O-4 College

This article on college really interested me.  The title itself was an eye popper.  I must admit that  getting the money for college is rather expensive.  It can take years just to save up money for a good college, even community college.  This helps if young people have jobs and if the parents save money.  That was not the eye popper.
What surprises me is there are so many youth in poverty.  "Although many of their prospects are rising, they are emerging from conditions of widespread poverty and lack of access to the most important means of economic mobility: education. In the Middle East and North Africa, youth unemployment has been stuck above 20 percent for the last two decades. And in the parts of the world where youth unemployment has been low, such as south and east Asia, young people are overwhelmingly employed in the agriculture sector, which leaves them vulnerable to poverty." That is crazy. In the world today, college graduates will earn 80% more than those who are in poverty.  That is highly likely, but I know that's crazy. 

It is crazy that a lot of youth are unemployed considering  that a lot of the countries are in poverty.  Youth are mostly unemployed in Italy. After Italy are Spain, England, Greece and then our country, the US.  I'm going top put that graph in my blog because it is rather interesting.




This article was interesting to read.

Source:   http://www.theatlantic.com/business/print/2012/03/whats-more-expensive-than-college-not-going-to-college/255073/      

O-3 Choice

For my choice blog, I am going to write about the days coming up to spring break. On Monday, I was as sluggish as ever. I did not want to go to school after spending the remainder of my Sunday at Jenna Wallace's house.  I had a headache from eating so much food. That night, I ate two brownies and a bunch of cheetos. (Nobody ate as much cheetos as Jenna's sister, Jaclyn. She ate half of the bag.) Monday wasn't as bad as I thought.  By the end of the school day, I  was not sluggish anymore. The weather was nice, so I was happy about that.  On Tuesday, I went to school. I had to stay after for environmental, so I walked home with my sister. Her day was apparently worse than mine.  That's okay. Things happen. We went to Ronny's for pizza dinner. I had two slices of taco pizza and a small slice of cheese. My mother stuck to cheese and pepperoni pizza. My dad and my sister each had a piece of broccoli cheese pizza.  We got dessert afterwards. Unfortunately, it wasn't very good.   Yesterday, I didn't have to stay after, so I went home.  That was lucky. But I still had to do my English homework for Mr. Currin. That benefited me, since today, I was my literature group's representative. There was great a conversation going. I didn't want it to end.  The best part of today was Battle of the Classes. Juniors have this one in the bag.  The other best part of today is at 2:25 pm. School will be over and I'll be FREE!!!!! FREE!!! FREE!!!!!  Free, I tell you. FREE!!!!!!

O-2 My mother was....

My mother was happy to get home from work after her long day. My mother has been having long days at work lately.  She gets up very early on the days she has to go to work.  Her alarm clock rings at 5:45 am every weekday morning.  My mother gets up and goes downstairs to see my dog.  My dog usually has been already fed by my father, but some mornings, he hasn't been fed yet. So she feeds him. After my  mother finishes feeding him, she takes a long shower. By this time, I'm out of bed. I have to wait to use the bathroom because of my mother's long showers. (My father and I always make fun of her for her long showers.)  It takes my mother over an hour to get out of the house after that because she spends all of her time getting her earrings on and putting on her make-up.  Then she dries her hair, which takes about ten years. It is a pain listening to the hair dryer make that annoying  noise.  My mother finally gets out of the house at around 8:00.  These days, my mother has longer days at work. She hates the long days, and she is very glad to get home.  My sister and I greet her when she gets home. (My dog greets her first because he runs to the door. ) Then comes dinner. We either eat at the table or eat in front of the TV.  When we eat in front of the TV, we watch sitcoms such as The Bob Newhart Show, The Big Bang Theory, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and  Mary Tyler Moore.  We spend family time when my mother comes home from work.  My mother has an important job to do. But she is happy to be home with her family.

O-1 What's inside a hamburger?

 For this blog, I was asked to  write about a current event and respond to it. I picked a story from NPR about What's Inside  the 26 Ingredients of a school lunch burger?
I was very interested to find that there are twenty-six ingredients  inside of a hamburger.  The first ingredient was your ordinary ground beef. You can't make a hamburger without ground beef, can you? No, you can't. Water, the second ingredient, does not surprise me either. The third ingredient is rather intriguing.  Why would soy bean flour be in a hamburger? It doesn't make any sense to me. But it gets crazier. Ingredients four through fourteen are vitamins. I find that surprising because I thought hamburgers would only have one or two vitamins, not ten. These vitamins also have long names that people can't pronounce. Yet, the unfamiliar vitamins make people suspicious.  Yeast extract is also in a hamburger. Some people like me are allergic to yeast. If I my parents knew this when I was younger, they wouldn't give me a regular hamburger.  There's some more soy inside the hamburger, some sugar, and natural flavor. We don't know what that is. That makes me a little more suspicious.  The final ingredient is Disodum  Inosinate.
This story intrigues me.  What interested me was that these ingredients are used in our burgers at the grocery store and in our school lunches. this story made people wonder if our children are eating the right food. Schools are considering going from scratch instead of using prepackaged food.  This will really impact our school lunch program.

 Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/04/02/149717358/whats-inside-the-26-ingredient-school-lunch-burger

N-4 A Tragic Story

This is yet another tragic story of racial discrimination.  Trayvon Martin was a normal kid who got the fate he didn't deserve because he was African American.  Trayvon Martin was a normal kid with a normal life until her died.  I blame the bad law enforcement for this sad story.  They killed an innocent kid just because he was African American. The law enforcement should have been paying attention to what they are doing, not being part of the problem. Zimmerman was part of that so-called law enforcement.n that case, he was part of the problem just like everyone else who was with him. Law enforcers also shouldn't push people to the ground unless they are part of the problem.  Trayvon was not part of the problem. In fact, he was the victim.   People like me think Zimmerman should be in jail for what he did. Right now, Zimmerman is incognito, and it will only be a matter of time before he will be caught. Justice hasn't been done. It will never be done until Zimmerman gets arrested. Justice won't come any faster because the media is taking this case way too far. This case is already a controversial issue, and the media is making this case more controversial.  People have expressed opinions, some of which are so strong that justice hasn't been done.  The media's stories are making this story more tragic than it already is.  The Trayvon Martin case is yet another tragic story.

N-3 Five Questions with Rachele Sisson

Rachele Sisson is a member of the Bulldog Staff at Alden High School. Rachele is a 12th grade student at Alden High School. Her birthday is May 12th. She is currently seventeen years old.  Rachele has a sister named Gabby and a brother named Eddie. Rachele has a lot of pets. She has two dogs, six cats, two goats, two hamsters, a rabbit, a frog, a turtle, a bird, and a guinea pig.  Rachele's favorite subject is school is English because she likes reading. Her least favorite subject in school is science because she is not good at it.  Rachele plays Varsity basketball.

1) Since you are a senior this year, what do you hope to do in the future?
Rachele is going to ECC for two years. Then she is going to Buffalo State for two years to be an art teacher.

2) If you could go anywhere in  the world, where would you go?
Rachele would like to go to Texas. She would like to go to Texas because her dad used to live there. Rachele's dad brought back fun memories of the place, so Texas sounds like fun to her.

3) If you could be any animal, what would you be?
Rachele would like to be a dog because a dog is man's best friend.

4) Are you going anywhere for spring break?
Rachele is not going anywhere for spring break. She is staying home with her family.  Usually, Rachele and her family go to Florida,but they're not going this year.  Rachele and her family want a break from Florida.

5) What is the weirdest thing that ever happened to you?
Rachele was at basketball practice when she was joking around with the girls on the team. Rachele always remembers to stretch,but that day she forgot because she was joking around with the girls on the team.  As it was, Rachele didn't stretch ,and she pulled her thigh.

Getting to know Rachele Sisson was a great opportunity. I'm glad I got to know her because  she is a person you should get to know too.

N-2 Future Career

In the future, I would like to work as a speech therapist. When I was younger, I was language delayed. So I would like to teach kids from experince. People often learn better with experince. I know that first hand.  Mrs. Bibler was my speech teacher. (And she was my 5th grade teacher.)  Since I was language delayed, Mrs. Bibler had a tough job to do. It was easy to work with her becuase she was so patient. I also hope to be a speech therapist because I need to work on my patience.   I can be impatient sometimes. Another reason I hope to be a speech therapist is because I like kids. Over the summer, I voulnteered at Vacation Bible School, and it was a good experience.  Since Mrs. Bibler was so good with kids,she enjoyed working with me.   However, the job market is so competitive now that it's hard to get a job as a speech therapist. So I've got a back-up plan.  I am hoping to work in hosptitality. What I mean by that is  working in a resturant or  help cook the food in a resturant.   With hospitalty, I also will have good people skills. That applies to both jobs.  Another backup I have is being the head of a recreation department for kids.  That calls for people skills. I would have control over the activities that will  be held.  These are my my dream careers.