Heather Hoodhood V.S Mr.Hoodhood

When fathers and daughters have disagreements, it is very serious! Heather, who has a fantasy to become a flower child, no wants to go to Columbia University. Her dreams is obliterated when her dad, Mr.Hoodhood is being so uncaring, so strict, and so mean that it makes me want to disgorge my lunch! All he cares about is architecture and his job. The only vision he has for his children is for Holling to be his successor and for Heather to be his secretary. He doesn't have a waking thought of them being or doing something else. Since Mr.Hoodhood did not want heather to got to university, I thought that this was especially nasty because what father does not want their child to go to university? Even though they are protesting at that university it will be doing well in the world to go and help stop a war. Mr.Hoodhood does not care for the safety of his children much. If I told my dad that I wanted to go to university he would be all for the idea. Not because he wants me to leave but he wants be to go and do well in the world, whether it is stopping a war or getting an education. The world to Mr.Hoodhood is going crazy so that's his only excuse for getting Heather to stay home. He doesn't care what is happening in the world either (which means he doesn't care about the protesting) unless it has to do with him directly. Mr.Hoodhood thinks it is a grotesque thing to go and protest because it has nothing to do with him. Heather could probably even go help stop the war herself. Also if everything is leaning to worse every day, why not help prevent it from going further? Heather has every right to do what her heart tells her. I see all of Mr.Hoodhood's reasoning as misconstrued as he only uses excuses to get what he really want Heather to do. It's most likely a serious reason when fathers and daughters fight but not as serious as a war or getting a higher education.

The Duelling Architects

Mr.Hoodhood and Mr.Kowalski are very similar and strikingly different at the same time. Both are aggressive, both are architects, both are cunning, both are smart, and so on with the increasingly long list of similarities. But surprisingly there is one major difference. Mr.Hoodhood pretty much radiates confidence. Mr.Kowalski, on the other hand, seems nervous as he talked about his school design in front of the conference. They are obviously both aggressive because Mr.Hoodhood gets angry and always accepts a challenge, which is also competitive. Mr.Kowalski does the same like when he took parts of Mr.Hoodhood's design into his. Basically they both play architecture like a blood sport. Another major difference is that Mr.Kowalski, being nervous and all doesn't seem to have the stomach for architecture which makes Mr.Hoodhood better at it. So also since both are architects I would say Mr.Hoodhood is the better one. They are also both cunning. Mr.Kowalski, who knew it was wrong to take Mr.Hoodhood's design, went and did it anyway. Mr.Hoodhood still cunning about how he works things still seems more outright. They also have a difference in how they treat their children. Mr.Kowalski seems to care more for Meryl Lee then Mr.Hoodhood cares for Holling. They are also both smart in their own ways and they make good designs. In a way both of them have problems but they are also good in certain ways too.

By Nicholas Yusuf
Date: Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Grade 7, Ms. Babb's class
Macbeth Summary
"Round the caldron we go; in the poison'd entrails throw." This is a line from Shakespeare's famous play, Macbeth. Macbeth, the name of the play, is also the name of one of the main characters. Other people
(more or less, because there are witches) are featured in this play including three old witches that tell prophecies, Banquo, Macbeth's best friend, the Scottish king Duncan, Malcolm and Donalblian, the
king's sons, Macduff, who overthrows Macbeth when Macbeth becomes king, and Lady Macbeth, who is Macbeth's wife. In the play everyone was in Scotland and it was during the time of the reign of Duncan, the
reign of Macbeth, and the reign of Malcolm. After Macbeth and Banquo defeat two armies in battle they were walking to meet their king when they were confronted by three witches. The witches told them that
Macbeth will become a Scottish noble and eventually the king. They told Banquo that he will not become king but his descendent would. Macbeth did not think any of this was true until the king awarded him with the Thane of Cawdor (a Scottish noble rank).
After he got back his wife, Lady Macbeth, convinced Macbeth to kill the king and become king himself. So he thinks that this is part of the prophecy and does what she says. Then he becomes king. Macbeth is
now paranoid about Banquo and his descendent becoming king so he hires someone to kill Banquo and Fleance, his son. Banquo was assassinated but his son escaped blood. After this occurred, Macbeth had dinner with some Scottish nobles but the ghost of Banquo haunts him and he goes insane. So one of the nobles, Macduff, plots to overthrow him because they don't see him fit to be a king. Later Macbeth went back to the witches and they told him to beware of Macduff, Macbeth is incapable of being harmed by any man born of woman, and he would be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle. He wasn't worried about the last two parts since forest cannot move and every man is born of woman. Meanwhile Lady Macbeth goes insane trying to wash the imaginary blood off her hands and kills herself. She feels too much guilt for taking part in the killing of the king. Macbeth, now sad from the loss of his wife, is still not scared until he hears that Malcolm, Macduff, and an army is coming to the castle shielding themselves with branches from Birnam Wood. On the warzone Macbeth fights Macduff and Macduff discovers that Macduff was not born of woman but untimely ripped from his mom's womb. Macduff then beheaded Macbeth. Malcolm then becomes king of Scotland. In later years so does Fleance.

