I wish I had an E-Mail....

Dear Mother and Father,

I have sent you this letter to inform you that I will be leaving the community and never coming back. Please don't be alarmed, for the rest of the letter will tell you more about the cause of my disappearance. My recent training with the Giver has been extremely hard to take in. You may have wondered why I was so quiet at the dinner table; of why I hardly made any conversation during our little gatherings at the end of the day. It was because of what I have learn't over the year. See, training with the Giver has brought me to realize that our world is cruel, merciless and heartless, and that it is full of harsh mistakes. Really harsh mistakes. I found it extremely hard to believe, even though everything that the giver gives is the truth. Being in our community, has made me believe that the world was always safe, that it was never surrounded by such heartless and cold blooded killers; never surrounded by hate or violence. But training with the Giver has exposed me to such. It just hurt thinking about it. I mean, how could I have told you? I just couldn't! And that was it, I confess. That was the reason why I was so quiet during our little talks during dinner time. I feel ashamed to lie towards my own dear mother and father. And for that, I'm truly sorry. I beg for your forgiveness. However, I did receive private training, training that was not to be told towards anyone else, and I couldn't deny that. But then I saw it. I saw the one thing that changed my life. I saw what had happened to that poor little twin. Yes father, I saw what you did. Do not try to deny it.

That's why I left. I couldn't stand such horror, I couldn't stand that you....you murdered him!

I will not stay in this community any longer. These are my last words, I wish you and mother a very happy life. Please don't take my precision of language to seriously, for I will say this last thing. I love you.

Your's truely,

Jonas.

"There could be love"....HOW CORNY. What else? There could be chocolate??

Although, I may not be the smartest person on earth, but in my opinion I think that the theme of freedom is more thoroughly shown in the opening scenes of chapter 16. How I know this? Simple. As mentioned on the opening scene's of the book (Page 121-124), it explained how Jonas went through a variety of different types of memories that each had there very own taste of freedom in it. For example, "In one ecstatic memory, he had ridden a gleaming brown horse across a field that smelt of damp grass" Page 122. When reading through this, I had a somewhat good idea on how Jonas has experienced freedom for a brief moment.

This is because Jonas is riding a horse in the middle of a field. Unlike our community, the people who control Jonas's community wouldn't really allow such behavior within there vicinities. This is because actions like this could lead to conflict or accident by A) Someone else want's to ride on the horse, or B) Jonas could somehow fall of the horse and break his arm into little bits and pieces (Ow). Overall, I would say that Jonas has experienced freedom for a brief moment by riding a horse in the middle of a brown field (Sounds a bit awkward in a way). This however, is the sort behavior that the community elders don't want to have. After all, the community is inherited with "sameness".

Other examples, include the scene on page 122-126. The scene in this part of the chapter shows Jonas experience another memory that was based on the celebration of Christmas Eve. Like mentioned on page 122-124, "He was in a room filled with people, and it was warmth, with a firelight glowing on a hearth. He could see through a window that outside it was night, and snowing. There were colored lights: Red and green and Yellow, twinkling from a tree which was, oddly, inside the room. On a table, lighted candles stood in a polished golden holder and cast a soft, flickering glow. He could smell things cooking, and he heard soft laughter. A golden-haired dog lay sleeping on the floor. On the floor there were packages wrapped in brightly colored paper and tied with gleaming ribbons. As Jonas watched, a small child began to pick up the packages and pass them around the room: to other children, to adults who were obviously parents, and to an older, quiet couple, man and woman, who sat smiling together on a couch".

Reading this, I realized that this could be another example of how Jonas experienced freedom for the first time. Though, this scene didn't really carry on until the next page

When Jonas learns all about colors, he claims "it isn't fair that nothing has color". Why does he say this?

In my opinion, I think the reason why Jonas says this is mainly because this is first time he has experienced this. For example, I remember when I was a kid, when I went to some playground or theme park and had to leave, I felt that I still wanted to stay longer. This is somewhat similar to how Jonas felt, because since this was the first time he experienced this, he doesn't want it to stop. It's just like saying; Jonas has the habit of seeing the color of red.

Another reason why Jonas claims that it isn't fair to not have color, is because of the fact that he may already be getting sick and tired of the original colors of there world. It's just like how when you eat one type of cereal for a very long time, and then you get sick and tired of eating it, and then when you eat another type of cereal that seems more tastier, but instead you're not allowed to eat it.

Also, as mentioned on page 97, " 'But I want them!' Jonas said angrily. 'It isn't fair that nothing has color!' 'Not fair?' The giver looked at Jonas curiously. 'Explain what you mean' 'Well.....' Jonas had to stop and think it through. 'If everythings the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?' ". In this statement, it proves that Jonas just wants make choices by himself and that's pretty much what he actually mean't by "It isn't fair to not have color".

