My Great Fish

                 Great Fish essay

“If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds.” -Jesse Jackson Jesse Jackson could not have said it better when coming up with this very inspirational quote. Santiago from The Old Man and the Sea struggles to catch a giant marlin in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Santiago struggles with many different things like Fatigue, A cut hand, and even having to battle Sharks to keep his prized marlin safe. A problem that i had to overcome was reaching a certain tier of play in my Favorite video game League of Legends. In life facing and overcoming these obstacles is a skill that all people need to have and should be very highly valued.

In League of Legends there is a ranking system that puts you in a tier based on your skill level. 99% of players get put into the Bronze skill tier and must work their way up from there. That is where my struggle begins. Now this was a challenge for me because when you win a game you gain some points. Reach 100 points and you can move up a rank. If you get bad teammates or you don't play well one game you lose points. That makes it so that people are on edge and will give up right when something goes wrong and that leads to loss of points and a painful climb to the next tier. I played and moved up and down ranks for about 6 months. Doing this made me feel stressful at times and excited at others. Sometimes i lashed out at people from being upset about going down a rank. It all sounds bad but in the end it wasn't, and i had a lot of fun playing one of my favorite games ever!

The reason i went through all of this mental and emotional strain is because i wanted to prove to my friends and other people that i was actually better than 90% of players who are never able to leave the Bronze tier of play. Along the way i did have some help from a lot of people. Some directly and some indirectly. People like Satchel were there to play a game or two with me to help keep my head straight as i tried climbing the tiers. I also had help from Gbay 99 on youtube who has a great channel on league of legends and how to overcome the bad teammates and climb through the tiers. Not everybody was helpful though, there were also the people that were on my team that got off to a bad start in the game and pretty much just gave up and started yelling at other players in the games chat box. (We call those people “toxic”). These toxic people were a huge Shark against me and were a big reason why it was so hard to move up the tiers. I finally overcame these “toxic” people by learning how to calm them down before they got out of control. Sometimes when you mess up all you want is for somebody to notice and reassure you that its not the end of the world, and that is exactly how i dealt with these toxic people.

Santiago also faced many struggles and by far the hardest struggle to deal with would be fatigue. Santiago was out on the water for 3 days after pulling in this huge fish, battling sharks and dealing with blood loss from a cut in your hand you would be so tired and just worn out that i am not even sure how Santiago was able to make it. “Then too, he remembered he hasn't eaten since he took the bait and he is huge needs much food” (P.g 74). I chose this line from the book because it shows how Santiago doesn't have a lot of food to last him through the 3 days that he was out in the sea, and our bodies need food for energy. To overcome this problem of fatigue Santiago decided to eat a Dolphin raw. I do agree with how Santiago faced this problem because he reallty dident have any other options, it was either eat the dolphin and get some energy or probably end up passing out from a lack of it. Santiago never gave up in his fight against the Marlin and that is what hemingway was really trying to tell you.

The main message in The Old Man and the Sea is that even though you may be down on your luck and things aren't looking good, your day will come when everything turns around and you get your chance.  I also think that i learned the same thing from my struggle, that you might get a team full of sharks one game and team full of turtles in another you just can't quit and give up when you get that team full of sharks. Also i think that people can learn a lot from Santiago's struggle and how you just have to wait for your opportunity and when you get it you have to pursue it and really make it worth something because certain opportunities don't come very often. Lastly i think that one thing can be learned from my struggle, its that there are going to be people in life that are not going to be nice, and are going to be selfish and only think of themselves but you have to overcome people like this because in the end who cares what they think or say or do if you're striving and pushing for your goals because in the end you're going to achieve your goals and they're never going to come close.

