sutherland's second final

    Having a blog throughout this whole year has been a blast for me for many reasons. For one it improved my writing greatly. Before this year started I honestly never had even thought of creating a blog since I didn't see the point writing stuff to share with others. At the beginning of the year when I was told I had to turn in a 300 word blog weekly, I had one thought in my mind, which was that i would never finish it and that it would take up a whole lot of time. As each week went by, my opinion on the blog changed dramatically. I actually started to enjoy the weekly blog post and thought it was a great assignment that also helped me on my writing skill that happen to be in need of improvement. Throughout the year my writing slowly improved and I was becoming surprised with myself. My first blog post had quite a bit of errors but as time progressed and the end of the first semester it started to look more like this. Now that we have reached the end of the school year it looked more like this with an increase to 500 words a week. 

    The topics that are usually on my blog are how good or bad my skating session was that week. I think this is one of the reasons that my blog post don't consume much of my time. Blogging along with quick writes have improved my thinking speed that will help me prepare for the SAT because once they give me the topic I will be able think on my feet and complete the essay in the given time.

    Before we started writing blogs, I thought of writing as the most boring and pointless thing that people have ever came up with that just makes your hand hurt and waste your time to keep you out of trouble. Since we got to picked our topics that we were writing about, it made writing better then I thought it was going to be. I Believe it is the fact you can just write freely with no one telling you what to put on the paper that makes blog writing enjoyable for me. It is much different for me on a topic that I am unfamiliar with because then I am not really inspired to write it besides that fact that I am getting graded for it. Because of the blogs that we had to do weekly, I now see the positive side of write and not just the bad side.

    My weekly activities is were I get most of my weekly blog post topics. The reason that I decided to write about my weekly activities is because it keeps me from getting writers block, which leads to me stressing out on the assignment. The reason that most of my blog post are about skate boarding is because it is the most time consuming thing in my life. There was also a couple blogs about call of duty, and god of war 3 which are both games for the Play Station 3. One of the more random blogs were about Pokemon and Yugioh, which I just randomly felt like writing about for the hell of it.

  

    At first, before all this blogging, the only time that I actually did any write was if it was for school since I would fail if I did not do it, even though I hated it. When sutherland actually told us that it was going prepare us for the writing part of the SAT, it greatly encouraged me to do the the weekly blog post. As time went on, I got the idea that I could save my post and look back at time to see how my skating style when I was just starting out and how greatly I had improved or even inspire young ones to keep skating if they were in to the sport but felt that they sucked at it.

    

    There was two games that I had blogged/review about. The first one was Modern Warfare 2, which was one of the most anticipated games of 2009 and probably one of the top games of that year to. I wanted to write about this game mostly because I believe that the deserve props for creating a great video game like this. Another inspiration   was that I was basically addicted to the game for about a month non stop still I finally got myself out the house to go skate since I was getting hella fat sitting at home all day. The other game that I blogged about was God of War 3, which I believed is one of the most anticipated games that came out this year because the had pushed back it's release date a couple times before the final release date which was earlier this year. I hope to be come a part time video game reviewer to make a couple easy bucks while enjoying the games before they come out. 

   

    As I said before, my english is not the best and my determination to improve it was the strongest inspiration for me completing each of the weekly blog post. One of the main ways that my writing has improved is that I can start writing and brain storming while I do so which is going help me a lot when it comes to the SAT since we are not going know our subject or topic before you take the test. Since I found many mistakes in my blog post while looking over it, I told myself that I would start proof reading my work before I turned it in, but to be honest, I was to lazy to do that which is bad because I am going on to my senior year. But I found that has time progressed, the mistakes migraines started to slim down, which makes me proud of myself cause I have work the whole year with the goal of improving my writing which was reached with the help of Sutherland course.

    

monthly review

    Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville is a first person novel that switches between two characters by the chapters. The first person is a girl named Marina that lives with her family. The other person is a boy named Jed. They are both teenagers. Another weird thing is that each of them have one parent that is a believer if Raymond Beelson theories. One day, their parents tells them that the world is to end on July 27 of that year, which is reveled when  Jed's dad said "On July twenty-seventh the world as we know it is going to end."(page 8). Marina nor Jed really believes that the world is going to end, though Marina finds comfort in the religion while she mourns for her dad, who was left below the mountain in the arms of another lady. Jed's mother ran off to Colorado with a photographer, and Jed's dad has immersed himself in various things since her departure, including this cult.

    The thing that is cool about this book is that the end of the world is July 27th. The leader of the cult, Reverend Beelson, says world will end on July 27 in the year 2000, and 144 of the faithful people must go to the top of a mountain and set up a camp there. Only those who seek heaven at the top of a mountain will be spared from the fiery wrath that God will rain down upon non-believers. As the cultists prepare for Armageddon, Marina and Jed happened fall in love during the journey.

    The two main characters of the novel are Jed and Marina which have many things in common. Like both have one parent that had left them for someone else and the parent that stayed became a believer. The first main person is Marina, who happens to be living with her mom and brothers after her dad had left because he did not want anything to do with the Armageddon crap nor did he want to be a believer. When it was time for them to go up to the mountain top to be saved from the end of the world, Marina happened to be one of the few youngsters that were there. She had fell in love with Jed after the second time she saw him which was weird considering that they barely even knew each other. As time went by while they were on the mountain, they started to have feelings for each other and hung out more often and begin to grow a strong relationship with one another. Also since her mom was obsessive with the believer and Armageddon crap, she has to be the parent figure for her little brothers and takes cares of them while her mom goes and spend her time with the believer stuff.

    The other main character of the book is Jed, who also has a single parent because his mom had left his dad and him for an other guy and photography. Another thing that they have in common is that they both were not sure if they believed if the world was going to end or not. There are also things that he believes in that is reveled when he says" I believe there's something bigger than us that we're a part of. I believe there's something inside us that you can't kill, that lives on afterward. I believe no one has a lock on the truth, or the Truth for that matter. I believe people spend too much times fussing about details and not enough time looking at the big picture. I believe you have to connect, with people, with the world to be really alive. I believe you are the best thing that ever happened to me." which was part of an email that he sent to Marina after he had moved to Colorado up in the mountains. After the Armageddon had happened, There was a bunch of people that had died including Jed's father and Raymond Beelson, who was the one that came up with the idea that all of that stuff was going to happen in the first place.

