Th Life Cycle of Pre-Made Pasta

I can still remember the day I was made. Mixed into batter and pressed into long strands. I was then cooked and placed into a plastic tray. Soon later, there was a creamy, cheesy sauce poured over me and a clear plastic lid was sealed a inch above me trapping me inside. Who am I kidding; I wasn't going anywhere because I am pasta. I was loaded into a dark brown along with many other combinations of sauce and noodle.

After a long bumpy ride in the back of who knows what, we finally stopped. I could hear talking outside and then I heard a loud creek like a large door opening. All of a sudden I feel almost weightless and then I am dropped onto the ground, tipped almost sideways and on another ride but less bumpy this time. Again I feel weightless and then there is the drop again. I see a shiny silver triangle poke past the tape on top of the box and rip all the way across the top. I then see a bright light peek through the crack, and then the top is completely off. There is something like one of the walking, talking things that put me in a box and sealed me up hovering over me like a giant. A humungous five pronged tan object reaches down, picks me up, and puts me right on top of others just like me. The man leaves and then another person picks me up and throws me in a topless metal cage.

We ride around smoothly for a while but then she takes me out of the cage and puts me on a black rubbery mat that moves me closer to a glowing, red, gun-like-thing. Now the lady with the apron and gun lifts me and scans my black striped combination on my sticker. Next I am set down in a plastic bag just like what other humans are carrying out of the store. Again the bag is picked up and I am being carried to something and then comes another bumpy ride to a different location.

My lid is opened and I am being dumped into a shiny circle with a long shiny handle. I feel a woosh as the circle heats up rapidly. I feel my self browning and I am dumped onto another colorful circle this time with no handle. I am stabbed by a pronged silver object and lifted up into the persons speaker. It gets dark and I am being broken up. I won't have time to finish this log because I am running out of time.

The Lottery; Themes

In the story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, there are lots of different themes that greatly express how different lotteries were back in the nineteen-forties compared to the present. Each town had a lottery where names were put into a box and pulled out for the winner to earn something. This story shows how people felt about this  and how it became a tradition in their particular city.

Of course there are lots of people even in a in a town square and most all of them know each other. There are the Delacroix's, Martin's, Summers', and Grave's. These are some of the main families in this story. Some of the themes in this story are tradition, luck, and danger. Tradition is a theme because this is a monthly deal that everyone is forced to attend. Also, at every lottery the oldest son (16 or older) or father get to choose the card. Luck is another theme because there is no way of knowing if your family will be 'cursed' or not by getting the unlucky card with the black spot on it. Finally, Danger is a theme because one member in your family will be stoned if you choose the wrong card and there is no way of knowing which card is which.

Baseball Catcher

Author's note: This poem is written to improve my score in Figurative language and it is from the point of view of a catcher in baseball.

As I squat behind the plate,

I see the leather sphere hurdling towards me as fast as a bullet.

As it sprints toward me, I prepare to catch it.

A split-second before I enclose it in my mitt,

I hear a crack as loud as a train horn.

Next thing I know, I am watching the ball

Scream through the air.

I look left and see the bull on third base

Speeding to home plate like a racecar.

He is in a race with the baseball to get to the plate first.

I snag it out of the air

Just as I get snowplowed to the ground.

When I stand back up,

I am still holding the key that just won the game.

Character Development: Mickey Bolitar

Author's Note: This piece is written to inform you on why Mickey Bolitar of Shelter by Harlan Coben is a static character. Also, it is written to improve my score in Character Development.

Around the beginning of second semester, I finished a book called Shelter by Harlan Coben. This was actually one of the few books I have read that has a static main character. Other books like The Hunger Games or The Outsiders have dynamic characters. The main character Mickey Bolitar decides to uncover a mystery with the help of some new friends miraculously without changing his personality.

All in one year, Mickey Bolitar witnessed his father's death in a car crash, sent his mom into rehab, and changed high schools. His parents were injured in a car crash on the way to one of Mickey's basketball games. Since he cannot live on his own yet, he has to move in to his uncle Myron's house. Mickey starts out as a confident adolescent with a new girlfriend, Ashley, that unexpectedly goes missing early in the book. She leaves not trace or warning of where she went but Mickey's main goal in the book is to find her. At his school, he  meets two very important people that will make a huge impact later in the book. Their names are Spoon (his real name is not mentioned) and Ema. Both of them don't have many friends (if any) and they stand out even though they try not to.

