Friday, December 18, 2009

What Makes A Leader A True Leader?

True leaders are people that would do anything to help his followers. Military leaders, teachers, and parents are good examples of true leaders.

Military leaders are the perfect example of true leaders. While in war, military leaders not only lead their troops into battle but they also fight with them. They also make good decisions to bring troops to victory.

School teachers are also good examples. Teachers help students to become successful in life. By teaching about math and science and english, the students obtain knowledge that can help them get a good career and make enough money to support their future family and themselves.

Parents are true leaders. Throughout their children's lifes, parents take care of their children so that they can one day take care of themselves. Parents sacrifice much time into taking care of their children.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar is a tyrant that some people in Rome love, but many hate. Brutus is one of the haters. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar interested me with the shocking actions of the characters that make this book a tragedy.

Many Romans think that Caesar has too much power. The honorable Brutus says he was ambitious. Brutus's followers agreed with Brutus and decided to kill Julius because of his power.

At Caesar's funeral, Mark Antony spoke. Because of Antony's speech, some of the people that were first with Brutus, switched teams and joined Antony. These people start a riot.

What started out being a small riot, turned into a war between Mark Antony and his followers and Brutus and his followers.

I recommend Julius Caesar to people who like tragic stories.

Catching Fire

Katniss and Peeta are getting married! Unfortunately, this year is also the 75th Hunger Games which means the Quarter Quell is also this year. Suzanne Collins's Catching Fire engrossed me with the way i felt like i was in the story.

Because of the Quarter Quell, the Games have to be special and interesting. When President Snow made the drawing in the Quarter Quell box, the slip that he read ruined everything for Katniss and Peeta. The slip read that the contestants of the 75Th Hunger Games will be previous victors. Peeta and Katniss are going back to the arena.

The arena this year is very difficult to survive. The Capital took the time to make many traps for the contestants to fall into.

Katniss begins to notice that the best players are all wanting to become alliances with her and Peeta. She also notices that everyone is trying to keep her and Peeta alive. Only one person can win the Hunger Games.

I recommend Catching Fire to people who like to feel like they are in the story. I also recommend reading Hunger Games first.

Hunger Games

Katniss Everdeen has volunteered to be a contestant in the Games. She now has to go to an arena to kill twenty three other contestants, including Peeta Mellmart, to survive. Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games kept me on the edge of my seat with the constant surprise with what happens next.

On the day of the Reaping, all of the children between the ages of twelve and eighteen are praying outside of the Justice Building that their name is not going to be one of the two names drawn to play in the Hunger Games. When Katniss's little sister, Prim, was the first one called because her name has been drawn, Katniss immediately volunteered to take her place. Peeta's name is drawn next.

To Katniss, Peeta's name being drawn is one of the worst things that could have happened. They have never really been friends but after Katniss's dad died, Peeta helped her. When she was looking through the trash for food, Peeta took bread from her father's bakery and gave them to her. Because of that act of kindness from Peeta, Katniss feels like she owes him.

When they arrive in the Capitol to train for the arena, Katniss and Peeta play the role of a couple completely in love. They are instructed to play the part in the arena also. The only problem is only one contestant can be the winner of the Hunger Games. So the two go their separate ways. In the middle of the Games, an announcement is made that two people from the same district could win. This meant Katniss and Peeta could both win together. Soon they find each other and become allies. Unfortunately, other districts have both contestants still alive and they also form alliances.

I recommend Hunger Games to people who like adventure and surprises.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

My Name

Names to many families are very meaningful. There are many reasons that a person has a certain name. To some people a certain name has been passed through the family for many years or a name it thought to be powerful.

My name is Kimberly. My mother did not have a special family reason for giving me the name that she did, she just liked the name. She said that when she was thinking of names that the name Kimberly came to her and she liked it. "Kimberly is a soft sounding name and looks very pretty when written out", is what she told me.

The meaning of Kimberly is ruler. Not the type of ruler that is used for measurements but a ruler as in a king or queen. The name fits me because I am the type of person that likes to be in charge.