    I think that this book was intended for teenagers and young adults because not a lot of the other adults are interested with love stories and the world ending. I thought the book was alright but not great so it might just be intended for the young adults but I am not one hundred percent sure if my opinion is correct or not. But then again it might not depend on age but the types of things that you are interested in. If your a type of person that is fun of love stories then I would recommend this book to you, but if you like a fun of action books like I am, then this book probability would not be a good read for you, even thought it is not that bad of a book. I thought that having two authors writing the same book and breaking it up in to parts was a pretty good idea, and kept the book some what gripping and readable. I would like to see other books that try this style in writing with different prospective by having different people writing as different characters. This idea to write the story in this way was thought of by Yolen, who later had asked Coville to co-write the story with her. Yolen was the one that wrote Marina part while Coville was writing Jeds part.

     

    

    

lite circle 2

    So far, I still am enjoying the book as the story goes on. One of the cool passages that I found interesting is when Jed is thinking to himself while outside Marina tent to." as Marina and I headed down the mountain a jumble of thoughts ran through my brain, including: A. I'm glad she;s with me B. She's a major pain in the butt C. What would happen if I tired to hold her hand ? D. Reverend Beelson really does nBeelson's problems are none of my business, and I don't need to tell him a damn thing." It is interesting to get in to the mind of Jed and what he is doing while he is away in the camp with the rest of the "believers". The thing that I still like a lot about this book is that it switches between the two characters making keeping the readers attention which is a good thing so they don't get bored and never finish it. 

    It seems to show that the two have a thing going on between them and also they have a ton of trust for each other in which Jed lets her barrow his laptop. It is also obvious that he has fallen for her when he thinks to himself of what would happen if he tried to hold her hand.
     One of the messed up parts that made me feel sorry for Marina was when her mother slaps her and she starts crying because her mom said that she didn't want her and it was her dad's idea to have Marina, which would be pretty heart breaking to hear from your own mother that you had thought to have loved you all along. But even after what her mom had told her she had to strengthen to clean up her little brother after he had had and accident in his pants.

lite circle 3

We have finally finished the novel Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville. This book was a pretty good read and enjoyable for me. The ending of the book was pretty cool because it ended with e-mails in which the to lover sent to each other after Jed had moved to Colorado. One of the quotes from the last part of the book that I liked was 

    " What do I believe?........ So here it goes : I believe there's something bigger than us that                         we're a part of. I believe there's something inside us that you can't kill, that lives on afterward. I believe no one has a lock on the truth, or the Truth for that matter. I believe people spend too much times fussing about details and not enough time looking at the big picture. I believe you have to connect, with people, with the world to be really alive. I believe you are the best thing that ever happened to me." ( page 265)

This was a cool passage at the end up the letter that Jed sent to Marina. In away I can relate to this. As a child I grew up believe in God and going to church every sunday. But as I got older in my teenage years, I stopped going to church and my family said that I was being disloyal to God and other stuff like that, but even thought I didn't go I still knew for a fact that there was something other there that is bigger then us humans, and I didn't see how going to church made that idol happier with us, I though that believing in its existents was good enough. It is also true that those religious people really do spend to much time fussing when they could be out doing something else and just seeing the big picture and letting the others worship the "God" the way they want to, because in the end for all we know is that we could be worshipping the same God but in different ways.

game

God of War is hands down the most anticipated game to be released this year. They pushed the release date back like 3 or 4 times and now it is really coming out for real. The best part is since I am 17, I don't need an adult to buy it for me because i am pretty sure that if my parents saw the game they would not want to buy it for me. What made me want to buy the game is that the trailer for the game was mind blowing and the graphics were among the best that I have ever seen in my life. The fact that God of War III also was awarded the Most Anticipated Game of 2010 award made me really want it even more.

    I haven't played the first or second one yet since I Did not get a PS2 till a couple years after the second one came out. They had a remake of the first and second one on one disc for the PS3 but I never got to buying it. I am really excited about playing it because it got a really good review from game informer, which gives truthful reviews and explanations of why it got the score it got. Game Informer had gave it a 10 out of 10 which is the first in a really long time. Not even Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 got a 10 and I was hooked on it so I am waiting to see what God Of War 3 can do to me.

    God of War III is an action-adventure video game for PlayStation 3, developed by Sony Santa Monica, published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released on March 16, 2010 in North America and will be released soon after in other territories. It is the fifth and final chapter in the current story arc, chronologically after God of War: Chains of Olympus, God of War, God of War: Betrayal, and God of War I. God of War III, however, will not be the last God of War game of the series. The Ultimate Edition was announced on October 30, 2009, and includes exclusive content which cost about 150 bucks so I am most likely not buying it.

     From what I have heard there are seven weapons: the Blades of Athena, the Blades of Exile, the Claws of Hades, the Nemesis Whip, the Blade of Olympus, Apollo's Bow, and the Nemean Cestus, which is a pair of fist gauntlets shaped like lion heads acquired from Hercules. Combos from previous titles also make a return as well as new combos. The number of enemies onscreen has been increased to 50 as opposed to the maximum of 15 in previous God of War installments. The game happens to also include a challenge mode called the "Challenges of Olympus" as well as a battle arena which I am also looking forward to. In the demo, it is revealed that Kratos keeps the Golden Fleece and the Wings of Icarus from God of War II, however, whereabouts of the Blade of Olympus are unknown. Even though I was waiting a long time, after I got the game I didn't play it that much and it got really boring to me for some reason, maybe am not a fan of hack and slash games so I went back to Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 which is a great game in my opinion.

Ever since I started skating life has...

     Ever since I started skating life has been great for me. There are some mood killers though. The one I hate the most are when cops or security are being complete douche bags.

