The Avid Reader (and enjoyer of all subjects)

1/16:  Global warming has now taken ahold of the whole world.  Many of the world’s countries have proposed to fight the widespead problem. 

Normally, people associate global warming with THE WORLD GETTING HOTTER, right?  Not the case.  Global warming has caused extreme weather.  There’s going to be so many more hurricanes in the future.  In fact, the year Hurricane Katrina struck the United States, there were over 26 hurricanes.  That meant that we had to go into the Greek Alphabet.  Pretty soon, “Pi” might be a hurricane too!!!!!!!!!!!! (Roy, are you reading?)

I recently checked out a short article on MSN.  It said that it’s 50 degrees below 0 in Maine.  In Fahrenheit.  That could be a new state record.  Previously, those temperatures could only be in the Arctic/Antarctica.  The temperatures in the United States are as follows:  -42 in Vermont and Wisconsin, -39 in New Hampshire, -38 in Iowa, -36 in Illinois (tying a state record), -35 in New York, -26 in Michigan, -20 in Indiana, -19 in Pennsylvania, -16 in West Virginia, and -14 in Ohio.  Those states are not even the most northern in United States, so you probably have to check Canada or Alaska’s weather.  In Maine, Champaign Assistant Superintendent Beth Shepperd said that children could be at risk of frostbite or hypothermia if this weather continues.  Furthermore, New York reported 2 inches of snow falling per hour.  Those are NEW RECORDS.  Other weather problems in 2008 were wildfires in Santa Ana, California, and a devastating Hurricane Ike, which hit Texas.  California had 4 inches of rain in 24 hours last year.  Tornadoes ruined much of the Midwest. 

World problems?  Here:  In September 2008, China was hit by a powerful typhoon.  Four storms in Haiti killed over 800 citizens.  Mudslides occurred in Brazil.  Chile experienced heavy flooding.  China was hit by sandstorms in March.  A storm in Austria called “Emma” ripped the roofs off some houses and killed four people.  In January last year, Jordan had a heavy overnight snowstorm, which stopped transportation and closed schools.  We’re ruining our nation, THE world power, and THE planet.  We need to fix the problem.  What do you think we could do? 

1/20:  It’s Tuesday, and at the time this was written, I had a Monday off for Martin Luther King Jr, a Tuesday off because of snow, and will have a Wednesday off because of hazardous weather conditions.  Bev Perdue has issued a state of emergency in North Carolina.  North Carolina’s state troopers received 1,000 calls of emergency.  We received 5 inches of snow, more than our state has ever seen in the past years.  Why?  Because at this instant, the planet is experiencing global warming.  We must fight this global problem. 

P.S.  In Maryland, but 500 miles away, there was a 40-car accident:  35 cars and 5 trailers piled up on a highway, claiming 2 lives.  That’s due to snowy weather conditions.  Though snow may be fluffy and just unbelievably soft, it can be dangerous and claim lives.

3/2:  Okay, it’s Monday, and school’s cancelled AGAIN because OF SNOW.  Snow.  In March.  In North Carolina, where temperatures of 100 degrees have been recorded.  Does that sound realistic?  Not to me.  Some wild, wacky weather CAN occur, and this is evidence of it.

MS. PAISIE PLEASE READ THIS:  I HAVE 5 POSTS PER PAGE.  THE ADVERTISING POST IS ON THE PREVIOUS PAGE.  YOU CAN CLICK THE LINK TO IT AT THE BOTTOM.

THE TOPIC:  Explain the favorite gift you have ever given someone.  What was it?  Why did you choose it?  How did it make the person feel?  How did it make you feel?

I have countless interests (read the About the Blogmaster page), and dealing with computers is one of them.  I have already created one private webpage about my education and one “public” webpage for the genre book project for December.  Christmas was coming up soon, and because the economy was (is) in a tailspin, and prices were (are) steadily climbing, I decided not to buy something from the store–I decided to make something.  Though I had not refreshed my first webpage for eons, my desire for making webpages had not evaporated.  Therefore, I would make my mom and sister a webpage, though I was afraid that time would work against me.