Moving on, there is a creepy person in lots of stories these days and they usually talk nonsense but it always ties right into the solution of the story. That character appears to Mickey in her old, abandoned-looking house in the start of the book and really phases him. She tells him that his father is still alive and even though that really shook him up, he still stays the same person. He later ties Ema and Spoon into the whole situation of bat Lady and Ashley; Spoon is the brains and Ema is the confidence. Mickey is basically the "boss" of the mission and he manages to stay cool all through school, mysteries, and adapting to a new life with Myron.

Furthermore, Mickey goes through many events such as a nightclub scandal and a stalker that works for bat lady. This book is packed with mystery and action so you will just want to keep reading. This is one thing that would make it hard not to evolve into a different character inside because people are always changing and it would be hard to just stop that. For example, breaking into bat lady's home would make him braver, and getting involved with the tempered owner of the nightclub would make him tougher than before.

Finally, Mickey does solve both mysteries of his girlfriend and father but he couldn't have done it if he had changed his personality to something like wimpy, or narcissistic. If, on the other hand, he did change he would not have been able to make it through the events nearing the end of the book. Unlike  most books Mickey is a static character and even though he doesn't have many friends, he is happy with what he's got.

DNA and Fingerprints

Author's Note: This is my science essay written to inform you on the good and bad sides of DNA fingerprinting.

Have you ever wondered how the police catch a perpetrator? Well there is and it is a completely safe and easy technique. Instead of using methods of blood testing or trying to get an accurate picture of a criminal, there is an easier way to catch them. It is called DNA fingerprinting.

            First of all, most people know what DNA looks like, but do they know what it is really made of? Most of the time, the answer is no. The swirling backbones are called nucleotides and they are made of a base, sugar, and phosphate. Connecting the two strands are the base pairs. There are two different kinds of base pairs and they are guanine and cytosine, or adenine and thymine. These backbones and base pairs combined make the swirling shape that most of us already know. DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. As we learned in science class, the DNA is located in the nucleus of a cell. There “The typical fingerprint may have as many as 150 ridge characteristics” (Salter). This is what makes all fingerprints unique. There is not two people that have the same print.

Moving on, DNA is one of the most commonly used sources of evidence from break-ins, murders, or robberies. Lots of times, the criminal does not leave blood behind his/her scandal, so the police go to another option which could likely be fingerprinting. If there is any blood, the case is basically solved but there is the fear of it being contaminated. This means that fingerprinting is very clean and easy. If for some reason you would need to get a person’s fingerprint, there is lots of paperwork you would need to do to get it. Some of this includes lots of fees, time limits, and approval from the person whose print you want. The process of finding the person you are looking for just by getting their DNA is fairly easy. It starts out as the finding of a print. After you collect the evidence, you scan it into a computer that will store it and convert into a binary code (“computer language” of only 1’s and 0’s). Once it is converted, it will be matched to an identical print but if there is no match, it will just be an update to the system.

Lastly, fingerprinting is not the only way of collecting DNA though. Some of the more complicated methods are getting DNA from blood on a piece of broken glass or probably the most complicated way of catching a bad guy, trying to get an accurate picture and track him down. Blood testing is more difficult than fingerprinting because it uses specific amounts of blood instead of just an ink pad and a thumb. “Contamination can influence PCR results, particularly in the absence of proper handling techniques and proper controls for contamination” (Riley). On the other hand when you are looking at security footage of a break in, the burglar might be wearing a mask or hood and you are unable to see his face. If you can’t get an accurate picture, you can’t use the picture technique. Anything the delinquent touched with his/her bare hands will have his/her print on it.

Without fingerprinting technology, the FBI or other police forces would have to resort to challenging and risky techniques to collect DNA. Now that you know the risks and advantages about fingerprinting and some background info on DNA, it might come in handy to know what is happening when a crime scene occurs.

 

Riley, Donald E. DNA Testing: An Introduction For Non-Scientists. 2005.