   

     Two weeks ago when I went to San Fransisco, we were riding on the sidewalk and a cop motorcycle road by and told us to get off, but none of us heard him. He then circled around the block and got off his bike then grab my friend in the arm with all his might, I could tell by his facial expression that he was putting lot of force into it. He then ask my friend to give him the board but when he said no he turned my friend around and threw his board on the ground. After he asked us to to have a seat on the dirty floor and ask used our names and birthdays and our "sign". My friend didn't even know what that was so the cop threaten to throw him in jail and fine him 200 bucks which is ridiculous. Then he moved on to him and asked me my name, birth date, and sign. After that he let us go pretending he was all nice and shit, but that was total bull crap, the funny part was that someone was filming us after he had made us sit down. That skate day ended pretty good after we skating the civic center and met a cop that was much nicer and was willing to move away and let us skate at the library as long as we didn't tell anyone else that he was there.

    

    South Shore is also one of those places with the mean ass security guards. The last time that we went there, they came in a group of 3 people and said that they had us on film and were sending it to the Alameda police department to throw us in jail, which seem every unreasonable. Then I asked him simply and nicely why we were not able to skate there and being the man he was he decides to call the cop instead of answering my question. We had to leave before they came because we didn't want to have something stupid like that ruin our day so we went to go chill at other skate spot.

 

    This other we were skating the 3 stair over near the city hall, five women that didn't even work there decided to come and try to start stuff with us. One of the white women start saying oh you can't skate without a helmet and all this other crap, just being a complete ass. And after we agreed to leave they even told us that they were going to call the cops if we didn't hurry up when I was trying to put my jacket on.

 

     What I don't understand is why us skate boarders aren't allowed to skate basically anywhere. I wish the world were much nicer to us skaters and treated us like normal people instead of villains, after all we are just trying to have fun, not hurt others.

 

 

Lit circle fixed

    Armageddon Summer by Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville is a first person novel that switches between two characters by the chapters. The first person is a girl named Marina that lives with her family. The other person is a boy named Jed. They both have a couple things in common including being in the teenage years. Another weird thing is that each of them have one parent that is a believer if Raymond Beelson theories. One day, their parents tells them that the world is to end on july 27 of that year, which is reveled when  Jed's dad said

    "On July twenty-seventh the world as we know it is going to end."(page 8)

Marina nor Jed really believes that the world is going to end, though Marina finds comfort in the religion while she mourns for her dad, who was left below the mountain in the arms of another lady. Jed's mother ran off to Colorado with a photographer, and Jed's dad has immersed himself in various things since her departure, including this cult. 

    The thing that is cool about this book is that the end of the world is July 27th which happens to be my birthday also. The leader of the cult, Reverend Beelson, proclaims that the world will end on July 27 in the year 2000, and 144 of the faithful must go to the top of a mountain and set up a camp there. Only those who seek heaven at the top of a mountain will be spared from the fiery wrath that God will rain down upon non-believers. As the cultists prepare for Armageddon, while Marina and Jed happened fall in love during the journey.

    So far I think that book is pretty good and am looking forward to finishing the rest of the book because it is interesting to me. What I like about the book the most is that it is written in two prospectives.

 

This week skating was pretty good ove...

    This week skating was pretty good overall. I hit the business park, which is on Bay Farm where all the business building are, 3 times this week and webster once. It feels nice to be skating again after I took the 1 and a half month break. I kinda regret taking the break and don't really remember I took it in the first place, but I am just glad am chilling with the crew again. The best part about this week is that i finally got a new board on one of my favorite online skate shops,skate warehouse since they offer low prices.

    The first day that I went to the business parks was on tuesday with only Michael, Joey, and I. I was able to hit a really long 4 stair which felt really good because during the summer I wasn't even able to hit the short 3 stair that was next to it but now am hitting bigger things that  I  never thought I could ever do. For those that don't know what the term "hitting" means, it is skating an object, like stair, gaps, ledges, and other skate-able things. I also was able to hit the two block which is a gap in which you have to clear a patch of grass then continue dropping till you hit the floor. It is about a 5 stair drop and 4 stair length.

    The second day that we went to the business park, it was look bad for me since I was bailing on everything that day and to make it even worst, we go kicked out of the two block in less then 5 minutes which a load of crap. Then we went to the Bay Farm landing and just skated flat ground for an hour which was hella boring. The day ended bad for me.

   The third day that we went to the business park was with Gio, Julian, Michael, and I. It was a much better skate day for me because I was land stuff instead of bailing like the previous day. After we skated the business park and everyone had left we went Michael and I went to his house to have a chill skate session like that ones that we had everyday over the summer. I finally ollied a create thing, that we got a long drugs which they was remodeling, which I was not able to hit over the summer.

    Today was an okay skate day, but it could have been much better considering that my board tail and nose chipped and it took my like 5 tries to hit a small ass four stair which was making me mad. Then at the Payden's 5 stair I was pussing out trying to hit it for some reason when I have hit a bigger 5 stair in San Francisco, but then I finally got the balls to start popping off and got it about 10 times popping off which was alright but some what disappoint for me.

monthly review

    Along Way Gone is a touching autobiography written by Ishmael Beah that tells a story of the memories of a boy soldier in Sierra Leone during their civil war. the kids were forced to kill people with AK-47s and forced to take drug mixed with gun powder just to stay awake and on duty. They showed them war movies to make the kids violent. He escapes Sierra Leone and manages to get educated enough to the story of his experience with great detail. This real life tale involves the life of Ishmael who lived a fairly happy life in Sierra Leone until civil war breaks out. Then he is forced to run for his life, becoming separated from his family and later losing them to murder by the rebels. He later finds a way to be rehabilitated and regain his childhood, and then once again learns how to love and forget the hatred and killing of his past. 

    

Ishmael Beah's purpose of this book was to tell his life story of when he was in Sierra Leone as a boy soldier and how he was mistreated by the rebels that turn children into the heartless and mindless killers that they were. He wanted to show the world the world that not only men fight wars but even little kids that not barely even 10 year old yet. It gives us American's, being one of the super powers, a greater reason to intervene in other country's problems so that other children don't experience what he had to go through. He also wanted to show the world the reality of warfare and how crazy people can get when they are determine to reach a goal and become blinded with their ambition that they don't care who they are hurting but themselves.

    

    This book is intended for everyone out there so that we can learn from other people's mistakes so that we don't repeat the same thing. It is kind of obvious to whom this book was intended for because he is doing a whole ton of work on child protecting during war and this book was to get peoples attention will a true story about what could end up happening anytime during war.

    Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone in November 23, 1980. He then  had moved over to the United States in 1998 and and continued to finish his last two years of high school at the United Nations International School located New York. He graduated from Oberlin College in 2004 with a degree in Politics. He is currently member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee and has talked to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) at the Marine Corps War fighting Laboratory, and many other NGO panels on children that are being affected by war world wide. He has also spoken before the United Nations on several different times. His work has appeared in Vespertine Press and LIT magazine. He is committed to all of this work and protect of children because of the heart breaking experience he explain in the book along way gone.  

    This real life tale involves the life of Ishmael who lived a fairly happy life in Sierra Leone until civil war breaks out. Then he is forced to run for his life, becoming separated from his family and later losing them to murder by the rebels. He later finds a way to be rehabilitated and regain his childhood, and then once again learns how to love and forget the hatred and killing of his past. 

 

LC#3

    Hey reading buddies Along Way Gone is a very touching book in my opinion since he was so young and innocent when he went through this painful experience without his parents by his side while being force to kill. It is basic on a true story of when Ishmeal Beah was child solider back in Africa. The reason I enjoyed reading this book was because it opens the eyes of the world and shows us what is really going on with the conflicts around the world. Reading this makes me wonder why the super powers like the United States had not done all they could to stop this conflict especially when they were using kids to kill people and putting them on drugs just to stay awake and alert. It also shows us that all around the world childern are being abuse and being used in unhuman ways that are so violent that only a person that has experience the pain could explain it to the rest of the world to know.
    This is a great story to have heard about because it could change your thoughts on war entirely. This should be one of the books that high school students have to read during their English classes instead of the boring Shakespeare that we are forced to read each year. Reading this book would keep that students on task and reading the book instead of going on spark notes or either not even bothering to open the book in the first place.
    I am glad that he was able to escape that place he was in and was educated enough that he was able to write about his story and share it with the world in great detail and show the world what was really going on in Africa.

yugioh regionals

Over spring break i went to San Jose for the Yu-Gi-Oh Regionals. It is basically a huge tournament with hundreds of people competing for the top 32 and get an invite to the National tournament. There was lots of Machina decks being used this format because they were cheap and apparently really good. It was weird because most of the deck came from a starter deck. The deck was 3 starters decking the main cards out and a couple staple cards and you get a winning deck. Other deck were money decks with expensive cards and they didn't do so well. I was 5 and 4 which is pretty good for my first time. I could have been the top 32 but the first guy I played stacked me, which means giving himself all the card he needs to win on the first turn while just giving me a hand of useless cards.
It was crazy at regionals because stuff was getting jacked left and right. Some guy's binder got jacked in the first 2 rounds and he had Dark Armed Dragon which is worth about 70-80 bucks and a couple Judgment Dragons that were 60-70 a piece. Thankfully I didn't get anything jacked since I was watchful of my stuff. I had my backpack on me the whole time. While I was dueling my backpack was in my lap and while I was not dueling it was on my back with a clip closing the zipper so no one could really open it without me noticing it.
It was a great experience to be around so many people with determination to reach the same goal, which is an invite to nationals. The top 4 duelist would get a binder worth about 30 bucks or higher since it a one of a kind, a dueling mat which is about 20 bucks since it is also a one of a kind thing, a booster box which had 24 packs in it and would cost about 80-90 a box in a store and they also get an invite to nationals which is only for the ones who have an invite. The top 8 get 12 packs, a mat, and a invite which is not so bad since your getting it for free.
I am looking forward to the next regionals in June because I will get another shot at making it to nationals and be able to sell hella card that I don't need to make money. The only bad part about this is that is is in San Jose and starts at like 10 so i never to leave early and get there before the lines gets long and stuff. To make it on time we had to wake up a 7 and get ready, leave at 8 and get there at 9 and sign all the papers and fill out your deck list and all this other crap but in the end it was worth the trouble since i came up like 80 bucks from the stuff I got.

After a long and event-filled journey...

     

       We have finally finished the book and I feel that it was a very good read for me that i fully enjoyed. It is time to summarize the last part now. After a long journey, evading policemen, and feeling ill from the overwhelming amount of information and stimuli from the trains and crowds around him, he finally finds his way to his mother and Mr Shears' home, and stays outside until they arrive. His mother is delighted that Christopher has come to her; she cannot believe that Ed would tell him that she was dead. Mr. Shears did not want Christopher living with them. Moreover, very soon after arriving, Christopher wants to return to Swindon in order to take his mathematics A-level. His mother leaves Mr Shears, their relationship having broken down because of the conflict over Christopher.

    She then moves into a rented room in Swindon, and after an argument with Ed, agrees to let Ed meet Christopher for daily brief visits. However, at this stage, Christopher remains terrified of his father and makes repeated attempts to prevent him from talking. He hopes Ed will be imprisoned for killing Wellington. Then it happily ends with Ed getting Christopher a pet dog, which he names Sandy after her color, because Toby, Christopher's pet rat, had died, and promising that he will rebuild trust with Christopher slowly no matter how long it takes. Christopher asserts that he will take further A-level exams and attend university. He completes his first mathematics A-level with top grades and, despite previously wanting to be an astronaut, his ultimate goal is to become a scientist. The book closes with Christopher being optimistic about his future, having solved the mystery of the murdered dog, gone to London on his own, found his mother, written a book, and got an A in his A-level maths exam. I can't wait to read the

God Of War 3

     Today is the release date of God Of War 3. I can't believe it is finally out. They pushed the release date back like 3 or 4 times and now it is really coming out for real. The best part is since I am 17, I don't need an adult to buy it for me because i am pretty sure that if my parents saw the game they would not want to buy it for me. What made me want to buy the game is that the trailer for the game was mind blowing and the graphics were among the best that I have ever seen in my life. The fact that God of War III also was awarded the Most Anticipated Game of 2010 award made me really want it even more.

