Sunday, April 24, 2016

Track and Field

Track and field season is in full swing at this time of year and that means that there are a lot of meets happening every week. This is both the season of the men's track and field team and the women's track and field team. Thus, there are some coed meets but there are mainly unisex meets, such as men or women only. For men's track and field meets, the order is always the same. The only exception is with coed meets, in which the order gets all crazy and weird. However, for men's track and field meets field events start the meet. Throwing events, such as the discus and shot put, as well as the long jump and high jump all begin before the running events. The running events start later, usually about thirty to forty five to sometimes even one whole hour after the field events begin, all depending on the meets, who is running it and how many teams are present. The track events will always follow the same order, however, for men's track and field meets. It starts with the 3200 meter race, the longest individual race and it is just under two miles long. Then right after that is the four by eight hundred relay race. After that is the shuttle hurdle relay, then the one hundred meter dash. Following that is the four hundred meter dash and after that is the four by two hundred meter relay. Next is the one hundred and ten meter high hurdles and following that is the sixteen hundred meter run or the one mile race. Following that is the two hundred meter open and then the four hundred meter low hurdles race. After that is the sixteen hundred meter medley, with the order of a two hundred then another two hundred then a four hundred then an eight hundred. After that is the eight hundred meter open run and then it is the four by one hundred meter relay. The meet is then going to finish with the four by four hundred meter relay. The events will usually separate junior varsity and varsity and exhibition runners to try and keep the races fair and competitive. The meets can sometimes last for hours as well. All in all track and field meets are very fun and very enjoyable and it is a great thing to be a part of!
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Show Choir Auditions

Show choir auditions are taking place coming up. If you are unfamiliar with what show choir is and stuff like that then I suggest that you read my blog from before this blog that is entitled “Show Choir”. If you are familiar and/or you have read that blog, then continue as you are probably going to understand this content a lot better this way.

Show choir auditions happen once every year with one exception. They occur right about now, in the spring, to decide the various groups for the upcoming year. There are many choirs that take place in Kennedy, and to be in a show choir one must also be in a choir. Thus, the auditions are partly the same. The signing auditions for show choir are the same as the auditions for a choir. However, there is also a dancing audition for show choir because that is another very important component of show choir. There are three different show choirs in Kennedy High School. The show choirs are the freshman show choir that is called Chauneteurs, the junior varsity show choir that is called Protégé, and the varsity show choir that is called Happiness Inc. They all use the same audition process to make it easier to separate who belongs with which group. The process includes singing and dancing, as stated earlier. One day after school for the dancing portion of the audition the students who are auditioning go to the choir room and learn a dance. The dance is very short and simple, although it is something new that they will have to learn. They then practice that dance and perform it for the directors who critique them. This whole process takes a few hours right after school. That, however, is only part of the audition. As stated earlier the students who are applying also have to sing. The singing auditions are that you sign up for a time and go to the choir room and do a bling audition. That means that all the directors are behind something that obstructs their view of you so that they do not know who you are, which is an attempt to eliminate bias in the auditions. The students who are auditioning sing a song of their choice that they have prepared along with the song “My Country Tis of Thee”. This gives a baseline to be able to compare everyone together as well as giving the students a chance to show off their singing skills and abilities.

However, Chaunteurs has an additional audition. Because it is the freshman show choir, they have an additional audition in the fall for the new freshman that might’ve wanted to do show choir but didn’t realize it until then or for anyone else who missed the spring auditions. Thus, the freshman get a second chance at auditioning if they so choose to accept it and if they want to audition and missed the auditioning date in the spring.

Anyway, the auditions for show choir for the 2016-2017 school year is coming up at Kennedy High School so if you want to be in a show choir don’t miss out!

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Show Choir

Every year show choir auditions are a thing that happens. There are many different parts that go into a show choir. There are the singers and the dancers. They are the main component of the group as they are what the audience will see and they are what the audience watches and listens to mainly and mainly hears. It is the main focus of show choir so they are arguably one of the most important pieces, but however every component is very important. There is also the tech crew. The tech crew does the behind the scenes work with bringing the microphones backstage and to the soloists, as well as getting the costume change ready and the various props that are used and making sure that those props are ready. The tech dads also help with this, along with creating the props and set that are needed for the show and performance. The director is present as the director instructs the singers on their singing and dancing, leading practices and basically being their coach. There are also choreographers, sometimes one and sometimes multiple. They come up with the dance moves for each song and they teach the dances to the singers and dancers. Then there is also the combo. The combo is the band of the show choir. They perform behind stage and they provide all the music except for what you hear that comes from the singers. They provide the beat and do all of that stuff.

A lot of people greatly enjoy show choir as it is something that is both physical and mental and it combines with music and singing and dancing and all of that jazz. It is kind of a combination of the south and north ends of Kennedy High School. I say that because of the split of the ends of the school. The south end of Kennedy High School is mainly sports as that is where the two gyms are located as well as both locker rooms and the pool and the sports equipment is stored there and the weight room and wrestling rooms are also there. The track is near there, as well as the varsity fields that are located on campus and other fields to practice on and the tennis courts. Thus, the south end of Kennedy High School is predominantly sports oriented. The north end of Kennedy High School is mainly drama and music oriented. At the north end of the school are where the orchestra department, band department, and choir departments are all located. There is also the two auditoriums in the north end of the building, the bigger and regular auditorium and the smaller room called the black box which is just as it sounds-it is a black box. Those are where activities such as musicals, plays, speech, theatre, show choir and other stuff happens. Thus show choir is popular because it sort of combines both ends of the school together in the physical dancing and the theatre and drama and music related singing.

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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Illegal Alien Change in Congress

On April 3rd, 2016, the United States Congress passed a piece of legislation concerning the topic of illegal aliens. An illegal alien is an alien who has entered into America illegally and is therefore deportable. In the past, Congress has referred to them by means of calling them illegal aliens. However, after a group of illegal aliens fought Congress on the term, Congress voted to then no longer use said term; the term undocumented citizens is to be used instead. This has begged a question that has been argued all across America for the following week after the legislation was passed: with their absence of rights due to no citizenship, should illegal aliens be able to influence government policy in America?
                On April 3rd, 2016, newspapers across America, such as the Cedar Rapids Gazette and the Los Angeles Times, announced the passed legislation. While it has not been a front page headliner, it has caused a bit of a stir across the nation. With the change of wording from illegal aliens to undocumented citizens in Congress, American citizens have started to question how policy gets changed in their nation.
                As stated in the Los Angeles Times, the topic was brought up to Congress by a group of college students. The group is from Dartmouth College and are known as CoFIRED (Dartmouth Coalition for Immigration Reform, Equality and Dreamers), brought up to Congress how the term illegal alien was a derogatory and offensive term. This then got attention from others in America, who also stated that the term illegal aliens was offensive. They lobbied for Congress to change the policy, and ultimately won as Congress passed the legislation on April 3rd.
                This, however, caused quite an outrage from American citizens. Various sources of news, such as newspapers, the internet, or news broadcasts, were depictions of citizens protesting the legislation around the nation. Protests out in the streets were common. Signs were used by many of the protestors. They all wanted to voice their opinion about how this legislation should not have been passed. They brought up much evidence to help their viewpoint.
                The Constitution is the law of the land in America, was written by the founding fathers, and it is what all the laws in America is based upon. Congress, when passing legislation, must make sure it is constitutional. The Supreme Court makes sure that laws are constitutional when they are disputed either in lawsuits or when someone broke the law.
                The Frist Amendment of the Constitution grants the Freedom of Speech to the citizens of the United States of America. Some citizens, such as college students, have stated that by banning terms from use such as “illegal alien” is going against the First Amendment of the Constitution by banning their Freedom of Speech (Sokol). At colleges it is important to keep a “safe and productive learning environment”, while still ensuring the “students’ right to freedom of expression”. While this example is from a college, it is still applicable to the legislation in Congress. While Congress needs to keep an environment that restrains from degrading and offending its citizens, such as the safe college environment, Congress still needs to protect the freedom of expression.
                Many people think that the term illegal aliens should not be used as it is offensive to those who are illegal aliens in America. As stated in the Constitution, one citizen cannot exercise his or her rights in order to take away the rights of another citizen. This leads those to believe that the term, illegal aliens, should not be put to use. However, if the Constitution were to be read carefully, then they would notice that the Constitution refers to citizens and the rights that the citizens of America have. If a person is illegally living in America, what gives them the right to be able to gain the rights of the currently legal citizens of America? By doing so shows that the Constitution has no power over the land with the current interpretation, with that interpretation being it belongs and maintains order for America and America alone. Via this interpretation, the Constitution should refer to all of the world; America, however, is not the world’s police. Therefore, even if the illegal aliens believe that the term illegal aliens takes away their rights by means of it being offensive, they have no right nor any power to be able to change American policy.

