----Five cross my heart posts and one i'd tell you I love you posts----

Cross my heart and hope to spy

" I've always heard that the hardest thing for a spy isn't knowing things- it's acting like you don't know things you're not supposed to know" (Carter 152.

This quote is said by cammie after she hears somethings she isn't supposed to know. Cammie doesn't know who to tell or who to talk to after she hears this because one- she doesn't know if its code for something else 2- she doesn't know if it's true or not and 3- she doesn't know if it could hurt someone if she does tell someone. Even in real life it's hard to know whether you should tell a grown up or a person you trust something you over heard someone say or if you should just let it go and act like you never heard it in the first place. Sometimes in these kinds of situations you have to trust yourself and not tell anyone and just figure it out on your own. You will end up learning something about yourself and also possibly help other people. In the book cammie has to decide if she should let what she heard go or if she should explore and investigate it. Being a spy cammie of course decides to investigate the situation and learn about it further.

Cross my heart and hope to spy

" wow..you're really not over Josh" (Carter 65).

This quote is said by one of Cammie's friends named Bex. Josh was Cammie's boyfriend in the first book, I'd tell you I love you but then I'd have to kill you. Cammie had to break up with Josh because he could not know how she really lived her life and what type of school she really goes to. At one point Josh did end up finding out the truth about Cammie , which was good because there weren't anymore lies between them. But in the end Cammie ended up giving Josh tea to forget everything that she ever told him about spying and her spy school she attends. Even though Cammie and Josh broke up Cammie is still in love with him. Getting over people is something that is very hard for people to do. The healing process after a break up can take a very long time if you truly loved the person. For the healing process to really work you have to let all of your feelings out in a healthy way otherwise they will come out through other things that could affect your life more. While it is good to cry and let your feelings out, you can't dwell on the past and let it control your life. After a break up it's hard to know what to do with your life and how to move on to better things but it must be done. In the end you realize that the break-up happened for a reason and truly did make your life better even if it a takes a while to see that.

Cross my heart and hope to spy

Time is a strange thing at the Gallagher Academy. Usually it flies. But sometimes it gets really, really slow. Needless to say, this was one of those times" (Carter 45).
At the Gallagher Academy the girls know how to stop time, speed up time and even reverse time but sometimes time can seem to go very slow to them. Especially when they are doing an operatives mission. Cammie needs to attach a camera on her watch to take pictures of her moms office so she can figure out what her mom, Ms.Morgan and her teacher, Mr.Solomon were talking about. When cammie is discribing the mission she explains how time seems to last forever.
Time is a very strange thing and can go very fast or go very slow. When you look back on your life when you're older you realize how fast the years went and some things you missed because of time. Other times time seems to drag on when you are doing something boring or something scary. My favorite part of the quote above is the " usually it flies" part because i believe it is so true. There comes a point in ones life when you realize how time is slipping through your fingers and how you can hardly grab onto it. In life you need to learn how to do the things you adore and be with the people who you love and whom love you back. Life is too short to live with regrets and take for a granted.

Cross my heart and hope to spy

"But Liz hadn't grown up knowing that lies aren't just the things we tell- they're the lives we lead" ( Carter 25).
This quote is after Cammie, Bex, Liz and Macey over hear Mr.solomon and Cammie's mom ms. morgan talking about something "top secret". Cammie wonders why her mom and one of her teachers would keep a secret from her especially when her name is mentioned in this top secret conversation. Cammie is also saying that spies tell lies more then they tell the truth- lying is part of being a spy. In real life a lot of people do lie. Sometimes for good and sometimes for bad. There are many different types of lying- little white lies aren't too bad if they aren't extreme lies but spy lying , well thats a different story. Spy lying is very hard to detect, even cammie has a hard time telling when her mom and her friends are lying or telling the truth. I think that people should never lie because lying just leads to bad things. An example of this from the book is that when cammie has dinner with her mom in her moms office and cammie wears her camera watch to take pictures of everything so she can come back to snoop later and know where to put everything back and later lies to her mom about it. This kind of lying is extreme and not right. In my opinion people shoouldnt try to put lying to a minimum.

