Beyonders

August 19, 2011
Blog Entry no. 7

The book I have chosen for my Independent reading is the Bible, Old Testament and Beyonders, by Brandon Mull.  Brandon Mull lives in Alpine, Utah.  I read another series of his titled, Fablehaven (five books in the series).  Fablehaven was probably the best series I have read in my life.  I attended Brandon Mull’s launch party in Salt Lake City, Utah for Beyonders, at my Mother’s High School – Cottonwood High!  It was a lot of fun, and my favorite author, James Dashner, attended as well.  James Dashner authored the series 13^th Reality, about a boy named Tick Atticus Higgenbottom.  James Dashner also wrote Maze Runner.  Brandon Mull and James Dashner both live in Utah. 

The Beyonders is a new series that will be about a world without heroes.  Some of the characters have a seed pod on the back of their head, near the base of their neck.  When they die, the seed pod comes out and burrows into the ground and grows a new person. 

Some characters in the Beyonders are Jason, Maldor, and the Blind Prince.  Jason is pretty much a nerd; especially in science and biology.  He has a crush on a girl that is a lot like him, nerdy and is in to schoolwork.  Jason feels this girl is actually pretty; unlike most nerds.  Jason is batting in a batting cage and he gets hit in the head with a ball that is going through a pitching machine.  He gets a slight concussion and goes to the Zoo for his job and he hears music coming from the Hippo pit.  It appears as though the music is coming from inside the Hippo.  Jason looks over and he is dizzy, he falls in, the Hippo opens its mouth and the music gets louder and louder until he falls in the Hippo’s mouth and he finds himself in a hollow tree trunk.  It turns out this is a portal to another world called Lyrian.

Steaks, Homework, and Missionaries

August 18, 2011

Blog Entry No. 6

Today our Ward Missionaries came over to our house.  In case you do not know me, I am a Latter Day Saint (Mormon).  We just got a new Missionary named Elder Kamhout (Elder Kamchowder) .  Our previous Missionary has been here for a while, Elder Freebairn (Elder Free Brain or Elder Bye Bye).   Flower was over today helping me with my Chemistry homework and she got to listen to the Missionaries as they taught a message.  Flower got a pass along card to complete with five names of people she knows.  The rest of us are also completing this exercise. 

We had steak.  Elder Kamchowder got the best steak in the bunch and his was rare, or Idaho Medium Rare (which is basically still mooing).  Elder Kamchowder is from Nampa, Idaho, which is not too far from Boise State University – Go Broncos!  Bronco Nation! 

Elder Free Brain and Elder Kamchowder both play the piano.  Elder Kamchowder is a prodigy, I am convinced, because he has only been playing two years yet he plays with the finesse and skill of an advanced pianist.  He never practices.  Elder Free Brain plays piano extremely well and has been playing since he was 6 and he is now in his early twenties (about 20).  Elder Free Brain has been taking piano for 14 years.  I have been taking since I was 6 but I didn’t play continuously.   I have been taking piano lessons for about 7 years. 

My homework is very heavy in Chemistry.  I have four layers per unit.  Also, something that happened today, I realized how much Flower and the Quack love me and support me.  The Quack and Flower were advocates for me in a meeting at school.  The Quack (The Penguin) is like a Father figure to me and like my second dad.  He is always there for me, I can talk to him, and he cares about my welfare and education.  The Quack is protective of me.  He is, probably, one of my best friends in a mentor kind of way.  Although I do not have him for any classes this year, he is very supportive and interested in my education.

A Children's Story about Density

August 17, 2011
Blog Entry No. 5

Once upon a time there was a feather small and fine, floating on the water of a pond.  “I am so light,” said he, “oh te ha he, my density is low degree, lower than the water which lies under me.  That is why I can float so free.”  Along swims a big, fat catfish, fins swish swishing in the pond.  He falls upon the floating feather, wondering how it stayed on top the water, and swam to ask it how it did it, this single floating feather.  “Hello,” said the feather to the catfish.  “How might you do today?”  “Just fine,” said the catfish, “but I have one wish.”  “And what shall this one wish be,” asked the feather.  The catfish said, “my wish is to know how a single feather small and slow, can stay on the surface while I fall below.”  “Well,” said the feather, “te ha he, my density is low degree, lower than the water which lies beneath me.”  “As for you, unfortunately, your density is of high degree, higher than the water in which you swim free.”  “If the density is higher than you can be, you float on top, fancy free.  If the density is lower than you can be, you reside below, and swim so free.”  That is density!

