April Blog post #1

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My take on 1984:

George Orwell’s 1984 was written as a prediction of things to come. In the society of 1984, you find yourself under constant surveillance. The state is always watching for things that could force them out of power. Some people say that 1984 is where the world is heading right now, I think not. Let’s start with the basics. To have a government that is always watching the people, you need people to always watch the people. What does this require? Lots of money and manpower. The world’s economy is going downhill. You can see it in the falling interest rates of the banks. You can see it in China. China used to be a place where you could come in and make some fast cash, this is not true anymore. The Chinese currency, Yuan, is declining. If we were to have a government that watched our every movement, we would not be able to sustain it. We don’t have the money. Second, to have this happen, there needs to be a very desperate situation. The situation needs to be so desperate that people will want to have this society. They will want to rebel so that they could live in a world where everything is watched by the government.

I will admit that some aspects of 1984 are prominent in this world. The Chinese government censors certain websites such as Youtube and Google. The government is afraid that these sites will somehow make their position weaker. Also, for the first time in history, mankind can be truly brought down by it’s own designs. I am talking about atomic bombs. One atomic bomb can change the current situation into a very dire one. It could change the situation where man will give up their freedom just to survive. In 1984, the people that live in Oceania are just mindless machines. The people are not allowed to love, to show individuality, they are stripped of all the things that make them who they are. To put it bluntly, they are taken away pleasure. They are happy with what they have and leave everything for the government to deal with. This can be seen in America, people are not participating in voting because they are happy with what they have. In other words, they don’t care anymore. This is a serious problem because if people don’t care enough to make change, change will never come. 1984 is a book which depicts a future where freedom is dead and pleasure is gone. This world can be seen in certain countries but logistically, man does not have the resource to watch everyone at anytime. 

Animal Farm IBN #2

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In this version of the story, Boxer does not die and he starts his own revolution called Boxer’s Rebellion. Boxer’s Rebellion, Chapter 11: The creatures looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again, but it was already impossible to tell which was which. Boxer, with his eyes all teary and blurry, said: “Comrades, I never thought it would come to this but” He broke off to wipe a tear from his eye, “It seems that it would be time to start a rebellion of our own.” The animals fell into a sullen silence after that. No animal had ever even dared to think about the idea of a rebellion. But how, how will they beat Napoleon’s dreaded dogs? The dogs that had created so much fear among the animals. Boxer raised his frail hoof: “I know that Napoleon has his dogs, but I have seen these dogs, they have grown fat and old, they will pose a minor threat.” The animals looked uneasy. Boxer then said: “Comrades, there was a time when I would say Napoleon is always right, but I was sorely mistaken. He is not right, Napoleon is wrong!” This was met by a cheer from all the animals. By now, the pigs had noticed that the animals were gathered outside the house. Napoleon was about to give orders to the dogs but he found that they had all drunk themselves to sleep. Napoleon called the pigs to line up with their whips in formation. With one accord, they marched out and begun to whip the animals. “Charge, fight for what should have been won years ago!” Boxer cried. The animals charged. At first, it seemed like the pigs would have won, but they had grown fat and accustomed to power. As soon as the animals got close enough to strike, the pigs turn and fled. The problem was, they were too fat to even manage a very fast shuffle. The men in the room had seen this scene unfold and had sneakily snuck out the back door, not before grabbing some of the money on the table. The pigs were caught and killed in a gruesome manner. The goose, driven by rage and hatred, broke the necks of the pigs with their pure strength. After the battle, Napoleon was hung on the barn. The seven commandments were changed back to their original text (they did not kill ALL the pigs, that would be genocide) The animals raided the stocks and took all the food. They remembered this day as Boxer’s rebellion. A picture was painted on the barn. It was Boxer, fighting off 10 dogs at once and underneath it was written: “Remember Boxer’s Rebellion!” This would be marked as a special holiday on animal farm. The animals were happy, for now.