Choi, Charles. DNA Extractable From Fingerprints. 31 July 2003. 21 March 2012 <http://www.fdiai.org/articles/dna_extractable_from_fingerprint.htm>.

Salter, Debbie. Fingerprinting - an Emerging Technology.

"What is DNA?" 16 April 2012. Genetics Home Reference. 16 April 2012 <http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/basics/dna>.

Character Development; Katniss Everdeen

Author's Note: this piece is written to improve my score in Character Development and figurative language. It's purpose is to inform you on why Katniss Everdeen of  The Hunger Games is a dynamic character.

As many people know, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire are bestselling  novels written by Suzanne Collins. I have finished the first and second books and I am on the third. I strongly believe that Katniss Everdeen, the main character, is a dynamic character because of many reasons.

First of all, she starts out as an illegal hunter back home in District 12. She did not want much but to keep her family safe and keep them from starving. Later on, she makes a leap of hope to try to save her sister from the dreadful Hunger Games. This early in the series she is already changing to save Prim. She also becomes extremely brave like a real soldier during the training and early stages of this "purposeful" death pit.

Later on, she wins the first Games all on relying on something from her old life; archery. She won because she wasn't afraid to kill an enemy when the time came. Along with Peeta, she had a few months of happiness back at home before she was tossed back into the arena again like a game piece with all other skilled enemies. When she was broke out and taken to the unknown District 13, she agreed to become the Mockingjay.This was her biggest change yet in where I am in the books currently. This was a huge change because she really agreed to lead all the survivors of the resistance to victory over the war against the Capitol. I think she has changed more in the second book than the first and she changed a lot in the first.

Katniss plays one of the biggest parts in the whole series and almost the whole country of Panem relies on her to lead them to victory. If you think about it, this is a planet sized problem for everyone and they blame victory or failure on one person. Overall, Katness is most definitely a dynamic character due to her change from little hometown girl to huge Panem-wide leader.

The Hunger Games; Movie or Book?

Author's Note: This is my District Assessment for the 4th quarter and it is written to improve my score in body paragraphs, Figurative language, and Conclusions.

Over Spring Break, I went and saw The Hunger Games movie because I am loving the series so far. There were many things I liked such as the idea to make an awesome novel into a movie. Also, I did not like a couple things such as the movie makers leaving out Peeta's amputated leg and many events of the actual Games. Comparing the two,the book was my favorite over the movie because of many reasons.

Currently I am on the third book and I think the series is awesome and I don't want it to end. First of all, you need to read book to see the movie. I think this because the movie's transitions are hard to follow if you don't know what is happening from the book. I was even a little confused when watching the movie myself. Next, the moviemakers included most of the important events like Peeta's leg, Rue's death, and Haymitch's drunkenness. Finally the book had way more detail and it was easier to follow because it allowed you to go back and re-read something if you did not understand it.

Although the movie was good, the books were more sophisticated because there is just something about holding a book and feeling like you are becoming a part of it. Like I said before, you absolutely need to read the book before the movie. This is because the events just happen with no warning and it is still a little but hard to follow. Another difference between the two is the fact that (in most movies) the makers of the movie add in scenes of things happening. What I mean is, for example, in the book Seneca Crane was hung and you just caught a few hints that that happened, but in the movie he was locked in a room with the nightlock berries and you experienced it first hand. I envision the books were better because they allowed you to visualize the events while you read while in the movie. If you don't know what event is supposed to be happening, you will be lost.

Moving on, they are similar in more ways than different. Obviously the characters are the same and they act the same, but there is more to a story than just the characters. There is a place where events occur (plot), a climax and most of the time a solution. I say most of the time because in The Hunger Games, there is no solution in the end of the first book. If there is and I am just missing it, it just becomes a new problem later on. Another similarity is the events of the Games. What happens before the games and after the games is the same in book and movie. For example, Peeta and Katniss' big meal with Effie and Cinna, then later on Katniss' conversation with Cinna. I found that the movie had great actors that could actually be the original character from the book if the events actually existed.

