Stormbreaker Continued

The book I am reading, Stormbreaker, just got even more interesting. I am still not that far into it but from what I’ve read this last week, big hints that I think will all connect and be reveled by the end of the book. I ended my last post with the part about the cops coming to his door and telling fourteen year old Alex Rider that his uncle, Ian Rider, had died in a car crash. They also said that he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. This made Alex suspicious. Ian Rider was never alive in the time this book takes place in, but Alex mentioned that uncle Ian was a big safety freak, especially about the importance of wearing a seatbelt. Ian had aloud a girl in her early twenties to rent a room in his house. When Alex told her the story she also found it a little suspicious, but not like Alex had. When he went to the funeral he had met his uncles boss. Ian Rider had worked for the bank. The man had told Alex what Ian had done for his career. The man had also told him that Ian Rider would be greatly missed by everyone. That man had arrived in a limo, and when he was getting back in the driver came around to open the door for him, and at this time the drivers jacket fell open and reveled a gun. The driver quickly fixed his jacket. Both the driver and Ian Rider’s boss had noticed that Alex had noticed. They quickly sped away. This is where I am at so far in my quarter 2 outside reading book.

Stormbreaker

The book I choose to read for our second quarter reading book assignment was a book called Stormbreaker. The book is the first of a series of six. It was written by an author named Anthony Horowitz. It is a book full of action and suspense. I haven’t read much of the book yet, but my brother did and that’s what he said about it. I talked to him and he said he enjoyed another book in this series called Eagle Strike. That’s why I decided to buy this book with the gift card I had for Wild Rumpus that was laying around for about six months. The whole gift card story is how I chose my first quarter reading book as well. I figure if I bought it I might as well read it. Especially since I am forced to read a book each quarter. The biggest reason I chose to read though was because I heard it was a good book full of action and suspense. From what I’ve read so far I know that the main characters name is Alex Rider. He apparently is a strong and athletic looking fourteen year old boy. He lives with his uncle. His parents died in a car crash when he was younger. Then at about three in the morning the cops came to his house to tell him that his uncle named Ian died in a car crash, and he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt. You’ll find out more about the book next week.

The Road And My Quarter 2 Reading Book

I just began to read the boo “The Road” today. Before today, I knew absolutely nothing about this book. However, in the first twenty pages of it I noticed that it mentions this road that they are following, so now it gives me a general description of it. After reading the first twenty pages of it, I decided that I think this will be a good book overall. I like reading about books that involve doomsday and the end of the world. Those types of books seem to interest me a lot. This book does have its negative ends to it too. It doesn’t seem to have any emotion behind it. It just seemed robotic when I was reading it. I think that the characters should be more in and acting more appropriately to make the book better and more interesting. I also think that it’s kind of weird that we don’t even know the names of the two main characters. When the author refers to them as the man and the boy it makes it seem like they’re rather unimportant than the two main characters. Despite the negative parts to this book, I am glad and excited to be reading The Road.
For my second quarters quarter reading book I have decided to read the book called “Stormbreaker” I believe that it is an action book. I also believe that it is a part of a series. Its about 250 pages long.

The New Team

Its hockey season again. Another year with a new team and a different skill level. Hopefully a better team than the one you had last year. I just got home from my second practice of our season. It’s actually kind of ridiculous. We have had only two practices with only half of our players there and no goalie yet. Not to mention that we don’t have our jerseys yet either. Although our first game won’t really matter all that much. We have about twenty four league games plus like twelve to fifth teen tournament games. Plus I’m sure that the other team will be pretty much as unprepared as my team is. From what I’ve seen so far it would seem that we’re going to have a good year. We have some good players and a good team over all, so I think it will be a good year. The games are for sure the best part about hockey. For me, practices have always been pretty fun. Our first two practices were awesome. We just scrimmaged half of the time both days. It was pretty sweet. Everybody agreed that both of our practices were awesome. I hope we do like the same thing like every practice. I’m really looking forward to this season.