Poem

triplets went to the zoo
they saw a three headed monkey
riding on a tricycle
the boys went to visit the monkey for three days
on the third day they saw a triathlon

Cross my heart and hope to spy #1

I just finished reading I'd tell you I love you but then I'd have to kill you, so how i am reading the sequel to that which is called cross my heart and hope to spy. In this book all cammie wants is peace in her life. Ever since she broke up with josh she has promised herself and her classmates that she wont put them in danger (since she did when she snuck around to see josh). In the first few chapters cammie josh visits the school and finally learns the truth about cammie. But what josh doesnt know is that he was giving a drink that makes you forget things so cammie is worried josh wont ever remember she even exists. So far in the book cammie is really striggling to keep her word and stay out of trouble.

Two twin boys rode bicycles
to watch the duet at the local theater
the second boy was wearing a shirt with a bipedal on it
the other boy who was bi-polar had huge biceps
these two boys went to see the duet twice because they liked it so much

one boy who was the first child in his family
sung a solo at the university
in his solo act he also rode a unicycle
the crowd chanted " you're number 1"
the single boy won first place and a unicorn

I jumped in the pool
it felt very cool
the water rushed through my fingers
as i swam seven laps
my body felt weightless
as it glided in the water
the smell of the chlorine overwhelmed me
oh the joys of summer.

Poem

One day a girl was leaving for college
when she arrived at the university she fell in love
on the first day of classes she meet a lot of new people
she tried out for a solo in the upcoming concert event
she won first place

Poem

eight girls went to the beach
they saw and octopus
laying in the sand was a magic eightball
the eighth girl picked it up
and decided to run eight miles with it
instead of running in circles the girl ran in ocotgons
the girl was so tired she slept for eight days

I'd tell you I love you, but then I'd have to kill you blog # 1

The book im reading for fourth quarter blogging is called I'd tell you I love you, but then i'd have to kill you. This book is about a girl named Cammie Morgan who attends the gallagher academy for exceptional young women. The gallagher academy isn't your average all-girls bording school- its actually a school for spies. Both of cammies parents were spies, until her dad dies on a mission. Cammies mom is the head master of the school and helps cammie become the best spy she can be. In the chapter im reading right now, cammie is struggling with keeping her secret of being a spy from a boy names Josh whom she has really likes. The struggles she's facing are making her choose between things that mean the most to her. Shes trying to balance two lives at one time and is losing who she really is.

Poems

Candy- by Ansley and Kayna

So much depends
upon

peanut butter
wrapped in shiny foil

crinkly and blue

melting on my tongue
rich chocolaty goodness



Spring-By Ansley

So much of spring depends
upon

the dripping of the rain
onto

the blooming perfection of
flowers

the beautiful sun rising
making everything warm and bright

the glorious chirping of birds
making everything come to life



_____-By Ansley and Christina

So much depends
upon _____

____'s hair that glistens in the sun

____'s facial features that have been cheiseled by the hands of God

the way ____ talks is like a chorus of angels

____ is the definition of perfection

so much depends upon ______

Janpanese internment

I read another website on Japanese internment called "Japanese-American Internment Camps". The article talks about the evacuation of the Japanese in American and how they put them into internment camps. One thing that stuck out to me as i was reading was this quote, "What is extremely interesting is that the Nisei and Issei living in Hawaii were not subject to a mass evacuation even though they formed a third of the population in Hawaii and were a lot closer to Japan than the Japanese-Americans on the West Coast of the U.S.", to me its amazing how only certain areas of the US had to evacuate while areas that could potentially be more harmful like Hawaii cause of the attacks at pearl harbor were not evacuated. Many Japanese-Americans were not to blame but all of them were punished. Since things like internment camps have happened in the past its very likely that they could happen again, we just need to do something to prevent history from repeating itself.


http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/japan/camp.html

# 14

Love is something that can not be measured, love can only be felt with the heart. There are many different kinds of love. Love is not something that can only be between a man and a woman, love can be between friends and family too. I believe the best and truest kind of love is when it comes to you rather you searching for it.