    I haven't played the first or second one yet since I Did not get a PS2 till a couple years after the second one came out. They had a remake of the first and second one on one disc for the PS3 but I never got to buying it. I am really excited about playing it because it got a really good review from game informer, which gives truthful reviews and explanations of why it got the score it got. Game Informer had gave it a 10 out of 10 which is the first in a really long time. Not even Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 got a 10 and I was hooked on it so I am waiting to see what God Of War 3 can do to me.

    God of War III is an action-adventure video game for PlayStation 3, developed by Sony Santa Monica, published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released on March 16, 2010 in North America and will be released soon after in other territories. It is the fifth and final chapter in the current story arc, chronologically after God of War: Chains of Olympus, God of War, God of War: Betrayal, and God of War I. God of War III, however, will not be the last God of War game of the series. The Ultimate Edition was announced on October 30, 2009, and includes exclusive content which cost about 150 bucks so I am most likely not buying it.

     From what I have heard there are seven weapons: the Blades of Athena, the Blades of Exile, the Claws of Hades, the Nemesis Whip, the Blade of Olympus, Apollo's Bow, and the Nemean Cestus, which is a pair of fist gauntlets shaped like lion heads acquired from Hercules. Combos from previous titles also make a return as well as new combos. The number of enemies onscreen has been increased to 50 as opposed to the maximum of 15 in previous God of War installments. The game happens to also include a challenge mode called the "Challenges of Olympus" as well as a battle arena which I am also looking forward to. In the demo, it is revealed that Kratos keeps the Golden Fleece and the Wings of Icarus from God of War II, however, whereabouts of the Blade of Olympus are unknown.

Hey people

    Hey people that are reading "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time", I am done reading the second part of the book now and it is getting better and better as each chapter goes by. I really believe that we are starting to get in to the mind of the character like Mr. Sutherland said we would. The cool part is that I have the same name as the main character.

    Throughout his adventures, he records his experiences in a book called "murder mystery novel". While his investigating, he meets people whom he has never encountered before, even though they live on the same street, including the elderly Mrs Alexander, who informs Christopher that his mother had an affair with Mr Shears. Ed, whom is his father, discovers the book and confiscates it from Christopher, after a verbal fight between them. While searching for the confiscated book, he uncovers a trove of letters which his mother wrote to him, dated after her supposed death, which his father has also hidden. He is so thoroughly shocked by his father lying about his mother's death that he is unable to move, roll up on the bed, throws up and groans for a couple hours until his father gets home. Ed realises that his child has read the letters and cleans Christopher up. He then confesses that he had indeed lied about Judy's "death" and also that it was he who killed Wellington, stating that it was a mistake resulting from his anger after a heated argument with Mrs Shears. Christopher, having lost all trust in his father and also fearing that his father may attempt to kill him since he had already killed the dog, runs away. Lead by his mother's address from the letters, he embarks on an adventurous trip to London, where his mother lives with Mr Shears.

 

Yu-Gi-Oh ?

    I have recently started playing Yu-Gi-Oh again. I always wanted to go to a official tournament to compete with other so that is why i started to duel again. The regional tournaments are coming up in a month so i have been building a new deck to be able to catch up with the other people at the place. It is going to be held in San Jose which is really close so I am looking forward. 

    The deck that i am using right now are black wing monsters. They are dark wing-beast that have lots of ability to be special summoned. They were hit by the band card less so they are not as good as they were but i really want to try to bring them back to the top of the deck list to use around the world. The black wings are used by a person named Crow in the Yu Gi Oh 5D's show.

    Right now to get get the card i need i am hanging out at D 20 on Park Street to trade cards with people in till i complete my deck list that i am trying to run next month. I went to CC in Oakland/Berkley to look for the cards that i needed but I had no luck with it. I just realized that it is not only the nerdy asian people that play Yu Gi Oh but hella other people play. It is crazy on how much money these pieces of papers are worth. I have a card that is worth 20 bucks just for one copy of it. It is called mirror force and is a ultra rare card from the first booster pack. There is this one card called Judgement Dragon that prices about 70-90 range per copy which is outrageous for a 2X4 piece of paper. 

    Yu GI Oh is a crazy thing in general because people are fighting over it and spending shit loads of money on it and stealing from each other. Just the other day some kid out his whole deck stolen by someone, which is hella messed up so i am trying to help him find out who did it. It was a zombie deck which are going up on the deck list right because you can swarm monster card from your grave yard and OTK them. OTK means One Turn Knock out which is basically taking them from 8000 life points to 0 in just one turn.

    The regionals are going to really exciting for me because I never been in on before and the top 32 people get invitations to nationals and will complete for price that are only obtained by winning in this tournaments. Joining is a double thumbs up for you because you get in with 20 bucks and you get 5 packs which is 5 bucks cheaper then you would normally spend and you get to duel people for the day having fun and meet new people get trading cards away so i am thinking it would be a great experience for me.

lit circle

    Hey people that are reading "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time", so far I think that book is great. You get to go in to the mind of the character and not whole lot of books are able to pull it off as well as this one. The thing that makes this book stand out from others are the fact that it's chapters are numbered in prime numbers throughout the whole book. I have never seen a book that has done that. The cool part is that it even shows you how to get all the prime numbers. It is real simple, you first down all the positive whole numbers then take away the multiples of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and so on.  

    The other cool part about this book is that he doesn't keep on one topic the whole time, his mind doses off in to subtopics of the main topic and sooner or later he is on a completely different topic that he had started with. It was confusing at first and i had no idea why he was doing this but it is a really good way to keep that reader reading it to see what happens next because you really can't guess what happen in the future with his mind just jumping topics the whole time. The only remark I have right now is that it is kinda weird how the cops can grab you forcefully but if you hit them out of fear or reaction you get to go to jail, so much for equal rights for everyone eh ?.

    

    

    I am looking forward to finishing the book and talking to you guess about your views on the book and your ideas of what could happen later on so we could have more stuff to write about for the final project or write assignment we have on the book.

Pokemon ?

