Snake with Clawed Foot Found in China

View article referenced here

O.K. so I'm wondering why the snake looks so big in the picture, but in the article they say it is 16 inches long and the width of a little finger. That seems pretty small... I mean 16 inches is long, but the width of a little finger... come on! I don't like snakes. At all. It doesn't matter if they are the size of a worm, or if they are anaconda size. I don't like them. I was showing it to my dad and I said "wouldn't that suck if snakes had legs?" and after I said it I thought "well that was rather stupid.. because that would be a lizard.. haha!" Go April! Well anyways, back to the article. I don't see someone making this picture up, because it's pretty graphic. The claw sticking out it pretty nasty. Hopefully we don't have all these animals mutating into weird creatures, because it would be pretty scary to go outside everyday. =P

[Via The Daily Telegraph]

Not So Convenient At All

So how retarded is it that when you go to work on something that is due the next day, you aren't able to access it. So you freak out for like thirty minutes and you check your email and find out the deadline has been extended to the end of the week. I guess I shouldn't have waited until the last minute to do it, but my resources should have worked up until it was due. This is how online fails us sometimes. It always seems to go slow, or not work properly when you really need it to. It is the new thing that is constantly growing, but it still seems to fail sometimes. Most of the time, you can get the most up-to-date information there as long as it comes from a reliable source. All-in-all, the internet helps most of the time, but it still fails sometimes when you are in dyer need. I guess that's everything though. It can't work all the time, sometimes it needs maintenance as well.

Paulo Freire Quote

Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. - Paulo Freire

I think education is a little of both. Education teaches us what is known today and what is accepted in society today, because it is constantly changing. The more our country grows, the more our society changes. Education is also the thing that allows us to play around with our ideas, and it allows us to discover new things. I think being educated gives us the knowledge to go out and study what genes cause certain diseases, and knowing that enables us to go out and try to find a cure for that disease. The best part about education is being able to discover. Anybody can be educated, but it is how you use your education that sets you apart from the others.

Observation Essay Proposal

I'm going to observe my mom making dinner. I will observe her actions and her movements. I should be able to tell her thoughts by her reactions and facial expressions. I can say whether she tastes the food or whether she smells the food, and what her face said she thought of it. I can say how much of an ingredient she adds into the mixture. I can talk about the process of making the dinner, how long it takes to make, and what ingredients are needed to make it. I will be able to just watch her and see how she is feeling about making dinner. I can tell if she is tired or if she had a hard day by whether she makes a really easy dinner or if she makes a more complicated one. I can talk about what is going on around her as she is making the dinner and whether or not it distracts her from her main focus. I can talk about how this time observing her is different from the others. I will be able to figure out how much work goes into dinner. =]

Bobby and Elliot: Observation

Mrs. Wendy made everyone write a number on a piece of paper. Two numbers were drawn. Bobby and Elliot were summoned to the 2 chairs. I thought they were going to play Rock, Paper, Scissors, but I was wrong. They had to talk. They weren't given a topic. They just had to talk. So Bobby asks how Elliot is doing in school and we soon realize that Elliot is behind. You see how the 2 sit. Both seem nervous and very fidgety. Everyone in the circle is watching, contemplating. Mrs. Wendy is typing. Click.. click.. click. The boys still talking. Bobby asks more questions than Elliot does. Both work at Malco theaters. Then you find out that Elliot no longer works there. Adam leans over and whispers to Trae. Then there seems to be an awkward silence. No one knows what to say. The boys seem to relax a little as they talk with the audience some. Neither like Chemistry and both are afraid to ask questions in fear of getting yelled at. Adam begins to stomp his foot. Mrs. Wendy still typing. Everyone laughs about something. Elliot now crosses his legs, maybe showing he's a little more comfortable. They switch chairs. Now the boys are prompted by Mrs. Wendy on what to talk about. They start with their favorite songs. Neither can pinpoint ONE song. They talk of certain groups and you see that they disagree on music. Then she says puppies. Elliot's dogs died when he was 5. That was depressing. Bobby says he has 2 pomeranians. Mrs. Wendy burst into laughter. Bobby doesn't seem like a pom-pom owner. =P. Ireland now the topic. Drinking is the first thing out there. Both think they have a low drinking age. Soccer also there and leprechauns. Then yoga the topic. Trae likes this! Both boys a little uncomfortable with this one. They say you find yourself through stretching. She then says llamas. El paco maybe? Bobby says they spit and bite. Subject changed to donuts. Glazed vs. Chocolate. I personally like chocolate. Neither do the fancy donuts. Apparently terrorists don't like donuts. Conversation over. The chairs now empty. Everyone looking around. Air-conditioner blowing.
From this you can see how Bobby and Elliot are the same and how they are different. Bobby more open while Elliot is a little reserved. You are able to see how they act in each environment they may be in, whether it is tense or comfortable. I was able to get a little more information about each and understand the way they are. Even though the conversations were random, you could see how each reacted under pressure. Every time the subject changed, they had to come up something pretty quickly. It was a pretty cool experience to observe and laugh about.