                However, that is not what happened. Congress interpreted the Constitution in applying to all people, not just citizens of America. While all people have their basic human rights, if they break the law, which they do if they are illegal aliens, then they should not be granted the same rights as others. Via this passing of legislation, Congress has declared that even if someone currently living in America is not an American citizen and is here illegally, therefore breaking the law, which is a crime, they still have just as many rights as those legal American citizens have. That interpretation from Congress has a multitude of flaws, as it could lead to worldly conflicts due to America attempting to be the world police. Therefore, as a person illegally occupying a territory within a nation they are not a citizen of, they should not be granted the same rights as legal citizens of that nation and therefore should not be granted the power to influence policy.
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Smartphones

One form of entertainment is by means of a cellular device. A very common form of a cellular device is a phone, and it is very common in school, such as in Kennedy High School. Many people have phones. A very popular type of phone is the smartphone. Smartphone brands are as follows: there is the IPhone by Apple, there are the Galaxy Phones by Samsung, and there are many more but those are the most popular two. There are smartphones made by Microsoft with windows and there are smartphones made by Googles as well. There are a lot of smartphones to choose from!

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"Black Mass" Historical Review

                The film Black Mass stars Johnny Depp and depicts James “Whitey” Bulger, from the time of his return from his nine year stretch at Alcatraz, up until he left Boston and eventually arrested.
                The plot of the film stuck pretty closely to its historical origins. Whitey came out of Alcatraz, and then went back out onto the street. He made an alliance with the FBI via John Connolly, a friend from his youth, in order to take out the Angiulo Brothers. By helping the FBI, the FBI would take care of the Angiulo Brothers who controlled North Boston and were challenging Whitey. In return, Whitey basically had the freedom to do whatever he pleased. However, once Whitey’s rivals were out of the picture, Whitey started racking up money. He started paying off John Connolly and others, gaining power and growing. However, John Connolly became corrupt and the FBI started to notice. Eventually, they went after Connolly and Whitey. Along the way they also got Stephen Flemmi, who was very close to Whitey.
                The very beginning of the movie showed Kevin Weeks talking to a FBI agent to try and get benefits from talking about Whitey. Kevin was a bouncer outside of one of Whitey’s bars, who Whitey noticed and brought up into the higher ranks. Later in the movie, it showed that Stephen Flemmi also talked to the FBI in regards to Whitey. Both of these instances, according to the movie, happened after Whitey escaped from Boston.
                At the time that the FBI got Connolly and Flemmi, someone tipped off Whitey about the FBI going to arrest him. Due to that tip, he escaped Boston.
                However, Whitey was caught. He escaped to California, where in 2011 a tip was given to the FBI in which he was arrested, about thirty years after he had escaped from Boston.
                Almost everything in the plot of the story was historically accurate. However, there were a few jarring details about how it differed from what really happened. One big jarring difference was that Flemmi also became an FBI consultant. The film did not depict that at all. Instead, the film only depicted Whitey and how he made an alliance with the FBI. The movie also made a big deal of how Whitey hated informats and rats, yet he still became one. There was another big part of the movie in regards to these events, and that is when Whitey told Stephen Flemmi that he was making an alliance with the FBI and explained why, stating that it was for the good of them all by making the FBI do all the dirty work for them.

                All in all I felt as though the plot of the film was more historically accurate that not with regards to Whitey and South Boston, with a few jarring details as described above. The only other thing that stood out was the portrayal of characters. Some of the characters seemed to be a little odd, as in different than that of which I had expected them to be in history. However, the depiction of Whitey seemed pretty accurate with his story arc and how his character changed throughout the movie in response to the changing conditions of his life.
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Sunday, April 10, 2016

Parks and Rec now on Netflix

The show Parks and Recreation is currently available to stream on Netflix. It stars Amy Poeler and Nick Offerman and Aziz Anzari and Chris Patterson. It is very similar to the show the Office, as it is a mockumentary show depicting the government office of parks and recreation in the town of Pawnee, Indiana. It is a seven season long show, with twenty two average minute long episodes. It is a good show to watch for anyone looking for a new show to watch on Netflix if they have not watched the said show of Parks and Recreation yet.

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Illegal Alien Debate

On April 3rd, 2016, the United States Congress passed a legislation which covered the topic of how to refer to illegal aliens. In the past, Congress has referred to them by means of calling them illegal aliens. However, after a group of illegal aliens fought Congress on the term, Congress voted to then no longer use said term; the term undocumented citizens is to be used instead. This has begged a question that has been argued all across America for the following week after the legislation was passed: with their absence or rights due to no citizenship, should illegal aliens be able to influence government policy in America?
                On April 3rd, 2016, newspapers across America, such as the Cedar Rapids Gazette, announced the passed legislation. While it has not been a front page headliner, it has caused a bit of a stir across the nation. With the change of wording from illegal aliens to undocumented citizens in Congress, American citizens have started to question how policy gets changed in their nation.
                The topic was brought up to Congress by an illegal alien. The illegal alien, a young women currently attending a college in America, brought up to Congress how the term illegal alien was a derogatory and offensive term. This then got attention from other illegal aliens in America, who all stated that the term illegal aliens was offensive towards them. They lobbied for Congress to change the policy, and ultimately won as Congress passed the legislation on April 3rd.
                This, however, caused quite an outrage from American citizens. Also shown in various sources of news, depictions of citizens protesting the legislation around the nation. Protests out in the streets were common. Signs were used by many of the protestors. They all wanted to voice their opinion about how this legislation should not have been passed. They brought up much evidence to help their viewpoint.
                The Constitution is the law of the land in America, as it is called. The Constitution was written by the founding fathers, and it is what all the laws in America is based upon. Congress, when passing legislation, must make sure it is constitutional. The Supreme Court makes sure that laws are constitutional when they are disputed either in lawsuits or when someone broke the law.
                Many people think that the term illegal aliens should not be used as it is offensive to those who are illegal aliens in America. As stated in the Constitution, one citizens cannot excersize his or her rights in order to take away the rights of another citizen. This leads those to believe that the term, illegal aliens, should therefore not be put to use. However, if the Constitution were to be read carefully, then they would notice that the Constitution refers to citizens and the rights that the citizens of America have. If a person is illegally living in America, what gives them the right to be able to gain the rights of the currently legal citizens of America? By doing so shows that the Constitution has no power over the land with the current interpretation, with that interpretation being it belongs and maintains order for America and America alone. Via this interpretation, the Constitution should refer to all of the world; America, however, is not the world’s police. Therefore, even if the illegal aliens believe that the term illegal aliens takes away their rights by means of it being offensive, they have no right nor any power to be able to change American policy.
                However, that is not what happened. The Constitution was interpreted in order to have it to try and maintain order for everyone everywhere, not just in America and not just American citizens. Via this passing of legislation, Congress has declared that even if someone currently living in America is not an American citizen and is here illegally, therefore breaking the law, which is a crime, they still have just as many rights as those legal American citizens have. That interpretation from Congress has a multitiude of flaws, as it could lead to worldy conflicts due to America attempting to be the world police. Therefore, as a person illegally occupying a territory within a nation they are not a citizen of, they should not be granted the same rights as legal citizens of that nation and therefore should not be granted the power to influence policy.

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2016-2017 SMART lunch

SMART LUNCH backstory, a blog post I posted a while ago, was posted. It presents the backstory for background information about SMART LUNCH at Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids in Iowa in the United States of America. Well, if you have not read that blog then I either suggest you go read it or familiarize yourself with the concept of SMART Lunch and how it is used at Kennedy High School and what occurs during it. Well, here goes with this blog post in regards of SMART Lunch.

Before I get into the meat of SMART Lunch, what does it stand for? SMART Lunch is an acronym, so the s and the m and the a and the r and the t all mean something. The l and the u and the n and the c and the h do not, however, stand for something like all the letters in SMART; it just stands for lunch, as it occurs during lunch. Well, it is a great question to ask someone who knows. I am not the person who knows. Well, here goes.