"Don't find love, let love find you. That's why it's
called falling in love, because you don't force
yourself to fall, you just fall."

When people search for love, it just ends badly and hurts you in the end. When love seeks you everything seems to fall into place and work out the way it supposed to. A lot of people confuse love with lust. Love and lust are two way different things but sometimes attraction can get in the way of knowing the difference. That kind of love disappears quickly and can only leave you feeling empty and lost. When two people find that they are in love , it is the best feeling in the world. They accept you for who you are, flaws and all. That is the kind of love everyone deserves.


http://www.latestngreatest.net/. Fist quote on the page.

Cause and effect map- Japanese internment

japanese internment

ARTICLE---

I read an article about japanese internment from an "exploring Japanese internment website" online. The article talked about how the Japanese Americans were put into internment camps because the US didnt know if they were spies from Japan or not , so they put most them into the camos.. "Within hours of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, two American citizens of Japanese ancestry, with no prior history of anti-Americanism, shockingly collaborated with a Japanese soldier against their fellow Hawaiians" explains the author of this article. At the beginning the Japanese were not considered bad but when attacks started happenning on the United States the Japanese turned against the US. The US couldn't trust the Japanese any longer so they decided to take action and lock them up. A lot of the Japanese in the internment camps were innocent but they had no way to prove that they werent spies from Japan so they had to suffer the consequences too. It's sad when things as tragic as this can happen to such a wonderful country.




http://hnn.us/articles/9289.html

# 13

War-

Today I read an article about the continuing war in Afghanistan. The war continues on and the United States is still there fighting trying to keep the Taliban insurgents from coming back full force as well as Al-Qaeda from regaining power.

The specific goals are still uncertain, but the current adminstration is considering trying to talk to the insurgents who are more moderate instead of the extremists in the hopes of some common goals being defined. The goal seems to be to try to discuss resolutions without letting the Taliban back into power and trying to get more citizens involved with the running of their own country.

We have deployed more troops there in recent months with an additional 17,000 being added to the current 38,000 number of troops deployed there right now. The hope is that with more troops there they will at a minimum keep the Taliban from returning. The ideal goal is to have a greater impact on the economic lives of the people living there and restore development, and of course, get the people to take over their own country.


AFT Interview with Defense Secretary Robert Gates 2009 March,10, 2009.

Blog # 10, 11, 12

I decided to do my blog of a holiday on Halloween because it is my favorite holiday. Halloween falls on the 31st of October every year. Like any other holiday, Halloween was passed down through tradition and from generation to generation. Halloween, or the Hallow E'en as they call it in Ireland, means All Hallows Eve, or the night before the 'All Hallows'. In the United States, children wear costumes on Halloween and go trick-or-treating. Many people carve jack-o-lanterns out of pumpkins. Halloween developed from ancient new years festivals and festivals of the dead. In the A.D. 800's, the Christian church made All Saints' Day on Nov. 1 so people could continue celebrating. Other halloween traditions include bobbing for apples, which began in England, and fortune telling. People once believed that ghosts roamed the earth on Halloween. They also thought that all witches met on October 31 to worship the devil. Most people do not believe in ghosts or witches, but these supernatural things remain a symbol of halloween today.


As many of you already know, Darfur is a region in Africa that is dealing with the problem of genocide. Recently, I read about an outbreak of meningitis that is causing thousands of people in Darfur to die. "With no health care providers to give vaccinations, and with no one to manage the meningitis cases when they come, it's really concerning," said Gemma Davies. In this statement Gemma is telling us that there is a big problem in Darfur and they need some honest help. Darfur doesn't have the advantage like us United States citizens do, so they are suffering on a daily basis. Even though they don't have any vaccinations to help, the Humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders group is trying to organize a vaccination campaign. We are very fortunate to have trained doctors and physicians to aid to the ill and find cures for all kinds of diseases. Meningitis is a bacterial infection that can cause a headache or fever, then possibly lead to death. This is very much affecting the population of Darfur, along with the genocide that is already happening in that part of the world.