THA GIVA! (The giver)

I've recently been given a book about a 12 year old boy who lives in a society where everything is just perfect, The food supply, the water supply, the fashion, the education-- or to be more precise, pretty much everything is PERFECT. Even the jobs are perfect. So when Jonas celebrates " The Ceremony of 12"; the process of which a child is then turned into an adult-- he is forced to be enrolled as a receiver. A job from which you would have to receive the memories from THA GIVA!!!! (The Giver).

Q: Would you want your future to be decided by others? Why? Why not?

I think that I would want my future decided by myself and not anyone else. This is mainly because I find that everyone deserves the chance to make there own personal choices rather then other people making it. For example, if we were to pick whether to eat a pizza, and whether to eat a grain of rice, which would you pick? The average person would obviously pick a pizza (unless they were lactose intolerance), but what if someone were to make the choice for you, and they; without a doubt, chose the grain of rice for you. Unfair? Exactly. Though, not everything is unfair within the aspects of the community-- you're actually mean't to work for your job. For example, in the book; The Giver, you were mean't to help the area from which you wanted to work with, in order to gain that specific job, or else you would be enrolled into something you're unfamiliar with and/or not interested in. That's why everything inside the society is all controlled....you're not given any choices-- or any undo's.

Which leads me to my second point: FREEDOM!! Reading the book, I noticed that people were not given any choices of what to do, and what not to do. For example, in page 55, the book more thoroughly explained the concept of how Asher; Jonas's best friend in the community, had problems at speaking English when he was only 3 years old. It explained a scene from which Asher was waiting in-line at the canteen, waiting for a snack. Now if you've read this book-- you would know that if you don't speak correctly or in the right manner, you would be beaten with some weird stick thingy. Well, that was exactly what happened to Asher. It wasn't really that necessary to have beaten Asher with a stick, because it was just a tiny error and mistake. But like I said before, it was a controlled society.

Overall, I would say that freedom is rather important to our society, as it contributes many things to us like how we aren't living under strict supervision every minute of the day, and also how we aren't mean't to do certain things that aren't really that necessary to rule against. It is something that we can hardly live with all our lives, as it makes the human race whole. Not to mention, how is being in a controlled society good? It doesn't exactly make us a whole lot happy, I mean, how is being put inside some random job a nice thing? It's just like being put into some random family (Which is also another rule people must obey-- Being paired up into some random family....*Shudders*).

King Khufu.... the pyramid builder-- pyramids are cakes...aren't they?

This is just one of Masterpieces....


1. Why do you think the ancient Egyptian pharaohs create monuments?

It depends on what type of monument they're building. Let's say they're building a pyramid for example. Some ancient Egyptian pharaohs built pyramids to house there tombs when they've died. Take king Khufu for example. King Khufu; or Cheops, is known as the Pyramid builder. Mainly because he built the great pyramid at Giza in which his tomb is located. Though, some Pharaohs commanded others to build Statues in honor of themselves. A famous ancient Egyptian monument called the Mortuary temple was built by yet again, the famous pyramid builder also known as King Khufu. This monument was specifically built to hold a series of festivals including the Sed festival, and the white hippopotamus festival.

2. What monuments in our society are similar? (be sure to provide explanations and graphics).[Image]A monument in our society that is similar to the monuments in our society would be the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas. At a height of 30 stories, the Luxor hotel is the second biggest hotel, from which the MGM grand hotel is the biggest. As seen in the picture, the hotel has a sort of Pyramidal shape that stands at an impressive 350 ft. Though, comparing this to the great pyramid at Giza in Egypt, which is 450 ft, the Luxor hotel is like a pebble compared to that.

3. How did the using Google docs as the main portal for collaboration help you with this assignment? The using of Google docs helped me in many ways. Ways such as how me and my partner, Olle could work on the same thing using separate computers. It was also very useful because whenever Olle forgot a little piece of information essential to our project, I could have just got on to Google docs myself and type it up. That way, if we lose anything, we can just rely on our partner to help us out.

4. What did you learn from this assignment?I learned many things about King Khufu. Though, one of the most fascinating things that I've learned is the famous monuments that he's built. One of them however, is actually part of the seven wonders of the ancient world!! Though some of his monuments include the 3 queens pyramids just linked right next to the great pyramid at Giza. Just like King Khufu's tomb inside the great pyramid, the 3 queens pyramids were specifically built to house the tombs of the Queens from which King Khufu ruled Egypt with. Another famous monument built for king Khufu was the "Solar Boat". The solar boat was created to transport King Khufu's "Ra" (Which means soul" to heaven when he would die.

5. What was challenging?In my opinion, I think that the most challenging part of this assignment was when we tried recording our voices for the I-Movie part of the project. This was because me and my partner Olle couldn't find a suitable place to sit down and record because the entire school was very noisy. After walking around the middle school corridors for the fifty billionth time, me and Olle finally decided to record at some picnic tables with my good friend Alex Yusof. This also was very challenging because my friend Alex also had to record, and me and Olle couldn't record whenever their was noise around, so we had to problem solve in order to fix this problem.

