A Slightly Experienced Person's Guide to Avoiding Screamers

Picture this: it's Halloween. You're trick-or-treating with your friends. You walk up the front path. All of a sudden, a statue by the door jumps out at you. You:
a) Run for your life!
b) Ignore it.
If your like me and you're afraid of your own shadow, you might get nervous when Trick-or-Treating on October 31st. This past Halloween, A.W and I were on the lookout for decorations that jump out at you when you walk by, or as I call them, "screamers". Here are a couple of strategies we created:

• If you see something suspicious-looking, wait while all of the other trick-or-treaters in your group go up there and see if it moves.
• Stay away from suspicious-looking decorations altogether.
• Avoid life-size plastic statues!
• If something moved last year, it might move again this year!

With that said - have a safe and happy Halloween!

2012 Presidential Election

    Yesterday something very important happened. Around 11:18 PM, Barack Obama was re-elected president of the United States. Yet the very next day, I was staring at the TV, and the announcer pointed out that they still didn't know which candidate had gotten the most Florida votes. It's amazing how long an election can last, even though the president has already been chosen.
    This is a quick summary of how I spent Election Day:
    I climbed into my PJs and snacked on some almonds while watching the election on TV. I watched reporters count the votes, waiting for the new president to be announced. I finally went to bed thinking I'd find out who won in the morning. Unfortunately, I was wrong. I woke up at midnight and was informed that Obama had won. Even though most of the states had more Romney votes, the states that had more Obama votes were all the heavily populated ones: New York, California, etc. But there was Florida, jutting out of the Southeast corner of the U.S, yellow for "undecided". 
    Even though this election was announced late into the night, it was actually early compared to most presidential elections, which surprised me. But then again, millions of people live in the US. Who knows how long it took to count those votes? 
    That's it for this election, but I'll see you in another four years. However, what happens in the future is yet to come, so we'll save it for when it, someday, becomes the present.  
    

October 2012!!!!!!

Summer is finally over and school has started again. Time for the holiday season, Halloween, and some really out-of-place weather. It's time to close up the swimming pools (for now) and get prepared for Fall of 2012.

Hurricane Preperation

Welcome to Hurricane Season. It's around this time that hurricanes begin to spring up. But, if you're smart, careful, and understand exactly what to do, you'll be able to stay safe if your town is hit by one of these mighty storms.

Before it Comes
The first thing you'll need to do is meet up with your family and make a plan. Your plan must include:

• Where to go if the town is forced to evacuate.

• Who's in charge of what.

• What you're going to do with your pet, if you have one.

Then, you should find a safe place in the house (basement, bathroom, tornado shelter, even a comfortable corner will do if you're desperate) and stock it with food (preferably some that won't expire), water, flashlights, and (if you need them) a few books in case you get bored. If a hurricane hits and you are not forced to evacuate, you could take shelter in this place. 

Evacuation
If you're forced to evacuate, you should hopefully be ready by all the planning you did. The  place you're headed should be already planned out, and everybody is responsible for certain things. During a hurricane, everybody has to play their part. Hopefully, the place you chose to evacuate to is not so far you won't make it there before the hurricane threat is over (example: you live in Pensacola, Fl and your evacuation destination is your cousin's house in West Virginia) but not so close that the very same hurricane you are trying to escape from is going to hit that place, too (example: you live in Tampa, Fl and your evacuation destination is your friend's house in St. Petersburg, Fl).
Note: All airplane flights will be canceled, so you would have to evacuate via car or bus.

Staying Home
Remember that safe place in your house you made earlier? Well, if you are faced with a hurricane where you don't have to evacuate, you have two options:

1. You could evacuate anyway.
2. You could find a safe place to shelter in at home

If you choose to evacuate, read the section above. If you choose to stay home, double-check to make sure your shelter is stocked with enough food and water to last several days. You might also want to add your sleeping bag or some blankets in case you have to sleep there. But if it's not a comfortable spot, it might be a little too late to change it. Be ready. Be safe. Do your part. As long as you do those things, everything is going to turn out okay.

21 Things To Do When You're Bored

1. Create your own blog.

2. Take a leisurely walk around the neighborhood.

3. Invite a friend over.

4. Read a good book.

5. Write.

6. Play with your pet.

7. Start your own journal.
8. Learn how to play chess, then enjoy a chess match against a friend.
9. Find old photos and make a photo album.