The Odyssey's ending

The last few chapters of the Odyssey were actually pretty good. I found that it was a little more exciting and interesting than all of the earlier books. The thing I think I like most about it was that I understood it better than all of the earlier chapters. I’m not sure what it was about the end of it, but I just found that it was more enjoyable to read because it finally made sense to me. I like how that the beggar was Odysseus in disguise and that nobody knew except for Telemachus. The book also seemed to get more suspenseful when the nurse found out the beggar was really Odysseus by the scar he had, and then when he grabbed her by the neck and told her to keep her mouth shut. After that, my personal favorite part of the novel came up, which was when Odysseus won Penelopes contest and when he turned back into his true self. The slaughter I thought was pretty interesting. How just a few men were able to kill the suitors when they were out numbered, with a little help from Athena of course. I thought it was really a flashy way to show that the Great king Odysseus was home. I really wish the whole book was like the ending.

The Odyssey

The book that I am currently reading in my language arts class is the Odyssey. Personally, I think that it is a really weird book. I don’t like reading books with English used in a different form like how this book is written. I learned that last year when I read the book kidnapped. By the way, that was probably the worst book I ever read. The Odyssey reminded me a lot of that book. I think that there are way to many characters with crazy names that I can’t remember. There are defiantly way to many connections that these characters have. Like when you discuss characters from a book and the teacher says you can remember them from so and so, and this person is connected to this person in this way. You know, the basic way to learn who the characters are. We’ve been going the Odyssey in a similar way, except the problem is there are way to many characters, who’s names I can’t spell or remember, along with how their connected to other characters in a certain way. That is either a blood connection or an event, and then when it just can’t get any worse, the events jump out at you. All of their stories have way to many events and places where those events take place. It would be like trying to read and understand the Dark Night. Don’t get me wrong, I thought that movie was amazing, but it was really hard to follow and understand what is happening. For those of you who saw it can you imagine even trying to understand it by reading it? That’s what the Odyssey is like. This book is one that I just don’t understand.

My Brother's First Season Hockey

Today, in the late afternoon I went to my brothers hockey game. It was his first league game of the season and they unfortunately lost six to two. Overall I thought it was a sloppy game, like most of the first games of the season. For starters, it seemed that almost everybody on both teams, but mostly my little brothers team completely whiffed a ton of shots and passes. It was terrible. You can’t win if you’re going to constantly bobble the puck. It just doesn’t work that way. Also, nobody could catch a pass. It was ridiculous. That also doesn’t help at all. Like my old coach said and I’m sure he still says it. “every missed pass is a huge chance for a turnover” and if it’s in your zone it could easily be a goal against you. After seeing my brothers first game of the season I can tell that their going to have to make a lot of improvements to start winning games. I have no doubt that they can do it. All I’m saying is that they need a lot more work and a lot more practice, which I’m hoping they can get before their next game. Hockey is a sport that takes a lot of skill to be good at. You need to be able to make good quick decisions, shoot the puck and catch passes. It may take time, but I know that’s what this team needs to do and just get better in general in order to have a successful hockey season.

Ultimate Club Banquet

This last Saturday I viewed the Ultimate Club banquet. It was full of pretty cool surprises such as a video of our trip to Lexington Kentucky for the 61st IJA festival. That brought back so many great memories of the summer. That trip was the high point of my summer, so it kind of spoke for the summer as a whole. Our director, Paul, also had us all stand individually to say something about us and what we mean to the company. It felt like a great honor to be one of those people that he spoke about. It was really interesting to hear what he had to say about everybody. It was cool to suddenly realize something about somebody that you didn’t know about as well as something you’ve heard about repeatedly and knew about well. We all had many good laughs and a great dinner at davannis, even though I don’t like pizza, but the subs were great. What was also really cool about it was that it was my first Ultimate Club banquet. It felt really good because I felt like I was getting more involved in the company and it was becoming even more special than it already was to me. I will never forget that night. That includes both parts to it. The banquet and the random driving around and going to places. Its really great to have something special to celebrate involvement in something you love.