Harrison vs. Rickman

August 16, 2011

Blog Entry No. 4

For all the people out there who do not know who Rex Harrison and Alan Rickman are, you must live under a rock (jk).  For people who do know who Rex and Alan are, and people who know me, know that I used to be obsessed with Rex Harrison.  Fortunately, it is not extremely weird because he is deceased.  Kind of like Julie Powell and Julia Child. 

Rex Harrison is an amazing actor that was born in Hyton, England in 1908 and died in 1990.  He was an actor for 64 years from the time he was 15 to 3 weeks prior to his death.  He was a playboy and had 6 wives in his lifetime.  I admire Rex because he was in some of my favorite movies, Dr. Doolittle, the Ghost and Mrs. Muir, My Fair Lady, and Anna and the King of Siam.  These were all completed between the 1940s and 1960s.  Rex focused on naturalism as a style of acting.  His wives were, in order, Noel Marjory Colette Thomas, Lilly Palmer, Kay Kendall, Rachel Roberts, Elizabeth Harris, and Mercia Tinker.

Alan Rickman is extremely good looking and is British.  He also stresses the ideal point of naturalism in acting.  He is a lot like Rex in his acting style.  My favorite movies that he acts in are Robin Hood, where he plays the Sheriff of Nottingham, Harry Potter where he acts the part of Snape (my favorite being Part II of Harry Potter 7).  I also enjoyed Alan Rickman’s performance in Sense and Sensibility.   Last, but not least, I liked Galaxy Quest.  His naturalism is ideal, but not quite as good as Rex Harrison.  Alan Rickman, I believe, has been married three times in his life.  The Quack may think I am dorky for writing about this, but I know he secretly admires Rex Harrison as an Actor!  If Mr. “G” reads this, he will laugh and roll his eyes.

                             Alan Rickman

Rex Harrison

The “Insane” People I have been affiliated with in my Life

Blog for August 15, 2011

Blog Entry No. 3

My definition of insane in this blog is really a term of endearment for the people I admire.  I will begin by listing fictional names for the “insane” people I have met in my life.

Mr. “G”

Mr. Jim

Flower

Shimmy Dude

The Quack

Mr. G is a really amazing guy full of useless trivia.  He wears little round glasses with thick lenses that make his eyes look small; almost like peas.  He loves the outdoors and is very enthusiastic about Native American flute and useless information and other random stuff.  But I learned a lot from Mr. G.  I learned a ton of useless information that he read from books.  Mr. G taught me to play the Native American Flute that I can play with my nose.  He taught me how to pick good role models to fashion my life after.  He taught me that if you dress the part, walk the part, you become the part.  He taught about mental energy and how it can affect me and others around me such as optimism.  Just thinking an optimistic thought can help me start conversations with others and can in turn change my life.

Mr. Jim.  Mr. Jim is a very strong man who didn’t allow me to be anything but myself and the best I can be.  Mr. Jim is athletic and super calm.  I do not count him as “insane” per se, but he is a great guy and I look up to him.  Mr. Jim taught me how to be more patient and how to be calmer.

Flower.  Flower used to babysit me and has grown to be my tutor.  I once locked her out of the house by taping the door with duct tape.  But that was only because she suggested that I use Duct Tape.  I first tried to tape the door with electrician tape.  Flower is small and wears cat ears.  She reads Manga and watches Animes and listens to all sorts of music; especially foreign.  Flower likes the colors purple, blue, black and silver.  She has a dog named Lightning and a Cockatoo named Joey who tells her she is “bad.”  Flower is from California and she taught me to eat Sushi. 

Shimmy Dude.  Shimmy Dude is extremely random.  Shimmy Dude is bald.  He is always singing and doing the Shimmy in class.  He taught me what a Flash Mob is.  Shimmy Dude is my hero.  Shimmy Dude is helping me realize I do not have to be perfect and that he thinks a great deal of me even if I make mistakes.