6. Which school-wide learning results were evident in this assignment?One of the school-wide learning results that were evident to this assignment was "Collaborate Constructively". This was because me and Olle had to do a lot co-operation within this project. Mainly because me and Olle had to gather some research so that we could create an I-Movie and that took-- lets say....two days? We also had to create a script that tells the audience about King Khufu and figure out what transitions we should put in between the slides.

LINKZZZ
"File:Luxor Hotel.jpg." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 09 Feb. 2011. .

King Khufu the pyramid builder, wait..isn't a pyramid a type of cake?

This is just one of my masterpieces....

Why do you think the ancient Egyptian pharaohs create monuments?

It depends on what type of monument they're building. Let's say they're building a pyramid for example. Some ancient Egyptian pharaohs built pyramids to house there tombs when they've died. Take king Khufu for example. King Khufu; or Cheops, is known as the Pyramid builder. Mainly because he built the great pyramid at Giza in which his tomb is located. Though, some Pharaohs commanded others to build Statues in honor of themselves. A famous ancient Egyptian monument called the Mortuary temple was built by yet again, the famous pyramid builder also known as King Khufu. This monument was specifically built to hold a series of festivals including the Sed festival, and the white hippopotamus festival.

What monuments in our society are similar? (be sure to provide explanations and graphics).

A monument in our society that is similar to the monuments in our society would be the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas. At a height of 30 stories, the Luxor hotel is the second biggest hotel, from which the MGM grand hotel is the biggest. As seen in the picture, the hotel has a sort of Pyramidal shape that stands at an impressive 350 ft. Though, comparing this to the great pyramid at Giza in Egypt, which is 450 ft, the Luxor hotel is like a pebble compared to that.

3. How did the using Google docs as the main portal for collaboration help you with this assignment?

The using of Google docs helped me in many ways. Ways such as how me and my partner, Olle could work on the same thing using separate computers. It was also very useful because whenever Olle forgot a little piece of information essential to our project, I could have just got on to Google docs myself and type it up. That way, if we lose anything, we can just rely on our partner to help us out.

4. What did you learn from this assignment?

I learned many things about King Khufu. Though, one of the most fascinating things that I've learned is the famous monuments that he's built. One of them however, is actually part of the seven wonders of the ancient world!! Though some of his monuments include the 3 queens pyramids just linked right next to the great pyramid at Giza. Just like King Khufu's tomb inside the great pyramid, the 3 queens pyramids were specifically built to house the tombs of the Queens from which King Khufu ruled Egypt with. Another famous monument built for king Khufu was the "Solar Boat". The solar boat was created to transport King Khufu's "Ra" (Which means soul" to heaven when he would die.

5. What was challenging?

In my opinion, I think that the most challenging part of this assignment was when we tried recording our voices for the I-Movie part of the project. This was because me and my partner Olle couldn't find a suitable place to sit down and record because the entire school was very noisy. After walking around the middle school corridors for the fifty billionth time, me and Olle finally decided to record at some picnic tables with my good friend Alex Yusof. This also was very challenging because my friend Alex also had to record, and me and Olle couldn't record whenever their was noise around, so we had to problem solve in order to fix this problem.

6. Which school-wide learning results were evident in this assignment?

One of the school-wide learning results that were evident to this assignment was "Collaborate Constructively". This was because me and Olle had to do a lot co-operation within this project. Mainly because me and Olle had to gather some research so that we could create an I-Movie and that took-- lets say....two days? We also had to create a script that tells the audience about King Khufu and figure out what transitions we should put in between the slides.

LINKZZZ
"File:Luxor Hotel.jpg." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 09 Feb. 2011. .

City Connections reflection...

What do you believe you did well on you're project?

I believe that the Historical factors displayed in my slideshow were the best part about it. I say this because it really shows how Houston started of; from 6,642 acres of land to a large enough city with one of the best education systems in the world. I also chose the Historical factors because it shows how Houston was first established into an actual city, as mentioned in the slide, it says that the incorporation of Houston began at 1837 from which James .S. Holman was declared as it's first Mayor.

What would you do to improve for future presentations/projects?

In my opinion, I think that a good way to improve for future presentations, would be to maybe add a little bit more information in my environmental factors slide. This is because I feel that 2 bullet points wouldn't be enough for an A+ presentation. So in the future, a good solution to help solve this problem would be to maybe manage my time wisely during projects like this because I may have to do a little bit more research if was to add more info in my slides.

What did you learn from you're preparation (for your presentation) in addition to the presentations of others?

I think that I've managed to learn a wide variety of things from myself, and from all the people in my class. During the first phases of my research, I was able to gather a large amount of information that made me have this exact thought at the back of my head: "I've never new THAT before". I also think that what I've learnt from other people's presentations made me seem a little bit more interested in their country then I was before. For example, one of my classmates, Alex, did a presentation about Kuala Lumpur. I wasn't really that keen of Kuala Lumpur at first, but after Alex showed the class his presentation, I was blown away by all the things that he told me. For example, one of Alex's slides mentioned something about how the mountains here can block off the harsh typhoon winds.