Blog post 2 January: Lone wolf

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CHERUB: Lone Wolf By: Robert Muchamore IBP post:

 

Operation: Lone Wolf

Briefing writer: Robert Muchamore

 

Drugs are everywhere. They are the money making factories in the crime underworld. Drugs do exist but there are people who make money by stealing other people’s drugs. When a drug lord gets some of his drugs stolen it is called a “Rip-off” This is very dangerous work as the drug lord may have lots of contacts and might try to kill you. It is also safe because I don’t think that any drug lord would call the police to report stolen drugs. Your mission is to get in with one drug rip-off artist called Fey. You are to investigate her and the people she rips off. When you gather enough information from her, you report back and we make arrests. Remember, you are allowed to do criminal things as your criminal file will be wiped as soon as you are finished with your mission. Although you are allowed to make trouble, you should not put your life at risk. If we need too, we will pull you from the mission. You are to meet Fey in a correction center. You are to blend in with Fey and become her friend. After you are released, you are to stay with her and investigate. Another agent named Ryan will be on an accompany mission with you. He will blend in with one of the drug lord’s kids and investigate there. As Fey had ripped this drug lord off once, she will have information regarding his workings. You two are to work together to bring this organisation down. This mission has been classified as high risk. You are permitted to opt out on this mission any time. Accept at your own risk.

**Mission briefing extract**

***Any attempt to remove this document/steal this document will be classified as a crime punishable by a life sentence in prison***

CHERUB: Lone Wolf. Reading response January.

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Fey’s first drug rip-off.

I am really nervous. My aunt said that it would be fine and that if I sticked to the plan, everything would be fine. I shifted my weight, my job was to distract the man in the house by vandalising it a little. My hand was clutched on my rock. I threw it at the window where this fat man was watching T.V. The rock bounced off the window. I knew this would happen as this was a drug safehouse. The fat man turned to look at the window. When he decided that the klunk must have been in his imagination, he decided to go and get some chips. I got my carton of eggs out. I creeped to the window and slipped my knife into the lock. In a few tense moments, I had managed to pick the lock. I opened the window and threw all the eggs into his room, then I got some spray paint out. I spent the next 2 minutes decorating the room with graffiti. I waited until the fat man got back, he saw all this then saw me. I started to run away. I knew that he had no chance of catching me. I led him down an alleyway where my aunt was hiding. My aunt jumped out and hit him in the head with a brick. He was knocked out. I fidgeted with my knife as we waited for him to come arround. When he finally did, my aunt grabbed him and forced a pistol to his head. “Follow me, resist and I shoot,” my aunt hissed into the fat man’s ear. Instead of negotiating that without him we would fail like a smart person would, he just went with us. My aunt and I made our way to the safe. The fat man was sweating, this felt exhilarating. I felt like a million pounds right now! We got to the safe, my aunt pushed the fat man down. She said 2 words: “open it.”

The fat man gulped and shakily said: “You–I have friends in high places. I–They will kill you! Cut you to pieces!”

“Really?”

“Y-n-yes…..”

“Really?!”

“No…”

“Open it.”

He opened it. Inside was a giant pile of 90% pure cocaine, I tested it. The worth was about 450,000 thousand pounds. I don’t know about my aunt, but I loved this.

Sure, I might get caught but the thrill is just too hard to resist.

 

Ok for now

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What happened after the ending of Ok For Now:

 

Im ok for now. For now. Does it matter to you, no it doesn’t but I’m telling you anyway. I’m Doug Swetiek. That’s my name. I kinda sound like a chump right but I’m not a chump. I’m very far from a chump. I live in Marysville, New York. Sounds like a chump place doesn’t it? Maybe, but not to me and that’s all that matters. You know, how stupid can a wall in a hospital get? White, white there and oh, don’t forget the white over there. That one is very important. You might be wondering why I’m in the hospital. It’s because my girlfriend Lilian has cancer (She likes to be called Lil. It’s short for Lily which is short for Lilian). One in four was what the doctor said to me. You know what? Statistics don’t matter. What matters is now and I’m ok. For now.

Oh god. There must have been at least 12 more tubes stuck into her then the last time I saw her. Her bed was just a mess of tubes pumping saline into her blood. She looked so weak and frail. To think that a few weeks ago she was about to make a debut in brodway. I had to play her part last minute. It stunk but I managed to gaet one of Audubon birds back in the book. I’m an artist. I draw birds. I know. It makes me look like a chump but just look at one of my drawings. Then you’ll think twice about calling me a chump. I sat next to her. Her breathing was limited to shallow intakes. But the heart beat rate said something different. She was holding on. She wanted to live. This is why statistics don’t matter, dear reader. If you want to live, you live. That’s that.

Mr. Ferris was practically bouncing off the walls in science. Apollo 11 just landed on the moon. “The sky isn’t the limit anymore. We made it to space” he said. Clarence, his toy horse that he rocked whenever he was happy was rocking it’s little hooves off. We were experimenting with sodium and how it worked. Mr. Ferris dropped the sodium into the water. At first, it did nothing so Otis Bottom decided to stick his face right on top of the beaker. The sodium burst and started to burn. Otis got quite a shock. I turned around like I was going to tell Lil something but I realised that she was not there. Sometimes you don’t know how good things are till’ they’re gone.