Homework is not a waste of time!

Knowledge is the one thing that gets us what and where we need to get. The only way to develop our brains fully enough is to stay in school and do our work as your teacher says. A lot of people say that homework is just a way for punishments to be given or it's a big waste if time when you can be doing other things, are the people that will not have good jobs in the future. If you do want a good life, a job that pays off, and then a lot of money, you will have to us your smarts.

The reason for my opinion is that obviously, everyone in life wants money. You know you do. You can't get your way if you're well… stupid. You know you also want to be smart. Everyone does. But if you drop out of school and don't do what you have to do, then face it, you can't be smart like some other people who graduated. The best way to develop your brain and drill on what you need to know is homework. Also, since parents want the best for their kids they should have them do homework as they please. Then as they grow up they will know the knowledge they need to know in life.

Another reason is that if you were in a store or a certain situation where you needed to calculate something immediately, you couldn't really do that because you might've not learned how to do things quickly and shortly because you couldn't remember. Why didn't you remember?  You couldn't remember because you didn't do all your homework. Ms. Babb once told us she went to an auto shop to get her oil changed on her car. She explained to us that the mechanic was really good with his hands but when it came time for her to pay, the mechanic didn't know how to calculate the change. Yes it's a sad truth. This guy probably didn't remember math because he dropped out of school or maybe he didn't do the entire math he needed to do.

This also may not seem like much but language is probably the utmost important thing you should learn. Why you ask? This is because every signal, every word, every letter, and everything that I've said so far is linked to language. If you don't know all your words or a language fluently or properly consider this, you couldn't learn other things, do a lot of things, communicate effectively with someone, or pretty much live a life properly.

Our brain is a very complex thing. Consequentially it can't be that awesome thing in our head if it's not developed and utilized properly. Nevertheless people choose not to do what they need to life an efficient life. To put for people who wouldn't understand this means knowledge=good job, which =money, and that= good life. Of course to do this you need smartness. Some people say they can make it on their own, but truthfully you pretty much can't. So you should get cracking on your work, get your good grades, develop your brains, stay in school, and last but not least live your life to the fullest.

Lent

        Lent is the time that symbolizes the time in the past when Jesus went into the desert ant fasted from communication with people and food. While Jesus was in the desert he was tempted by the devil for some time. Even though the devil's temptations were hard to resist Jesus did anyway. He resisted the devil's temptation for 40 days and 40 nights. As Catholics we believe that during Lent we should fast for a certain amount of reasons. Catholics believe that we should fast to connect with what Jesus did for us; we also improve our spirit, self-control, and strengthen our mind through the practice of Lent. I believe that I should give up something for Lent because by doing so I can resist the temptation for doing bad, doing things I shouldn't do, and  connect with Jesus all the while I am working on my self- control, spirit, and mind. In Lent when we go up to the priest, they bless us using the ashes of the palm crosses. This, as Catholics believe, symbolizes that we were once dust, which was breathed on by God, and made into us human mortals. It means we were dust one day and as dust we shall return to when our death comes. Also since Catholics give up something for Lent to help strengthen our minds and our connection with Jesus it means sacrificing something that we might be addicted to. During Lent I'm going to give up reading books. It might seem like a weird choice but I love reading a good book. I can't really go a day without reading a book. Will you give up something for Lent? It sure will strengthen your connection with Jesus and God as it will improve your mind, spirit and, heart.