What is your analysis of your performance?

I think that the analysis of of my performance is a bit in the middle because, I can't say that I did EXTREMELY good, nor can I say that I did extremely bad. In my opinion, I think that the information I've put into my slides are adequate enough to give me a good and efficient grade that would meet my expectations, but I could still improve upon it in the nearer future. Maybe, the next time I try doing a slide show presentation, I can look back to my older presentations and think: "I have the chance to improve now", and probably use that as my motivation to make a better, and stronger presentation that would deserve an A+.

Sources:

http://abkldesigns.com/city1.html&imgurl=http://abkldesigns.com/skyln7.gif&ei=LBRFTeeHN4KHrAfE6tX1Dw&zoom=1&w=373&h=254&iact=hc&oei=LBRFTeeHN4KHrAfE6tX1Dw&esq=1&page=1&tbnh=161&tbnw=238&start=0&ndsp=9&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0

My amazing experience from the holidays!

I think that one of the most amazing experiences of the Christmas holidays was when the Petronas towers had a fireworks show. I found the fireworks very amusing because of how beautifully they formed patterns in the dark night sky. I think that, this was a great way to the end the year, and that it was also one of the main highlights of 2010 (Or should I say 2011?). It was especially cool considering the fact that I live right in front of KLCC, so I got a splendid view of how the fire works looked like, and I've got to say, it's been a long time since I've seen something like that up-close-and-personal. 

It's 2011, and you know what that means? The start of a new year!

Every year, I try my best to come up with a small mental list of my new year's resolutions. Usually, my main goal would be to try to achieve good grades on a daily academic basis. But instead, this year I think it would be best to try making social goals to improve myself, AND to give the people around me, a good impression of who I am. Here are my list of resolutions that I think are best for me for the year of 2011. 


                                      1. COMPUTARS!!
First of, theirs my addiction to my computer. One day, I decided to go on my computer in hopes of finding something interesting to watch on youtube. Surely, I did. Of what seemed to feel like minutes, I realized that two hours have already passed ever since I have been on my computer that very day. "Wow!" I said, I was amazed to see how much time flies in such short notice. To this day, I am disgusted of how I don't use my social life wisely, like how the average every-day person would. A solution to this problem, would be to probably minimize my urge to go on my computer, so that I would be able to spend my day doing something worthwhile such as spending time with my family, or to getting out of the house to breathe some fresh air. 

I also think that it's a good idea that it's a good idea to resist my urge to computers because I find it as a distraction whenever I do my work. Often, whenever I do my homework, I am sometimes distracted by many things, and I figured that if I keep this up, then I'll never be able to finish any of my work in the future. So a good solution to patch up this problem would be to maybe concentrate more on my goal, rather then losing focus and going of topic.


2. Organization, a celebration.
Just a few days ago, I found myself rushing around my house, looking for pencils, erasers, 30cm rulers, and ESPECIALLY my pencil case. It was 1/10/11, A.K.A the day before school would start after my long, 3 week holiday. I came to realize that I was missing various essential items needed for my first school day of 2011. I was desperate, I couldn't find anything, anywhere, I checked in mugs, cupboards, bathrooms, bags you name it, and was still astonished to find out that I was now in dire need of various school items. This however, is an example of how organization, may not be my best skill, but, a skill to improve. 

ZeitGeist!

A short video regarding of all the things that I have experienced throughout the past 2 trimesters. Hope you enjoy!

My Learner Profile Reflection

Sup.


Just recently, my class and I were assigned to an activity in my Humanities class where we would all find out about what our learner profiles are. Each of us were given a sort of questionnaire/diagram that we had to fill out in order to tell what learner profile we belong to. 


Here's a reflection of my activity regarding my learner profiles. 


I  learn best when their are hardly any distractions within range when I'm doing my work. Usually, whenever I go home, I'm often distracted from doing my homework by things like computers, my baby brother, Television etc. Though, if their are no distractions within my vicinity, then I am usually more focused into doing my work. I realized this tactic not so long ago, when I first joined homework help; an after school activity that gives you you're own time and space to do your homework. After I finished my homework help activity I realized a remarkable thing, I finished my homework! I came to realize that the reason why I didn't really get any work done at home was because of the fact that I was too distracted, thus making me lose my focus of doing homework. 


In my own opinion, I think that I need to be a little bit more invulnerable to distractions that I usually come across whenever I work on my homework. What I mean is, whenever I do my work, I get distracted, this however, is a bit frustrating to deal with. So, my what I think is a good solution to this, is to maybe try to be a bit more distraction proof, so that I can be able to complete my work more often.