Christopher Columbus is to thank for finding this great country called the United States. He was a Spanish explorer and people thought he was trying to prove the world was round, but this is not true. Most people already knew the earth was round. He wanted to find a short way to get to the Indies by ship. He set said on August 3, 1492 and made one stop, then sailed on toward the west. After many days, the sailors were ready to turn around and start back home, but he asked for just three more days. Two days later they saw land, which was an island Columbus named San Salvador. He thought he had found the Indies and called the people he saw there "Indians". He then continued on and eventually landed on Cuba, then the United States. This relates to colonization because Christopher Columbus seized new land and adapted to new customs and to new surroundings.

Bollywood

Today I read an article about bollywood called, Bollywood Confidential.
" The Indian film industry has penetrated into vast, and unlikely, areas of the globe." This quote really stuck with me as I was reading the article. It really shows that Bollywood movies aren't only popular in India but that they are popular in all parts of the world. In the article it also states that " In New York, whenever I get a haircut, I'm confident of getting a discount if the hairdresser is from the former Soviet Union.". This is another quote that really shows how big of an impact Bollywood movies are making. Also these quotes tell the reader how many people love to watch Bollywood because of the singing and dancing and how it portrays reality instead of Hollywoods picture of reality. The movies that the indians produce are about real things in their culture and they sing songs that relate to them. Here in America not all movies are like that and thats why a lot of people tuen to Bollywood movies if they want to watch something real. It's interesting to learn that different countries can make movies that will be popular in not only that country but countries all over the world too.

Double Bubble Map

My word is Malevolent and it means wishing evil things or harm to others.

Culture

Today, I read an article called "Chinese New Year- year of the ox" about the chinese new year. The chinese new year is kind of like our new year but it starts on january 26th and has animals representing it. The new year traditions and festivites start on the darkest day of the month and go until the moon is brigher, which is usually around the 15 day of the month. The chinese hold close to them their new year celebration because the new year is one of the most important celebrations in the chinese culture. "At Chinese New Year celebrations people wear red clothes, decorate with poems on red paper, and give children "lucky money" in red envelopes." I think that it is very cool that the chinese all unite on this special day with the color red. It shows that they have unity and really care about their culture. The chinese hold close to them this celebration and look forward to it every year. It very cool to look how closely related different cultures can be and also how vastly different they can be.

Hartman, H. "Chinese new year-the year of the ox." infoplease.

Change

Today, I read an article called "If you want to change your life, change your thoughts" about how to change your life. The article explains little things you can do to make a big change in your life.
""Lemons into Lemonade" maxim. Choose to find the good, find the lessons, and you will shape a more positive life for yourself."
This quote explains how you truely have to look at life. In life there are many difficult things that everyone will be faced with. Not everyone gets faced with the same obstacles but everyone feels pain and grief. Life has its way of giving everyone a fair share of sorrow and joy. Its just how you choose to deal with the sorrow that makes your life more injoyable and fun or full of depression and sadness. This article also explains how anyone can change at anytime in their life. The person just has to be willing to endure the metamorphosis.
Change takes a lot of time and patiences but if someone really wants it and puts the effort into it, its possible.


Stone,K. "If you want to change your life, change your thoughts." Dumb little man.