Anyways, next year the Cedar Rapids Community School District, or the CRCSD, is changing things for high schools. For example, every Friday will be a half day. Also, no more zero hour academic classes; the only zero hour classes will be those of physical education, such as performance pe. However, all the high schools in the district will be doing the same thing. This means that all the schools need to be on the same schedule. Currently, the only school that uses SMART lunch is Kennedy High School. This spells trouble, as it points toward Kennedy loosing Smart Lunch. However, there may be one good thing to come out of it.

There is a class offered at Kenneyd High School. It is a social studies class, and it is AP Psychology. It is helping the debate over SMART lunch this year. It has taken a survey of high school students attending Kennedy High School and how they think smart lunch is doing. They answered questions such as what they do during smart lunch, what they think should be added, wheteher or not it is helpful, and other questions along those lines.

The overall question is whether or not Kennedy will keep SMART Lunch for this next upcoming school year of 2016-2017. However, the question will not be answered until next school year.

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Sunday, April 3, 2016

Entertainment Advancement

Entertainment. It has changed. It has become a lot more technology based than it was in the past. However, is that for a good or a bad change? That is upt o you. No one knows because it is a complete opinion-however many people have an opinion on it. Some think yes, it is good as it has advanced society. Some think no, as it has made everyone become disconnected from each other. However, it is everyone’s opinion, which they have a right to, as long as thye can make their opinion and back it up with reasons as to why they think that way.

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SMART LUNCH backstory

School. It is such a big, prominent, and an important part in most young people’s lives today. Today, school has grown much more than school used to be a long time ago, and even from just a few years ago. However, I am only going to be typing today about school as in classes, and the time spent at school from the first class of the day to the last class of the day. More specifically, I will be typing about lunch, and the lunch that I will be typing about is SMART lunch. SMART lunch stands for students managing academics and responsible time, so something like that. Anyway, it has something to do with students being responsible and productive and managing time efficiently I think. Well, here goes.

SMART lunch. I think that what I said it stands for is actually what it stands for, but I am not sure. It is something like that. But anyways SMART lunch is used at John F. Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids Community School District in Iowa of the United States of America in North America which is one of the seven continents on planet earth in the milky way galaxy in the universe. Wow that took up a lot of space. But anyways yes my high school used SMART lunch. It is about seventy minutes or so of lunch, with two tutorials of which you can eat lunch, work on homework, get help in classes, or socialize with friends and enjoy yourself. However, this poses a question: where is the best place to be during SMART lunch? What is the best thing to do during SMART lunch?

The best place to be during SMART lunch is arguably not at school. School lunch does not taste all that good, and it is not good for you. Sorry Michelle Obama, but school lunches are not healthy. Putting it bluntly, school lunches suck. That is why it is better to not be at school during smart lunch because then you can have a tastier and a healthier lunch. Yum!

Also if and when you leave for smart lunch you should do it with friends. It is a fun time and you can socialize and have fun spending time with then, if you are so inclined you can get homework and work done, if you need help you can help each other out for classes, and you can get a better tasting and a healthier lunch. There is no reason to stay at Kennedy for smart lunch except if you have to go to a tutorial for a class and to see a teacher, if you are not supposed to be able to leave during smart lunch, or if you just don’t want to leave. So entertain yourself at smart lunch!

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Springtime Bonfires

It is again spring, as it is every year. spring; why is it called spring? Maybe because we spring ahead. Yes, it is probably that. Daylights Savings time, so we spring ahead. Yes. That makes sense. In all honesty I already knew this I just am trying to make this post even longer, so sorry for anything boring in advance. But as of right now I am only about seventy or so words in, and I need a total of twelve hundred words, so I have a lot to go. Yay. This is so much fun and very entertaining. Hey, that’s a good idea; writing posts being entertaining. Post ception. Blogging ception? I am not sure as to the official ception term to use here, but I am sure that there is one. Alright, back to the topic. What is the topic again? Spring? Daylights Savings Time? This blog? Ah, yes. I remember now. This blog is all about bonfires. Here, let us get back into the post. Bonfires, here we come!

Okay. It has been one hundred and seventy nine, no one hundred and eighty, and no now one hundred and ninety two words. Wow. I am booking, all though not really. Yes that should’ve been although. Alright, bonfire. Bonfires? Well, anyway, here we go. Diving right in. Bonfires here we come. Also, side note, I am just making this post really long on purpose, so have fun reading this if you are. And good for you for sticking through this post so far! So congratulations. I want to award you, to congratulate you for your dedication. I have therefore decided that you need a high five. I am not going to give you a high five. I have absolutely no idea who you are. You are probably in Mrs. Assmussen’s class with me sometime during the day. If so, then you need a high five. I am not going to give you the high five, but you should get one from someday. If you are not in her class, you still deserve a high five.

Back to bonfires! So now that it is spring, the weather is much, much, much warmer than in the winter. This means that it is time for bonfires. So go to a bonfire! Have a bonfire with your friends! That can be a lot of fun. Especially if you do fun stuff with your friends. Here are some things you can do at a bonfire: you can sit around the bonfire and talk. You can listen to music. Some people have a dance party. You can have races. You can make jokes. You guys can look up funny YouTube videos. You can all get under a blanket together just because it is cold, not because it is fun or anything but because it is cold. You can also eat. Eat a lot. Like double stuffed oreos, some popcorn, or even some chips. You can also go inside and play video games together. Some fun video games to play together are on the wii, such as Mario Kart. It can be really fun. Especially with friends. Yep. So go to a bonfire with friends. Have a good time. This has been over five hundred words. To be specific, there have been almost five hundred and fifty words so far in this post. So thank you for this. For reading my post. I am sorry for putting you through this post. It has been a lot of fluff as some would call it. Just to up the word count. This will be an easy next two posts because I have only about six hundred words left. So thank you, and go entertain yourself with a bonfire!

So thus a bonfire in the spring would be a lot of fun. Similar to the bonfires in the fall blogpost I posted in the fall, this post is similar but stating how the Spring also presents good weather for bonfires. Basically just because there is no longer snow. So that is it. Bonfires, yay. Bonfire.

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Sunday, March 27, 2016

Netflix and Sports in High School

High school is very entertaining. Here I will be doing a very brief overview of all the entertaining things that are popular and widely known and/or common to those in high school. Here we go. First off, Netflix is very popular. Many people in high school, so students, will watch Netflix, and watch TV shows on it. Some of the more popular shows on Netflix are Daredevil, The Office, Parks and Recreation, How I Met Your Mother, Friends, Supernatural, and much more. There are also Netflix original series, which is what Daredevil is, as well as Netflix original movies, such as the Ridiculous 6. Another entertaining thing in high school is sports; many high school students participate in some form of a sport. There is football, men and women’s cross country, and women’s swimming and diving in the fall. There is basketball, men’s swimming, and wrestling in the winter. In the spring there is track, soccer, and tennis. Therefore, there are many different sports that high school students participate in during their high school career. Thus, two very popular or well known or common things that high school students do is watch Netflix, such as Netflix and chill, as well as participating in sports.

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Good Meat Eating Edition No. 1

What does every person do every day? Every day, every person all around the world does a few of the same things. Among those things are breathing, pumping blood, drinking liquids, eating foods, and sleeping. A few of those are very entertaining things for some people, and for many different reasons. For me, one of those things is very entertaining, and that is eating.

Eating is something that can be very enjoyable, and help pass the time, and is therefore entertaining. Now, I am not trying to say to eat and eat and eat and eat, because that is just unhealthy. However, food tastes good, and I enjoy eating good tasting food, so it therefore entertains me to do so. I know that many people very much enjoy eating foods as well, and there are lots and lots and lots of different types of foods out there. There are salads, fruits, vegetables, grains, wheats, meats, and many more different kinds of foods. One of those foods that I very much enjoy is meats, but more specifically I very much enjoy eating ribs.

The other night I had a rack or so of ribs, and they were amazing. They were falling off the bone with every single bite, so much that in order to eat the ribs you had to pick up the meat separately from the bone, and the bone would just fall out in doing so. These ribs were tender. They were so flavorful too, they hit the spot.


In order to make these amazing ribs, a lot of the process is in choosing the right rack of ribs. This varies from location to location and person to person, so I am going to start with once you have the ribs. You need to peel off the membrane of the ribs, and try to leave some of the fat still on the meat for the flavor. After removing the membrane, you are to apply an Applewood smoke rub to the ribs. Apply more to the bone side of the rack of ribs, as the rub will not be as affective on that side. Then, wrap the ribs in tin foil and make sure the tin foil is so very tightly wrapped around the rack of ribs as to prevent the juices from escaping. Place the ribs in the oven for about two and half hours at about three hundred degrees temperature, and then remove the ribs from the oven. Put some barbeque sauce on the ribs and place for about five minutes on a grill with the meat side down. Take the rack of ribs off the grill after five minutes, serve, and enjoy! A great way to entertain yourself and to enjoy yourself!

