The Wave: Finale

This chapter is pretty crazy. Especially the ending! Mr Ross finds the craziest way of ending The Wave, after being convinced it had to be stopped. He gathers everybody involved in The Wave into an auditorium. He then projects an image of Adolf Hitler, saying that he is their leader. After that, he then tells them that there is no leader and that The Wave made them act like total Nazis. From them on, kids leave and drop their wave stuff, totally stunned at what just happened. On the other hand, Robert is sad because The Wave ended. It was finally something that made him feel accepted and like an equal. Mr. Ross sees that, then takes him out for food.

Before all that happened, you could tell how bad The Wave was getting. With the anonymous letter to the grapevine, or how Amy and Laurie had that fight. I think it’s crazy how the kids dressed in full uniform with even arm bands. But after reading the book, I learned Ben Ross wasn’t all that evil. He actually did The Wave for experimentation purposes. But it got way out of hand and had to be stopped in a very drastic reality realizing way. Overall, I’m not going to lie, but this book was boring. Most people are going to say they liked it, but I didn’t. It was alright, but I couldn’t find it very entertaining. Sure the ending was like, ‘Whoa’, but still. The whole book leading up until that was just boring and endless. But it is a very good lesson, teaching us how groups can go out of hand like that.

The Wave: Beginning of the End (8-12)

Chapters 8-12 in the book are actually pretty good. They seem to focus more on Laurie and her life. At the beginning it tells about Laurie and David. Then it shows us a part where Laurie is talking to her mother again and her mother still doesn’t really trust whats going on at school with the wave. I wouldn’t either if I was Laurie’s mom. I think that Laurie is trying to disguise her uncertainty about The Wave infront of her mother because she acts like it’s not that big of a deal, but deep inside she feels it’s wrong.
I dislike how Mr. Ross feels a little bit obligated to keep The Wave going for Robert. Ever since The Wave started, Robert has been a completely new person. (For the better)  They should find another better way to keep him happy like that.
When Mr. Ross talks to the principal, he tells Mr. Ross that what he is doing has the potential to get out of hand and that he must watch the kids.  I think that the principal is very intelligent.
The Wave is getting pretty intense. I found this line very interesting: “He said pretty soon people in The Wave wouldn’t want to be friends with people that weren’t in it”  It pretty well shows how far this little ‘experiment’ is going. I honestly think that The Wave getting pretty crazy isn’t entirely Mr. Ross’s fault. It was just a harmless experiment that everybody got exceptionally caught up in and turned it out of hand. It’s partially his and the kids fault.
Overall, I really liked these chapters. Very awesome.

The Wave: Formation of The Wave

In this chapter of the The Wave, things start to get interesting. First of all, Ben Ross (The History Teacher) decides to teach his class about discipline. It begins with him ordering them around and making them say ‘Mr. Ross’ before they would answer him and what not. The class gets totally hypnotized in the class and actually listen to him very well. The next class comes, and the same thing happens. Then, Mr. Ross starts a group called ‘The Wave’. He made the emblem for it by creating a circle and putting a wave inside it. Christy, (Ben’s wife) is quite concerned about this group that Ben made. But she doesn’t know for sure what is going to happen.
Honestly, these chapters weren’t half bad.  Still, not terribly interesting, but it’s still intermediately good. I think it’s crazy how the kids are getting so caught up in what Mr. Ross is doing to them. Mr. Ross is quite the character. He is alright, but I’m not crazy about him. I think he is going to do something bad to the class maybe. I don’t know. But anyways, yeah. This chapter kind of reveals a bit more about the characters. It even explains how some characters are trying to use the discipline thing to make their sports team better and more cooperative. There still isn’t really much to say about the characters, but that’s alright. Overall, these chapters were half decent. I must say.

The Wave; Starting Fresh

The first four chapters of The Wave are pretty basic. It doesn’t tell much, but it let’s us know who some of the characters are and a little about the setting of the story. The beginnings of the story revolve around Ben and his history class that he teaches. During class, he shows them a film about Nazi Germany. Some of the kids were stunned by the film, and some didn’t even care. But it seems to hit Laurie Saunders pretty good. But enough about that. I’m not doing a summary. Anyways, the book so far is alright. I’m going to admit that it is pretty boring, but all books start off boring. I like the characters and the setting. And the description of Ben is pretty cool. I hope this book gets more interesting as it goes on. Theres not much too say about the book yet seeing as how I’m only 4 chapters in and nothing major has happened yet. But I’m sure as the book goes on, something cool will happen.

Stolen for twenty years?

20 years ago, 19 days after a woman gave birth, her newborn child was stolen. 20 years later, they were finally reunited. The ‘kid’ had grown up with a different name and family, having not known she was stolen. It would be sad knowing right after you’ve had a baby, it was stolen and you would never see it again. Also, you wouldn’t even know if it was alive. It’s very awesome that in the end, the got back together with eachother. It would be kind of awkward not knowing what your kid has done for the past 20 years. This important to realize because maybe one day you could be like “Oh, I’m going to give birth” Then someone steals your child. It’s sad D: But I’m happy they got re-united in the end.
Story1: HERE
Story2: HERE

Conflicts: Book Thief

When you think conflict, usually the first thing that comes to mind is Man Vs Man. But that’s not just the only type of conflict out there.

Max Vandenburg (Did I spell that right?) has a lot of conflicts in the book. First of all, he has a Man Vs. Society conflict because he is a Jew and everyone is out to get him. True fact, because if anyone ever saw him, they would have to turn him in to the Nazis because Jews are ‘very bad’ apparently. Another conflict that Max has is the whole fact where he is homeless and needs to find another place to hide in or off to the concentration camp he goes! Max also has this big conflict where he really dislikes Hitler. Who would like Hitler anyways? Honestly, Max Vandenburg (I don’t how to spell his last name) has a lot of hardship and conflicts in his life.