To me, this essay is important because I feel it can persuade people to see why I think the novel is better than the movie in most cases but in particularly The Hunger Games. Despite the similarities and differences of the two, the series has become one of my favorites and the movie has moved up into my all-time favorites. On my opinion the movie could be better, but never as good as the book.

Big Yellow Taxi and Field Below

For the past few weeks, we have been analyzing famous poetry in Language Arts class. We have looked at poets like Langston Hughes and Regina Spektor. Some of the most important poems we have reviewed  are "Field Below" and "Big Yellow Taxi". All authors have special purposes for writing their poems and they always have different tones when writing.

In Big Yellow Taxi, the author was talking about how she moved to a big city and she did not realize how little nature there was. She talks about how she misses the trees and the birds and how the farmer paved right over 'paradise'. When she moved to the city, she was so used to the wildlife and plants, that she didn't really think about them much, but when she left them, she wished they were there again.

Moving on to the second poem, "Field Below", it is a lot similar to the first poem. It still contains the point of a person leaving or losing something that they wish they still had. It is from the point of view of a person looking out their window in a big city apartment or hotel wishing that they still had nature as they know it. She wants to hear a rooster in the morning, see a field below her on the ground, see the sunrise and sunset. In a few ways, these two poems have many of the same points but they are just worded differently.

Parody Poem

Polly, let me tell you a story

About my field day

When I was in grade school

The excitement

has overcome me

BAM the pistol is fired

And off we go

The breeze

Slapping me in the face

Deafening me

Sprinting to the finish

I'm falling behind
But I try to keep up

and yet,

I have gone nowhere.

And the race is done

This parody is from the point of view of Donald Zinkoff during the Field Day races. This is what he is thinking during the final event of the running relay. He is trying to end with a bang and win for his team, but that doesn't happen I think the tone of this story is  self-reflective and the mood is anxious. It is a parody of Mother to Son.

Character Development; Loser

Author's Note: The purpose of this piece is to improve my Character Development score. It is written to describe what Donald Zinkoff from Loser by Jerry Spinelli evolves as a person in this story.

Donald Zinkoff starts out as a little energetic first grader that wants nothing but to make others happy. He wants to grow up fast to be a mailman like his dad and learn as much information as his brain can store. Others try to put him down, but they always end up losing themselves. Undoubtedly, this different boy is the 'Loser' of the book not only because of his ego, but also his actions.

In the start of the book, when Donald is about to go to his first day of first grade, he is running down the street to school all by himself without his mother to stop him. What this tells us, is the fact that he is independent from his first day of grade school and before. For the rest of that school year, his teacher, Miss Meeks doesn't really like him. Zinkoff doesn't care. In fact, he is prepared to spend a week in the Amazon if that is what Miss Meeks asked him to do. One more exotic essence of this boy is the fact that he has an upside-down valve in his stomach that makes him throw up at least twice a week. The farther he gets in school, the more others start to notice about him.

As he moves into the second and third grade, more and more bad things happen to him. First of all, his 'friend' Andrew moves away to a better house because he hated the old one and his father got a raise. I put quotes around friend because Donald thought of Andrew as an awesome friend, while Andrew barely noticed he was there. That didn't harm him too much because he knew Andrew would be happy where he is now. After Andrew moves, Zinkoff goes through one of the most challenging times in his life. He goes through surgery to get the valve in his stomach turned right-side-up. This means no school for him and a very important thing happens to him. He gets braver. He decides to challenge himself to go down into the cellar with no lights on. It may not seem too big a deal, but it also taught him to not be afraid and overcome his fears. An upside to moving up grades in school, is getting to know people better because you are spending more time in class and recess with them.

Finally as he moves into third grade and higher, he meets an outstanding teacher named Mr. Yalowitz. This teacher knows what it is like to be last in line, back of the classroom, and last picked in alphabetical order because he is a Y. He decides to have Donald sit in front and see what it is like to be first in the alphabet for once for a change. This gave him lots of confidence and propelled him to do better in school. Fourth and fifth grade were a lot like second grade where he did not have the greatest teachers like Miss Meeks and Mr. Yalowitz. Not only did he gain a better social life, but more knowledge and confidence.

