Risks and Inventions

By: Shivani

Thomas Edison and his invention of the light bulb.

 Last summer, I saw a band performance on my way to a game. I was amazed to see how well these young students performed together. In my mind, I thought I could never perform as well as them. This year, when I had the opportunity to sign-up for my school band, I decided to take the risk and try to learn a new instrument. Though at first I could not play a single note, I practiced every week and guess what!! I played a trio in my first performance.
What is a risk? I was surprised to read that one of the definitions of risk is “Threats and Opportunities”. I thought risks were only threats as a result of uncertain and unknown elements that could cause failures and areas to avoid. We normally neglect the opportunities and inventions aspect that may be hidden in the risks. Just imagine how the world would be like if nobody took risks due to the fear of failures. Do you think great inventions like the Iphone, Ipad, satellites, or even basic sources of necessities or luxuries like light, heat, road vehicles, airbuses and ships would have been possible without taking the risk to research and invent something new? The society mocked Steve Jobs when he introduced the $400 worth I-phone in a market when phones were available for free. He still took the risk and introduced his product into the market.We all are aware of the successful results. Did you know that Michael Jordan, the baseball rookie was knocked down in his first game with the Chicago Bulls? He finally became a favorite basketball player and led the team to win the Olympics. Thomas A Edison failed 6,000 times before finding the right filament for his light bulb. Isn’t that an amazing outcome of taking the risk to venture into an area that was unknown to mankind before these inventions were made?
There is a quote by Thomas Edison that said, “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Failures and risks can lead to great things because of trying again. If you believe in what you do, have the courage to take a risk, accept and learn from the failures, and try again, then you are bound to succeed. The learning is in the journey and not in the end result. The journey gives us the exposure to new experiences to help us make better decisions and eventually gives birth to newer inventions. Are you willing to take the risk to try something new in spite of the possibility of failing initially? Just like I tried to learn the clarinet, please share one new area that you will risk to try this year.

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?

First Impressions
By Courtney

          My dad just told me that we are going to get a new car tonight, a 1967 Mustang! He told me that it was coming late at night, so I would have to wait to see it in the morning. I had to go to bed, but I was planning to stay up until it came and run downstairs to see it. I crawled into my bed, but next thing I knew my dad was telling me to wake up and get ready for school. “Aw, I didn’t stay up,” I thought. I quickly got dressed and went downstairs to see our new car. Before I opened the door, I imagined a beautiful shiny new car. I opened the garage door and I saw this old, ugly, maroon colored car that was full of spider webs. I pretended that it was the nicest car in the world because my dad was really excited and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

            Soon, my dad started working on it every weekend. He took out the engine, built a new one, and put it back in the car. He changed almost every part in the car! Soon it was painted a shiny dark blue color and getting new wheels and tires. Now it was looking better and better!
After three years of hard work, my dad is finally finished! It is now the most fun car to ride in because it is loud, I can sit in the front seat because it has no airbags, and I can plug my IPod in and listen to all my favorite music. Now, the car is even more than I ever dreamed it would be! Have you ever had a bad first impression of something that later turned out to be great?

Chinese New Year 
by Kleo

It is a special day for Chinese on Jan. 22nd. That date is Chinese New Year. Some families put up red signs to keep away bad spirits, and there is a story to come along with it:
    Every year, a monster will wake up to eat: people. One day, the monster was waking, and an old couple were losing hope to live. A young boy insisted that he would protect them, but they dismissed it.The boy found out that the monster only feared loud noises and the color red, so he covered their house with red paper.The monster came, and the couple was terrified, but the monster was as well. He saw the red paper, and he heard the loud crackle of the fire the boy was making. He ran away, to scared to come out of his home again.
                What to you think of this story? Do think it is true?

My New Puppy
By: Ryan

One of my Christmas presents was a Shih Tzu mix puppy. The other breed is a Lhasa Apso. The puppy was bred by a breeder named Kelly. It started when I was taking the SCAT test to maybe get into a summer school taught at Stanford by the school John Hopkins. When I was done testing, my mom told me my aunt had bought one of the female puppies. My mom wanted to see it, so we went to her house. When she saw it, she thought it was really cute, so she wanted to go buy one from the breeder. When we got there, there was much to choose from. There were 5 puppies. (three were already bought, including my aunt. In all, there were three male and the 5 female. (Extra Credit: Find both ratios for these two numbers and write them in all three forms, and the fractions for both of the numbers.) I picked the only male left, which was black and white, and was ginormous and much bigger than all the others. It cost $300.( Extra question: If any of you have a dog, how much did it cost to buy it?)

When it came home it was really afraid to walk on anything, and during the night, he kept whining because the breeder sleeps with her dogs, so he doesn’t like being in a cage. But right now, after a few weeks, he knows when to sleep and is now almost potty trained, but is mischievous and likes to bites things. Shoes, shoelaces, clothes, paper, leaves, tanbark, towels, hands, feet, and anything that looks appealing to him. If you already have a dog(s), or another pet(s), do you like it(them) and would you get another once he passes away? If you don’t have a dog, would you want one? If not, what pet would you want? Also try to do the extra questions!!!  

Rohan R.'s Post

Resolutions for the New Year
by Rohan R.

    Welcome to 2012!!! I bet you have many resolutions that you are wanting to accomplish, well here are some of mine.
My first one is to get better at soccer and basketball. To do that, I am going to try to practice three times every week. My second resolution is to advance to the state finals in Destination Imagination (DI). To achieve that, I’m going to work hard with my team. My final resolution is to do a better job in school.
Well those are my resolutions. Now that you have seen them, I bet you got a clear understanding of what you want.
New Year's Eve has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, looking forward to the coming year. It's a time to reflect on the changes we want to make and to try to follow them.

The top resolutions for the new year are:

1. To spend more time with family and friends.
2. Get fit by doing your exercise regularly
3. Quit smoking
4. Enjoy life more
5. Don’t drink alcohol
6. Get out of debt
7. Learn something new
8. Help others
9. Get organized


Okay, so some of them aren’t meant for you to accomplish like to quit smoking and to stop drinking alcohol because you anyways aren’t allowed to smoke or drink, but for the rest of them, you can still use them as a resolution. Now that I think about it, what are your resolutions? How will you achieve them? These are the things that I will be waiting to see.

Aayush's Post

New Year's

By: Aayush

New years must have been fun with your family and friends. you might have been in the state or not. You could have been in a different city, but you were able to experience new years of 2012. What I did in New years was watch the ball drop with my family and later go to sleep. You all may have done something different. Oh yes and talking about New years its time to get those New years resolutions or as I would call them goals for the year. You may want goals like doing your homework on time or studying some more, but in the end you just want to reach your goal. Also a new year means new things like new technology or more new science has been discovered. Soon even the way we live might change! In all the year of 2012 might change or stay the same and we may get to experience even more. So what did you do on New Year's Eve and was it fun?