The Quack.  The Quack is a hoot.  He is one of the best teachers I have ever had.  Whenever I ask him a question, he makes a quack noise.  If the Quack were a color he would be turquoise because he is calm and laid back and has a really tender heart – especially for kids that are having struggles.  He is not afraid to talk to you as long as you need it.

DC, Art, Fun, and Elina (My undying hero and friend)

This Blog is for August 11, 2011. 
Blog Entry No. 2.

When I was at Art Adventures, a program which is designed especially for kids with autism to have fun and make art, I painted two water color abstracts.  One looked like a beast, very bright and radiant, and one looked like a cave creature, very dark and mysterious.  These were the first abstracts I had ever done, but they caught the eye of the Director of Art Adventures, D Brinks.  She really like them, and mentioned my name to a woman named Ms. Jabra, who talked to me and told me of her intentions to submit my work into a national art competition for kids with and without disabilities called "Kids Can Create."  I titled my pieces "Magnificent Beast" and "Dark Creator."  We submitted these pieces to compete with 4,700 pieces across the nation.  Once submitted, VSA (Very Special Arts) would pick only 202 out of 4,700 to tour the national for two years in various children's museums.  Then, out of these 202, they picked 10 children to come to Washington, D.C. for the grand opening at Union Station.  Out of the 4,700 pieces of art, I was one of the 202 pieces chosen and I was one of the special ten children chosen to travel to Washington, D.C.  When I found out, I went berserk I was so excited!  I went to Washington, D.C. with my dad, and we walked the Mall.  We went to all the museums, we rode the Metro everywhere, and it was so amazing!  It was unlike anywhere I had ever seen or been before.  It was a huge melting pot of culture, and everyone was in suits and ties, and there were Taxis everywhere.  My favorite part, however, was not riding the Metro, or eating the food, or even the museums.  It was seeing the art made by the nine other Artists and meeting them.  (Although dinner at Old Ebbitt's Grill was pretty amazing and I had raw oysters!) 

My favorite Artist was a girl named Elina.  She has Cerebral Palsy, and is in a wheel chair.  Despite this disability, she is an accomplished artist and musician, and an amazing sweet girl.  She had a beautiful Golden Labradoodle named Zoey.  Elina is the kindest, sweetest person I know, and I developed a love for her.  She taught more about optimism in three days than I learned in a whole lifetime.  I always thought it was so sweet that whenever she saw me, she would bounce up and down in her chair.  If she had not have had bumpers on the chair, she would have tipped it over every time she saw me.  She loved me and I loved her.  Meeting Elina alone was worth the trip to Washington, D.C.

Life at ASK

This Blog is for August 10, 2011
Blog Entry No. 1

For this blog I am going to talk about my school life last year and this year.  Well, this year is just begun, so naturally I am going to start with last year.  Last year I was a freshman at the ASK Academy Charter School in Rio Rancho, NM.  I can proudly call myself one of the 120-40 students who participated in the first year of the ASK Academy’s existence.  It is a great school!!  The teachers are among the best in the State, especially my Math Teacher, Mr. Barbour and my Physics Teacher, Mr. Nance.  They are both brilliant, and my Math Teacher from last year, Mr. Barbour, is one of the three founding fathers of the school.  My Physics Teacher, Mr. Nance, is a super nice guy and is always open to helping others.  He is one of my favorites because he is super musical!  He plays the saxophone, he sings, and he kind of plays the piano, guitar and native american flute.  Oh, and he acts too!  I think that is so cool because I sing, play piano and the native american flute too!  I look up to him so much!  He is a really good example and I know he will always support me in my academics; so it makes me really sad that I do not have him as a teacher this year.  But you got to face the truth:  Bio Nerds are better than Engineering Nerds (sorry Mr. Nance but we rock!Too bad you had to turn over to the dark side this year!  He he he….).  So anyway, in these blogs I am going to do a lot of praising of my teachers because they are awesome and I think the world of them.  I also enjoy all of my friends.  For the first time in my life, I have best friends in school; seven of them.  We all try to strive for academic excellence and compete to see who gets the best grades.  I like that we improve one another.