Crises of Faith

A time of crisis had occurred to me last week when my sister told me what she learned in her biology class at Berkeley City College. She was telling me how some factories are breading and treating cows badly. There are a few big companies that nurture cows these ways that are called battery cow farming.

I always thought all cows were raised in regular farm fields where they have a lot of space to run around and eat all the grass they wanted, until my sister told me otherwise. Sadly, they aren't. When cows are born, the people take the newborns right away or the next day from their mother. They are raised in the field for 6 months eating grass and this will be the last grass they will eat in their lives, then they are taken to the factories. The cows are in a confined space placed in a "cubical stable". A few companies are planning 16 new indoor dairy farms housing up to 18,000 cows in "cubicle stables" for 24 hours a day for eight months of the year. They don't even have enough room to walk around, they could probably take a few steps backwards, or stick their head out of the fence, and that's about it. The cows also have a poor diet. The farmers feed them corn, rather than grass, and antibiotics are added to the corn at every meal. They add antibiotics in their food to prevent the cows from getting sick, but later on they start to get immune to the antibiotics. If they do get sick the antibiotics will not affect them. Another issue with the cows is sanitation. The cows are crowded next to each other and they stand in their own feces, along with feces belonging to other cows. All the cows' feces are either put in a pile or leave it as it is. Why do they do that? Think about it. There are about four times more cows than the human population, so there is a lot of waste. The feces build up and are put into one large pile. The feces from sick cows also lead to diseases when it flows into the sewer lines and the water source becomes contaminated. My sister told me that a child most likely became handicap from drinking the contaminated water.

Companies feed their cows with corn and antibiotics, so they can grow faster and make more money. In fast food restaurants they sell their beef burgers fast and cheap. Since the cows can't use their muscles to move around in their confined spaces, it causes them to fatten and that's why the meat tastes so good. When the cows are sent to the slaughter house, factory workers cut the meat in pieces in fast assembly lines. The workers aren't very cautious when they cut the meat because the assembly line moves quickly and this gives a higher risk of not inspecting meat properly. Also, about 2 years ago someone had E. Coli from a burger at Jack In The Box. This was the first time they found E. Coli in a burger. The cows aren't even healthy or happy, but the advertisements on TV say that, "Happy cows come from California".

When my sister told me about all of this I felt a little disgusted and sad that the cows are kept in a confined space. When she mentioned how the cows were being raised way differently from what I expected, it makes me want to change my eating habits, but at the same time I don't want to because of the delicious beef out there. Now I'll try not to eat a lot of fast food because it's bad for your health. I need to be careful of what I am eating. It's so sad for the cows being they are so compacted in a small area and being tortured. It must feel like being in prison for the cows. These company owners probably don't care about the people and our health. All they want from us is to buy their beef, so that they could make loads amount of money. Why do this to cows when there is plenty of land filled with grass and good farmers who want to raise their cows in a healthy, clean and natural environment? These cows aren't even meant to be locked up for the rest of their lives. They should have some freedom running in the wide open spaces and eat all the green grass they want.

Summer Vacation

Last summer my family didn't have any plans to go anywhere for at least two weeks for vacation. Over the summer break I just stayed home and hung out with my friends. At the last minute of my summer vacation my family and I went to Yosemite for three days. We were planning to go river rafting for the first day, second day was to go walk around Yosemite, and go home the third day.
We left at 6am to go river rafting and it was a three to four hour drive over there. We went straight to the river rafting place and when we got there the instructor told us how to use the paddle and went over the safety procedures. We took off into the river and the water was steady for 10 minutes. Later we saw a mini river stream ahead of us and a big rock in the middle, 30 feet away. We weren't paying attention ahead of us because the river was calm and we had to paddle has a team to get away from the rock. This had happen several times and when we go down steeper steams we start to lose control and start moving to the left because of the current pulling us. It's scary when we start to head over to the tree branches with spiders in there. This was a 5 mile river rafting trail and it took us about 6 hours to finish. We went to eat dinner and spend the night at a motel.
The next day we were headed to Yosemite to look at mountains and waterfalls. We headed to a waterfall and took pictures together. After, we climbed up the rocks and my brother and I went to the very top and saw a big waterfall pond. We walked around through the forest towards a river and swam in there for a while. The water was freezing cold to swim in, it was about 45 degrees. We were across from the half dome watching the sun set. We went to a motel and spend the night. Then we went home.