However, ribs are not the only type of good food available. There are many other types of meat that is very tasty. However, that is for another time.

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Modernized Entertainment

As the world turns, another day goes by, another week, another month, another year, another decade, and soon another century. Even though we might not still be alive by the turn of the century, a lot will change. A lot will continue to change with each passing century. Just think about it, just one hundred years ago there were no computers, there was no internet, and there was no television. Those items, those things, that of which we interact with every day, that of which we use to entertain ourselves almost every day, it did not exist one hundred years ago. Right now, what are you doing? Reading this blog. How are you reading this article? Well, this blog is on the internet. That means that somehow you are surfing the web, browsing the internet. A smartphone possibly? A tablet? A computer? A laptop? What type, too? An IPhone or an Android? An IPad or a Microsoft Surface? A Dell or a Mac? A Chromebook or a MacBook? Or are you reading this article while using some other electronic device that you choose to browse the internet with? Whatever the case, the fact still remains that you are browsing the internet, reading this blog. However you came to this blog, I am not sure, but you are here now. It is very likely that you did not choose to read this blog, and that you somehow happens upon it while on the internet. In that case, I must ask you a very pressing question: Why?

I do not mean that why in a bad way; I love that fact that you are reading my blog. However, the question remains. Why? Why are you reading this blog-my blog? Why are you on the internet? Why are you not interacting with others? Why are you not socializing? Playing with friends? Making memories? Doing something fun and exciting that you will remember down the road? The answer, however, does not appear to matter at the moment. That is because you are still here, still reading this blog. Why? Why are you reading this blog? It could very possibly be that the reason that you are still here reading my blog has nothing to do with the content of my blog at all, and that it could have everything to do with the way that you are reading my blog. This poses another question: Is the internet really that addicting? Are you really just reading this blog just because it is on the internet?


I hope you are not. I hope that you are not just reading my blog because it is on the internet. However, it seems that now a days many people are addicted to the internet and cannot get away from it. That they feel like they need the internet. That they cannot be away from it, and thus they cannot be away from their electronic device or electronic devices. In which case, I must ask another question: What happened? When talking to my parents and all the memories that they have, all the best memories from their childhood was with their friends. Doing things together. Having fun. Staying active. Being kids. Playing. Don’t get me wrong, the internet can be great-I am posting this blog on the internet after all. However, I must be clear on my message. Go out and play. Hang with your friends. Have a fun time. Be active. Have fun together. Make some new, lasting memories that you will never forget, instead of just surfing the internet, because in a few years you won’t be able to remember that tweet or that post, but you will be able to look back on the memories that you made and the friends that you had and you will be able to smile.

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Sunday, March 13, 2016

Spring Break

Spring Break is coming up, and for many people that means traveling to somewhere warm. Many people will go somewhere out of the country; more specifically they will go to somewhere in the Caribbean, in Central America area. Popular areas of travel include, but are not limited to, Mexico, Dominican Republic, or even many more places. These places are very popular because the winter just got over here in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. By going down there, there are beaches available for the tourists to go to, and it is warm so they can be on vacation. It is a way for people to entertain themselves, and many people very much enjoy doing so during Spring Break. There are two other popular things to do on Spring Break. One of them is not exciting, and that is either staying back home or doing college visits, the later of the two is somewhat fun but not as fun as going down to Central America or Colorado. Speaking of Colorado, that is the second thing that many people do. They go skiing at Colorado on the mountains, which is very fun. So there are a lot of things to be able to do during Spring Break, for many people to do.

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Shinedown Cover

Many people entertain themselves with music.. Whether it be listening to music, composing music, making music, music can be very entertaining. In particular, some certain types of music seem to be more entertaining than others, and even more specifically, certain songs seem to be more entertaining. One way to see how entertaining a song appears to be would be the amount of covers of that song that have been made. Some bands do so as well; one way that they do so, if it is not making new music in the form of new songs, is to play another band’s song and interpret however they want, making a cover version of said song. Not the covers made by people who do covers of songs regularly, but that does help, but I mean when bands make a cover of another bands song. Whether this be live at concert only, or for an album. One such example is the song Simple Man, originally by Lynyrd Skynyrd. This song has been made a cover by a few bands, most notably by the band Deftones, Confederate Railroad, and perhaps the most famous cover by Shinedown. Shinedown has made two versions of the song, an acoustic version as well as a rock version, and their cover of Simple Man is very popular. However, the original by Lynyrd Skynyrd is arguably more popular and better known, but it can be argued that the Shinedown cover (either the acoustic or the rock version of the song) is the most well-known cover. Many people are fans of either Lynyrd Skynyrd, Shinedown, or both, and they entertain themselves with listening to their songs. One of those songs is Simple Man, entertaining a large amount of people around the world as they listen to the song, no matter the artist.

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Summer Jobs

A lot of people work. A lot of people. There are so many jobs out there that people can have, but today I am only going to write about the types of jobs that high schoolers generally have, instead of those that are people’s careers, or an adult job that someone can live off of doing that job. High schoolers will almost always work part time, never full time, with a few exceptions every now and then. There are many different high schoolers, and each high schooler is different, so there are a multitude of jobs out there to accompany most high schoolers. With the summer starting to appear as though it is approaching, it is time for some high schoolers to start looking for a job. Here are a few of the more popular and more talked about jobs that high schoolers will usually have.

Some high schoolers are lifeguards. Most lifeguards will have only a seasonal job for during the summer when school is not in session, but some lifeguards will work year round at an indoor pool. A lot of swimmers will end up lifeguarding during high school, and a lot of lifeguards tend to be swimmers, but not all of them. There are still a lot of lifeguards who do not swim, as well as a lot of swimmers that do not lifeguard. But, as a stereotype, lifeguarding is a popular job among swimmers. One of the very popular traits of the job for people is that it is a seasonal job, only during the summer, when school is not in session. This makes working a lot easier, as there is not really much else going on at that time, increasing people’s availability as well as the amount of money they will then make probably.

Another popular job among high schoolers is to work at a nearby, small business. In Cedar Rapids, an example of this is Parlor City. Parlor City is an ice cream stand that is located very close to Kennedy High School, and a lot of Kennedy High Schoolers will end up working there because of the convenience, as well as it being a good job.

Yet another job that is popular among high schoolers is working at a trampoline park. In Cedar Rapids, there are two trampoline parks. The first one to open was AirFX, and the second one to open was SkyZone. They are both similar in size of the area of trampolines available for the customers to jump on. Both places offer popular jobs for high schoolers as it is easy for a high schooler to oversee the trampoline mats and watch the jumpers. A lot of people have moved over from AirFX to SkyZone when SkyZone opened up, and working at either of those two trampoline parks is a good first job as it is not too intense a job, and it is just a overall good first job for high schoolers.

Yet another job that is popular among high schoolers is to work at a restaurant. One example of a restaurant that some high schoolers work at is Market Grille at Hy-Vee. There you will either be a bus boy, busing the tables and cleaning up after customers, or you would be a waiter or a server, serving and or waiting on the customers and taking their orders. This is a popular job among high schoolers as it is easy enough to get it as a first job, and it provides good job experience.

Another popular job among high schoolers is working at either a grocery store, like Hy-Vee, or a general or convenience store, such as Walmart or Target. These jobs provide good work experience, especially with working with some people that may not be the most pleasant to deal with, resulting in better people skills. Also, the job is fairly easy, with not much required for you to do. All in all, it provides a good job for high schoolers.

There are a lot of good jobs available for high schoolers. There is the option of becoming a lifeguard, working at a nearby small business, working at a trampoline park, at a restaurant, or at a store. There are so many jobs out there for high schoolers to choose from!


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Sunday, March 6, 2016

Entertainment Food!