    Pokemon had first appeared in the United States of America back in around year 2000. It was very popular to the little kids and they had red version, blue version, and green version. The game was simple but yet it was really entertaining. Then they started to make pokemon cards which even more people got in to and started to buy. Pokemon start to even appear on T.V. with it's own show. Then the motion picture Movie comes out. They have made so many things about pokemon it hard to tell how much money they have made. Ten years later and their still making new shows, cards, games, and other random stuff. They have have pokemon bed sheets and stuffed animals.
    It seems like a childish thing that people grow out of but that does not seem to be true for me. I am in high school and every time a new pokemon game comes out I am at the store to pick it up on the release date. I did stop collecting then pokemon cards how ever because they were a waste of money to me and all i did was look at them. I never found out how to play the card game itself though it seemed to confusing so i didn't even try to learn it.
    The game last forever and there is alway something to do in the game even when you beat all the boss. I guess the main point of the game is to catch or see every pokemon there is which means you would need to fine people with the other version of the game so you could trade with them and complete your pokedex. They always release the games in pairs with both games having the same things except they have a couple differnt pokemon so you would need to buy the other game to get it which will make more money for GameFreak, or you would have to fine yourself a friend that is willing to trade you those pokemon. The first generation games were in black and white and the graphics i would have to say were hella shitty compared to how they look now a days but the games were still has fun if not more fun.
    I remember when they first made the gameboy color it, i really wanted it and they had it at Costco. I started to work hard in school and my parents bought it for me and it came with red version, I had to admit i was hella jucied. I never grew out of the game and now i am waiting for the new one which is Soul Silver and Heart Gold, which are remakes of the second generation of pokemon. The only difference is that now i don't pay for the games because i have an M3 where i can just download games on to the memory card and play it on my DS lite which saves me hunderds of dollars considering the fact that i have 10 downloaded games and each cost about 30 bucks.
    
    

Xbox 360 vs PS3

    The Xbox360 clearly has the better graphics then the PS3 because of the fact that the Xbox360 uses a custom ATI processor. The PS3 graphics add more details to the pictures but it still barely under the behind the Xbox360 in graphics. The PS3 uses custom NVIDA graphics processor. Microsoft’s Xbox360 was originally launched in 2005 and has now sold over 39 million units (as of January 6th 2010), which was more then the PS3 because it was release a year before the PS3 was. Sony’s PlayStation 3 originally launched in 2006 and has sold well over 27 million unites (as of September 2009). Since the Xbox360 had sales from 2005 to 2010 it had obviously would have had more sales then the PS3 which only had sales from 2006 to 2009. A common argument for the Xbox being better then the PS3 is that there are more people that play online on the Xbox360. It does not really matter because there are still ton of people that play on the PS3 and it not like you would be playing with every single person in one match so the number difference does not really matter in the first place as long as there are enough people for you to get a match started online which is mostly around 12 people.
    The Xbox360 has a build in DVD player which is pretty cool and convenient. You could also pay about 120 bucks to get eh HD DVD player attachment on the Xbox360 and you would be watching video in high definition which is even better. The PS3 would top that with the build in Blu-Ray player. You don't have to play for the extra attachment for a great movie experience, it just comes with it. The Blu-Ray is also in fact better then HD which makes it even a better deal on the PS3 side.
    For Internet connection I believe the PS3 win on this hands down for one reason. Unlike the Xbox360, the PS3 comes with a build in wireless system which can connect you to your modem with out any wires. The Xbox360 does not come with this but if you wanted to you could pay 100 bucks for a wireless thing that could could connect in to your Xbox360, but why would you want to spend another 100 bucks.
    What's even better is that the PS3 has build in Blue Tooth but the Xbox does not. In my opinion the like the PS3 controllers more because the Xbox360's is really big and Heavier then the PS3. For the Xbox360 controllers you have to buy batteries every time they run or you could spend 20 bucks more for a charger with a battery pack. Throwing the batteries away is bad for planet and that is bad. The PS3's controllers are charged by the console with out having to buy anything else.
    I have own both the Xbox and the PS3. The Xbox 360 broke down about 3 times on me and the last time it broke down the warranty wore out so they did not fix it for me and that is when i started to hate them. The PS3 on the other hand has not broke down on me and so far I don't find anything wrong with it.
   

story

Jerry was attending college and was going to major in business by the end of the school year. He was currently working at Safeway to pay off his bills because he did not want a crazy job that would take up alot of his time. His favorite thing to do was skateboarding and he was really good to, the only problem was he never filmed or made videos for the world to see, but his skate crew knew he was sponsorship type. He wanted to open up a skateboard brand or at least a shop to make some side money to help his family out a little bit but he did not have the money to start a company or even lease a place to make a store at. His best friend was really rich but he never wanted to ask him for money because that was just the way he was, but one day he decided that he should because his grandparents were sick and they need help. "Paul how have you been ?"
 "Eh, i am doing alite, what sup with chu, how you been Jerry"School is a pain in the ass and skating is great so i guess i am doing good to".
"Oh dude that hellla suck man". "Yeah, so like i was wondering if I could barrow money from you to start a company i will pay you back the full amount plus a 10% interest when I get it all set up and working as i planned it to be".
"I don't know bluh, starting a skating company is going cost alot of money you feel me?".
 "Yeah i do, but i am pretty sure i will be able to pull it off, you got faith in me right?". Jerry said with confidences.
 "I got your back on everything but loaning money for to start a company that might not be successfully is where i am trippin at yo". "Well i understand the fact that your worried about you money but i really need this, i need to help my family while i am still attending school".
 "I am not sure if it is a smart investment man, i don't wanna loss money, I didn't get here investing on people that were close to me, i invested on people I knew for sure were going to make money".
"So what your saying is that you don't believe in me?".
 "Nah i believe you, it just money....".
 "Well can't believe you value money more then me, your best friend from first grade, I always had your back through these years and kept you out of trouble".
"Well i thank you for that it just things change when u get older you know ? I don't wanna go bankrupt yo."
"Wow.... some times your so self centered."
"Okay and most the time you trip for no reason".
"I am tripping because my best friend don't trust me and he value money from then me...".
"Dude chill out, damn beggar". "So this is how you treat me". "Like i said things change man, i am sorry i can't help you".
 "Yeah things do change, like for example, you changed".
"Okay so ? I don't care I make money so it is like whatever your just mad you don't make money like i do."
 "I don't wanna be your friend no more don't talk to me no more or ask me for help".
"HA, me ask you for help ? your hella funny look whose talking, the one at his knees asking me for money, get the *#$% out of my house i don't care if you don't wanna be my friend I don't even need you."
 "Alright, remember what you said".
"Yeah, that is not to hard to remember".
Jerry leaves the house in disappointment. He decides to film a skate video to try to get sponsored and get money that way. and a couple weeks later he gets a call from ADIDAS SB telling him they want him to skate for them. They then agree to loan him money to start a company that is going to be a branch of ADIDAS SB. He smiles has his dreams are starting to come true slowly