In the end, Donald grows out of the Loser title. Andrew changed his name to Drew, and everyone is in the sixth grade and are lining up to be picked for a tackle football game on the playground. Everyone gets picked except for Zinkoff who stared down Drew until he was picked. Donald Zinkoff is definitely a dynamic character in this novel because of his actions changing and the way he changes as a person.

Afrcan Americans and Slavery

            The first African Americans arrived to Jamestown from 1619 to 1651 during the end of the Civil War. At first they were treated terribly and forced to do the white’s dirty work as slaves. Even though they lived in the same house as the whites, they weren’t even able to eat at the same table as their owner. Once the Abolition Act of Slavery came, that changed a lot of things in the lives of African Americans.

            In 1960, there was a 6 year old girl named Ruby Bridges. She was the first African American to ever attend an all-white school. I think if people could have tried harder right after slavery was completely abolished after the Civil War, African Americans could have been part of public schools earlier. Not too many people were well educated back then especially women and African Americans in general.

            First of all, many blacks experienced discrimination at one time or another even though they were free. One of the worst places it occurred in was Philadelphia. They were not allowed into many places such as schools, churches, or even public transportation systems. In Ohio, blacks weren’t allowed to do almost anything that had to do with office. They were not even allowed to testify whites in court. African Americans couldn’t even live in Ohio without proof of their freedom. As with many states, these people were restricted from many daily things for white-only use.

            Moving on, enslaved African Americans actually were allowed to physically live in the same house as their owners. Some owners liked their slaves and treated them with the respect they deserve. On the other hand, some owners just bought these people not thinking of them as humans, but as tools. They punished the slaves for many things such as trying to escape, slacking off work, and smuggling food they harvested themselves. Surprisingly, blacks could have gotten in trouble for sharing a meal at the same table with their owner even if they were invited. There were all kinds of owners and slaves, but altogether, slavery never should have happened.

            In conclusion, African Americans are still humans that feel pain and betrayal just like white people, but slave owners didn’t realize this. They thought of them as un-teachable tools that do anything for you. Even free blacks were treated like slaves only because of their color.

"Mother to Son" Response

Author's note: This is a short response for Language Arts class written about the poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. Also it is to improve my score in text analysis.

The poem Mother to Son by Langston Hughes is undoubtedly written from the point of a motivational mother talking he son out of giving up. Hughes is a poet, so he used some figurative language such as allusions, personification, tone, and mood.

The first kind of figurative language that this man used, is called allusion. Allusion is comparing one object to another of greater value. His example of the was when he said "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair" because he is comparing his not-so-perfect-life to an, expensive, high quality, crystal staircase. Now the next part of speech is personification. Personification is when you say something like it actually happened. Langston said that his life was a bare, non carpeted floor with tacks, splinters and torn up boards. Next, there is tone. Tone is how the author views the text or what feelings or emotions he/she is trying to express. I think that he used tone by stating the same quote as before about the crystal stair.

Langston Hughes is a historical poet and what poet hasn't used figurative language at one time or another in their career? I think he did a great job using this kind of writing and he used it in all thee right places in the text. Figurative language can be used to define things better, describe things better, and insert tone/mood into stories or poems.

Retelling: Loser

Author's note: This is a writing piece retelling the events that occurred in the novel Loser, by Jerry Spinelli. The purpose of this piece is to improve my score in retelling.

The kid that always stood out, and that no one liked ,doesn't care one bit about what other's thought of him. In fact, he was the boy who would do almost anything to make another person feel better. Meet Donald Zinkoff; an exotic first grader in Satterfield Elementary School just trying to learn as much as he can and grow up faster.

Donald is as excited as if he was about to meet the president of the United States for his first day of school. He just wants to know everything about everything and become a mailman just like his Father someday. He thinks he is a completely normal person but others think the opposite especially as he grows into the fourth grade and older. When he gets to the fourth grade field day, he loses big time for his team trying to impress everyone. After that, nobody from his team likes him the least bit. Donald doesn't care, but for the other's, school just kept on coming and that mean that they were forced to see him every day. Then one day, he meet a little girl named Claudia. Her mother keeps her wearing a backpack with a leash attached to it to keep her from wandering off.