Every day, every human being on earth does a few of the same things. One of those many things is eat. Everyone needs to eat. Now, that doesn’t mean that it has to be a boring and tedious task. Many people, including myself, greatly enjoy eating. That brings something along with it; what to eat? Well, that depends on where you are at times. Different parts of the world eat different types of food. As eating food is very enjoyable and entertaining to some people, I am going to go through some different types of food around the world for ideas on what to try eating. First, in Spain, churros are very popular. Leche Merengada is also very popular in Spain, and it is a Spanish milkshake. In France, some popular foods are cheese, bread, and wine. In Japan, some popular foods are sushi, and in China some popular foods are chicken and rice. In India, spicy foods are common, and in Mexico, spicy foods are also kind of common, such as tacos and burritos. America, however, has everything. There are places you can get churros, nice wine, sushi houses, Chinese restaurants, and there are also Mexican restaurants. Eating is entertaining for me, so I suggest you go out and try various types of food from around the world!

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Something not Entertaining: Sick

There is something that sucks a lot. That is sickness. Not being healthy. Being sick. Feeling like crap. Feeling horrible. There are many ways to describe it, and those are just a few. This time of the year is the time that colds seem to be getting common, along with viruses. You do not want to get sick. It sucks. Getting sick could mean that you can’t do anything. That means that you cannot go to school, which some people like that idea of not going to school and not having to go to school. However, you would also not be able to go to work, which is not good because then if you miss too much you could get fired, and you will not get as much money then, and things start becoming one big giant mess. You will not be able to continue any sport while you are sick. If you were planning on competing at state and then you get sick, you might not be able to compete at state anymore. Also, if you get sick you will feel like crap. Absolute crud. It is horrible. It is awful. You do not want to feel that way because it just plane out sucks. It sucks big time. So do not get sick.

There are ways you can go to try and prevent yourself from getting sick. One way is to stay clean. Clean yourself daily, either a shower or a bath. Also wash your hands. Wash your hands a lot. A lot a lot. It helps. Get a lot of sleep. Do not try to survive your life with only about four or five hours of sleep a night. It will just run you down and you will keep getting sick and it sucks and it is no fun. So get plenty of sleep. At least eight hours of sleep a night. Yes that is a good idea. Eight hours of sleep a night. So if you have to wake up at five in the morning get to bed by nine at night, and if you have to wake up at seven in the morning you could, in theory, then, stay up until eleven at night each night, but that would not be recommended. In all cases, get a good nights sleep. That will help you a lot. Just try to not get sick, because being sick sucks, and you will absolutely hate it and feel like crap and it is no fun it sucks so take care of yourself!


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New memories with friends

As the world turns, another day goes by, another week, another month, another year, another decade, and soon another century. Even though we might not still be alive by the turn of the century, a lot will change. A lot will continue to change with each passing century. Just think about it, just one hundred years ago there were no computers, there was no internet, and there was no television. Those items, those things, that of which we interact with every day, that of which we use to entertain ourselves almost every day, it did not exist one hundred years ago. Right now, what are you doing? Reading this blog. How are you reading this article? Well, this blog is on the internet. That means that somehow you are surfing the web, browsing the internet. A smartphone possibly? A tablet? A computer? A laptop? What type, too? An IPhone or an Android? An IPad or a Microsoft Surface? A Dell or a Mac? A Chromebook or a MacBook? Or are you reading this article while using some other electronic device that you choose to browse the internet with? Whatever the case, the fact still remains that you are browsing the internet, reading this blog. However you came to this blog, I am not sure, but you are here now. It is very likely that you did not choose to read this blog, and that you somehow happens upon it while on the internet. In that case, I must ask you a very pressing question: Why?

I do not mean that why in a bad way; I love that fact that you are reading my blog. However, the question remains. Why? Why are you reading this blog-my blog? Why are you on the internet? Why are you not interacting with others? Why are you not socializing? Playing with friends? Making memories? Doing something fun and exciting that you will remember down the road? The answer, however, does not appear to matter at the moment. That is because you are still here, still reading this blog. Why? Why are you reading this blog? It could very possibly be that the reason that you are still here reading my blog has nothing to do with the content of my blog at all, and that it could have everything to do with the way that you are reading my blog. This poses another question: Is the internet really that addicting? Are you really just reading this blog just because it is on the internet?


I hope you are not. I hope that you are not just reading my blog because it is on the internet. However, it seems that now a days many people are addicted to the internet and cannot get away from it. That they feel like they need the internet. That they cannot be away from it, and thus they cannot be away from their electronic device or electronic devices. In which case, I must ask another question: What happened? When talking to my parents and all the memories that they have, all the best memories from their childhood was with their friends. Doing things together. Having fun. Staying active. Being kids. Playing. Don’t get me wrong, the internet can be great-I am posting this blog on the internet after all. However, I must be clear on my message. Go out and play. Hang with your friends. Have a fun time. Be active. Have fun together. Make some new, lasting memories that you will never forget, instead of just surfing the internet, because in a few years you won’t be able to remember that tweet or that post, but you will be able to look back on the memories that you made and the friends that you had and you will be able to smile.

By doing exactly so, you will ensure that you will gain some new, lasting memories with many friends that will last you a lifetime.

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Sunday, February 28, 2016

Mad Max Fury Road

Mad Max Fury Road is a movie that is up for a lot of Oscars. Here is a recap of what all happened during that movie.

Here is the setup of the movie. There was a nuclear holocaust and because of it the world is now a desert wasteland with no civilization. The name character is played by Tom Hardy, and his name is Max Rockatansky. He is captured by the War Boys, which is the army of the Immortan Joe. Max is then taken to Joe’s camp area town area thing, and Max is determined to be a universal blood donor. Therefore, he is imprisoned and used as a blood bag for a sick war boy named Nux. At the same time Charlize Therone, who in the movie is named Furiosa, is driving a war rig to collect gasoline. She takes Joe’s five wives and drives off route to escape, so Joe sends many of his men, the War Boys, and even more, after her.

Nux joined the chase and took Max along as his blood bag, in which Furiosa and Nux both drive into a sand storm, in which the later’s car is destroyed. Max then restrains Nux. Max then leaves with the War Rig with Furiosa and the wives, while the War Boys pick up Nux.

Furiosa then drives through a biker gang-controlled canyon to barter a deal for safe passage; however, with Joe's forces pursuing, the gang turns on her, forcing her and the group to flee while the bikers detonate the canyon walls to block Joe. Max and Furiosa fought bikers as Joe's car, with Nux now on board, passed the blockade and eventually attacked the War Rig, allowing Nux to board. However, as the Rig escapes, Angharad falls off in an attempt to protect Max and is run over by Joe's car, killing her and her child.

Furiosa explains to Max that they are escaping to the "Green Place," an idyllic land she remembers from her childhood. Capable finds Nux hiding in the Rig, distraught over his failure, and consoles him. That night, the Rig gets stuck in mud. Furiosa and Max slow Joe's forces with mines, but Joe's ally, the Bullet Farmer, continues pursuing them. Nux helps Max free the Rig while Furiosa shoots and blinds the Bullet Farmer. Max walks into the dark to confront the Bullet Farmer and his men, returning with guns and ammunition.

They drive the War Rig overnight through swampland and desert, coming across a naked woman the next day. Max suspects a trap, but Furiosa approaches the woman and states her history and clan affiliation. The naked woman summons her clan, the Vuvalini, who recognise Furiosa as one of their own who was kidnapped as a child. Furiosa is devastated to learn that the swampland they passed was indeed the Green Place, now uninhabitable. The group then plans to ride motorbikes across immense salt flatsin the hope of finding a new home. Max chooses to stay behind, but after seeing visions of a child he failed to save, he convinces them to return to the undefended Citadel, which has ample water and greenery that Joe keeps for himself, and trap Joe and his army in the bikers' canyon.

The group heads back to the Citadel, but they are attacked en route by Joe's forces, and Furiosa is seriously wounded. Joe positions his car in front of the War Rig to slow it, while Max fights Joe's giant son, Rictus Erectus. Joe captures Toast who manages to distract him long enough for Furiosa to kill him by hooking Joe's mask to the wheels and thus tearing his face. Nux sacrifices himself by wrecking the Rig, killing Rictus and blocking the canyon, allowing Max, Furiosa, the wives, and the Vuvalini to escape successfully in Joe's car, where Max transfuses his blood to Furiosa to help her survive her injuries.

At the Citadel, the impoverished citizens are overjoyed at the sight of Joe's corpse. Furiosa, the wives, and the Vuvalini are cheered by the people and welcomed by the remaining War Boys, but Max walks away, sharing a glance with Furiosa before disappearing into the crowd.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max:_Fury_Road

World War 2

World war 2 is something that many people like to learn about as doing so entertains them. Here is a very brief description of the war.