the four day weekend

  Thursday was a pretty chill skate day that involved lots of walking. We went to Saint Joes to talk to a friend, when we got there we got kicked out from the school and they won't even let us get food from the taco truck. I pissed the shit out of me because they were talking to us like we are not even humans just because we where skaters. It started to rain and we where standing under the roof of the outer buildings and they won't even let us wait till it stop raining. We walked to the parking garage and met this one white guy that was pretty good, he did a 360-kick flip-foot-plant, which was the cleanest thing i have seen in person.
    Saturday we hit up Webster street, hitting the Bank's 3 stair till we got kicked out because customers were complaining about how the banks was not doing anything at first. Then we went to Washington school for a while and we met this Asian guy that was tail sliding a 3-4 foot ledge which was crazy. We then went to Wal-Greens and skated there till me and my friend got picked up.
    On Sunday I boosted from my house on Bay-farm all the way to Lincoln park, and when i got there i was in pain. I played this guy in skate and won. Then we went to Lincoln school but i was to tired to skate. On the way home i got Pizza from La Vals and it was hella good
    Monday was the stay home day and rest. I basically went to visit my grandma's grave and went back home. Through the whole weekend i was playing COD MW2 each night for hella long and almost all day on Monday. It was a good relaxing weekend for me and I can't wait for Spring break

skateboarding is a...... crime?

    The way that people treat skateboarders are ridiculous. Some people fear us, and others hate us. We're lucky if we ever run in to someone that don't mind us skating around and stuff. Our worst enemy though are the security guards. Their always on our asses and asking like they could do hella shit that they really can't do take attempting to take our boards and assaulting us. That hasn't happen to our crew yet, but i am sure that that kind of stuff happens everyday, and sometimes it gets posted on youtube exposing the true colors of the people that "are keeping us safe". Another thing i hate is the fact that lots of people talk to us like we are lower in life and that they are better then us, giving us no respect at all, talk to us like we are killers or violators of the law which makes me wonder what is wrong with people now a days.

    Last weekend we ran in to some asshole security guards at south shore that threaten to arrest us which is a load of crap because they don't even have the right has the security. Then they were saying how they were "filming us" and sending it to the alameda police so they can come to our house and take us to jail under his request which is stupid. I asked him that is the reason that we couldn't skate and he said because we were "trespassing" private property, then i replied saying that there was NO cars around that we could have hit or get it by and instead of talking it out like mature adults, he called the police instead. It pisses me off that they don't even have a legit reason for kicking us out, nor talking things out. All we doing is having fun and yet they are acting like we are a gang.

Bipolar on skating

About a month ago, i was in love with skateboarding. It was one of those things you thought you could not live anymore if you were not able to do it anymore. I was putting skating on the top of my list, it was the most important thing to be and i couldn't stop not matter how badly I got hurt or how crappy the weather was. I even put it before school to the point were my grade started to drop quickly, but i wasn't tripping since skating was the only thing i thought about. The only word you could use to express this was that i was obsessed with skating and that accomplishments i had while dong the sport.
. Lately this feeling had died down, I don't really feel the energy that i used to. It could be that fact that i am addicted to Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or the fact that I skated a bit to much. One thing i am sure of, Alameda is not really much of a skating city, you get kicked out of everywhere. We even get kicked from the naval base, which is stupid since there is no one out there that could get hurt by us, the public just hates us. Also the fact that i am trying to do better in AP physics. I am hoping that this changes because i don't want to get fat again from playing video games all day and eating. Skating was the only exercise that I got, but it was 7-8 hours a day on non-school days. Maybe I just need a break from skating and things will get back to normal, whatever the reason it, i am glad to know that it is not because i broke a leg.

Fitzgerald's dialogue—mini-analysis Pat Hobby

Pat Hobby Says that he is a writer for pictures. When he said " Would you be able to pay in advance?" it shows that he is smart at cheating people out of their money, because if he gets caught that he is not a tour guide, he would still have some of the money. Pat and Fitzgerald are alike in that they are both writers and they used to be famous but now they are some what like has-beens. While he is talking to Gus, it showed that Pat was a really good liar and could come up with random bs on the spot, " they might be working in the studios.", and when he says " well, you see we're on strike,". He is also a really selfish person, in a way were if people are in trouble because of him, then he rather help himself then the others. This is shown when he is in the last house, when he sees the car pulling up, he runs away with out warning his cilents, just hopes that the people forget his name and the owner of the house, Ronald Colman, doesn't remember his last name, proving that he is really only looking out for himself.

COD MW2 part 2

    Like i said before,Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is about one of the best games i have played in my life and the online is amazing. Right now i am addicted to the game, i can't stop playing the game. Over this past weekend i probably spent more then 20 hours playing it. On the three day weekend, instead of studying for finals and typing my English final i was play Modern Warfare 2 for 30 plus hours. Even i think that is ridiculous but yet i am not able to turn the game off nor take a break from the game.
    I met people from our school while playing this game and we have a Clan in the game called AK'$. We are pretty good as a team and win a good amount of games that we play. Mostly we are playing team death match express, which is first team to get a total of 75 kills off the other team will win, since we never really have more then 6 people from our clan that is on at the time. There was this one time where we had 9 people online and we had to play ground wars, which has 9 people per team and it is either a death match or domination.  Domination is a game where there are 3 places on the map that you have to take control of or defend, and for each one you control you get a point every 3 seconds and first to 200 is the winning team. It's a crazy game considering the fact that 9 people are running around on the other team and if your on careful, you would end up dying constantly. By the end of the domination games, the top players would have about 30 or 40 kills and the noobs have 25 deaths and less the 10 kills.
    
    
         

sutherland's final

8. How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?
10. Where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you to write?