Some strategies that would help me in my learning is to maybe try to avoid getting of topic whenever my teacher is trying to explain something to the entire class. If possible, then I think that I would find it easier to learn new things because of the fact that I will be able to avoid distractions that could keep me from learning.


I think that I would like my teacher to know that one of the things that prevents me from learning would be that distractions that I find during my work time are one of the main things that effects my academic life. Just today, I had trouble remembering how to convert decimals, into fractions. This however, is another example of my weakness to distractions.

My Lit. Circle 3 Feedback :D

Sup. 

For my third Literature circle, my humanities teacher Mrs Narsiman, assigned everyone in our class, to work on our next Lit. circle with a partner. During the past few days, me and my partner Gard have came across some obstacles, challenges, and much much more, though we have triumphed, and we have conquered. Though, without further ado, I am here to tell YOU about what I have discovered when I was working on my Lit. Circle. 

Obstacles.............

First of, let me start of with saying what obstacles that I have discovered and conquered during this assignment. One obstacle that I have discovered during this Literature circle, was when I had to talk to my partner, Gard and tell him what he should, or shouldn't do when we typing on our Literature circle sheet on google docs. This was especially hard because I kind of found it difficult to make him understand what I was trying to say to him. In other words, it was kind of hard to explain my tactic of a great, well structured paragraph. Another obstacle that I have found very irritating when I was typing up my Literature circle passage, was when I had to try to look for a very significant passage that I liked and try to look for reasons why I thought it was significant. To me, this was one of the most hardest parts of typing literature circles, Because if you can't find a very significant passage in the book, then you won't have much to write! 

Obstacles!!

Another Obstacle that I also found quite irritating when I was doing my assignment with Gard, was when I had to help him try to answer his questions. Not that I came up with the answer before Gard did, It was actually really hard to tell Gard what was wrong with his questions, and how he could improve upon it. This was especially hard considering the fact that I am also not so good at coming up with good questions. Plus, What I found really annoying was when I always had to tell Gard to provide examples and evidence. But I don't really blame Gard for not knowing how to provide examples and evidence, because when I did my first literature circle, I had NO idea of how to provide examples and evidence myself!

Challenges!!

Challenges....
Some challenges that I came across during this assignment was when I had to figure out how to put A LOT of text into my passage for the literature circles. I figured that, in order for me to be able to provide a lot of information into my passage, is to look for a really important part of the book that is very key to the entire book. This however, was a bit difficult because when I tried flipping through some of the pages inside the book, I couldn't find much to write about, this is because of the fact that not a lot of the scenes in this part of the book were that important. But with a bit of thinking I was able to provide a lot of information into my literature circle sheet, all from the help from page 150. 

Another challenge that I found very frustrating, was when I had to figure out some ways to help Gard improve upon his passages and Questions. This is because of the fact that Gard didn't put any examples nor evidence into his Literature circle sheet. I found this very frustrating because I had to try to explain to Gard what I actually mean by evidence and examples. Also, I had to constantly explain to Gard to add page numbers inside his passage, because he isn't really that specific whenever he types down into his literature circle sheet. Plus, I had to explain to Gard of how to make his questions more clear because they were a bit hard to understand.

New Understandings......

Some new understanding that I got from my Literature circle, was when I was able to learn more about Jacob's past life. For example: "Just a little rain can turn this hard grim land, into a soft green landscape...". When I read this statement in my book, it already tells me about how Jacob and his father usually bond together. Another new understanding that I have got just from typing up this literature circle, was how I realized why this book was called thunder cave, this was because of how Supeet explains to Jake of what exactly is the "thunder cave", thus giving me an understanding of why the book is called thunder cave. 

Some Benefits of working with someone....

One benefit that I came across when I was working with Gard was the fact that we were able to finish our Literature Circle much more faster then if we were working individually. Also, another benefit that would help me during this Literature circle, was the fact that we were able to provide feed back for each other, saying what are the do's and don'ts when we were typing this up. Also, just in case we didn't know how to do certain things in our Lit. circle sheets, we could always rely on each other for help. One last benefit that I would like to explain, was when me and Gard tried to "scan" each others work, and see how we could improve upon it. This especially was very useful, because if I never did this, then Gard would have not been able to think more upon his passage, because at first, it was a bit low quality, but now since we sort of, peer edited each others work, he was able to get a high quality passage!

My lit. circle refletion

Sup.

In my opinion, I think that my group discussion has helped me understand the book in may ways. One way was when Jesper told the group about how Sam's and Jacob's relationship was with each other when we were discussing our lit. circle discussion questions. Our discussion also helped me understand more about Jacob's relationship with his real father, because I kind of found the story of Jacob's Father kind of hard to understand when I was reading the book, but luckily, we were able to talk about it during our discussion time. I also found this discussion quite useful because now since everyone in my discussion group has told me some info about "thunder cave", I now have a few Ideas of how I'm going to make my next Lit. Circle. 