                                                            By Nicholas Y

Krakow, Poland

02/09/2012

I.L.I.T.E

        The best way to describe I.L.I.T.E is it was amazing and educational at the same time, it was amazingly educational. My day at school started when we came to school and sat in the atrium.  After almost ten minutes we were loaded up on the school bus and then we headed down to Blessed Mother Theresa. After we got to the high school we sat down in the hallway square. About half an hour later we went and got our name tags and went to sit down in the cafeteria/stage area. That's where we started our day at I.L.I.I.T.E.

        I walked in to the dark room hearing blaring music from the large sound system. As everyone knows, Cardinal Leger is THE BEST! So obviously we got front row seats (okay not front row but close to it, you know what I mean). We sat there chatting, listening to the ear-corrupting loudness of the music. Then after sometime we were greeted by a guy (I don't know his name) and then we said a prayer to start our day as good Catholics. After we said the Hail Mary, we were greeted by another nice guy named Stu Saunders. He told us the story of how his parents divorced and then what gave him the drive to become a good leader. After this we got dispersed to our activities for the day. Mine in the morning was The Angel Foundation Group, and in the afternoon was Big up Your Voice.

        The Angel Foundation Group activity wasn't actually called that but that was what they told us about and I couldn't remember what it was actually called. When I got to the room, most eyes were on me because almost everybody else was there. I looked around for a seat then sat down in a seat closer to the back because that was one of the only ones available. We were told stories of single parents struggling to support their kids and how they feed lunch. The Angel Foundation would like to make everybody more equal in the world and not have people struggling in life while learning or getting an education. Then we had this activity. The activity was: if we had one penny and we could change something for the better with that penny, what would we do with it. I stated, I would send that penny to Africa and tell them to keep that penny circulating. It would give people some joy.

When this activity was over we headed down to the hall to get our lunch passes to get our yummy pizza man, um I mean pizza. Then we headed to the stage/cafeteria area where we sat down and ate our pizza. When we were done we went down to the stage area to watch some performances by a dance group, StarchildX (I got a pin!), a guy and his band (the guy's name was Diego and I was told he performed on The Next Star, or something). All the performances were spectacular! I got it all recorded on my phone.

When we were done here, we went back to the hallway where we would head down to our next workshop. My next workshop was Big up Your Voice. In this activity I walked in the room and sat down near my cool friend, Helena. Then later my other friend Christopher came in. We were talking to the people behind us. Their names were Samantha and Gabriella. Turns out I did make some friends! So when we were here we talked for almost half the time because the projector wasn't working. Then the boys helping our teacher brought in a 46-inch T.V. We started talking about Canada's history and the teacher asked everyone if we notice a gap in it. Everyone said no. Then he asked if we were all Canadian and everyone said yes except for one girl, she decided to be sarcastic and say NOOOOOOO. Then the teacher talked about when Canada was discovered. He said the people who discovered Canada told everyone back home of the "dark" people they found here. Then we looked back at the pictures. Not to be racist or anything, but the picture frames only held photographs of white people. We even watched a video on it. Turns out it was true. So we were told that we can make a difference and fill in disrespected people.

I.L.I.T.E was a great experience for me. If I had the choice I would go back again to do more activities. We were leaders and now improved leaders. I always like to build on my leadership skills so I could lead people by setting a good example. Anyone can be a leader if they tried. I was told at a workshop; we are leaders, so we should get up and make a difference now!

                                By Nick Y

Zoink'd!!

ZOINK'D!!