(P.S I did end up reaching silver tier in LoL)

Allegiant book review

*SPOILER ALERT FOR THIS DOCUMENT*

2. 3rd Quarter Outside Reading Book Review

3. Allegiant By: Veronica Roth, HarperCollins publishers, 2013,      Genre: Distopian Fiction

4. In the book allegiant Tris/Beatrice Prior is a girl who has been living in an enclosed city for her whole life. There is a fence surrounding their city, and nobody has ever been outside or has wanted to go outside the fence. But in this book that is exactly what Tris and a small party of people do. When they get outside they are meet by a group of people and are taken back to a compound. Once there they get to the compound they discover a lot of crazy and terrible things, but if you want to find out what they are youll have to read the book for yourself.

5. “Roth paints her canvas with the same brush as Suzanne Collins. The plot, The scenes, And the characters are the same and just as rich. Fans of Collins, Dystopians and strong female characters will love this novel” -SLJ

6.  I have read 2 other books by this same author and the style of this book is different because every chapter the point of view changes between Tris and Tobias. In the last books they would only switch point of views like this if they were trying to show a different point of view of the same scene, but the books were mainly Tris.

7. "Storming out just so that you can have the last word, very mature".

"So is questioning somebody's motives because they're jealous".

"Then I guess we're even"  (267.)

8. Allegiant Has really shown me that the world that i live in, and the world around me isnt that bad. Even though our government doesn't tell us everything that goes on in the world, there not corrupt and there doing it all to help the good of the people. All in all this book really shows me how lucky i am.

9. 3 paws- Pursue it

Will's Big Break!

Will’s Big Break!

2. 2nd quarter outside reading book

3. The Rangers apprentice-book 1- The ruins of Gorlan, By: John Flanagan Genre- Fiction, First american editors published in 2005

4. In The ruins of Gorlan Will is a teenage Orphan who is about to chose what he wants to apprentice in for the rest of his life. Ever since he was a boy he heard amazing stories about his dad who died in the war and is told to be an amazing knight! On the day of his choosing he is denied by the teacher and has to pick another school. After a lot of thought Will chooses to be a ranger under the mysterious Halt. Halt teaches him the way of a ranger and they head out  on reports of strange creatures out in the countryside.

5. “An excellent book - well written, fast moving, characters that you care about. I particularly loved the descriptions of the Ranger training. A quick read but well worth the time.” Travis from Amazon.

6. This is the first book that i've read by John Flanagan but his writing does remind of the percy jackson series which i personally loved. His writing is also very descriptive and clear and throughout the whole story i always understood and could imagine exactly what he was saying. Another cool thing that i found out about my book is that most of the charecters are based off of people from John Flanagan's actual life, and some of the conversations that the charterers have

7. “Will was in the meadow out behind Halts cottage practicing. He had four targets set up at different ranges and was alternating shots at random between the four, never firing at the same one twice in a row” (P.g 126, Chapter 22)   

8. I can relate with Will, because one time my friend invited me down to a place and we were taught how to shoot a bow, I was pretty bad at it but we still had a ton of fun and I would like to try it again sometime.

9. 5 paws- Devour it!!

Priced or Priceless

Have you legitimately thought about the value of a certain item? There can be value through money, through thoughts, or even through feelings. But who really is that person or place that puts a value on something, does somebody just walk around the world saying “that lamp, 5 dollars” “That car, 16000”. I believe that it is not that person but the person who owns the item, I think they are the ones who put value on the stuff that they own. It happens through experience or tragedy, that is what puts value on an item.
My heart races as I join my team in the fight. I let my jungler know that to win she needs to land a five man ult on the enemy team. I run in, she lands the ult. I go nuts. I see red and jump on there carry i hit my ult and my e and dont stop. I am life stealing all their damage and killing one after the other.Double kill, Triple kill, Quadra kill, Ace.

I calm down and realize its just a game and that i don't need to get so worked up. I am playing my favorite game, league of legends, I am also playing my favorite character Jax. I look around and see that I am in my room playing on my computer. Over all my computer is the most expensive item I own. I got it three years ago from my uncle and have upgraded it ever since. It wasn't a very good computer at first with only 8Gb of space and no graphics card, since then i have added over 200GB of space, an Nvidia 780 Graphics card, A completely Programmable mouse, and a Ducky shine Mechanical keyboard with Black switches and G35 turtle beach headphones. All together it has cost me over 500 Dollars but i bought all of the those items with my own money, Except for my keyboard which was a christmas present.

