I made the choice to not kick him or her. My excuse would be that I was sleep walking and I didn’t know what happened after that. 20. For whatever the reason, two unauthorized movies are made about your life. The first is an independently released documentary, primarily comprised of interviews with people who know you and bootleg footage from your actual life. Critics are describing the documentary as “brutally honest and relentlessly fair.” Meanwhile, Columbia Tri-Star has produced a big-budget biopic of your life, casting major Hollywood stars as you and all your acquaintances; though the movie is based on actual events, screenwriters have taken some liberties with the facts. Critics are split on the artistic merits of this fictionalized account, but audiences love it. Which film would you be most interested in seeing? I would be most interested in seeing a movie with actual events but with famous stars because I think it would bring more of a crowd. Also I think that they could make the movie funnier because they could switch things up throughout the movie, and just having a movie about yourself is great itself. Posted 4 weeks ago by TroyJones75

Person of Interest: Jeremy Lin A trip deep into the heart of Linsanity What Jeremy Lin is doing is very outstanding. In the NBA there are not alot of asian basketball players, except Yao Ming and for him to be scoreing 38 points on Kobe Bryant's team is simply amazing. I find it interesting that his dad taught him how to shoot like Larry Bird when he was young, even though he end up changing his shooting style. I like how they said "athletes of an anomalous race can only succeed in cities where their "peoples" are well represented." Then after he brought up a very famous baseball player to prove his point. Out of the last six games he scored over 20 points as a point-guard and scored a career high against the Lakers. I would definitely recomend this article to anyone who likes sports. This articles shows people that any race can play a sport, and hardwork and dedication is what you need to succeed. Monica Yant Kinney: Pa. bill preventing local gun crackdowns would be travesty I agee with people who loose armed weapons or have them stolen should tell the police imediately. Alot of crimes deal with armed weapons and many people are killed because of that. I think if the person who lost the armed weapon or got it stolen are fined, the person would definitely learn his/her leason. It also makes the world a safer place because if somone who can't get a gun because of criminal records recieves or steals a gun from a friend, the outcame can be many deaths. I knew that Pennsylvania had alot of gun violence especially in Philly, but the statistics is what really interest me. "Pennsylvania ranks first (worst) in the nation for having the most guns go "missing" from dealers. Between 2008 and 2010, more than 6,000 firearms somehow disappeared from licensed Pennsylvania gun shops." Thats very eye catching, and for that very reason I think Pennsylvania needs stricter gun laws. Elie Wiesel: Mitt Romney Should Tell Mormon Church To Stop Performing Posthumous Proxy Baptisms On Jews I strongly agree with the Morman church not being able to posthumous proxy baptise Jews. Being baptised is apart of the Christian religion which the Mormans are apart of. The way I see the situation, posthumous proxy baptism would be going against the Jews religion. The Christians believe that Jesus was there Mesiah and thats the reason why they get baptised but the Jews believe that Jesus was not the Mesiah and that the Mesiah has not come yet. So I don't understand why the Mormans would baptise the dead Jews because they didn't have a chance when they were alive, when they don't believe Jesus was the Mesiah. I also think it's disrespectful that the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had submitted Wiesel's name to a restricted genealogy website as "ready" for posthumous proxy baptism. If thats not apart of their religion, the Jews shouldn't be posthumous proxy baptised. Posted 3 weeks ago by TroyJones75

By reading the cover of "How the Garcia girls lost Their Accents" it made me think that the story was going to be about Hispanics. Also by reading the title I think that the book is going to involve culture. I read the back and thought it had an interesting plot. For the family tree I know that two families are connected to each other on the page and I also noticed that it said something about a great great grandfather who married a Swedish girl, and that seems interesting. What I feel that is interesting about the outset is that it starts off with a family having a celebration which makes the reader have a happy emotion while reading. I think that this book is something that I might like because of the plot and the book description. By reading the back and the title, I understand why the book is called "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents". It said that the girls had to leave the Dominican Republic because of there fathers plan against a cruel dictator and they had to move to New York City. I understand the title because it said that they ironed there hair, and tried to forget there spanish, and thats how I think they lost there accent or a piece of there culture. The title didnt seem too exciting to me but it still seemed like the story line could be interesting. I predict that the girls are going forget about who they really are in the book. I think somthing is going to happen to there father for planning something against the cruel didtator. Nothing really stands out from the book. Overall I think Im going to like the book and think it's going to deal with culture throughout it. Posted 30th January by TroyJones75