1. Explain one or two ways your writing has improved over the semester. Include a few examples from your posts over time, with analysis, to illustrate how the improvement(s) happened.






    Blogging in English as an assignment is not what i thought it would be. When Sutherland told us that we had to turn in a blog of at least 300 word weekly, i thought it would going to take forever. After the first month of the blogging, I started to enjoy writing and it didn't seem to be that long anymore. Blogging as made me a better writer overall. I don't make as many spelling mistakes now after i started blogging. My first blog had tons of errors on example 1 but as each week came by there was less and less errors in my writing. example 2. I also had lots of grammar mistakes in the first one, and that also improved.

    Since I blog about the things i did during the week, i have to brainstorm in my mind about the actives i had done which took me a while because I'm a slow-thinker, but over time i start to improve and my mind isn't as slow as it was before. I am really glad about this change because it is going to help me with the SAT test when i have to write on a topic that i will not know till the second i start the test.

    Before i thought of write as a way just torture kids by making their hands hurt from writing so much,but that has all changed. When you're writing about something that you want to, it is less of a drag and you get in to it then start expressing yourself through the words that ends up to a piece of Literature. I guess it is the fact you can just write freely with no one telling you what to put on the paper that makes blog writing enjoyable for me. It is much different for me on a topic that i am unfamiliar with because then i am not really inspired to write it besides that fact that i am graded for it. Thanks to Sutherland letting us blog freely,writing is a way to release everything from your mind and that is what i like about blogging.

    I get most of my blog topics from my weekly actives. Using my weekly actives keep me from getting writers block which makes this assignment much less stressful and while getting something out of it. Most of the things end up on my blog are skate boarding since it consumes the most time in my life.  There was one blog post that was not about my week but was about Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2, a game for the PlayStaion 3.

    

    The things that inspired me to write at first was because we were going to get graded on it, if i didn't type it i would fail the class since it makes up most of the points in the class. When sutherland actually told us that it was going prepare us for the writing part of the SAT, it pushed me even more to write the blogs daily. Writing made me see a new view of skateboarding. I could save up all the blogs up and later in life look back at what my early skating years and publish it as a book to inspire young skaters to never give up and practice to become skater they never thought they could be. The idea of being able to inspire people inspires me to continue with my skating adventure and turning them in to stories.

    

    What inspired me to write a blog/review about  Modern Warfare 2 is that it was one of the most anticipated game of 2009. It was also one of the best games of the year. I wanted to give it a review of my own so people would see my blog and buy the game because Infinity Ward deserves the billion bucks it has made in the las 3 months. Being a part time game review to earn a couple bucks from easy work also inspires me to write that review hoping i could get hired by Game Informer.

    

    The fact that my english is bad is also a inspiration for me writing the blogs. I am determined to become a better writer then i never thought i could be. I am inspired to show my parents that i could get an A in english for once since they are alway disappointed on my english grades.

    

    As a mentioned before my writing has improved in all the ways possible. The most common mistake i have while writing it miss used words like "It felt as if i was walking a pro's skate video", that doesn't really make sense, what i meant to say was that it felt like i was watching a pro's skate video, but when i am writing my mind kind of just drift off and i don't really pay attention since i am not writing often. Over the semester, i have been able to write stuff and use correct words to explain my thoughts. This proves that practice makes prefect since i really didn't notice the mistakes till i read through them last week.

    An other way that my writing as improved is that i am inspired to start proof-reading my work to be sure that it is all in order. Before i also had always turn in my essay after writing it and never reading over the stuff, because i am lazy, but looking back on it I regret going through english the easy way. Another example is before i proof-read this, i had "proof-reading" as "prove reading". I never did learn anything from bsing a paper and turning it in last minute and it show in my first blog post with stupid mistakes that i made. Writing stuff each weeks has gotten my vocabulary skills higher and as i like i said, i am going to be at my best for the SAT's and i hope i can continue to improve my writing as this year goes by.

   

I would like to increase my writing s...

    I would like to increase my writing skills to a better level that will better suit me for the SAT when i take them. I'd also like to be able to write a whole essay on any topic in less then 30 minutes with the least amounts of errors possible. I would be willing to give up time to read though my groups writing and share my thought about their blog with them. There are others things that i could contribute to the group that can't think of yet. I think it is more important to work with your friends, because your going to still have to be writing and it would more comfortable for most people to be around people that they know so that they could work together. But then it is also important to work with people that like to write the same thing as you so you wouldn't ever have to write on a topic that you don't want to write about. I think the rules we would have is that everyone should read the book if we had to read a book and just do the work that Sutherland gives to the group. There is not many other guidelines that I'd like to see in my group.

Sponorsorship

     So I just found out that there is this skate shop in San Leandro that is willing to sponsor young skaters if that make a skate video that shows that they could skate at a pretty good level. I've set a goal for this week and it is to make the skate video on Friday Saturday and Sunday. I'm really excited and looking forward to the whole thing because it would one of the biggest accomplishments I've had that involves skating. I am going to be making the video with 3 of my friends and we are hoping that they will accept us all. If we didn't make it i would be kinda mad but then again it would have been fun filming and cool experience to edit the videos and just filming.\
    On Friday we are going to skate at Encinal High School and start to film a couple lines. i am hoping to hit the 5 stair at paden school. The last time i was there i didn't hit it because it was big and i have've hit anything more the a 3 stair before that day, but i have hit a small 5 stair in San Francisco so i am going to be more comfterable with doing the 5 stair. Saturday we are going to flim at the buiness parks on bay farm doing the ledge and the gaps. We still haven't decide what to hit after the buiness park because theres not enough things to do there for the whole day. Sunday, we are going to be off to San Fransico to get a bit more footage in to the skate video with the stairs and the gap that is over there in the plaza.
    I am pretty nervious about this whole idea though because 6 minutes of skate footage is alot of work and I think 3 days is not enough time since it is only our first time filimg and stuff, so what i decided to do was just think of it as just another skate session and not even think bout the fact that i have to get 5 minutes of footage. Who knows, i might even end up have to much footage and ending up cutting stuff from the video, but over all, i really can't wait till i get sponsored since it is one step closer to being pro.