I Open my eyes and see my street covered in frosty white snow.  I hear the grinding of the pellet stove out in the den. I am the only one up and its early in the morning. Its christmas morning. I know that my parents will not wake up right now to start opening presents so i wait for them to wake up by themselves. It takes a while but finally i hear my dad roll out of bed and into the bathroom. I jump up and head over to my parents room, and after a lot of talk about the day we finally start opening presents. We all have a good time with it but then the real fun arrives. In comes my cousins, grandma, uncle, and grandpa. I don't get to see my family often because we don't live too close to each other. I play football with my cousins and my brother using the teams that we use every year because we believe that they are the most fair.

Then the best part of the day arrives, we feast. I try and talk to my older family before dinner because we have a kids table and an adults table. The kids table is by far the funnest, we have all of my cousins (Even my two cousins that are 24 and 23) me and my brother. We eat ham, rice, chicken, gravy, and bread. Its the best dinner that I eat all year.

My computer and my christmas tradition might sound not so similar but both my computer and christmas let me interact with family members that I don't get to see to often. I get to play some games with my uncle and cousin. And my christmas tradition let me actually interact with my family, face to face for a day. Especially my uncle who has been in the hospital since 2007. He got into a car crash early one morning and suffered brain damage to speech and memory. But we do take him out for a day so that he can see us and interact with us again.

My computer and christmas tradition are also very different, my computer does take away from those games of football out in the yard or those sunday morning breakfast with the family, so after playing for many years I have come up with a balance between the two so that I don't miss out on those games and that i still stay social and connected with my family.

My computer and my christmas tradition make me very excited and happy and I think as long as im doing something that i enjoy doing , like playing computer games, it doesn't matter what other people think because in the end i'm having fun doing something I Love and there just

sitting there watching me.

Rowling is back at it again, this time with a chamber!

1^st Quarter Outside reading book review

Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets, J.K Rowling, Warner Bros. Ent. 1999, Fiction

Harry potter is back in school again for his second year of training to become a full fleged wizard. After going face to face with Voldemort his first year of school Harry doesn’t know what kind of adventures hell get into this year. But there is a problem and harry and Ron cant get onto platform 9 ¾. It was an emergency so they flew Mr. Wesley flying car to Hogwarts. Before they could land the car goes hay wire and they land on the whooping willow. They get caught by Snape and are taken down to his office. They get yelled at but narrowly escape getting detention. When its all over they are sent back up to there dorms. On there way up Harry hears a strange voice from an invisible person. Harry goes about the next half of the year without any problem. Then the janitors cat Mrs. Norris is attacked and harry knows something isn’t right. Above the cat on the wall it says that the chamber was opened by the heir of slytherin. Harry Ron and Hermione are convinced that the hair is malfoy. So they do some things to try and uncover the mystery. If you want to know who the hair is you’ll have to read Harry potter and the chamber of secrets

“Harry must put his life in danger to save others who are important to him”- A customer (On amazon)

I really liked this book by Rowling. Its an Adventure and I couldn’t put it down for a second. I am epically looking forward to reading the rest of the series and see how our characters develop through there time at Hogwarts. I would recommend this book to any one regardless of how much they like to read or there style of book type.

“But Hermiones eyes narrowed dangerously again, and he added swiftly, “But its the best plan we got so full steam ahead” (P.g 118)

I can really connect with this book because, just like harry sometimes I think its hard living with your parents but in the end you always end up forgiving or forgetting just like harry does in not just this book but hopefully the rest of the series.

4 Paws- Pounce on it

Adjectives of Melinda

Speak reading quiz

 

Words: Misunderstood

      Isolated

      Distant

      Resentful

      Deserted

Misunderstood- I chose this word because i think melinda is missunderstood. She dosent have anybody to talk to and anybody she try to talk to just pushes her away. They dont even give her a chance.