MEA Weekend Hockey Games

This last weekend (10/17-10/19) I viewed two Minnesota Gopher games and one Minnesota Wild game. All three of the games were very good games and interseting and suspenseful to watch. All three of those games in the end were won by the Minnesota hockey teams. It was a good weekend for Minnesota hockey fans. The first of the two Gopher games was played against saint cloud at their arena. We ended up winning that game three to two. It was a very close game for the most part, but we were able to pull ahead in the end. Then their next game the following night we also played Saint Cloud and won the game two to one. Which I thought should have been three to one because midway through the third period the Gophers got a goal off someone’s shin pad but was called off. After seeing just the first two games of their season I have decided that one of my new favorite players for the Gophers is Aaron Ness. He was named the best player in high school hockey last year. He played for Roseau. He played for about 27 minutes of their second game on Saturday night, which is almost half of the game. So overall a great and exciting weekend for the Gophers. Next was the Wild. They were tied the whole game zero to zero until they won it in the shootout. I had a very good weekend watching these games. Its great to see the hockey season start again.

Day at Mall Of America

This weekend I viewed the Mall Of America for the first time in several years. I thought it was interesting how I didn’t remember anything about it when I was there, besides the fact that camp snoopy is now nickelodeon land, haha. I was there for about five to six hours. Most of the time we were just walking around looking at stores and all kinds of other places and things. We went to the McDonalds which later made me remember it. Then we went to look at a bunch of different stores. We stopped at Air Traffic for a while. Then we stopped at a GameStop, and ended up in another electronics store that had a bunch of different movies, video games, and Televisions. We were there quite a while just playing some of the demo games that they had. We played guitar hero 3, rock band, some new star wars game, and another ridiculous wii game that I don’t even remember. Before we even went to that store we stopped to view a movie. It was called Nick and Norah. It was about a guy in a band that had a girlfriend that broke up with him. Then he met a new girl that he liked and ended up with her in the end. It was a pretty good comedy. I enjoyed it. That was a really fun Saturday at The Mall Of America.

Edina Homecoming Parade

Last Friday at about 4:30, October 3rd, 2008 I had a chance to view an audience at the Edina homecoming parade. I was juggling in the parade with some of my other good friends. It was a good experience for me. I also did the parade last year and had a lot of fun in it too. It was even better and more interesting this year because I was one of the upper classmen in it. One of my Senior friends led it, but me and a couple of others helped him keep it under control and structure what we were going to do. The parade in general was a success. I think our audience was impressed with what we could do, especially chucking clubs over high wires. It was interesting to see people from little toddlers to Senior citizens, and just watching how some of them were extremely amazed by some of just the basic stuff we could do. I think its fun to watch parades, but I think its even more fun when you can be in one and have an audience watching you. Its really kind of a weird thing to think about. Its one of those things that hits you after words. Being able to show off your talent to an excited and pumped up audience is just amazing.

The Rocket 9

This past weekend I watched the movie called “The Rocket 9”. It was about a hockey player back in the 1940’s and 50’s. It was a very interesting movie. He was somewhat of an underdog that was invited to tryout for the Canadian hockey team. Most people at first thought he wouldn’t make it. Then he showed everybody what he was made of and made the team. The movie reminded me a lot of the movie “Rudy”. It basically had the same story, only it was hockey instead of football. He got to be so good that his coach called him the Babe Ruth of hockey along with many others during the season in the mid 50’s.
Anyway. He married this girl when he was in his twenties and she was even younger. Her father worried about them because they were somewhat of a poor family living in a small apartment. It didn’t seem like anything good would happen to them anytime soon. Then he tried out for the Canadian hockey team and made it. He became the first player to score more than 45 goals in a season. He became known as the Rocket 9 for his superb ability to crash the net, and his number was 9. His coach said that he’d never seen anyone who crashed the net like he did. However, in a season in the early 1950’s he got suspended from the last four games of the regular season and all of the play off games because of a fight that he defended himself in because he got slashed in the head (they didn’t have helmets back in those days). He also earlier attacked the president of the NHL because he thought their wasn’t enough control in the games, which was truly proved after he got slashed in the head. He was thinking about quitting the NHL, but he should by a few more seasons and helped things change for the good of it. The way the game is controlled today is defiantly partly because of him, and for that I thank him, Maurice Richard.