Video Games

Are you a gamer? I started to play video games when I was in the 2th grade. My first game console I have played was the Nintendo 64 and my favorite game was Super Smash Bros. Before the Nintendo 64 my brother and sister played the Dream Cast. My sister told me we had one but i didn't remember but I remember having games for it. She told me when I was two years old I ran in the living room naked and pissed on the Dream Cast.
In the 3rd grade I was interested in shooting games when my brothers friend brought his xbox over on New Years. I liked to watch them play Halo. He offered me if i wanted to play, so I tried it out and i enjoyed playing Halo. A few months later i got my own xbox and bought Halo. Over the passed months Halo 2 came out and started to play online with other players. I was okay playing it but as i played with my friends I've gotten better. Later there was a halo 3 game that came out on the xbox 360. I kept playing it in middle school everyday and I turned out to be good at first person shooters.
In the 8th grade my sister got me an xbox 360 for Christmas. I mostly play first person shooters in general. A few months ago Call Of duty: Modern Warfare 2 came out and I'm slowing down on the video games because of school. When I'm done with my homework I get on my xbox 360 and play MW2 for about two through three hours a day. When my friends come over to my house to play MW2 and when I play sometimes they get surprised because I'll be shooting and get a kill when they didn't see the person. They think I hack or something but I'm just pro.
The best arcade game I like to play for first person shooter is Time Crisis. Using the gun controller is fun with the pistol because I can shoot rapidly fast. I could probably shoot a 9 clip gun in about 2 seconds fast.
For people who play on the xbox 360 add me if you want- Gamer tag: xSoxGudxVIETx

San Jose Sharks Game 3-4 =(

Have you ever been to a sports game? Yesterday on Thursday I went to a Hockey game, San Jose Sharks Team after school. Before I went to the game, I got through school. After school my sister pick me up, and we went home to take a short break. We headed to Dave & Buster's to play some arcade games. When we got to the freeway, there was traffic and we couldn't take it anymore so we exit the freeway. It took us a while to get back on the freeway because we got lost.
We arrived to Dave & Buster's and this was my first time going. We didn't get to stay long because of the traffic we had to go through and we only had about 45 minutes to play. We played a couple of games of first person shooters. We had to leave Dave & Buster's.
We got to the game in San Jose and it was crowded like always. San Jose Sharks were going against Chicago Blackhawks and Sharks lost to 3-4 =(. There are three periods for the whole game and in the first period the Sharks got in a really bad start. In the beginning Blackhawks scored in 5 minutes of the game already and everyone started booing. After they scored, one minute later they got another goal, 0-2. Four minutes later they got another goal from a rebound shot, score was 0-3 all in the first period under 10 minutes of the game. Finally the Sharks scored before the first period ended, scored by one of the best players,Pavelski. 8 minutes until second period was almost over Sharks almost scored three times but the Blackhawks blocked it. There was two minutes left and the Sharks scored again by Pavelski.
The third period started, and 5 minutes in the game the Sharks scored again by Blake, 3-3 tied. They had a chance to win in 15 minutes but the third period ended. They had to go into overtime which is a five minute game with no break time or changing players. Blackhawks scored ending the game with 3-4, this was a close game. They probably lost because they had a 5 day break against no team and maybe, they were out of shape and they usually play two to three games a week. But overall the Sharks are still leading with score point by one point ahead in NHL. Sharks have 79 points total and Chicago are second with 78 points.

English Final

7. What have you learned from your struggles with writer's block? Why do you tend to get stuck? How do you tend to get unstuck? Notice any patterns?

I have struggles with writer's block. I'm not a very good writer and I make a lot of grammar mistakes. No one is perfect at writing; everyone makes mistakes too. A few months ago we were assigned in class to do quick writes on random and interesting topics for 10 minutes straight, and 5 minutes to discuss with people around us. Mr. Sutherland makes us practice with quick writes on speed for the SAT. Quick writes actually increased my speed of writing and I write up to about a page, which is not bad for 10 minutes. When I write my blogs it takes me about an hour and a half. Every time I have a writing assignment for any subject especially English essays, the least amount of time it takes me to complete it is an hour and a half. That only happens when I write in school, but at home it takes me about three hours to finish writing essays. At home I'm thinking, 'Oh I have plenty of time to finish this essay', but I get distracted playing on my xbox 360 or eating most of the time. When I think about writing a five-paragraph essay, I know that I get stuck from the start. I would stuck on spelling, get off topic, and not know what to write next. Also, I'm lazy. To get unstuck I try to ask myself some questions or find better ideas. I tend to get ideas once in a while, like every 10 minutes. For blogging I don't get stuck much because I just need to write down what I remember about the given topic. I have noticed that when I do my blog I finish it on the day before it's due like right now. The study patterns that I've noticed about myself is that I'm lazy, but most of the time I have other homework that I need to work on. I only write about topics that I know I'm going to get far on and I think about topics ahead of time, rather than starting on a topic that I will not get anywhere on it.