Hope

Today, I read an article called tiny dancer about a pre-teen girl with IV Hodgkin lymphoma cancer. Sarah Marchbank, had a passion for dancing and she wasn't going to let her cancer get in the way of doing what she loves best.
"'I feel powerful, strong and graceful when I dance."'
This quote explains how much passion and dedication she had towards dance. Sarah had to endure a lot of hardships along the way of treatment like, chemo and radiation therapy but she still had hope that she would dance on. It amazes me that someone so young could go through something so scary and painful and yet still be strong enough to live out dreams. Sarah was even strong and brave enough to dance at one of her recitals without any hair on her head. To me it takes true courage to do something like that. Sarah never once doubted that she would beat cancer and be okay.She always had hope that thing work out the way God wanted and they was it was meant to be. Hope is something that can lift a persons spirit when everything seems to be going wrong. If someone has hope then it can truely carry you through hard times and lead you to where you want to be. Without hope nothing is possible.

Sarah, M. "Tiny Dancer." Promise Winter 2009. (St.jude.com)

Religion

I read an article from the New York Times called "Some Pastors worry about guns in church". There is a bill before the Arkansas senate to allow conceaded weapons in churches. Some people are upset because they believe that the government should stay out of church decisisons and that if a church wanted to ban guns they should be able to do that. Others think that no one is going to frisk church goers anyway so it is not really an important bill. And, others think that people should have guns in case something happens and the church members need to be protected.

I think that the individual churches should decided for themselves whether or not they want to allow guns in their church. If the church is in a bad neighborhood where safety is an issue then the church might want to have some people in church who are carrying a gun for safety. I do think that other churches might not want to have people carrying guns if it makes people uncomfortable.

I guess the real issue here is that the government should not interfer with decisions that churches make for their congregations. The individual churches know what works best for them and they should be allowed to decide for themselves.

Gender Roles in America

I read an article from Arbiteronline.com called 'Breaking free of our sex: it's time to redefine gender roles in America'. Shannon Morgan, the author of this article says ,"In America we are taught that women are the nurturers, the child-bearers, the keepers of the home and objects of sexual gratification. Men are the bread winners, the strong ones, the alpha males, the bringers of the bacon and are taught that their sexual urges are natural whereas women’s are not - we’re sluts." This quote really stuck with me the most as I read the rest of the article. Most people think that men should do the work and make all the money while women are supossed to stay home cooking and cleaning. That is where they are wrong, women can do much more then house work and run arrends. In this article, Shannon talks about how women are more then sex objects and something nice to look at. She also talks about how America needs to start treating men and women as equals and not superior to one another, even though we are taught from the very beginning the roles of the man and the roles of the woman. I think its important for our generation and older generations to teach newer generations that all people are created equally and should be treated that way too.


Morgan, Shannon. "Breaking free of our sex: it's time to redefine gender roles in America"Arbiteronline.com (2007)

Outside reading

I read an article on how French culture used to influence the whole world, but that today barely gets noticed. It is interesting that the French had very influential writers which everyone knows like Flaubert and Proust, but less than 30% of French books even get translated into English today. Years ago, French artists started the movement of Impressionism, but no one really even knows who the famous artists are in France anymore. The new French President wants to promote and expand French culture, but I think he is going to find that a difficult thing to do.

It is like the world moved beyond the French. It seems like the world evolved and the French still stayed insular within themselves which really didn't interest anyone beyond the French. I think if they really had been doing anything which was relevant to other people in other countries that their culture would be shared more with other people throughout the world.

Outside reading

In twilight , one of the main chacters, Edward Cullen who is a vampire, is faced with a huge challenge that he has to overcome. Bella Swan is a new girl in town who has a blood type that Edward can't stand to be near and when he is near her, he wants to suck her blood. At first he can't be in the same room as her for more then five minutes but soon he realizes that he can not kill her because his love for her is stonger then his desire to kill her. Edward tries so hard to hide his thirst for her blood but it is too strong. He decides to make a choice and keep her alive and while doing so he ends up falling in love with her. This struggle was probably the hardest and most attention getting struggle any chacters in the book had to overcome. When edward and bella kissed , it had one wondering if he was going to let his desire get the best of him and kill her or if he was going to put it aside and forget about it. The author did a great job showing a chacter overcome something that one would think is impossible to overcome and always left one guessing what would happen next.

