Niraj's Post

Super Bowl XLVI

                                               By: Niraj

Did you watch the latest Super Bowl? It was one of the best I have seen. I was rooting for the Giants because they won in 2008 and I wanted them to win again. The New York Giants beat the New England Patriots 21-17 because of a touchdown by Ahmad Bradshaw with just one minute left. The Patriots threw a Hail Mary Pass to Aaron Hernandez with just five seconds left but the pass was deflected away disappointing thousands of Patriots fans. Here is a table to show how much each team scored in each quarter.
                                    Quarter
                             1       2        3         4            Final Score

Giants Score:       9        0        6         6                  21
 
Patriots Score:     0       10      7          0                  17

Did you watch the Super Bowl? If you did, which team were you voting for and why? Where you happy with the result?

Rohan I.'s Post

 The Spectacular Miami Heat

by: Rohan I.

As you guys all know, the Miami Heat are my favorite basketball team. Despite losing in the N.B.A (National basketball Association) Finals to win a championship, this team still has a very strong offense and defense.

 To make the Heat’s championship hopes higher, they acquired 2 time NBA All-Defensive second team guard, Shane Battier. Shane Battier is not only good at defense, his three point shooting from the right and left corner is remarkable. Making it into the All-Defensive team is really hard only the best defenders in the N.B.A can make it on the team. Unfortunately, Shane Battier made it to the second team, but that is still good. Each of the teams are made up of 5 people. So, in all, only 10 people out of the so many people in the NBA can make it onto this team. Your probably thinking, “Well, how do they even get selected onto the team?” These players get selected onto the team by the 30 head-coaches around the league. Each of the head-coaches will vote for one person who they think should be on the All-Defensive team. However, the coaches can’t vote for a person on their team. Whichever 10 people get voted the most, they get into the All-Defensive team. The 5 people with the most votes will go to the first team. The other five go onto the second team. If there is a tie in votes for fifth place, the first team will simply grow to six people on one team and five on the other.

Over the off-season, the Heat also got a point guard named Norris Cole. This young man has sparked up the Heat organization. He is a great ball handler and three point shooter. With Shane Battier and Norris Cole pleading to shoot the three ball at any time, the Heat are much more of a threat outside the perimeter. Even though Heat’s starting center, Zydrunas Ilgauskas has announced his retirement, they still have Joel Anthony. This year, the Heat have a healthy Udonis Haslem to get rebounds and block shots. With this nasty center and power forward, the Heat can increase there offensive and defensive rebounds.

Another sharpshooter is back in the line-up. That man’s name is Mike Miller. His three point shots are a beauty. The Miami Heat have so many threats now including the big three, Lebron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade. LeBron James is having another great season scoring 27.4  points per game, 8.10 rebounds, and 6.8 assists per game. LeBron’s field goal percentage has gone up rapidly. By shooting more high-percentage shots, LeBron’s field goal percentage is 0.547%. That is really good. LeBron’s three point average 0.413% and his free-throw average is 773%. Chris Bosh is also having a monster season. Without D-Wade in the line-up at the start of the season, Bosh has stepped it up. Bosh is averaging 18.4 points per game, 8.30 rebounds, and 2.0 assists. Chris Bosh is a great threat inside the paint and outside. If you guard him too close, he’ll post up. If you guard his too far, he’ll use his shooting ability and shoot. Same with LeBron and Wade. Wade has been playing a okay season. His injuries have brought down his athleticism levels. Now Wade has recovered and is playing at the prime of his career scoring 22.4 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 4.8 assists.

The Heat are having a great season so far now that they have D-Wade back in the line up. Just recently they beat the New York Knicks, Jeremy Lin’s team, 102- 88. Now the Heat are 27-7  counting the win over the Knicks. With all these weapons around the court, the Heat are a sure playoff contenders. What is your favorite basketball team and basketball player?  I am pretty sure you guys know mine, LeBron James. If you don’t like basketball, what is your favorite sport and what is your favorite athlete?

Kelly's Post

Zoo Tycoon 2
By Kelly

Recently, I’ve gotten hooked on an awesome computer game called Zoo Tycoon 2. The purpose of the game is to create a five-star zoo that your guests and animals enjoy. The things I like most about this game are the freedom to create whatever kind of zoo you want, the realism in the animation and characteristics of the animals, and the challenge. In this game, you can buy lots of things including a variety of animals, animal shelters, food, and toys. To satisfy the guests, you can buy benches, tables, food carts, restaurants, trash cans, playground equipment, fountains, statues, and a whole lot more. Along with that, you can purchase employees such as maintenance workers, zoo keepers, and educators, and natural things like flowers, trees, and rocks.
Even though this game seems learning-free, there is an educational value. While creating your exhibits, you learn a lot about biomes, and when managing your zoo, you learn good money management.
 It sounds quite easy, but really, if you don’t manage your zoo carefully, many things could go wrong. For example, animals can hunt each other and even attack guests! Also, animals can escape from their exhibits if the walls are too low. One of the biggest obstacles is the picky guests, especially when they are ungrateful about your zoo.
 Unfortunately, this game comes on a disk, so you have to pay to play it, but I still think it is worth the purchase. Well, I think we’ve heard enough about my favorite game, so what is your favorite video or computer game? What do you like most about it?

This is an image of part of my zoo. It shows some exhibits, tables, bathrooms, animals, guests, workers, and a few other things. As you can see, I have a four-star zoo, it is the zoo’s second year, I currently have $8,995, and guests love my zoo.

Manali's Post

My Telugu Play

By: Manali

Do you know Akbar? He was a very famous emperor in India There are  tons of stories about him and Birbal, his Minister, and, I am not exaggerating there are actually tons of stories about him. Birbal is a very smart person and sometimes even  Akbar would get jealous and try to embarrass him in front of everybody but, Birbal always outdid him.

My favorite story is when the king wanted to embarrass Birbal so he gave all the ministers an egg except Birbal because he was not present at that time. Then when Birbal came the king told everyone to find a egg at the royal pond, secretly the king told all the people he had given the egg  to give the eggs back as if they found it so that's what they did while Birbal was still trying to find an egg. Birbal couldn't find any eggs. Then he realized the king was playing a trick on him so he went to the court room crowing like a cock. The king asked him to stop making that annoying sound and to show him the egg. Birbal smiled and said that only hens could produce eggs and that he was a cock and he couldn't produce eggs. Everybody laughed then Akbar knew Birbal can't be tricked easily.

Okay, now I think your wondering why I am talking about Akbar and Birbal. I'm telling you because I go to a Telugu language class. Telugu is my mother tongue. Manabadi, my Telugu’s school's name, is celebrating its anniversary on February 4th.

Me and my best friend in my class, wondered "What are we going to do on the day of the anniversary?" Then the teacher suggested "Maybe we can do a dance." Then soon a lot of parents started sharing their ideas with the teacher then at the end the teacher said that we are going to do a play about Akbar and Birbal. The teacher told the parents he would email the story and the characters each student will be playing.

That week my dad got the email. When I saw what role I was going to play I got very excited because in one of the scenes I got to play Akbar!

I practiced every Saturday with my class and I started to improve a lot. Now we are practicing more frequently because the play is this Saturday!

I am really excited and I hope my scene will stand out the most because I have been practicing for such a long time. I just hope I don’t look bad because I have to dress up like a man with lots of jewelry. I just hope I do good. Do you have any performances coming up?  Do you think you will do good?