8. How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?

For English this year I thought we had to write a lot of essays and I do not like writing essays. Mr. Sutherland assigned us to make a blog for posting our writing each week. I thought this would be interesting. He said the requirements for the blog was to write up to about 300-400 words and I thought that was a lot. Some of my blogs are over 400 words and it wasn't bad for me getting up to that range. We get to write about any topic of our choice. I do not like to hand write an essay about any of the books we read in class because I get stuck easily and it takes me a while to finish it. It could be hard writing an in-class essay. Also, it can be frustrating for me because we are timed on finals and I keep looking at the clock. Time goes by fast and I get rushed. This English class is different and wasn't like the other English classes that I've taken. I enjoy having a blog. I could share my blog post about my topics. I like writing only if I'm comfortable on what the topics are about. When I type up my blogs it is better than writing by hand because typing is faster, and that's why I prefer to type rather than to hand write essays. Blogging has increased my writing and helps me with my spelling errors than writing by hand. The way I think about blogging hasn't changed the way I write. Blogging on a topic of my choice helps me on my writing; I don't really forget what to write about and I know what I want to write about. Writer's block is a cool way to express myself for people to read. It is like writing in a journal remembering my memories from what I wrote in the past. I would review other people's blog, including my friend's blogs, and see if they wrote about a certain day we hung out because it's probably a fun memory at the time. In the future, I will review my writer's block or when I'm bored on the computer to see how I have improve my writing in the past few weeks or months.

10. Where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you to write?

Ideas for my blog post topics was easy in the beginning of the year. Before I was excited to reveal my thoughts for blog post, but later on I started to run out of ideas. Thinking of a blog post idea can be hard to come up with. I mostly get blog post topics from the Internet, from watching TV, and what I have done in my past life. If I run out of ideas to write about (which I have a few times), I write about what happened during the week. If I don't know what topic to blog about I would ask my friends to help me come up with an idea for me. I was watching some random videos on the Internet and browsing through videos, and I found some parkour videos. My first blog post was about parkour, which is a sport that more commonly takes place in England, France, and the UK. Parkour is the motion of your body contacting the obstacles ahead of you involving your hands. I was inspired to write about this topic because it's amazing the way people perform. They do flips along with vaults, which look impossible to attempt. I am inspired to write because of interesting topics such as parkour or stop motion. Once I blogged about stop motion, involving a camera taking pictures of subtle movements. All the pictures that are taken can be turned into a short video. I thought this was interesting, so I made one of my own stop motion videos and it's more interesting that Mr.Sutherland made one with his friends. Most of my blog post come from activities that I have done in the past with family and friends. I never thought of blogging about current events or issues happening around the world. In the future, I'm probably not going to blog about those topics and I'm just going to stick to blogging about my life or vacations. After I'm done with my blog for the week I check other people's blog post to see what they wrote about.

Quickwrite: Group Writing

1. What are some things you'd like to get out of writing more collaboratively with peers?
In writing groups, I would like to share out some of my idea's or listen to other people's idea's. People in the group can help by giving each other tips to improving our writings or skills they can share. I could write about a different topic that I would not normally write.

2. What are some things you'd be willing to contribute to a writing group?
I wouldn't be helpful at checking spelling and grammar. I could help read people's writing and tell them my opinion/comment about their topic. I could comment on people's blog that I don't really know.

3. Is it more important to you to work with friends, or with people who are writing the same types of things you are? (Of course, it's possible to have this both ways...) Explain why.
I could also work with both groups. Working with friends would be easy but you would get distracted or get off topic.It would be great to work with a friend who is writing about the same topic as you. For people who are writing the same topic as you can share ideas and help out each other. You could learn more about the person and more details about the topic you didn't know about.

4. What are some "rules" (or at least guidelines) you'd like to see in a writing group?
They should be concentrating on their own work rather than bothering people who want to get their work done. There shouldn't be any fooling around or slacking off on their work and not finishing their work. Help someone who is stuck on writing and support them with ideas.

Reno/Snowboarding

After Christmas, my sister Thao planed another snowboarding trip and this time we went to a better place at North star. Thao and her boyfriend Kevin wanted to go to snowboarding at Heavenly but there wasn't a shuttle to take us there. They only had North star and some other place I forgot. We went to spend the night at Kevin's house so it would be easy for her to drive us and save some time. The next day we headed to Reno and took us about three hours to arrive there.
We arrived at the hotel El Dorado around eight at night and rest for an hour. We went to go get dinner at a buffet that was called "The Buffet". The worker said we had 30 minutes til closing, we had to hurry. Kevin had an idea, each of us get one or two plates with different kind of food for us to share so we don't waste time getting up. We end up with five different dishes and had our own buffet in a buffet. People kept staring at our mini buffet.
It was New Years Eve, we had to get up early for the shuttle to take us to North star and took about an hour. We got there and ate breakfast. We went on our first run on the beginner slope and clipped my foot in the bindings but they were set up goofy but i was regular. Kevin tried to switch it to regular because he did it last time and it was hard for him. The bindings didn't go in place to lock then he got it but it was back on goofy. He tried it again but we got pissed because it wouldn't lock and a person told us there was a repair equipment in the main area. I had to walk down the slope with the bindings and board. I got it fixed and went on a few runs on the intermediate slope and I did well but had to stop a lot because my ankles were getting tired. Time went by fast and we had to get back to the shuttle before they leave us. We went on our last run to the very top all the way to the bottom. I tried to go down without stopping but I lasted about 40 seconds with my feet dieing to rest. I fell twice the whole day when someone in front of me just stopped from a few feet away and hit the side of the board. The other was at the very last minute at the end I fell from getting stuck and I tried to push forward. After we had burgers for dinner and had a long drive back home.