It start in nineteen thirty nine. However America did not join the war until nineteen forty one. That is because of Pearl Harbor. In nineteen forty one Japan attacked American base Pearl Harbor which was located at Hawaii. The war started in nineteen thirty nine because hitler came to power in nazi Germany and he blamed the Jews for the devastation of Germany due to World War One so they started trying to conquer everything and everyone. The war was then fought until nineteen forty five. In that time Japanese Americans were held in relocation camps in America as many were thought to be spies to help their home land of Japan. However America and its allies won the war in nineteen forty five and hitler killed himself so it was all over by then and we had won so yay.

Like I said that was a very very very very very brief description of the war but enjoy and there is a lot more to it than just what I wrote just now.
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Historical Movies

History is an important thing, and is pretty interesting at times (in my opinion at least). However, reading from a book about history can get really boring, and I mean it can get so boring that you might even fall asleep. That is especially the case with really dry, boring, and hard to understand history books and textbooks. This poses an important question: How to learn more about history without getting so bored? Learning about history can be very enjoyable and very entertaining-if done in an entertaining way that is. That means not just reading out of a textbook, or at least that is what it means for me. One way to learn about history is through movies. Whether it be a documentary, a short film, a television movie, or a feature film, many movies can teach a lot and be packed full with historical knowledge.

A large handful of movies it seems now a days are based on either a true story, are based on real people and real events, or are related to something that actually happened. This sometimes leads to a common misconception: that a movie is always one hundred percent correct over the topic it covers. This is sometimes the case, and if you are looking for a movie like that then your best bet is to look at a documentary. However, documentaries are sometimes dull and slow moving and not as entertaining as other movies and films. Some people are entertained by documentaries, but that is not me. I don't want to just learn; I want to learn, relax, and enjoy. That leads me to my favorite of the choices: a feature film. Whether the feature film is based on a true story, based on real people or real events, or just related to something that actually happened, I prefer those over documentaries and television movies or a short film. That is because they are made to entertain.

Feature films that deal with historical events are very entertaining. They usually have an interesting plot, characters that you usually learn to love or hate, and you learn something about history as well. If you're ever bored and want to be productive and entertain yourself at the same time, then I recommend a feature film dealing with a historic event in some way shape or form. Some examples of such feature films are: Pearl Harbor, The Patriot, The Passion of the Christ, Braveheart, Revolution, Annabelle, A Haunting in Connecticut, American Sniper, Schindler's List, Captain Phillips, Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Black Mass, Pompeii, Apollo 13, Remember the Titans, We Are Marshall, Hotel Rwanda, and Gladiator. All of these feature films have something to do with a historical event; either are based on a true story, based on real people, real events, or are related to something that actually happened. However, some of these movies are more historically accurate than others. Also, this list is just a list of some movies that I have heard of or seen myself that are entertaining movies to watch and have to do with a history in some way shape or form. I highly recommend watching one or more of these movies, as they will entertain you and you will learn something from them as well.

However, some movies are very historically inaccurate. Here are some of the movies that are so inaccurate with their depiction of history. One of the said movies is 300, about Sparta. Another movie that is historically inaccurate is Gladiator, Jobs, JFK, and Shakespeare in Love.
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Sunday, February 21, 2016

2.20.2016

On February twentieth of twenty sixteen, Group All-State for IHSSA, or the Iowa High School Speech Association, IHSSA, is occurring. It will happen at the Iowa State Center, with opening ceremonies scheduled to begin at approximately around eight to nine in the morning, or eight or nine am. From Kennedy High School, there are five groups going to perform for all state; there are twelve overall. That means that Kennedy has seven non performing groups and five performing groups. Here are the five performing groups at All-State from Kennedy High School. There is the Choral Reading, entitled Invisible, and written by Melissa Osborn. Then, there is the Reader’s Theatre, which is entitled The Alzheimer’s Project, also written by Melissa Osborn. Then, Kennedy also had three Group Improvisation groups make it to perform at all state.

Now, that is not the only thing going on that day. Also on February twentieth of twenty sixteen is a show choir competition. It is at Davenport, Iowa. It is the Great Dance competition at Davenport, Iowa. Kennedy High School will also be performing and competing there on the same day as Iowa High School Speech Association. Only Happiness Inc., the varsity show choir from kennedy High School, and Protégé, the junior varsity show choir from Kennedy High School, will be at the Great Dance competition in Davenport. Chanteurs will not be performing there, even though they are the freshman prep group from Kennedy High School. That is because their season was shorter than that of the other two show choirs from Kennedy High School.

With both of these two events going on, many people will have to travel between the two. Because of the fact that Protégé will be performing early in the morning, it is unable for anyone to make both the opening ceremonies as well as proteges performance. However, many people will be performing at Iowa State Center and then traveling to Davenport to perform for Happiness Inc.

With awards at IHSSA All State competition, Kennedy earned the banner for group improvisation. The team with leader Rizwan Sidhu won it for Kennedy High School, and now Kennedy High School has it in its possession until next year at All-State.

At finals, Happiness sadly did not make it to finals. This is the first time that they have not made it to finals in about twelve years I believe. It was a low moment for Happiness Inc., but it is something that they will be able to recover from in time for Nationals in Nashville.

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Set up for Failure

One way that teachers may seem to set the students up for failure is by the way they give second chances. Now, believe me, I think second chances for grades are an amazing opportunity for some people to be able to regain some points that they had previously missed. However, if the teacher only allows people with a grade below x percent to retake, then it would be reasonable to think that the other grades above x percent must be decently good. However, if after the retake, the people who did the retake are able to get a grade that is above x percent, and therefore subsequently better than the grade of those who were not allowed to retake or redo the assignment or activity for the missed points, well that is just unfair. It is awarding students for being jag offs by not being prepared for when the assignment or activity was due, and then awarding them more than others who were more prepared than those who had the option to do the retake.

One last way that some teachers may seem that way is if they are so strict in their grading of pop quizzes. If, for example, students are supposed to take notes from a textbook, a lot of students place the notes into their own words because there have been studies that prove that that helps to learn those concepts and terms more than just copying what the book says. However, then it should be acceptable to be able to write, in your own words, the correct answer to a question on a pop quiz. That therefore means that if you were to write down the correct answer on a pop quiz in your own words, you should get the question correct. However, some teachers would disagree and state that because the answer did not match the book definition or description word by word, then the answer is incorrect. That is complete crap because if you were to write something down that is the same thing as the correct answer, then you should get the answer correct. However, some teachers will say no, even when the quiz is a pop quiz and you still have the correct answer, just worded very slightly differently from w2hat the teacher expected, when the teacher expected everyone to somehow memorize the entire textbook reading word for word without letting the class or classes know.

Overall, there are some teachers that seem to set you up for failure. That is a horrible thing for some teachers to do, and it is just something that students have to overcome in the end.

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Unjust to Students

One thing that is not entertaining is when people seem to just try to be annoying, or mean, or they just try to be stubborn. I will be discussing something that is not entertaining today. I can do that because the topic of my blog is Entertainment, so something that is not entertaining, but rather the opposite of entertaining, is open to me to be able to write about and discuss. So here goes.

Some teachers are notorious for doing this. It seems as if they are just trying to get on the students bad side, just trying to go out of their way in order to make the student do bad or fail either the class or the assignment. Sometimes, teachers do not mean to do this and it just seems that they are doing so, from the student’s point of view that is. However, some teachers, it seems, just try to do it on purpose. I know not why or how or the reasoning of the teachers that employ that thinking, and I do not understand why they do so, I only know that some teachers do. Here are some examples as to how some teachers employ some decisions, with the result of students feeling the way that I described.

One way that teachers make students to feel as though they are trying to be mean and fail the students is if the teachers change their grading ways randomly. For example, if the class is a two semester class, then the teacher may change the way that he or she grades various things, such as assignments. If, during the first semester, the teacher goes about that type of specific assignment or activity in such a manner that a certain effort would get an A grade, then it would be reasonable for the students to expect to have that certain effort to be what they strive to earn in order to get an A. However, if the teacher then decides to change the way that they grade the assignment or activity so that that certain effort gets you a C or D instead, that seems unfair to the student as it seems as if the teacher is just setting them up for failure.