Later on, there comes a big snowstorm in which Claudia wanders into the neighbors garage when her leash wasn't on and climbs into their car pretending to drive. All Donald saw though was police cars on the street and he heard little bits from distance that he interpreted as Claudia missing out in the snow. Really, the police found her several minutes ago but Zinkoff did not know that. He thought she was still running about outside trying to play hide and seek so he went after her. Six hours passed since he started looking and then he got too cold and tired and collapsed on the ground. Later he was gladly found by the snow plow man. When he woke up, he was at home safe and sound.

In the end, he is standing in line to be picked for a playground game of tackle football. All kids are chosen except for him in the line, but he doesn't care; he stares down a team captain, Drew (his old friend and neighbor), until Drew finally feels bad and picks him. As you can see, Donald doesn't end up too bad in the end, but his life growing up would definitely be a struggle without that fearless and caring personality.

Is Perfect Realistic?

Authors Note: This is a Non-Fiction piece for Language Arts class to describe the similarities and differences between our reality and reality in The Giver. It is written to improve my score in Text Analysis.

                           

            In the Novel The Giver, reality isn’t even on the same page as ours here in the modern world. Although their appearance is somewhat the same, how they see other things is way different. If everyone could see what our main character Jonas sees, life would be just like it is today in our time.

            In some ways, people in this particular community are just like us. For example, they look the same physically, there are still only two genders, and their toys are sort of the same (bikes, stuffed animals, etc.). In both communities, people here are still like people there. There are boys and girls, but no animals of known existence. Whenever they grow a year older, at the ceremony of their age, they receive something according to their age. For example, they get a front-buttoned shirt to symbolize that they are independent enough to dress themselves. Or at a different age, they get a brand new bicycle. As you can see, ours and their cities are a lot the same in many ways beyond visibility, but nothing is exactly the same.

            On the other hand, with similarities come differences. Can you imagine life if it all looked like an old newspaper; just black, white, and shades of gray? Well, this is exactly what people in this particular community see. Only the Giver and receiver can see color because they hold the memories of the past. It might be harder for us to understand, but it is true where they live. Lastly, you are given a job based on your service hours spent indifferent places of your choice. When you turn eight or nine, you are allowed to spend service hours in places like the House of the Old, Nurturing Center, and Director of threes, fours, and fives. This means that you never get to get a new job or apply for one of your choice.

            Overall, there are many similarities and differences, but people act somewhat the same as we do here in our community. People in our community act like their own person; their own style, ego, and actions. Everyone is an individual who follows their own path. This is not the case in this particular community. People always have to wear the same clothes, but they do get new clothes that are age appropriate almost every year. Also, they are required to speak completely fluently and have no grammar mistakes. If they do screw up, they will get smacked in the hands by a stick like teachers used to do back in really old schoolhouses. Here we get slightly warned if we use incorrect grammar, but nothing too serious.

            Believe it or not, many of us in our modern world wouldn’t be able to do very well in Jonas’ world. People are all different and they are used to a totally new way of living. Over the years, languages, styles, and technology have evolved greatly. Eventually, their community will change into something different than what they can even think of right now.

Dear Lily

Dear Lily,

                   

            I know it has been decades since we last saw each other, but I did find what I was looking for; a new community that has more choices than you do in our old community. Here there is freedom. There is color, choices, variety, and true families. There are grandparents. Grandparents are the blood-related parents of our parents.  Also, adults get to have their own children. That means they don’t apply for them and they can have as many as they want. Plus, it isn’t in ‘the rules’ that it has to be one boy and one girl, it can be all boys, all girls, or mixes.

           

            Another amazing thing is that you can apply for any job that you want. You aren’t assigned a job when you turn twelve because you can’t even get a job when you are twelve here. Speaking of jobs, I am sorry I never got to know what job you received. Could you please send me a letter stating what it is? Anyway, you can also quit your job at any time you would want to.

            I also have seen animals. You know those “comfort objects” with the funny names. I’ve seen elephants, horses, hippos, and many more. I think that Gabe had a hippo. Father said he was to be released, but that is the morning I took him. Gabe is safe and sound here in this new community. He doesn’t remember much, but he still has faint memories of his childhood now that he is older.

Talk to you soon,

Jonas