Spiderman vs. Lying

O.K. so I'm in the living room doing some homework while daddy is watching Spiderman 3. I was, yet again, trying to think of something to blog about when I looked up at the T.V. and saw Peter Parker trying to get the corrupt black entity off him but every time he pulls at it, it sucks itself closer. This is kind of like lying. Everyone, at some point in time, lies about something. For some people, that lie, in turn, stems into another lie, and then another. Then the person is completely engulfed in their lies and don't know what the truth is anymore. They've told so many that their stories don't match up and people start to catch them in their mistakes. Peter Parker was able to free himself from the entity by causing loud crashing noises. Loud noises freed Peter Parker. What frees someone from lies? Telling the truth helps someone get out of their web of lies. Most people would rather be told the truth than a lie, no matter how hard it may be to hear the truth. This is a random post, but I think it is something that everybody struggles with daily. Maybe next time I can come up with something better to blog about that will come up with 200 words.

"Tales of Mere Existence" Observation

After watching the video, you can see how each person is. The mom is very stubborn and insistent on her opinion, and the son is just laid-back as if it has happened numerous times before. The mom doesn't seem to listen as the son tells her his opinion. The second time you watch it, you are able to see how the mom uses facts to try and get the son to eat the tuna. She says things like "Healthy people eat fish" to get him to try it. He still refuses. The son appears to be listening, but he also acts as if it happens all the time (her nagging him, that is). Observing how people talk, their actions as they talk, and what they say things helps us imagine what kind of person they are. Once you find out how a person is, you can see how certain things would affect them and how you could relate to them. Since I am a shy and reserved person, I observe people everyday. Doing this, I am able to see how each person is, and how they treat others and if I feel like I could get along with them. It's kind of like when you watch a fish in a tank. You can see the way it swims with the space it has. You can see if it hides in the ship or if it just swims through it. You are able to see how the fish acts in it's surroundings. Observation is a good tactic at finding out information you might not have seen otherwise.

My Crazy Dog Bruno

Holly, Me, Bruno, Rolo, and Harley

When Mrs. Wendy gave me this assignment, I didn't know what I wanted to blog about. So I was looking around my house for something to write about when Bruno walked in front of me. Bruno is my boxer who is 1 year and 4 months old. He gets in all sorts of trouble. It's kind of like his life goal is to make me worry about him. He is such a funny character. He is 70 pounds, but doesn't know his own size. He thinks that he is the size a chihuahua and wants to be in your lap at all times. He is also a big baby when he gets hurt. He'll come home limping and for the next five days, he won't let me leave his sight or he'll whine. He also loves to play with my sisters little 3 pound yorkie. He'll hold the toy and duck his head just enough to where she is almost able to touch it. It is very cute to watch this really big dog play with this really small dog. Bruno is an adorable puppy.

Autobiographies: Do they matter?

Why do autobiographies matter?

-Autobiographies are important because they express a personal account about someones life. You get to see the account up close and personal. You can also tell how the person is, just by reading their personal statement.

How are they different from biographies?

-Biographies are the writer's opinion on 'the subjects life'. Where as in an autobiography, you get to read it from the person who lived it.

What is important about those distinctions?