First, I gave my mom and sister a short interview:  their top five favorite colors (for the background, scrollbar color, table background color, link color, etc.) , their favorite actors/actresses, their favorite movie trailers (though I had never tried it before, I would attempt to put a short video on my webpage), their favorite athletes, and their favorite pictures.  Then, I began to work on the webpage according to their wants.  I added the current time, a digital ”clock” updated every second; a digital “clock” telling when I had last updated the page; a colored scrollbar; one of the images they requested; a scrolling head; colored links; and a font my mom and sister would find agreeable.  The next time I worked on the webpage, I started making the “entertainment” page, where I found the most pulchritudinous images of their favorite actresses and the most dashing images of their favorite actors.  I also gave a brief biography of the actors/actresses.  I finished that and worked on the “athletics” page, which was basically the same format as the ”entertainment” page.  The next time I worked on the page, I put an ”images” gallery, where all the images were framed, and you could rollover the image to reveal another image. 

Unfortunately for me, middle school requires A LOT of tests, quizzes, and projects, and I had a social studies test, a science test, and a language arts test jammed in the week before Winter Break, so the weekend before that, I coiuldn’t work on the webpage at all.  During Winter Break, I needed to practice piano, violin, prepare for the MathCounts competition, do practice SATs, read Scientific American articles to make up for not learning science at all, and read other magazines like National Geographic and Newsweek.  I couldn’t find time AT ALL to complete the webpage, and before I knew it, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day had passed.  I had no choice but to show my mom and my sister the incomplete webpage, hoping they would not feel down. 

Contrary to what I had thought might happen, they were exhilarated!  ”You don’t need to finish the webpage,” my mom told me.  “What you already made is enough!”  My sister was also fascinated and awed when she scrolled through the four pages, exclaiming at her favorite actors, actresses, images, and athletes.  Then, I watched as my mom carefully unwrapped her gifts for me, the math Scrabble “Equate” for a considerable amount of money and the book “Everything Scrabble” by Joe Edley and John D. Williams, Jr.  (I owe Ms. Paisie, who let me borrow the book.)  My sister had painted a portrait for me.  It displaying a dark forest, a conifer covered with snow, and a pioneer’s log cabin.  Even though I took much pleasure from receiving the three gifts, I had the most felicity from showing my mom and sister the webpage.  As the old saying goes:  “It’s better to give than to receive”.                  

Here are some ideas you can expand on and write about in your comment. I got them from the SAT and altered some (evidently, some of you are also going to take it), but I may add some other topics.

Topic (a): One philosopher says that nowadays, our society is getting too public. He thinks that we should be more private. Plan and write an essay in which you develop your thoughts: Do you agree with this philosopher, or do you oppose his idea?

Topic (b): There is the old saying that “every cloud has a silver lining”. Do you agree? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your thoughts.

Topic (c):  A certain philosopher says that you must forget the past and think for the future in order to succeed.  By contrast, another philosopher says that you must remember what happened in the past.  Plan and write an essay in which you develop your thoughts: do you agree with the first or second philosopher?

Topic (d):  Mahatma Ghandi, the famous Indian fighter for peace, said that you must have warfare in order to progress.  Do your ideas run parallel to Ghandi’s, or do you oppose his way of thinking?  Plan and write an essay in which you develop your thoughts. 

A little background (and please read this!):  This post was written by Justin Luo as a response to a newspaper article titled “Recruits getting younger and younger” by staff writer Ken Tysiac.  I will pose as a 7th grade intellectually gifted student (which I am).  Since some chess player or other intellectually gifted individual uses some tough, esoteric talk, I will use some newspeak here.

There are many people out there with careers, and they could either be educated workers (like I will) or sports athletes.  Tons of people who are educated, affluent orthodontists or auspicious business lawyers have chosen the first path.  They may earn an impressive, quite-superfluous $300,000 to buy needs and wants, and they might have only 3 years in college.  They might have been brainy whizzes from when they were toddlers to when they will die.  There is also an extremely slim amount of filthy-rich athletes.  Some of these athletes haven’t even been to college, like Kobe Bryant.  Yet if they are really good, like Bryant, they will earn more scholarships than the average superstar chess player once they are in high school.  Plus, very few athletes can, in a year, make more than 2000% of the money the prosperous orthodontists or wealthy lawyers make in a year.  (To put that in ring tone, that would be $3 million, which is about the amount Mr. Bryant can make in two games.)  Superfluous? 