10. Learn a new language.

11. Make your own mini-movie.

12. Learn to play an instrument.

13. Draw a pretty picture.

14. Make your own dance.

15. Watch a movie.

16. Listen to music.

17. Sing.

18. Learn the words to your favorite song.

19. Start thinking about how you're going to celebrate your birthday.

20. Go swimming.
21. Go to bed.

School Uniforms: Why or Why Not?

Almost every year, I get a note from school asking for a vote: should there be school uniforms? Or should there not? This is actually a very hard decision since there are very good arguments that both support it and go against it.
WHY YOU SHOULD SAY "YES"
Some people can judge others by what type of clothes they wear. If someone doesn't wear the current fashion, then they will probably face the problem of being treated unfairly for the entire school year. Also, students might wear inappropriate clothing. Then the principal might have to ban certain types of clothing, which they wouldn't have to do if they required uniforms.

WHY YOU SHOULD SAY "NO"

Who are you? This question can be answered by expressing yourself. One way is clothing. What a kid wears says who they are, and how can they do so if they're wearing clothes the principal made them wear? Also, how can you guarantee that a kid is actually comfortable wearing the uniform? What if it's hot? What if it's itchy or causes blisters? If this is the case, the uniform won't make school days better. It'll make it dreadful!

So now that you know some reasons, what do you think? 

What's it REALLY Like to be on the Show?

Whenever you turn on the TV, do you ever think, "Wow! Sure wish I was one of them." When you go to the movies and see kid actors playing the main character, do you ever wonder, "Those kids got to be on TV. Why not me?" I do, too. Acting looks fun, and I always wanted to know what it was like to be in an actual TV studio. One day a few months ago, I gt my chance. Okay, so maybe it's not really a real studio. To tell the truth, it was only the TV studio broadcasting announcements to the entire school. But Q.S and I became anchor, and I finally learned what it's really like to be on the show!

STEP 1: The show starts at 8:00 on the dot, meaning that all crew members have to be there by 7:40. It's the hardest step - for me, anyways.

STEP 2: Get to your places. Each crew member has a place, whether it's in front of the camera or back by the teleprompter. I usually end up battling Q.S for the blue mic, or talking about mine turtles, which is A-OK.

STEP 3: Sound check. My 1st-grade teacher once complained to me about this one, because everyone in the school can hear you. The two anchors start off my saying "Testing, testing, 1-2, testing, 3-4, 5-6, testing, testing..." until the sound person says "Good!" Then the cameraman does "tall mic", which is the mic that special guests speak into.

STEP 4: Now the anchors do a practice run-through. They recite their script as if they were broadcasting. The cool thing is, they aren't broadcasting.

STEP 5: When the 8:00 bell rings, it's show time! The anchors run their script for real.

STEP 7: Once the show ends, it's time for clean-up. Anchors put away their mics and push several pieces of equipment into a corner. 

STEP 8: After clean-up, there is nothing left for the kids to do but go back to class. They have to say good-bye to the studio until the next morning.

Death of the Planet Earth?????????

I don't know about you, but it seems like everybody is always talking about the end of the world. "It's going to end very, very soon," they say, "Perhaps even this year!" Funny thing is, every single doomsday rumor is different. I have a list of things that people say will be the end of the world. These are just things I've heard of, but I think that there are many more.

• Because the Mayan Calender ends on 2012, the Earth will, too.
• There's a movie called 2012 about the world ending in, you guessed it, 2012. This means that the world will end in 2012.
• A giant asteroid will hit the Earth in 2020, causing the planet to fall apart.
• Any date constructed out of the same numbers is cursed, so the end of the world will be on the next one: 12/12/12.
• On 12/21/12, the Earth will go through a portal and flip upside down.

Sure, it seems possible. And when everyone's talking about it, it gets to your head and you start to believe it. But here's the thing: it isn't gonna happen. And if you don't believe me, I'm going to give you some reasons why we're safe.

• Just because a calendar ends doesn't mean the world will.
• If the world was really going to end in 2012, there wouldn't be any 2013 calendars.
• The end of the world is an exciting topic. People make a lot of money with movies (like 2012) or books about the apocalypse. But here's a life lesson: don't believe everything you read.
• Every calendar has to end sometime, and the Mayan Calendar just happened to end in 2012.
• The Mayans didn't have leap years, so their 2012 happened decades ago.
• If the world was ending, we wouldn't be living our lives like usual.
• Some people are just superstitious. They believe in myths that might not always be true.