Our english teacher wanted us to write a reflection on the things that went on this year. I don’t really know what to feel about this year. It had it’s ups and downs. I remember when Lucas came home. How he had his legs blown off and he was sitting in a wheelchair. I thought that would be the saddest moment of my life, but then he was smiling. That was pretty rare for Lucas. Then Lil got sent to the hospital. That was terrible. I guess you just have to take the good with the bad. I guess this year taught me something. It taught me that all that matters is now and if you’re ok, then you’re good. Just be ok. Ok for now.

NaNoWriMo

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Overall. NaNoWriMo was a very painstaking experience. I thought that I had one story in mind but suddenly I thought of something else and the original idea did not sound as good. Coming up with an idea was quite easy, I had a ton in my head. It was about a week into it then I decided to stick with one idea and keep with it. Updating it was quite hard because I would come across multiple writers blocks. When I did update it I was not very happy with what I did. It was a good experience because I leaned something about myself. I’m terrible at consistency. That is a skill I need to work on. The end result was very short of what I had hoped. I wanted to write 10,000 words but I only wrote 3000 or so words. I decided that the piece I wrote was not my best work and I don’t have the energy to rewrite it.

 

October reading response NO:2 For August Pullman

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“When given the choice from being right and being kind, always choose kind”-Dr Wayne

This goes with August for many reasons, some are obvious like how he did not seek revenge on Jack Will like I would have for trashing me like that. The other reason is that August decides to always be nice, he never does anything out of anger. Take for instance when August was being bullied by those 7th graders. August was taking quite the verbal beating but he just faced it off and his friends stood up for him. Now here is a question, when someone has been bullying you, should you be kind and just take it or should you fight? Take the issue about slavery, the blacks were being bullied by the whites. The blacks did not back down, the revolted. They were not kind. To me, being right in a situation where you are going to be harmed will be a time to be right. The time when you are having an argument with your parents and you are being mean, back down.

“Have no friends not equal to yourself”-Confucius

This is very important for August. He is trying to make friends in a new school and he has never really been out much. When making friends, August only made friend with the people who actually made an effort to be his friend. That is what good friends come from, when someone is sitting alone then someone goes and talks to them. Making friends is a hard, tiring, painful ordeal in which you test your personality against others. In the end of it, a friend is made. Afterwards comes the ordeal of keeping a friend in which we ask ourselves: “did we make the right choice?” If the answer is yes, the friendship continues. But is it worth it? This answer will depend on experience.

“Kind words do not cost much yet they accomplish much”- Blaise Pascal

Kind words are the cheapest thing ever. They are very easy to give and yet, they change lives. August just had to have Jack and Summer to be by his side and say kind things. That was all he needed to get by. Kind words did not just accomplish much, they gave inspiration to August. For me, kind words are only just 30% percent of the battle to change lives. You make the rest by doing kind things to them. When someone says things and does not do them, they are just people the world will pass by. To be kind, you must understand kind. To be kind is to give something to someone in need. In the end, you feel good. Everything in the world will come back to you. The product of being kind is happiness which feels good.

Why indeed do we bound our lives to a few words on a paper. Why indeed. The answers are as plentiful as the stars. It all depends on your point of view. But no matter what way you see these precepts, they are ultimately true to you. The reason people follow these guidelines or letters on a peice of paper is because these letters are what you believe in. So, what do you believe in?

October reading response NO:1 Jack Will’s top 4 precepts

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1. Fourtune favours the bold- Virgil

This precept is for Jack Will because by being bold and becoming friends with August, good things happened to him. One of the many things was becoming more popular, having better grades and making a good friend. The other reason for me picking this is because Jack Will was a very popular character and did not want to jeopardise it. So by making friends with August, he was putting his popularity at risk. But as he made friends August, he changed, he saw that popularity did not really matter. The important virtues of a human being is to share the experiences of life and to help others improve. From this, I learned that people who are popular don’t take risks that jeopardise their popularity. Only those who have lost will try super hard and go for it. Think of it this way, what do they have to lose? The small businessman will go for the opportunity while the big businessman will hesitate before making the jump. For me, this quote should be fortune favours those who give it their best shot.