I recommend looking up the meaning of your name and why that is your name. The knowledge is very interesting.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Top 10 Reasons for Thanksgiving

1. Think--Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful. One reason for the season is to give people a break and give them time to think about what to be thankful for.

2. Thank--Visiting family and friends for Thanksgiving gives time to thank people for being there for them.

3. Visit--Many people do not have a chance to see much of their family and friends. Thanksgiving gives people the opportunity to visit.

4. Break--Work and school take up a lot of time these days. Thanksgiving gives people a break from work and school.

5. History--History was made around these times many years ago. This season is a reminder of history.

6. Sleep--The Thanksgiving break allows for people to get more sleep and reenergized after a long time without break.

7. Shopping--People use this break to shop for Christmas.

8. Stores--Gives stores a chance to makes good deals on supplies for Christmas.

9. Reconnect with God--Thanksgiving always helps my family to take the time to give praise and to reconnect with God.

10. Food--The meal for Thanksgiving gives people a chance to eat shamelessly.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Think Win-Win

The book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey is a book that I recently read for my english class. Habit 4, think win-win, is the habit that I need to work on the most.

I am a very competitive person so I am constantly thinking win-lose. This means that I always have to win and someone else has to lose.

A group of friends and I had a prank war going on a few months ago. Whoever plays the biggest prank on someone else wins the game. During the two months that this game was played, I was so caught up in winning, that i almost lost all of my friends in the process of just getting the small title as the winner. I won the game but my friends, the losers, were all hurt.

If I was not so competitive and thought win-win, we would all have had fun and maybe we would have all won.

Thinking win-win is important in friendships as well as in everything else.

I recommend The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens to all teenagers to help lead a positive life.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Attitudes and Mood Swings

A persons attitude can be so easily changed. A few examples of some events that easily change a person's attitude are small comments other people make, the attitude of another person, a ball game, a grade, and many other events. For most people (teenagers especially) keeping a good, positive attitude can be difficult.

On most mornings, I start out in a good mood. I get up before anyone else in my family so that I can get ready without interruptions. When my sisters or my mother get up and they do not bother me, I remain in a good mood. But if they start questioning me about random topics or homework that they should have done the night before, my attitude changes swiftly. Or if they wake up on the wrong side of the bed, my good mood fades and a very snotty, teenage attitude takes its place.

Attitudes do not always change just in the mornings. They are changing all the time! I can arrive at school with a great attitude but then get to my first class and hear a rumor that has been going around about me or one of my friends and my attitude is immediately changed from good to bad. First period does not even have to be the class that I hear this rumor and get a major mood swing. This could happen at lunch, last period, or even after school.

Mood swings do not even have to go from good to bad. They can also go from bad to good. On the Saturday morning after a big loss for the Pioneers at a Friday Night Football Game, I wake up in an awful mood. I snap at my mom and sisters all morning because I am upset about losing. Later on a friend calls me and tells me a crazy story that makes me laugh. This little laugh changes my mood for the rest of the day and I have a better attitude towards everyone.

People should maintain a positive attitude every day and not let the small events ruin their moods. Here are some words of encouragement to get and stay in a good mood.

1. If you are in a good mood and you hear a rumor about you or someone makes a rude comment to you, ignore them!! Once people see that the rumors or the comments do not phase you, they will move on from you and stop bothering you.

2. If a person around you has a really bad attitude, do not copy them and get one too. Instead try to cheer that person up! If he or she refuses to get happy, move away from that person and go hang out with people that are in a better mood.

3. If a game goes bad, do not let that put you in a bad mood. Just think "Hey there is always next week!" or if that was the last game of the season, "There is always next year!" Just because that game went bad does not mean that the world is going to end.

4. If you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and start the day in a bad mood, find something or someone that makes you happy and start the day over!

Have a good day and keep a positive attitude!!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

The Time Machine

For a scientist, future technology is the ultimate knowledge to have. The Time Traveller has been building a Time Machine for many years so that he could go into the future and obtain the knowledge of the future. H.G. Wells's The Time Machine fascinated me wit the Time Traveller's interesting journeys through the future.