-Autobiographies give you more detail than the biographer could ever try to give. Biographies give you a lot of information, but it would be more accurate if you read it from an autobiography. You can see how these accounts of the writers life affected them and how they fought through it.

Is it worth reading? Why or Why not?

-Autobiographies are worth reading. They show how a particular person makes it through certain times in their life and how they learned to cope with things.

Autobiographical Incident

I went rolling for the first time this past summer. Some friends of mine were wanting to roll someone's house as payback for a previous roll. So I decided to tag along. We get to the house we are going to roll and my heart is already pounding. We had four people in our group: two in the front yard and two in the driveway. Josh and I were out in the yard throwing the paper in the trees, while Brittany and Erin are putting silly string on the basketball goal and shaving cream on the driveway. Every time a car comes by, we drop to the ground until it passes. All of the sudden, a car comes speeding by the house and right after a cop with the lights flashing. I drop to the ground, then begin to crawl to the tree where Josh was hiding. In my mind, I'm thinking that I am about to go to jail and this was my very first roll. Next to the house there is a patch of trees which we sneak to. We peek through the trees watching every move the cop makes. My heart pounding. I continue to worry about our friends in the driveway who had no coverage. After what seemed like an hour, the cop finally pulled off. Once he leaves, we sneak over to the driveway and begin to look for Erin and Brittany. We look behind the trash can, in the back of the truck, and even over the fence. Finally, we see them, laying under the front of the truck with their eyes closed as tight as they can squeeze them. We all re-coop, grab our things, and run to the car. We had had enough for the night.

RCWW assignment 9/8/09

Page 7
1. One of the toughest papers i have ever written would be my personal statement for college acceptance.
2. It took me a long time to get to writing the personal statement. I had to think about what exactly I wanted to get across and how to say it. I was writing for people who basically held my future in their hands, so I wanted it to sound professional. I would write something and then go back and scratch it out because I couldn't elaborate on what I wrote. I tried to talk about how I became the person I am and who helped me along the way, but it was tough to make it sound professional and not flighty. Sometimes I would lose focus and have to go back and rewrite. Writing is a complicated process that is basically trial and error.

Page 23
1-2. split, paused, considered, vanished, rounding, trailed, picked, chased, smashed, entered, ran, ran, ran, chased, chased, glanced, choking, expected, strained, pounding, trained, to fling, to point, to go, chasing, impelled, compelled, tore, running, improvising, running, choosing, failing, to slow, discovering, exhilarated, dismayed, losing, chased, caught, caught, stopped
3. "He chased Mikey and me around the yellow house and up a backyard path we knew by heart: under a low tree, up a bank, through a hedge, down some snowy steps, and across the grocery store's delivery driveway. We smashed through a gap in another hedge, entered a scruffy backyard and ran around its back porch and tight between houses to Edgerton Avenue; we ran across Edgerton to an alley and up our own sliding woodpike to the Halls' front yard; he kept coming." (pg 17, paragraph 12) I think these few sentences really show the drama of the story.

Page 24
1. It says the man was in "city clothes: a suit and tie, street shoes... a thin man, all action." (10)
" a man in his twenties... our pursuer, our captor, our hero... the man's lower pants legs were wet; his cuffs were full of snow, and there was a prow of snow beneath them on his shoes and socks..." (16)
"... the driver of th black Buick... sainted, skinny, furious redheaded man..." (21)
2. "You stupid kids" he says [perfunctorily], his ordinary Pittsburgh accent, normal righteous anger, usual common sense.
3. The man's role is to simply keep the suspense of the story. Without him, the kids would just be running around, but with him they are being chased by what they think is a 'mad man.'

1. She calls the snowball an iceball. It is "a perfect iceball, from perfectly white snow, perfectly spherical, and squeezed perfectly translucent son no snow remained all the way through."
2. "backyard labyrinths" (15) makes me think that every backyard she stepped foot in was so incredibly complex that it took her years to get out.

Page 25
1. perfunctorily, redundant, mere formality, passionately, precisely, prolong, brooded, dismembered, piecemeal, Panamanian jungle, exalting
2. She wanted the 'glory' of the chase to last forever. Though she was terrified, she liked the feeling she had from being chased.