So basically Max has tons of conflict in his life. When Hans got in trouble for throwing bread at that Jew, it made Max realize what he is putting the family through and so he left. Nobody really knows where he went, but he has more conflicts to deal with now. Seeing as how he is practically homeless now. I hope that the war will be over and Max wont have to hide anymore. Then all of his many conflicts would disappear.

New Japanese Landmark?

Yes!
Currently, in the grand ole’ city of Tokyo, Japan, they are working on building the tallest building/landmark in the world called the ‘Tokyo Sky Tree’. By December of 2011, it’s suspose to be 634 meters! Whoah. At the moment, it’s only 530 feet though. It’s a pretty cool project, I must say. It’s going to have 3 main uses; The first use is for it to be a landmark that will attract even more tourists. Second off, it’s going to be this big antenna for broadcasting and stuff. Lastly, it’s going to be used for an ‘infrastructure for disasters’. Anyways, they started building this thing in 2008 and now it’s going to be finished. Pretty cool. I bet it cost a large sum of money. People can’t wait to ‘water’ the tree when it’s done being built. (As in climb it, take pictures of it, etc.)
Wikipedia Link: HERE
About it: HERE
Good site: HERE

 
Tower currently

Parfait dedicated to tower.

Australian Floods

Down under in Australia, a storm has caused massive flooding in some places. In one city, the mayor says it may take up to a year to clean up all the damage from possibly the worst flood in ages! Whoa. In the city of Rockhampton, they had to evacuate 500 people, and they have to stay away from their homes until the flooding stops. It’s crazy how floods can do so much damage!
In the place of Queensland, four thousand people have been forced from their houses because of driving rain that left most of the place under a sea, basically.  1,200 homes were inundated and tons more were damaged from the flooding.
Even some of the mines in the country are being shut down because of all this flooding that has been happening in Australia. Apparently the flood in Queensland is about the size of france. That’s one huge flood! It’s weird all the things that’s been happening lately with the random dieing birds and fish. And now some random flooding in Australia, that’s crazy! Random good article about the floods: HERE! 
The bad thing is also, they are expecting even more rain! How can one place have so much rain? Snakes are even swimmin’ around in the flood waters getting randomly in people’s homes. I would be very paranoid if I was in Australia. It’s also very weird that in Brazil too, there are floods going on.

I Like Drawing! (Passion Based Learning)

Drawing

For my passion, I’m doing drawing. (Of course, right?) I just generally enjoy drawing, and sketching and stuff. I also don’t stick to just one form of drawing either. I can do a whole bunch of styles, but my favourite styles of drawing would be semi-realistic portrait drawing. I just love drawing faces and trying super hard to get them to look at least half decent. I’d say art is a pretty hard skill to learn, it definetly helps if you were born being creative like me. Ever since I was little, I loved drawing and being creative. Just recently, I’ve put those two skills to use. I don’t think I’m that great, but definetly maybe next year if I move to Winnipeg I could take an art class. Maybe strengthen my skills, and get better. I don’t know. Anyways, for my representation, I’ve drawn a realistic face. It’s not good, but it’s the best I’ve ever done, I’m not that great at drawing but I love it. I know it’s not some big representation, but it’s the piece of art I’ve done using all the new skills and ideas I’ve learned. I took me about 70 minutes of concentration, and plus for me to be able to draw, I have to really feel like drawing. I’m not lazy, I swear but it’s true. I dont just draw all the time, only times when I feel the need to sit for a long time and draw the best I could do. Otherwise, I would have done more pieces. But they take a long time, and plus I only planned to do one really awesome piece with the info I learned. So there you go.

Info I’ve learned doing this project
-Use more then one type of pencil, e.g. (2B,7B, etc.)
-When drawing eyes, draw the colored part first as a circle, you can erase the sides later.
-Use a 4B pencil for mouths
-When drawing ears, the top should line up with the eyebrow and the bottom should line up with the nose
-Don’t put your greasy hands on your art (Learned from experince)
-Cotton-balls and Q-tips are best for blending and shading
-Make your eyes even and similar
-Using Reference Photos help
-Use Grids
-Good art takes time
-Some parts need you to lightly push on your pencil or push harder on
-If you don’t have the hair right, it kills your artwork
-Tracing is NOT art. And it NEVER will be. Don’t do it ever.
-Face shapes are important
-Pay attention to all details

*Note: Seeing as how I’m really shy sometimes, I dislike sticking my art up in public. But I have to so here it is; (It’s not that great, but I try)

The Story Of Frankie

Well, if your in my class, you’ll get what I’m talking about. If not, oh-well. Anyways, it all started 4 years ago. I was in the fourth grade, and we were off to music class. Me, and my friends Melanie, Tyler and Cole. We were in a grade 5/4 split class that year. One day, we were making these flute things with straws and tape, and being me, I made a little stick man. I gave him the name Frankie, seeing as how I was obsessed with this band (and still am) and the lead guitarists name was Frank. (He’s really awesome) Anyways, we used to bury him in the sand a lot and then dig him up. Then one day, he got all wrecked so we gave him a final funeral in the sand somewhere. That’s the base story of Frankie. I was also quite obsessed with turtles back then, too. So Frankie is usually a turtle now.
Now you know how Frankie was created. (: Me and my friends, also back then made this day; December 18th, (P-Day) Then every December 18th we celebrated it. Except now it’s on a Saturday this year and also two of my friends are moved now too. 😦