The Time Traveller has just finished the Time Machine that he has worked very hard for a very long time to complete. The day after he has finished the invention, he decides to try to travel in time. At first he is afraid to go very far so he only travels a few minutes ahead of his present time. When he finds that travelling in time was not as bad as he had thought it would be, he travels decades into the future.

By the time he stops, the Time Traveller is now in the year Eight Hundred and Two Thousand Seven Hundred and One A.D. (802,701). Shortly after landing in this year, he is greeted by a group of small people. These people, called the Eloi, welcomed the Time Traveller with much interest in how he got to them. They were also interested in his clothes, matches, machine, and height. The Time Traveller observed the diet of the Eloi and their daily habits. They ate fruits and vegetables and were only seen in the day.

The next day the Time Traveller was going to his Time Machine, but when he got the the field where the Time Machine was left, his machine was not there. The field was empty. After many hours spent on looking for his invention, he became very tired and decided to search for his machine throughout the rest of the week. He thought that a week would be plenty time to observe the future and find new knowledge.

During this week, the Time Traveller encountered another group of small people. This group was called the Morlocks. The Morlocks, unlike the Eloi, were nocturnal and were carnivores. Their food was the Eloi. The Time Traveller had a lot of trouble with the Morlocks. They were constantly trying to eat him.

After many days of searching, the Time Traveller finally finds his Time Machine. The Morlocks had kept the machine hidden in a dark place so that they could try to capture the Time Traveller. He has to fight with them to make his escape with his invention. Instead of immediately going back to his present time, the Time Traveller decides to go even further ahead into the future.

A few decades after the year 802,701 A.D., he stops again and observes his surroundings without leaving his Time Machine. This far into the future, there is not much left of the Earth. The sun is growing bigger and is getting closer to Earth. He decides to keep travelling further. When he has observed more future dates, he decides to return to his present time.

Back in the present, the Time Traveller cannot wait to tell many people about his journeys. He wonders, though, if anyone will believe him.

I recommend The Time Machine to people who enjoy short science fictional books with a lot of adventure.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Angels in Pink-Kathleen's Story

Everyone needs some fun every once in a while. Kathleen thinks that she has too
much responsibility at home and doesn't have time for fun or time to volunteer as a
Pink Angel with her friends. Lurlene McDaniel's Angels in Pink (Kathleen's Story)
kept me on the edge of my seat with the constant action and different points of view
by the different characters.

Kathleen McKensie's home life is not the kind of life that anyone would want to
trade theirs for. Her mother, Mary Ellen, has multiple sclerosis (MS) and can
barely take care of herself. Kathleen got put as Mary Ellen's care taker at the age
of five and never has any time to do anything for herself. She has no time to act
like other girls her age do. When Kathleen's two best friends, Holly and Raina,
persuaded her to join a volunteer program at Parker-Sloan General Hospital as a Pink
Angel, Kathleen thought that this was going to be an awful summer and worried a lot
about the health of her mother who was left at home by herself. Later, Kathleen
finds out that this program is just what she needs to break out of her shell and
have a little fun.

Lurlene McDaniel moves from one of the main characters to the next in every
chapter. I like this style of writing because the book is not as boring with all of
the different events going on with each character. The drawback to this style is
the confusion that the reader gets from each chapter. The different chapters
confused me because they didn't seem to fit together until I read on a few more
chapters and the chapters before were all summed up. Lurlene's type of writing is
more serious and realistic than funny. There are a few funny parts in her stories,
but most of her story seems very realistic than comical. When i read Angels in
Pink, it seemed as if i was really in the hospital and at the characters houses
witnessing all of the action because the descriptions of the settings were very
elaborate.

Kathleen didn't like talking about her home life to other people besides Holly
and Raina. Most of the time, though, she didn't want to talk to them about her
situations at home, either. Mary Ellen was my least favorite character because she
was always so needy and complained way to much. She always wanted Kathleen to do
everything for her and Kathleen had to stop everything she was doing to make her
mother happy. If Kathleen came home a little later than planned from the hospital
or from running an errand, Mary Ellen would get very emotional. On Kathleen's first
day at the hospital, the orientation went a little longer than she thought it
would. When she walked in she saw that her mother had been crying. When she saw
Kathleen she said "I was scared. I - I thought something bad had happened to you."
Then she refused to eat unless Kathleen was right there eating beside her.