           "Three zoinks and you're out!" Natalie exclaimed. Have you ever wondered what this wacky word means? Probably not because I'm pretty sure they just made up this word for the show. Anyways a zoink is when you get an object, such as slime, poured or shot at you. To be zoink'd you go on this game show called Zoink'd and do wacky, crazy, zany and hilarious things to not get zoink'd. But be careful because if the judges don't like it they zoink you! Get zoink'd 3 times and you are out! So you better be careful!

      On this seriously silly game show there are four judges to judge your every move. Their names are Natalie, Wyse, Neal, and Aleksa. Did I mention that the judges are only 11 to 13 years in age? That's right you actually just read that. Why, I'm not so sure. Maybe the producer wanted to make the show more interesting! The 4 judges stood on an elevated platform in the studio before the stage. Also, they had this giant mechanical lever. What is that lever for? To zoink of course! Once they pull the lever an object goes flying on to the contestant. And as Natalie said "3 zoinks and you are out!" I also personally thought that the judges were a bit too mean but then again if you used your common sense than you know that television is totally unreal.

      What I learned from this field trip is that television is all recorded and nothing is real about it. Even reality television, someone didn't  just happened to be recording it at that time. Figuring this out, I never thought of television programs the same way again. What we had to do was at certain intervals of the show we had to cheer or boo the contestants. I found this was exciting and hilarious considering the look on people faces! I also learned that sometimes in the show people don't really memorize their lines! They actually just follow what a little screen says, which is positioned under the camera.  All of this was arranged so well I thought "Wow, this is state-of-the art technology.

      This T.V program was about an amount of contestants from various places in Canada that came on the show and did there most insane talents! Once they impress the judges they don't get zoink'd but if you fail, or if it looks that way to them you get the dark side of the judges when they zoink you! The studio was arranged like, well a neatly arranged recording studio! The platform for the judges was elevated and facing the stage where the performers performed their zaniest and wackiest stunt and talents. The zoink machines, as I like to call them, were positioned one behind and 2 beside the stage. These machines fired things from ribbons to Ping-Pong balls to slime! I have no intellectual idea on where the slime came from, but the Ping-Pong balls and other items were loaded into the machines beside the stage. The slime came from the machine behind the stage but how it was loaded is a mystery to me! The students that came from an assortment of schools sat in the seats behind the zoink machines that were beside the stage in theater arranged seats. The studio was arranged so well I had to get the thought out of my head that this wasn't real!

      Wackiness can be good or bad at sometimes, but in this case it was demanding of the zaniest people out there! Hopefully, if you do get on this show, you never get zoink'd. I have seen it happen and trust me people it is not a good thing to be slimed! There is, in everyone, a wacko waiting to get out and perform the most insane stunts! If you'd like to get zoink'd be my guest and go for it! But remember, you have been warned… just kidding! It really isn't all that bad!

                       

                        By Nick Y

        

     

My Weekend

THE EPIC PARTY!
By: Nicholas

So we're talking about our weekends. Let's just say MY WEEKEND WAS
SOOOOO AWESOME!!! The main part of my weekend was the HUGE PARTY at
Joseph house. So at the party first thing was that I was there first
at 12:00 right on the dot. So because of this his dad said I was very
punctual. After that, we went in the basement (which was the party
room) and I noticed his EPIC FACE light switch and I said "WOW COOL
LIGHT SWITCH!" and then he said "I know I made it myself, its sooo
epic isn't it?" Then we started playing PS3. After a few minutes of
playing we heard DING DONG from somewhere which we thought was the
T.V. Then we heard Joseph's dad calling for us. When we went upstairs
and we saw Adam standing in the doorway. He said "I've been waiting
here for 5 MINUTES!" We brought him inside and we went down to the
basement and Joseph's dad was on the phone ordering some things when
he was done he told us "Okay so I ordered the pizza, the beer, the
stripping girls, the poker table, and all the other good stuff." (By
the way he was just joking but we did have pizza). After this everyone
else started arriving and we played PS3 for a little bit more than we
played Fast and Furious IN REAL LIFE (with fake cars but that doesn't
matter), we jacked some ones Ferrari (just kidding), and we played
outside a little until some people showed up but it turned out they
just wanted to play too. So we played for a little more and then we
went inside to watch Green Hornet. It was so cool until I had to
leave. That was one of the best days. This wasn't my whole weekend but
it turned out that Sunday was REALLY boring so that's my journal entry
of my weekend I hoped you liked it.