Naturally, my brain tells me that it’s too unreasonable to be true–yet it is true!  Scholarships for athletes?  Is that because they simply play good, or is that because certain athletes have “academic problems”?  (I’m sure athletes are bright kids.)  If it’s the first choice, then what happened to the mathletes?  Some math whizzes could be good enough to be a child Gauss or Andrew Wiles!  Yet people ignore the outstretched hands of chess players.  I thought that scholarships were rewarded to people who excelled at academics, breezed through all their tests and quizzes and got straight 100s on every single one of them, not to mention straight As, and got into college at or below the age of 17.  The idea of athletes being rewarded with scholarships, leaving intellectually gifted teens pleading for one makes my face turn green and red at the same time. 

Another criterion which makes me so enraged is that at college, those talented athletes could play in the college sports team, DEFINITELY attract thousands of loyal fans, and get an early start to their career by earning money while playing college sports.  Some intellectually gifted individuals may work as restaurant waiters or part-time cashiers, but that’s a far cry from what athletes will earn, and brainy kids’ jobs won’t really kick up prodigious amounts of cash like playing on a college basketball team will.  And if the athletes are already rich, why don’t they pay the money themselves?  It won’t be fair to the poorer families.  I’m not saying that people should refrain from giving athletes scholarships, but it’s time the tide stopped.

Again, as a mentally gifted teen, I would strongly oppose the idea of giving many scholarships to countless athletes on the path to prosperity.  We should definitely check our tendency to give scholarships to successful sports players, and disperse our scholarships to the intellectual and the physical alike.  

 Comments, please, from the intellectual and the physical alike!

Recently, our economy has been dropping into a dark abyss.  Many people, who are losing money, buy less and less “wants”, such as toys and cars.  This leaves companies’ sales decreasing every day.  Therefore, companies go far and beyond:  they put their ads on billboards, newspapers, and television; aim their ads at everybody at all ages; and even put specious information on their ads!  There are some things that ads should not do at all, and desperation is driving them to commit such crimes.

     One thing that antagonizes me is when people, and companies, fake honesty or simply lie.  Lying is one of the most abhorrent crimes companies could commit.  Some people have a specific criterion they want in their product bought from the company, and if they look on the company’s ad, they see the criterion listed as a pro.  They just swap the money for the product, and later, they see that what the company had said was not true.  When they complain, it’s no use; the company tells them that the ad was wrong, or there was an error.  Lying is no good for the company as well as the consumer, as the product’s satisfaction plummets, and the company is degraded.  Companies should try to remain open-minded to customers, and frank to everybody.

     Also, companies shouldn’t aim their advertisements at young kids.  After all, it’s the kids who do the begging and pleading and the surrendering parent who always says yes and knocks down the deal.  If the parents give in, then surely companies will benefit, but eventually, the kids will beg and plead more and more, and the parents will eventually get tired of buying the (maybe expensive) product.  This could lead to a family conflict.  Ads aimed towards young children could spoil them and ruin any child’s life.  Ads should definitely refrain from targeting young kids.

     Companies may be so desperate that they spend an overly large percentage of their profit to have several advertisements.  They shouldn’t be too panicky.  If they include refutable information, they shouldn’t spend so much money on ads.  Companies should spend their profit wisely, instead of having most of it go to advertising.  The quality of the product is the most important standard, so why not have the money go to improvising their items?  Surely companies have a better factor to spend their money on than advertising.    

     Nowadays, countless companies are leaving the good, CANDID side and entering the bad, LYING side in order for their product(s) to be a “huge success”.  These companies have to consider their consumers’ thoughts and be open-minded.  Their ads should not lie to any consumers or viewers.  They also should not target young children, or spend a crazy amount of money on ads.  Even though they are getting desperate, and the odds are turned against them, companies should remain honest and considerate of their customers, to ensure and maintain a successful business and a bright future.