For my connections, I put 2 things, 1 connection that I did was about the time when my grandma passed away, due to cancer. The reason why I chose this connection was because of how much it relates to the experience that Jacob has. For example, when I was attending my Grandma's funeral, it was an extremely sad moment for me, but when I read this book, it sort of reminds me about my grandma's death. So that's pretty much why I put that in as 1 of my connections. As for my second connection, I picked that because of how much it relates to the experience that Jacob's mom had. Luckily, my mom wasn't injured  that badly, which makes me feel quite relieved when I think about it, but luckily, my mum just had her foot injured. 

My Prediction:

I assume that Jacob will probably have a problem that may occur when he tries to arrange for a flight to Kenya. I say this because of how inconvenient his flight will be to Kenya, my reasons to support this, will be that, how can Jacob arrange a flight to Kenya in such a short time period? Surely, Jacob probably wants his flight to be arranged in just a few days, which is pretty hard because people are meant to book a flight ticket A MONTH before they actually fly on the plane. Plus, where will he get the money to even by a ticket? A flight ticket arranged to take him ALL the way to Kenya would probably cost thousands of dollars (And probably a few hundred more dollars more because his flight it had to be arranged in such a short period of time)! 

Besides that, let me talk more about what I THINK Jacob might discover in Kenya. I think that Jacob will  discover the "Thunder Cave". In my own opinion, I think that the thunder cave might be some sort of ancient cave, that; is what caused the drought in Kenya in the first place, somehow, something must've triggered the events in Kenya to happen. As mentioned at the back of the book: "Will Jacob end the drought in Kenya?". This sort of gives me a clue of what this story is REALLY about, plus it also mentioned "And save the elephants from extinctions?" I this also gives me a clue about what might probably happen in the story. Overall, I would say that the thunder cave is actually the cave that (I don't how) causes the rain in Kenya to happen, which is why Jacob must go their when he visits Kenya. 

An awesome comic (made by me) that is better then alex's!

From a mud skipper's point of view....

I'm lying under my big mound of mud, waiting for those giants outside to hurry up with their business. I drill out a small hole in my mound of mud and pear through, only to see 5-6 giants walking around this certain area, mumbling gibberish to each other "blah blahby blah" is what I hear from them. "I wonder if this is how they communicate with others" I thought. I carefully slither out of my mud mound dragging along my long tale with me, and hop towards the nearest plant I can put my eyes on. "Just 1 hop at a time.....Just 1 hop at a time..Just 1 h.." I repeatedly whisper to myself, hopefully those giants won't get a visual of me. I steadily crawl pass the giant elongated cuboids that towered above me, as I do that, I take a second to see what exactly these towers are. I study 1 tower and then another, and another, "ooohhh, these are Mangroves in progress of growing" I say. 


I make a quick check on whether the giants are following me, or whether they have spotted me. "Phew, i'm still invincible to their line of sight" I thought. I see 1 giant just a few kilometers away, he seems to be angrily stabbing at the mud, "grrrrrr, he's destroying our homes! Wait a minute....is that.....a Mangrove sapling?!" I said, I carefully move towards him, slowly and steadily, hopefully he won't see me. I study every action he makes; the giant delicately places the sapling into the big hole that he must've been stabbing at, "ooooooh, the giants are planting Mangrove trees" I thought. I turn around and hop back to the muddy area of where I once were, until I stop dead in my tracks, I turn to my right and I see 3 giants just a few hundred meter away from me. I notice that they're foots are stuck in the mud. "Oh no" "If those giants spot me, i'm a goner!" I said quietly, I try best to act camoflauge, so that the Giants won't spot me. I see 1 of them look at me "I'm Dead!" I say loudly. 


1 of the giants say something "May muys, ckook! yits ay dudstipper" Is what I THINK they are saying. One of them tries to grab me; and in the process, trips over a mound of mud. A flock of fiddler crabs scurry out of the mounds shouting "Repent! the end is near" says 1, Another says "Every crab for themselves". What have these giants done? I start hopping away from the disastrous area, "Better safe then sorry" I thought, I try to avoid every possible way of the giants ever getting me. Next thing I know, giant clumps of mud are falling through the air, "arrrrrrgh!" I say as a huge clump lands right beside me, flattening a group of fiddler crabs. "Oh the horror!" I say, as I continue to hop my way through this horrifying battlefield. I'm just a few meters from shelter, 'I'm about to make it!" I thought, but then, a huge clump of mud lands on top of me. 


P.S I bet you can't guess what "May muys, ckook! yits ay dudstipper" means!

Bullying

When I lived in Singapore, I remember seeing a bunch of kids picking on my friend in the elementary school courtyard. I didn't want to get involved with the incident so I just watched. It was hard to bear with, but it was the last day of school, and I didn't want to spend my summer grounded by my mother and father, because they usually get mad when I get into fights. So I had no choice, but to leave them alone.