The Parable of the Rich Fool

(Luke 12.13-21)

When Jesus was teaching someone asked him to tell their brother to split their property. Then Jesus told the parable. The parable is about a man who grew an abundant amount of crops. He thought to himself "Where shall I put my crops?"  Then he decided to destroy his barns and build them larger than before. He said to his soul "Soul you are very abundant, so now you can relax and be merry!" But then God told him "You fool your life will be taken tonight! Then whose will all your treasures be?" This is how it will be for those who aren't rich toward God, but are to themselves.

        The moral of this story is to be rich towards God and yourselves. You can be rich toward yourselves but not as much as you should be towards God. You should never spoil yourself so much to forget the real reason why you live. You should always love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your self. This is because He was the One who made human life, the One who made the world, and the One who made you. If you forget the real reason why you live on this world alive and safe, you can't get into heaven like all the other people who loved God.

Name:Nicholas Y.
Date: November 25.2011
Teacher: Ms. Babb

Teen Ranch

North of Orangeville there is an amazing place covered with beautiful forests, ponds, lakes, and fields. This alluring place is called Teen Ranch. In my opinion, this place is the best place EVER!! I think every grade 7 person should have experienced this epic camp for themselves. Now you might not think the same as me but whoever doesn't go to this camp, I would feel really sorry for them. Everyone should experience what it feels like to live there for a week with their friends.

        The cabins at Teen Ranch were really good, better than other camps I've been to, but what did you think? In my cabin, cabin 10, there were 6 really superb people! The people were Simon, Nick P, Justin L, Ethan, Kyle, Ducky, and of course me! But I said 6 people, you heard 7, that's because Ducky is Simon's extreme pet duck! The first we did was unpacked our sleeping bags and toiletries. Cabin life with my friends was fun but mostly in our cabins we played a few games, slept, and used the bathrooms when we needed to. Also the cabins only had a little space because it had 8 bunks.

        My impression of the food was it was probably the best of all the other camps I have been to but that is still only my opinion. First of all the taste was so good I wanted a lot more. It was so flavoursome that I felt like I never was going to be full. Some of the food we had was perogies, burgers, ribs, and a lot more that I can't remember because we had an excellent time! And what was good was that all the foods were healthy but really good. The tables had about 7 seats and I think there were about 9 tables that the students and teachers sat in. Set-up and clean-up wasn't new to me because I do it at home. For set-up we put cutlery and other essentials for eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner. For clean-up we wiped down tables and put away everything.

        Horseback riding was really good except we didn't go that fast. A few times we trotted but not a lot. I had a much behaved horse named Ivy. She was a white coloured horse who listened very well. We saw the beautiful forest, large piles of poop from the horses, and a huge field. We all had a good time and some peoples butts started to hurt including me! I was sort of good at it since I rode before.

        I was a little nervous when I stepped back on the ice. This was because before I did skate but it was a while ago. I also used to play hockey when I was younger. When I got back on the ice I was like a natural at it. I only fell down when I bumped into someone. There were some others who couldn't skate so I helped them try to get better. Even though I was sort of good some of my friends were skating like a moonwalk which is kind of hard for me!

        You wouldn't believe how hilarious but fun the night activities were! We had a dance and we all sang, we watched a movie and made up some jokes from it, and we did journaling to remember these terrific events.

        This stunning camp had me wanting to stay for a longer period of time. I think I have plans to go somewhere in the summer with my friends next year! Teen Ranch was an extremely good for me. I know everyone had fun and everyone said it was the BEST OVERNIGHT CAMP EVER!!