2. Be the change you want to be in the world- Mahatma Ghandi

This precept reflects Jack Will’s nature of not believing in revenge. Julian and the gang do many nasty things to Jack over the course of the year and Jack just stays calm and keeps persisting. The change Jack wanted was for people to see that August was not a freak with special needs. All August is is just a normal kid with normal ambitions and normal desires. When Jack became friends with August, he was showing the school that August could have normal friends. In the world, no game changer has ever done one thing to change the world but say they did something else. Let’s take the person who said the quote himself, Mahatma Ghandi. Mahatma did not want war to move the British out. He wanted peace and he also wanted the British people out so he made peaceful protests and what happened to the world that followed were peaceful. The British moved out peacefully. Mahatma beat the British not by force but by justice and he is a good example of human will and game changing abilities.

3. Keep calm and carry on- The Queen of England

This is a great precept for Jack Will. As I said before, Jack was being bullied by Julian and his goons but instead of seeking revenge, he was calm about it and this eventually led him to defeat Julian in the popularity contest. Just think about it, if someone was always right up in your grill; saying mean things and doing rude gestures, what would your response be? Mine would be to sock him right in the jaw. Jack does do this once to Julian but after that,  he just keeps calm and carries on. For me, to keep calm and carry on is a very hard thing to do. Look in history, revenge has managed to wipe out many different cultures. The concept of revenge is quite weird. When one person harms you, just to feel good, you harm him back. Harming people does not feel good, you feel guilty when you punch someone but for some reason, getting revenge is some way to bypass that mental block of guilt. To keep calm and carry on is to beat the wild human and as a civilised human, become a better person. I feel that the whole human race should follow the advice of the queen.

4. Your deeds are your monuments- Inscription on an Egyptian tomb

This is a perfect way to describe Jack Will. He does not say, he does things. When he accomplishes some things he feels great about it. His greatest deed is becoming friends with August. (why does this seem to come up every single paragraph?) That deed earned him a lot of respect later in the book. He was not known and Jack the guy but as Jack the funny one or Jack, August’s friend. Also, what he did to August during Halloween was a bad deed. By saying that, August now identified him as the one who betrayed him. But as the story progresses, Jack does apologize to August and they become friends again. For me, your deeds being your monuments could not be more true. To be know as a person, first you must show the world how good you are at something. Then people will know you as the one who is good at something. But if you are a bad person, it is hard to demolish the statues of evil. Good monuments are super hard to build but once they are up there. They will be a pillar that the human race strives to beat. If your monument is a pillar of good, then you did it. You beat life.

These are the 4 main precepts I found worked for the character Jack will in the book Wonder by: Raquel J. Palacio.

James Adams briefing

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*This is about James Adams as a character*

                 *** THIS BRIEFING HAS BEEN PROTECTED FROM RADIO WAVES , ANY ATTEMPT TO STEAL/COPY THIS BRIEFING WILL RESULT IN DEATH***

Subject: James Adams

Age: 14

Status: CHERUB agent

James Adams is a spy, there is no other way to put it. They were trained, yelled at and abused to be spies. What is their advantage over adults? They can pass through any security system unnoticed. Adults never suspect children of being spies, they are invaluable to the British intelligence. James Adams has completed 4 highly successful missions around the world to infiltrate and dismantled some of the most feared drug kingdoms, terrorist groups and had managed to stop an entire war. 

“Although he is a great spy and can operate under extremely stressful environments, but he is a complete yob”- Meryl Spencer, mission control operator. James Adams ability to do missions well has gotten him much acclaim over the years but in campus, he is known as the troublemaker. It seems that he is always under constant inspection of all the teachers. The only teacher that does not yell/scream/give detention to or demand late homework is his maths teacher. He is friend with Kyle “the  weasley business man” Blueman, Bruce “Chuck” Norris and also many other people (you may notice that they all get into trouble often). His is currently single but had a brief affair with Kerry Chang.

He is currently in a mission in palm high. He is uncovering a criminal organisation which is involved with stealing cars and selling them back into public, for a lot of money. He is also trying to delve into a corruption case in palm high.

              *** THIS BRIEFING HAS BEEN PROTECTED FROM RADIO WAVES , ANY ATTEMPT TO STEAL/COPY THIS BRIEFING WILL RESULT IN DEATH***

Welcome to 8th grade

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Sup guiz,

Im in 8th grade now! Wow, things are kind of ok in this end, nothing exiting happened. I did a book project, it was pretty fun. I did the hunger pains. If you don’t know what this is click here. It’s a fun book, silly and very sarcastic:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 12.45.10 pm

 

Stupid, right?