As you should now know, we are not on the brink of death like you may have originally thought. We're safe - and that's the end of that.

2 Reasons Why Camping in a Baseball or Football Field is a Bad Idea

Tired of camping in the woods? Considering switching your camping spot from the forest to a baseball or football field? I'm telling you right now: Don't. And if you don't believe me, I once spoke to someone who's done it. And everything this person had to share was bad. According to this person, there are two reasons why they couldn't sleep a wink:

1. You know those big lights that are turned on at night? You'd think that after everyone has left, they turn them off. Well, when this person camped out on the field, they were kept on. All. Night. Long.

2. A man came out with a leaf blower and was blowing popcorn and other audience garbage around for the entire night.

So now I hope that next time you're planning on switching camping spots, you'll pick a place like your very own backyard. Or perhaps you'll decide that sleeping in the forest greenery isn't so bad after all.

The Bob and a Congrats, Rolled Into One

I'd like to congratulate some people. I can't say who, because as you very well know I am unable to say who I really am. However, these four very special people successfully participated in a very special game with a name like "Bob". How did they do it? I've put the step-by-step directions below.

STEP 1: These people, along with a bunch of others, received a list of books to read. Then they tried as hard as they could to read as many of these 15 books as possible.

STEP 2: In April, everyone took a test that consisted entirely of trivia from each book. Even though everyone took the test, only 20 people actually passed. The foursome were among these.

STEP 3: The 20 people were formed into teams, four in each. The wonderful people I'm so proud of were one team, with a name like "Team C".

STEP 4: The five teams had two weeks to study as much as they could of these books. Every day a team would be forced to set aside some of their time and save it for Bob practice. And at 11:00, all five teams would meet together and eat their lunches while practicing, team against team.

STEP 5: At last, it was time for the Bob. Team C had worked very hard, and they were ready. The room was alive with the sound of buzzers buzzing as the five teams desperately tried to give the correct book title or author and bring their score up by at least one point. The air was thick with suspense when Mrs. D finally announced the winner.

STEP 6: It was a tie! The game wasn't over yet. Team C2, Team L, and Team B sat down at a seat reserved specially for them while Team C and Team D remained. The Bob continued!

STEP 7: Hardly a minute had gone by when the real winner emerged. It was Team C. Everyone clapped and cheered and the five teams went to a library for the reception.

STEP 8: Still the Bob wasn't over for Team C. They still had to move on to the finals. Team C2, Team B, Team L and Team D had no more part in the Bob, so they continued on with their lives as Team C worked yet even harder, which only makes their work even more impressive.

STEP 9: Finally, the finals! Team C competed with other teams from different schools and emerged as second-place winner.

STEP 10: After the finals, Team C returned to find that everyone had planned a clap-in for them. Go Team C!

I once again want to congratulate this amazing team for their work in Bob. They did amazing, and I hope you can agree.

Summer Homework: Why or Why Not?

Well, it's almost time for summer vacation and all of the students are very excited. Too bad there's one thing that could ruin the summer for all of them: summer homework. Kids get it all the time. Just look at middle school: they won't let you out of the building without some math pages or book reports to do in their spare time. Some people - including the students - think summer homework is a bad idea. Still others disagree. They think summer homework is absolutely wonderful for the learning process. So why should you say yes? Or, why should you say no?

WHY YOU SHOULD SAY "YES"

Summer vacation lasts three months, and in that amount of time kids could forget the things they learned in the last school year. Of course, there'll still be some grime left on the slate. Kids won't get total amnesia. But what kind of teacher enjoys teaching review multiplication - for the second time in a row! Besides, just because there will be lots of fun things to do doesn't mean every second of the day is booked. What should a kid do in their spare time? Sit and stare at a wall for three hours? Not a chance! But if they have work to turn in on the first day back at school, they might as well get it over with.

WHY YOU SHOULD SAY "NO"
Let's face it: no kid can do schoolwork 24/7. Summer is a time to relax and escape from the stressful days of school. If even that is taken over by homework, a kid might not want to go back to school when the school year re-starts its cycle. This could affect how well a kid does in school, which can affect their grade. And nobody, whether it's the kid, their teacher, or their parents, want those bad grades on a kid's report card!

So, what do you think? Is summer homework a good idea? Or is it a bad one?