I recommend this book to people who like books that make the reader feel like
part of the story. Also Angels in Pink is a good book for people who have interests
in personal, realistic books.

The Host

Earth has been taken over by Souls. There are only a few humans remaining and
they cannot seem to find each other. Melanie has just been captured by the Seekers
to become a Soul but she is fighting to take her body back so she can save the rest
of the humans on Earth. Stephanie Meyer’s The Host interested me with the rough
adventures of Melanie and her Soul, Wanderer.

Before Melanie was captured, she had been hiding with her little brother,
Jamie. They had been in hiding for a total of two years. The Souls have taken over
Earth and the rest of Melanie and Jamie’s family. They think that they are the only
two humans left on Earth. One night on a raid for food, Mel finds that they are
wrong. Looking for food in an empty house, Melanie was scared by a figure that had
jumped out at her and held her down. She thought that this figure was a Seeker that
had found her and was going to take her to get a Soul put in her and then kill her.
The figure turned out to be Jared, another human survivor. After finding Jared,
Melanie and Jamie did not struggle as much for food and shelter. Jared seemed to be
a miracle worker. He gave Mel the hope to believe that more humans had survived.

After a few months with Jared, Melanie got the courage to leave Jamie with
Jared and try to find her cousin that she believed had also survived. Melanie
traveled many days to Chicago where she was then caught by a Seeker. Mel’s body had
a Soul inserted and her memories were supposed to be used to find other humans.
Every other human host had been used for this purpose. The difference with Melanie
was that she did not die during the operation. She was still alive and in her body
when the Soul, Wanderer, was controlling her. Melanie fought to keep her memories
hidden from Wanderer. The main memories that she blocked were those about Jared and
Jamie. A few weeks after the insertion of Wanderer, Melanie began talking to her.
After the first annoying conversations between them they became friends. Mel began
trusting Wanderer with her secrets and broke down the wall that blocked Wanderer
from seeing her memories. When Wanderer saw Jared and Jamie, she fell in love with
them and decided not to reveal them to her assigned Seeker but to go find them and
be with them.

Wanderer began her journey through the desert in her car but had to give up
the luxury because the desert became too rough. She also ran out of gas. The only
hope of finding Jared and Jamie was to follow the lines and landmarks that Melanie’s
crazy Uncle Jeb had given her many years ago. On this long adventure, Wanderer and
Melanie almost die of dehydration.

On the night that they had given up on finding their loved ones and almost
died, they are found by a familiar face from Melanie’s memories. This face belonged
to Uncle Jeb. They had finally found his hideout. When Jeb gets Wanderer into the
caves, she sees many more humans. Jared and Jamie had made it there also. The only
problem was that Melanie’s body now belonged to Wanderer and she is a Soul. Humans
do not trust Souls no matter who their hosts are. The only humans that trusted
Wanderer were Jeb and Jamie. They kept her safe because they had a theory that
Melanie was still alive and was sharing her body with Wanderer. Wanderer just hopes
that these two humans will be enough to keep her safe from the rest of the humans in
the caves and from the angry Seeker that refuses to give up searching for her.

I recommend The Host to people who enjoy long books with a lot of action and
adventure.

619 pages

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Organized Chaos

This Friday is the Batesville-vs.-Searcy football game. The schedule has this game to be an away game but I was just told today that it is now a home game. Searcy’s lights at their field are broken. This is the reason for the change of fields.

I am a prancer at Batesville High School. Prancers only dance at home games. It is a requirement that prancers attend one away game each season and this was not the game we were required to go to this game but now that it is home we have to attend this game and dance!

Since I wasn’t supposed to go to this game, I had plans to go to my grandparents while my mom attended a wedding in Nashville, Tennessee. Thankfully, my coach is a very understanding person so she is not requiring me to attend this game since it was such a short notice on the change in schedule.

So now all of the chaos is taken care of for the most part. The rest of the prancers now have one less person in the formation and have to get a new routine learned and cleaned in only two practices! Searcy needs to get their lights fixed and Batesville needs to play a good game Friday night!