I just read an article about how Tarvaris Jackson is now benched on nbcsports.msnbc.com. I think that it wasn’t a bad idea. Especially after how we started the season off 0-2. I think that he was playing just plain crappy for both of those games, especially with that game costing inerception pass against Greenbay. Tarvaris just isn’t getting the Vikings where they need to be this year. I think it’s about time for the Viks to have a good season and good playoff run. Its been way to long since we’ve had one of those. Maybe this will be like that one year when Culpepper was out and Johnson set us on a streak.
This is also giving Frerotte a great chance to prove himself to be a great quarterback that we’re all hoping for this season. He has, afterall, won the first seanson gam he’s played for us this season. Maybe this will be an upturn for the Vikings. Who knows, maybe we’ll end up 14-2. Wouldn’t that be something! I think this is a new start for the Vikings. A chance to help put us ahead in the standings and even win our first Superbowl in history! Ha, that may sound a little extreme but anything can happen still. We’re only three games into the season. The point is we have a chance, maybe.

2008 Officer Retreat (Post 1)

It was just this last weekend that I went on the Jugheads fall Officer Retreat. I didn’t have many thoughts about it at before we left for Camp Lebanon. Then the weekend went by, activity after activity. I came to realize that I was having a lot of fun at the camp and with my fellow Officers. We did all sorts of different things that made it a really fun and exciting trip. I didn’t want to go back home at all. Our activities varied from “the animal game” by a bonfire to Frisbee golf in heavy rain. We also had three meetings that focused on the company and ways of improving it in the 20008-2009 year. Each Officer viewed the meetings with interest and care. I was able to view a lot of new ideas that can really help make the Company improve from last year, despite how good it already was.
All my thoughts and view about this Retreat were positive ones. It was a filled with fun activities, meetings, and relaxing times. I think it’s a great way to help our officer team to bond and get to know each other more. We learned how to work as a team with great success. I really think I am going to have a good year as a Jughead Officer.

Journey

I would like to take a journey to a car dealership. Because now that i have my license i think it would be awesome if i could get a car. Then i could go on many minature journeys. So instead of just going on one stupid one with parential guidence, I could go on many ridiculos ones by myself or with friends. That pretty much wraps it up for this post, i'm just writing this sentence because Mrs. B said we had to have at least five.

A journey

Blog Expectations

My name is Jack. This is my supercool blog, which I will personalize and make my own (but not post pics of myself on or or use my last name on). I will always use appropriate language on my school blog and follow the conventions of the English language.

The expectation for this assignment is that i will post on my blog once a week for the remainder of the school year. I am expected to comment on texts that I am viewing in the world around me. These might include, but are not limited to: books, magazines, movies, internet articles, television shows, trips to museums, etc.

Each post should be at least 200 words. Each weekly post is due by 8am on that Wednesday. Therefor, Q1 due dates are: 9/17, 9/24, 10/1, 10/8, 10/15, 10/22, and 10/29. That makes for a total of 7 posts this first quarter. I understand that blogs are worth 100 points per quarter and are graded holistically (I will receive the rubric from Mrs. B. soon). I also understand that blogging is a significant component of my quarter grade. By the way, what I have just typed is only 196 words! now it is 200!