Some are More Equal than Others

A lesson that I learned from reading the book Animal Farm is that all people can never be equal. Even if everyone was to receive the same schooling, some people would still do better, putting them at a higher level. In Animal Farm, all of the animals attempted to learn how to read, but some animals were not smart enough to get past the first few letters of the alphabet. Because the pigs were smart enough to read and write, they were more powerful than the other animals. In real life this happens as well. It may not be a specific group that rises to power in real life. It can be just one person who gets things more than others. Those people can go on to be leaders in government which makes them more powerful and influential.

Photo by Stefan Fussan

Cranberries and Stuffing

Every year for Thanksgiving my family has our own celebration at our house. It's usually just my sisters, my parents, my brother-in-law, and me that are there. My mom and dad always make all the food. They make a turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and cheesecakes. My favorite is the cheesecake. Besides eating and making food, we always decorate for Christmas and watch Christmas movies. One thing that I don't really enjoy about our celebrations is that my parents talk about the cranberry sauce and stuffing for weeks. They always talk about making it more often, and they talk about it for a really long time.

Photo by Bruce Foster

Casting for Julius Caesar

If I was to cast actors for a new version of Julius Caesar, I would choose Tom Hanks as Brutus, Morgan Freeman as Caesar, Nicolas Cage as Cassius, and Johnny Depp as Antony. I would choose Tom Hanks as Brutus because Tom Hanks seems like a really gentle person who could do bad things for the good of others just like Brutus. I would choose Morgan Freeman as Caesar because Morgan Freeman is an older guy who usually plays roles of wise people. This would make him a good Caesar because Caesar was older and was wise in some aspects, such as war. I would choose Nicolas Cage as Cassius because Nicolas Cage just has kind of an evil smile that makes him look devious. I would choose Johnny Depp as Antony because he's a younger looking guy that plays roles that make him appear sort of smart and always having a plan. Antony was planning how to turn the people against the conspirators, and his plan worked.

Photo of Tom Hanks by Alan Light

Photo of Morgan Freeman by Thorsten Becker

Photo of Nicolas Cage by Patty Mooney

Photo of Johnny Depp by Quicheisinsane

A Modern Take on Caesar

Photo by Mrs. Studer

I decided to paint a portrait of Julius Caesar for an English presentation. I was supposed to explain why I chose to paint Caesar, what was significant about him, and why I chose the medium that I did. I feel that I could have done much better in my presentation because I did not expect to be nervous, but I was. I began to speak very fast and forgot to explain the significance of Caesar. However, I feel that my portrait captures Caesar very well. I chose the color red to express his power as well as to resemble the blood when he was murdered. I chose to paint a more modern portrait of Caesar because I had seen a video on Youtube of  someone painting in the same style. I chose to use acrylic on canvas because that was what the person I saw used.

iDo Dishes 9000

In the future, I would really love to have my own robot servant, and the main thing I would love for it to be able to do is do the dishes. I want a robot that can pick up all the dishes, put them into the dishwasher, turn it on, and then put them away. I really only want a robot that can do the dishes because it's the job that I really hate doing because it just seems gross to me. I'll leave what it looks like to the creators of my robot, but I'd really like mine in red.

Photo by Andy Field

New But Old

My favorite music group is The White Stripes. I first discovered them while watching a movie called It Might Get Loud. The movie is about Jimmy Paige (the guitarist for Led Zeppelin), The Edge (the guitarist for U2), and Jack White (the guitarist and singer for The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather) meeting and talking about the guitar. After watching this movie I really started to enjoy every song that Jack White was a part of. His guitar playing was so amazing to me because he used the basics of the blues to create every song and still made his music modern through the use of effects. There really isn't any reason why I like The White Stripes better than the Dead Weather or The Raconteurs because anything Jack White is a part of is great. I think I just chose that group because it was the first major group that Jack White was a part of. I have enjoyed listening to Jack White since I was eleven or twelve, and I continue to listen to everything new that he puts out.

Photo by Wally Gobetz

Short and Simple

Psalm 40:8 is my favorite bible verse because it's something that is actually simple to understand.  "Your law is within my heart." This bible verse just says in plain English what it actually means, and that is that within everyone's heart they have feelings, morals, and other things that help them follow God's law.

Summer Reading

The book that I chose to read over the summer was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I actually really enjoyed reading this book. This book taught me a lot about strong friendships that are more like families. Adam Pardue and I did a project using google presentation about internal and external conflict in The Outsiders. The external conflict that we talked about in our presentation was the violent rivalry between the Greasers and the Socials. The internal conflict we talked about was Ponyboy dealing with the loss of Johnny.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ei4CXQvdYCJMC9KTg5CQimCyaLN2xTIVtSced1Ku2L8/edit?usp=sharing

This year I would like to accomplish 4 major things. The first thing I want to accomplish is making A's all year long. I want to make A's this year because last year I was able to do so. The second thing I want to accomplish is to stop procrastinating which is what I did before I started writing this. I usually wait until late at night to do my homework, and sometimes I even wait until the morning to do my homework.  The third thing I want to accomplish this year is winning first place at one of our band competitions. I play bass guitar in marching band, and we didn't do very well in our competitions last year. The fourth thing I would like to accomplish this year is learning how to play the mandolin. My uncle gave me a mandolin over the summer, and I was able to learn a few chords and play a few simple songs. I would really like to be able to play more challenging songs such as Battle of Evermore.

Picture by AJ Cann