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Sunday, February 14, 2016

Urbandale Show Choir Competition

Yesterday was Saturday, February the thirteenth of the year twenty sixteen and it was also the day of the twenty sixteen Urbandale High School Show Choir Competition which was located in the state of Iowa. It began early in the morning, and is about a two hour drive or so from Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, depending on the driving conditions. Kennedy High School went and performed and competed there yesterday, so it was an entertaining day to say the least for the Kennedy High Schoolers and family. Chanteurs, the freshmen show choir group from Kennedy High School, performed right around 10:30 in the morning in the freshmen category. They got second in that division I believe. Then Protégé performed at around noon, and Protégé is the junior varsity prep show choir from Kennedy High School. They got third in their division of prep groups. Then, Happiness Inc., which is the Varsity show choir from Kennedy High School, performed right around four o’clock. They competed in the varsity division, and for day rounds they placed second. That qualified them for finals, in which they performed around 8:35 or so. The finals awards were then held around ten o’clock in the auditorium that night, and Kennedy High School’s Happiness Inc. placed third in the finals rounds I believe. All in all it was an entertaining day.

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Deadpool

Entertainment. Some things are entertaining. Others are not. That is the way that the world works as it spins around and around and around both its axis and the sun. There, that was a good waste of a long time. Just under oh wait now it will be right at about fifty words or more. Okay, back to the topic. Entertainment. One movie that just came out that is very entertaining is the movie Deadpool. I will now start writing about Deadpool that movie that was released on February eleventh, twenty sixteen.
Deadpool stars Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson who is also Deadpool. Basically the movie is an adult version of a Marvel comics superhero movie because that is exactly what it is. So it is very inappropriate, with a hard r rating for sure. In the movie Wade Wilson is an ex special force op who becomes a mercenary and then finds out that he has cancer. Oh no he will be able to make it through right? Wrong. The cancer is in many vital places such as hi liver, lungs, brain and prostate. Very live able and treatable, right? Wrong. He dies. From cancer. Movie over. Only lasted about three minutes. Just kidding. So this guy who is dubbed the name Agent Smith because he looks like Agent Smith from the Matrix movies convinces Wade Wilson to undergo treatment to become a mutant and receive incredible gifts. Well the guy running the place wants to be called Ajax but Wade finds out his name is Francis so Francis is pissed at Wade and tortures him. Wade then blows up the building and fights Francis only to die. Oh no the movie is over now time to go home. Nope. Wade lives. Because he is a mutant. An indestructible one who also looks like two avocados had sex and out he came because he is haunting to look at. Well then he wants to go see his girl, Vanessa, who is a hooker and a stripper, but people laugh at him so he is insecure and doesn’t because he looks horrible. So he tries to find Francis to reverse the effects. He convinces two X-Men to join him (because the studio did not have enough money for a third) and go find Francis. But oh no Francis has Vanessa what will Deadpool do well Deadpool will make a smart comment because that is what he does and he will fight Francis and destroy the building thing that they are at (after spelling out Francis’ name with dead bodies). Then Deadpool will save Vanessa and have Francis laying in a heap and Deadpool has a gun pointed at his head. An X-Men tells Deadpool a hero is only made out of four or five moments, in which you save or spare someone’s life and do something right. Well, Deadpool shoots Francis anyway because he was a jerk and a mean person and he deserved to die. The End. Overall it was a very good and entertaining movie.

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Thursday, February 11, 2016

Track And Field Anticipation

Monday, February fifteenth of twenty sixteen is fast approaching. It is almost here, and for people in Cedar Rapids Community School District in Iowa that means one thing for some high schoolers, both male and female. It means that track is about to start up again. Track officially begins on Monday, February fifteenth of twenty sixteen for this year’s track season. At Kennedy High School, that is getting many people excited. They are ready for track to begin and they cannot wait. In Track and Field, for those of you who do not know and are unaware, there are two sections: the track and the field. The field contains field events that you compete in. There are the jumps, which are the long jump and the high jump. In the long jump the goal is to jump the farthest, while in the high jump the goal is to jump the highest. There are also the throwers. They compete in events such as the discus and the shot put. The discus is a disc that you throw as far as possible. The shot put is a shot that you also throw as far as possible. While these two events sound similar, they are incredibly different.

That was the field part of Track and Field. Now, onto the track section of Track and Field. In the track part, it is all races in which you run to compete. There are various distances, and there are also hurdles. For hurdles, there are three events. There is the Shuttle Relay, which is a relay in which four people run and each runs a one hundred meter hurdle event. Then there are the 110 Highs which are also hurdle events. This is an individual event, in which the individual competes by running one hundred and ten meters with the hurdles high up. Lastly for hurdles, there is the 400 hurdles, which is also an individual competition of a four hundred meters of hurdles.

There are three sections for races. There are the short sprints, long sprints, and long distance. I run long distance. Short sprints are the 100 and the 200 for individual events. For relays, there is the 4x200 Relay. The long sprints have the 400 and the 800 for individual events. For relays there is the 4x400 Relay and the 4x800 Relay. There are also the two Medley Relays. One is a one hundred, one hundred, two hundred and then a four hundred. The other is a two hundred, two hundred, four hundred and then the eight hundred. Lastly, there are also the long distance events. The long distance events include the 1600 m, which is just nine meters short of being a one mile race, and the 3200 m, which is just eighteen meters short of being a two mile race. The sixteen and thirty two races are located in the middle of the meet and at the very beginning, respectively. They are not in any relays, and multiple people compete in each heat, as more can compete at once in long distance events than those that compete in the shorter events.

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Thursday, February 4, 2016

The Revenant Ending

I left off in the Revenant where Glass had just escaped the Indians by floating down a river. He finally got off the river and hobbled onto the land.

There he met a friendly Indian, who told him “Revenge is in the Creator’s hands.” The Indian gave him food and traveled with him, but French in the area found the Indian and hung him. Glass then snuck into the French’s camp, planning to steal a horse. However, the French had a young Indian woman hostage as a sex slave, and she was being used by the horses. Glass snuck up behind them, gave the Indian woman a knife, and told her to keep the Frenchman silent. Glass then stole a horse and rode away, and the Indian cut off the Frenchman’s testicles and escaped. Glass escaped successfully with the horse. However, the next day the French and Indians found Glass and he barely escaped with the horse, but by doing so both Glass and the horse fell off a cliff. As a blizzard was coming, Glass had only one choice to survive: he gutted the dead horse, and climbed inside the horse’s dead carcass to survive the cold night. However, at this time someone showed up at the Fort that Fitzgerald and Bridger were at with Glass’ canteen that Bridger had left him. Realizing that Glass was alive, a party was sent out and took Glass back to the fort. However, Fitzgerald stole the fort’s money and some weapons and a horse and escaped. Glass tracked down Fitzgerald and fought him in a graphic and brutal encounter. However, the Indian’s saying “revenge is in the hands of the Creator” drifted into Glass’ head, and he threw the severely wounded Fitzgerald into the river, where the Indians grabbed him and brutally murdered him. The Indians then walked right by Glass, with the woman whom he had saved from the French, supposedly Powaqa. Glass was once again severely wounded, but he saw the ghost of his deceased wife, finally feeling the peace to die happily before the screen cuts black.

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The Revenant Part 2

“The Revenant” is an edge of your seat movie. I will continue my blog about it now.

After Fitzgerald had tricked Bridger to leave Glass alone and travel with himself, Hugh Glass regained consciousness. There were no Indians present, unlike what Bridger was told by Fitzgerald. Glass painstakingly crawled out of the grave that Fitzgerald had thrown him in, and he crawled to his son’s body even with all his broken bones, open lacerations, and exposed ribs. He found his sons’ body, frozen, lifeless lying next to a tree with blood on his stomach from his stab wound that had been from Fitzgerald. Glass let his son know that he was there, and he laid down next to his son.

However, Indians were making progress on Glass and the others, still believing that they had captures the chief’s daughter, Powaqa. Glass woke up, and he crawled away and started wondering the vast forest. All Glass had with him was the bear pelt from the grizzly he had killed, his clothes, and a canteen that Bridger had left him with a defining mark on it. However, after a few days of wondering the forest, the Indians had caught up with Glass. By the time that they had caught up with Glass, he had been able to start walking with the help of a stick, and he was able to cauterize his neck. He did so by placing some gunpowder in a few of the holes still open in his neck, and he started a fire. His neck wound was a problem because he couldn’t consume anything due to the hole and damage. He started a fire, and placed a stick in it. When the end of the stick caught fire, and placed it against his neck, which ignited the gunpowder, cauterizing his neck. When the Indians caught him, he escaped by floating down the river, and he ended up floating off a waterfall. He survived, and climbed onto a log and floated until he could get off the river and onto land.