How I would handle the situation? Well, during the time, I was not as brave as I am right now, so I wasn't really that much of a speaker, I was more of an observer actually. But, if I encounter a situation like this in the future, then, I would totally stand up for my friend. Because, anybody who picks on other people makes me sick, its just so unfair. See, when you're being bullied, you don't seem to answer back, because you're afraid that they're going to say something back to you. Especially if theres like 3 people ganging up on you. But, since I have had experience in these types of situation, so my advice to some people is to tell them to back of if theirs 1 person, or just tell them that you're being very annoyed and just leave.

2 goals:
My first goal that I will try hard to get, is to respect people, because, that way, it'll be more easier for people to get along with each other and make friends.

Another goal I want to make is to be more nice to the people I meet. That way, people will think that I am a nice person and they might want to make friends with me.

Courage, something we have experienced in life.....

I remember once when I was 5 years old, I was REALLY scared of this video that my big sister showed me. The video was actually mean't to be a lyrics video for a song made by the "backstreet boys" ( yes, at the time I used to like the "back street boys" but now I realised how much I DON'T like them ). But as a matter of fact, the video wasn't as I thought it would be. 

When the video starts, its just what I expected, a bunch of lyrics scrolling down the screen and music playing - but 15 mins into the video, the lyrics start to shrink and shrin k and shrink, which makes it harder to read. But that was actually mean't to happen, the trick was to make me look closer at the computer, and that was exactly what me and my brother did, next thing you know......BOOM! A big hideous disgusting and EXTREMELY scary face pops up in the screen and starts making screaming noises, which doubles my shock, and makes me jump out of my chair and I practically crack my head on the ceiling, but me actually cracking my head was at the least of my worries, I need to get out of the room......FAST. 

Don't watch it!

I'm aware that my brother had the same shocked expression as me when he saw the hideous screaming face which made him scream, but I couldn't hear it over my own scream which rattled my eardrums and I think nearly burst 1 of them, but I didn't care, I tried to run but I accidentally tripped and fell on the floor, by then, my arms felt like water which prevented me from standing up, plus, I was to scared to get up and thought that if I spent to much time doing so, the face on the computer would eat me!!!  So just soon as my brother ran right beside me I hooked onto 1 of his legs with my arms, unlike me, he managed to keep his balance and not trip and fall on the floor, and he even kept running! So in just a few seconds, I'm speeding out of the study room hanging on for dear life on my brother's leg, when my mom and dad stop me. 

I explained the entire situation to my mom and also told her about the scary man on the computer that screamed at me. Then she sends my dad to the study room to X out of the screen so that the video is gone, as for my sister, well she got a big lecture on showing scary video's to me and my brother and how its bad to watch them. Well, I didn't exactly hear the conversation because me and my brother was in my room trembling with fear hoping that we'll never watch a video like that for as long as we live. Well later during dinner, me and my brother were discussing about the video and what the picture was. My sister then explained that the picture was from "Scary Movie 2", and that it was edited in photoshop, but my brother said that it looked like Michael Jackson. We all had a good laugh after that. 


2 years later, my brother and I were still scared of the experience that we had, until my brother came  up with the idea that we should face our fears and watch the video again. I refused at first but after a bit of thinking, I agreed to watch the video with my brother. When the video started, it was just the same old thing, 5 mins past, the words start to shrink, my nerves are being extremely strained by now. The words start to shrink even smaller, man, my nerves are killing me! Here it comes.....Boom! Just as I expected, the face comes up, my eyes bulge, I wanted to scream but I couldn't, but as soon as I'm about to run away, the video ends. Wow, now since I think of it, that video didn't seem as scary as I though it would be, thank god it was over, i'm just glad that i've conquered my fears and for me, thats all that matters. 


P.S Just don't tell me to watch it AGAIN, that video gave me nightmares for days and i'm trying to get rid of the memory, if YOU want to watch it, take this ☝ as a warning not to!  


Resources: 


http://www.google.com.my/imgres?imgurl=http://www.concretebadger.net/images/blog/editorials/you-make-kitty-scared.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.concretebadger.net/blog/2008/02/10/epic-fail-the-worst-anime-ever/&usg=__PUSybg9UZIkZUVLsz7K5M4TNISw=&h=444&w=405&sz=27&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=TzKvHn1pcbLt9M:&tbnh=122&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dscared%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1723%26bih%3D996%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=743&vpy=230&dur=829&hovh=235&hovw=214&tx=144&ty=124&ei=iXGHTLWmIIm8cdbdvZsG&oei=iXGHTLWmIIm8cdbdvZsG&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=32&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:0 


http://www.google.com.my/imgres?imgurl=http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/funny-pictures-cat-is-scared-and-wants-to-sleep-with-you.jpg&imgrefurl=http://icanhascheezburger.com/2008/11/21/funny-pictures-under-mai-bed-can-i-sleep-wif-u/&usg=__bMBhkOKz0LFv4T7zveRBuk6mnEQ=&h=374&w=500&sz=25&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=gm1bC05ikrYEsM:&tbnh=159&tbnw=212&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlol%2Bcatz%2Bscared%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D800%26bih%3D512%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=153&vpy=222&dur=457&hovh=162&hovw=217&tx=178&ty=188&ei=J3KHTLCMM8KVcayBtZoG&oei=J3KHTLCMM8KVcayBtZoG&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=6&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0

Artifact homework

What do the artifacts tell us about the lives of early humans?