Isolated- I think melinda is isolated because she has no good friends and her parents arnt there to talk with her. so she must fell very alone and scared.

Distant- I also think melinda is distant because she doesn't really try to make friends the whole year. She just sticks with heather until she ditches her. Then once she's alone she still stays all by herself and doesn't really try to make more friends.

Resentful- I think melinda is resentful at Andy evans for what he did to her. Not only did he hurt her he also made her freshman year the worst it could possibly be. He denied her friends and even her peace of mind.

Deserted- Lastly i think melinda is deserted because after that party all her friends just left her to die. They didn't want to know why she called the cops or what had happened. They just left her and didn't think about it again.

I think the best word i came up with to describe melinda was Resentful. This is the best word because it is exactly how she feels towards Andy evans for what he did to her. He completely ruined her freshman year and maybe the rest of her life. She also must feel resentful towards her friends for completely abandoning her when she probably needed them the most.

Alfreds Game

Alfreds Game

Ender Wiggin- Enders Game

Alfred Brooks- The Contender

It was a hot and sunny Friday at enders lake house. He was enjoying a nice trip in his canoe to the center of the lake. He was sweating from the heat so he decided to take a dip. As he dived into the cool blue water he heard a sound. when he went under he listened more carefully. there was the sound but it was constant now. he came up and looked around. suddenly a black limousine turned onto his driveway. He quickly jumped back onto the canoe and paddled to shore. The limousine stayed parked as he approached it. Without warning a boy stepped out of the limo.

“Ender Wiggin?’

“Thats me and who are you?”

“My name is Alfred brooks-”

“Oh aren't you that rising star boxer that has only lost one match in his career?”

“Ya that's me and I'm here to have some fun”

“What do you mean “have some fun”

“Well ender i'm here because i want to prove to everybody that i'm the best boxer around”

“So where do i come into that plan”

“I want to fight you ender”

“What no”

“Under normal boxing is boring i've beat every light weight out there. But i heard that you took a self defence class in battle school and i want to see if i can bust you in a 1 v 1 fight.”

“What's in it for me if i win?”

“You'll be the first lightweight to ever beat me in a fight. And i'll give you $500 for the win”

“Ok lets fight”

The fight was scheduled for wednesday at midnight at Mr.Donatellis gym. Both Ender and Alfred practiced vigorously for the fight. Neither wanted to lose. The way the fight worked is the best to K.O the other won the fight. They didn't want to do 3 rounds because they are both experienced fighters and any hit would hurt enough to make them not think straight in the next round.

The night of the fight finally came around and they both showed up ready to fight.

“Alright ender time to fight”

“good luck alfred”

They both took their places on opposite corners of the matt. The bell was rung and the fight began. Alfred came out aggressive first and tried to use his speed to win against Ender. Ender started slow trying to find the gaps in alfreds offens. They danced around the ring for for a minute taking stock of the other fighter. out of nowhere alfred went in on ender with a deadly right hook. Ender taken by surprise barley dodge the punch. This time ender took the offence. When alfred was regaining his balance after the punch ender moved in and jabbed at his ribs. He got a few hits off before Alfred danced back and made some space between him and ender. Alfred was ready to end this fight he wanted to show he was the best fighter. He ran at ender throwing another right hook, as ender  went to dodge the hook alfred stopped his punch short pivoted and came up with one of the hardest uppercut he ever threw. Ender realized his mistake 1 second too late. He took the full force of the upper cut and went out cold. He fell back on the matt and was out for at least 2 minutes. When he came to he saw alfred standing over him.

“Great fight ender”

“You to alfred, I didn't even see that uppercut coming”

“Well i got to go, I have a big fight coming up and i need to train. I can give you a ride back home and you can go on with your life.”

“Alright i'll be sure to watch your fight”

Ender made it home safely and alfred won his the match in a two round K.O.