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Tuesday, February 2, 2016

The Revenant Part 1

The revenant, according to dictionary.com, means a person who returns, or a person who returns after death. “The Revenant” is currently in theatres now. It stars Leonardo Dicaprio and Tom Hardy, and it tells the story of Hugh Glass, his mutilation from a bear, and his fight for survival.

Hugh Glass was a real frontiersman. Around 1828 he was with a team, when he stumbled upon a grizzly bear and its two cubs. The grizzly bear brutally attacked and mauled Glass, but Glass was able to kill the bear. However, Glass suffered from severe wounds all over his body, exposed ribs, and many broken bones. The leader of the team that he was with tried to help him, but it was no use; Glass was about to die, as his condition was horrible. The leader left two other men, Fitzgerald and Bridger, to stay with Glass. They were instructed to help him, but to give him a proper burial when he died. Fitzgerald and Glass took Glass’ weapons and left him for dead, claiming that there were Indians nearby about to attack. Glass, however, regained consciousness and fought his way back home. There were no Indians nearby, but he had to fix his broken leg and he had to survive the conditions in the horrible condition that he was in. He ended up crafting a raft, and then floating down a river for about six weeks to tackle the two hundred miles between him and the nearest American base. A Native American helped him along the way, sewing his bear pelt to his back to protect his open flesh in his back, as well as providing Glass with some weapons and supplies. When Glass made it to the base, he found and forgave Bridger due to his youth and that he was lied to and manipulated by Fitzgerald into leaving him. However, Glass searched for Fitzgerald because he had left him for dead. He later found Fitzgerald, but Fitzgerald was enlisted in the U.S. Army, and there was a steep penalty for killing a soldier, so Glass let Fitzgerald go.

The movie “The Revenant” depicts those events, but in a different light. The movie is a very well made movie; however, it is not for the faint of heart. Just a warning, there will be spoilers in this blog post about the movie “The Revenant”, and the movie is also a very intense, brutal, graphic and gory movie, but in my opinion it is a great movie to watch.

The movie starts with the thirty or forty or so team of American frontiersman, which included Glass (depicted by Leonardo Dicaprio), Glass’ son, the leader, Bridger, and Fitzgerald (depicted by Tom Hardy). Indians attack them, as they are looking for the chief’s stolen daughter, Powaqa. Only about ten of the American team survive and they escape by climbing onto their boat to escape via the river. They abandon the boat as that is where the Indians would look for them and they would be as good as dead. They camp out for a while, and it becomes apparent that Fitzgerald is a jerk and really dislikes Glass. One morning, Glass goes for a walk with his gun, hunting for anything to provide food it seems. He hears something, only to discover two cubs. He turns around just as the mother bear, a giant grizzly bear, charges him and starts to maul him. After the grizzly starts to walk away, Glass gets a shot off at it; then Glass and the bear have a long fight, in which Glass’ back is all torn up, his leg gets broken, his neck gets cut, and he gets beat to hell over and over. However, he gets his knife out and manages to kill the grizzly just as the two roll down a hill, in which the grizzly lands on top of Glass. Later, the team arrive and see Glass’ condition. They help him and stich up his neck, as well as try patching him up. However, they cannot carry him back to the base due to the terrain, so his son, Bridger, and Fitzgerald stay with him to find an alternate route and to bury him should he die. However, Fitzgerald, when alone with Glass, attempts to kill Glass to make it easier on himself; Glass’ son sees this, so Fitzgerald kills Glass’ son in front of Glass. Later, he tells Bridger there are Indians nearby and forces Bridger to leave Glass.

The movie, “The Revenant”, continues from there, but this will be continued in another blog post.

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Sunday, January 31, 2016

Social Media

Social Media is one way that many people entertain themselves. There are many different kinds or types of social media, and a lot of people are on more than just one type of social media. Here are some types of social media.
Snapchat is one type of social media. Snapchat is a social media in which you can send ten second pictures or videos to people either individually or let all of your friends see it for a certain time, but after about twenty four hours they can no longer see it.
Instagram is another type of social media in which you post pictures for your followers to see and you can see other peoples pictures that they post.
Twitter is another type of social media. You can tweet anything up to one hundred and eighty characters, and you can also tweet pictures or videos. You can also direct message someone, which is basically testing them, except over twitter.
Another type of social media is Facebook, in which you can post something that you write, or pictures or videos.
There are plenty other social medias, such as tumblr, pintrest, MySpace, and so much more. It is one way that many people entertain themselves.

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Snow Days-Games

Snow days can be fun days. Here is one way to pass the time on a snow day, as it looks as if a snow day will be happening this next week.

You can get together with friends and play games. You could play many games and hang out and converse. This could be very entertaining. Just make sure to be safe while trying to go to a friends’ house, as the conditions outside may not be very good. Some games you could play are as follows.

Cards Against Humanity is a fun game to play. It is an inappropriate game, so be warned. However, it is a fun game to play with friends as the responses and answers to questions in the game can be very funny. It is a game in which one person draws a black card which has a questions. Everyone at all times has seven white cards in their hand, which all have different phrases or sayings, which can be very funny, crude, and inappropriate. Everyone will place one white card down as their answer to the black card. The reader will then read each card aloud and decide which one answers/fits the black card the best, which awards the black card, or one point, to whoever placed down the white card that one. It is a very fun game to play with friends.

Another fun game to play is on the Wii. It is Wii Mario Kart. Wii Mario Kart is a racing game version of Mario, in which you have the controller and race a Mario character through a course. It is a fun game to play with friends.

Another fun game to play with friends is called Set, or at least I think it is called Set. I am unsure. You lay down twelve cards, three by four, so everyone can see, and the goal is to make a set of three cards. In a set, all the characteristics of a card either have to be the same or different. There are three colors, three shapes, three textures/patterns, and three different amount of how many shapes there are on the card (one, two or three). For each category of the characteristics, all cards must be the same or different. So they all need to be either the same or different color, the same or different shape, the same or different texture or pattern, and the same of different amount of shapes on the card. It is a game in which you will need to focus, but it is a fun game to play with friends.

There are, of course, many other fun games to play with friends. Some other fun games are Say Anything, Apples to Apples, Clue, Family Feud: The Game, and many, many, many more games. There are also many other things that one can do on a snow day with friends. You could go sledding with friends, which could be a lot of fun, or you could get together with friends and watch a movie or something. Either way, there are many things that you can do to entertain yourself!

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Thursday, January 28, 2016

Improv Night

This Friday night, so tomorrow night, on Friday, January twenty ninth, in twenty sixteen (or two thousand sixteen or 2016, whichever you prefer, I don’t judge) there will be an improv night at John F. Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The improv in improv night is short for improvisation, as it will be improvised.

You should be there. You should go. You should go there and have fun. It is located in the North end of the building of John F. Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a part of the Cedar Rapids Community School District, and it is somewhere in the North end of the building. It may be in the black box. It may be in the auditorium. I am not sure. The black box is like the mini auditorium. It is black and in the shape of a box, with three sides of risers for the audience to watch. It is much smaller than the auditorium. The auditorium is much bigger than the black box and it is a regular auditorium.

It starts at around seven pm, or at nineteen hundred hours, 7:00 and 19:00, respectively. Remember it is at night, and not in the morning. It has not a time limit, but there is a general rule of thumb. It may be as short as one hour and a half. It will probably go for about two hours, until about nine at night, or twenty one hundred hours, 9:00 and 21:00, respectively. Go to improv night.

There is a fee to get in but there is not a fee. There is a minimum five dollar, $5, donation. The donation is for the senior class project for the senior class of John F. Kennedy High School, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the Cedar Rapids Community School District, for the senior class that graduates this spring in twenty sixteen, or two thousand sixteen, or 2016. The senior class project is going to be making additions to Noelridge Park, which will be family, kid, and even more friendly. It is a good cause. Go to improv night.

So what is improv night? Improv night is a night full of fun, friends, and improv. There is about one and a half to two hours straight of improv, so anywhere from about ninety minutes to one hundred and twenty minutes of improv! Wow! That is a lot of improv! You can show up and laugh and have a good time. I have heard that it is a good time and that you will laugh a lot. It should be pretty funny.

It would be a lot of fun, as well as very funny, and very entertaining, to go to improv night with friends. Go to improv night with some friends, and then you all will be able to sit together and laugh together and have a great time. It should be a lot of fun, as well as very entertaining. Go to improv night! Go to improv night!

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