I think that ancient artifacts tell us about the stories and adventures that early hominids have experienced millions of years ago. Many anthropologists have assumed that the cave paintings and sculptures found in caves could have symbolized an event or a celebration that must've occurred during the time, or it could be a story that early hominids used to tell to their own kind. Whether or not they were intelligent enough to even create such sculptures or paintings is a whole new story, as for now, I will explain 3 reasons of how artifacts tell us about the lives of early humans. 


First of, many people may think that hominids are just a bunch of dumb apes that spend most of their times swinging from ropes and eating banana's from trees. I however, disagree, in fact, say that to a anthropologist and you'll get a heck of a lecture, it'll probably do you some good, but enough with apes, we're talking about hominids; hominids are actually prehistoric humans that hasn't evolved into the humans that we are today, but instead of focusing on what a hominid is, we're going to focus on some examples of how ancient artifacts give us info on how life was like on earth millions of year ago. 


Reason  1. 
Many paleonanthropologists say that cave paintings or sculptures were actually stories that related to the adventures and journeys or even events that have occurred way before the painting was ever made. Luckily scientists have been able to get useful information from the paintings in caves by inferring on what had happened 3 million years ago. But what does it tell us? Well this proves that the early humans were intelligent enough to make cave paintings, and it also tells us that they could make sculptures.


Reason  2. 
Other artifacts however, weren't actually cave sculptures or cave paintings, they were actually tools that were used to help them catch and eat food. This tells us that the hominids were smart enough to make their own tools. 


Reason 3. 
Also another thing is that by studying a hominids bones you'll be able to see whether their brain was as big as a modern day human's, unfortunately no. This explains why hominids aren't as smart as us which why they are more ape like and not like us.  


Resources: 
http://www.lithiccastinglab.com/images/sheridenpeccaryallartifactssmall.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/2001octobersheridencavepage1.htm&usg=__hb7j9-DsSre7VONKt1A7Eho-OGM=&h=297&w=370&sz=14&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=3cIgOuuc-Zbu8M:&tbnh=186&tbnw=243&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcave%2Bartifacts%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1152%26bih%3D1011%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=409&ei=Em1-TMbHN8qjca6OydAJ&oei=Em1-TMbHN8qjca6OydAJ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0&tx=88&ty=61

What social scientist am I?

What social scientist am I? Could I be a Archeologist? Could I be a Historian?

All these jobs are great, but honestly, my favorite choice would be a Geographer......Why? Read on to find out.....

Definition of a Social Scientist:

A scientist that studies different aspects of the world.

Definition of a Geographer:

A Geographer studies the earths climate, wildlife, etc.  

Why do I want to be a Geographer?

I want to be a Geographer for 3 reasons:

- I'll be able to explore the world in many perspectives, and observe its habitat and surroundings. 

- I'll be able to be "up close and personal" with animals and wildlife. 

-  I can study the earths climate and temperature and how it changes. 

Being a Geographer is amazing, you can travel around the world , recording your travels as you go, learn about different cultures and discover new ways of life, plus you get paid for it! But its not as easy as it sounds, in fact being a geographer is hard work, especially considering the fact that you'll have to travel all day and night, *yawn*. But hey don't drift of their, theirs many ways to put your boredom out of the way when you're a geographer and its better then being a scientist that studies animal feces all day, but what are the good (or fun) things to do as a geographer? read on if you dare.....

Being a geographer allows you to study the earths climate and weather, imagine seeing a live tornado only a few feet way, sounds cool doesn't it? Well geographers are specially trained for this kind of situation, and it actually is really dangerous to study a tornado a few feet away (especially when its heading towards you), and it kills to be near one but its pretty cool, so its kinda good idea to take the chance of actually seeing a tornado, its a rare opportunity but you might achieve something from it.

You can also study the earths environment (pronounced en-vy-er-ment), which means studying rainforests or seas or oceans, geographers do this by recording any rising temperatures in the seas depths, or maybe observing the animals habitat, e.g an animals habitat includes rainforests, rivers, etc. 

In conclusion, I would like to be a geographer because their will be a good chance of discovering new and exciting ways to live life, and because you and I can conquer new challenges that we eventually will face throughout our lives. 

Resources: 
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/04_01/tornadoDM3030a_800x533.jpg 


http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:n1bpugsZKSFV1M:http://www.kidsgeo.com/images/biologist- 
geographer.jpg&t=1 


http://www.patagoniavolunteer.org/images/environment_volunteering_640.jpg