Quarter 3-outside reading

For this blog post on natural disasters I watched a video on hurricane Katrina. Even though Hurricane Katrina happened a while ago, it is a disaster that will never be forgotten. Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans back in August 2005. This category five hurricane was one of the deadliest to hit the United States. Thousands of people and their families had to evacuate very quickly- only able to grab a few belongings and most of them unfortunately didn't make it out alive. I can only imagine what it would have been like to have to pack up everything that meant something to you and just flee to a whole new town. It must have been very hard and scary to see everything you once knew and worked hard for get ruined by water. There are people who are still to this day trying to get back to the life they once lived before the hurricane. Many people lost jobs and are living on the streets because they cant afford a home. The devastation and damage was so great that most of the people were not able to return home so they had to learn to move on and start over and just make the best of what they had now-some people were able to do this and be successful and there are some people who still haven't moved on from what happened.Katrina was a life changing event that devastated the lives of many Americans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCjt_5GMUi4&feature=related

Outside reading

For this outside reading I want to do a summary on the book Someone Like You by Sara Dessen. Someone Like You is about two very different best friends Halley and Scarlettet. Scarlette is the more bold, daring and out going one while Halley is more shy and keeps to herself. But these girls seem to have a friendship that is stronger and more meaningful than most. When Scarlettes love ,Michael Sheerwood, is killed in a motorcycle accident and she finds out she is carrying his baby their friendship only grows stronger. Scarlettes mother was a teen mom too but she doesn't want the same life for her daughter so she kind of stays out of it. Halley had to learn how to go out of her confort zone to help Scarlette go through all the rough patches in her life. It seemed like it was very difficult for her but she did it cause of the love for her best friend. There is a quote on the back of the book that says " Life is an ugly, awful place not to have a best friend." Someone Like You does a good job displaying he meaning of that quote beacause Scarlettes life would have been twenty times harder if she didn't have a shoulder to cry on or someone to put a smile on her face. I believe that with friends by your side anything is possible and this book shows you just how true that is.

Outside reading

For this outside reading a read a book called Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard. This book is about four girls who have tons of secrets to hide and suddenly it seems like all of their secrets - big and small are spilling out. Spencer , Aria , Emily and hanna are all gorgeous girls with ugly problems. Spencer has a cruch on her sisters boyfriend and steals one of the papers her sister wrote and turns it in as her own, Aria is fooling around with a teacher, Emily likes the new girl who just moved to their school and hanna is doing weird things to stay pretty. These girls try to do everything they can to keep their dirty little secret hidden until an anonymous person who calls themself "A" is blackmailing them and revealing all of their secrets. The girls don't know who the person is but they have a good idea. They think it could be the beauty queen Alison that disappeard a few years back. Spencer Aria Emily and Hanna do what they can to find out who "A" is and sometimes it ends up putting them in bad situations. With all these secrets surfacing the girls have to relive their pasts to figure out why its happenning. This book is full of excitment and thrills but you will have to read the book to find out what happens next!

Outside reading

Since it’s the New Year I decided to blog about the top ten new years resolutions for 2009.
-Make more time for family and friends
-Quit smoking
-Start exercising
-Go back to school / take a class
-Get out of debt
-Advance in career, make more money
-Get into philanthropy and community involvement
-Quit drinking
-Lose weight
-Get out of a bad relationship / find true love

Most people make new years resolutions and only follow them for about a week or so but a resolution won't work unless it comes from the heart and its something that you actually want to do. Picking a resolution from the top ten list might not work for you because it's just the most popular one not the one that works for everyone. Also a lot of these resolutions aren't something you can just say you want to do without putting time and effort into doing. You have to really want to make a difference in your life for you, not for others. Thats when things start to go bad and resolutions fall through. One of the resolutions i have is to be a better person. I'm not trying to be a better person to please others but rather for myself. A new year is a time to make changes for yourself and to reflect on changes you can make to become a better you.