Secret Condiments

  Dear Father,
    Today is not one full of happiness as it usually is. As you know, I went to a barbecue last Thursday. I arrived their with nothing but the utmost glee and excitement. As the festivities carried on, a certain thing was missing from the area. There was an air of despair looming around the grill, as if somebody had forgotten something of the utmost importance. I went on with my business, mingling with my comrades. The night carried on as any other, but when it came time to feast on the fruits of a butchers labor, everybody was sent into shock. There was one condiment that had forgotten to be purchased for the gala. The popular tomato puree was completely absent from all the pallets of the attendees. It was a glum finish to an otherwise amazing evening. After the disappointment of the ketchup, the rest of the evening was a bland sort of sadness. I hope that the past few days have been good for you. See you in a couple weeks.

       With Love,
        Alexander

Rejection is a Fickle Mistress

A situation where a person may feel repeatedly rejected is when job hunting. In today's market, available employment is slim. A person could, hypotheticaly apply to fifteen places with an amazing resume and references, but the will not get a single reply. There will always seem to be a person who is better than them at everything. A person may end up feeling trapped or helpless. They have been trying and trying to do this one mundane task, but always fall just short. Weather it be a problem with qualification or a problem with commute, they will always feel like they are not doing enough. In the end, just keep trying and eventually it will work out.

Atmosphere

In gothic writing, I believe atmosphere is the most integral part of the story's emotional effect. The story Frankenstein could have easily had Victor animate the monster and that was it. It would have been a bit creepy, but not amazingly scary. It's when Shelley adds the dark, stormy night, and describing how the lab was dark that makes the situation all the more scary. If you have a story where there is no atmosphere, and it pretty muck takes place in a room with nothing in it, people will not read with anxiety of what will happen. Atmosphere is what makes a story have the underlying horror of a story.

Frankenstein

I believe that starting Frankenstein in the way Mary Shelly did, with letters, was a different way to start a novel. It gives backstory to the book and what will happen in the future with a sort of personal fell to it. I, personally, would not have started a book like this. I would have had a begining simalar in content, but not latout. My version would have a look at the captain and his adventures from a first-person point of view. It would illistrate not only what he observed, but his thoughts at the exact moment of the events occurance. It would convey the same message with the same information, but the entire beginning would be more in-depth.

Plans for the Road Ahead

  This next week is spring break for me. My plans for this time seem pretty lazy, and they are pretty lazy when you consider them. I plan to beat the gams Pokémon: Platinum, Black 2, And Y. S far, I have only finished platinum. I then plan to send all of the more noteworthy Pokémon to Black 2, finish that game, and repeat the transfer process to Y. If I am able to do all of that by the end of the break, I feel it will have been a success. Some other things I hope to do include read more, and buy more books. I spend most of my time gaming, which I do not regret by any means, but I think I need to try new things. When I do complete this task, I will rest for the time afterwards, gathering my strength so that I may one day, catch them all.

I Can See You, You Can't See Me

  If I could have the ability to either be invisible or fly, I would choose invisibility, personally. I am not saying that flying would not be amazing, but invisibility has much more utilitarian uses. If I had to travel someplace that is far away, I could go invisible and sneak onto a jet. All of a persons financial problems are now nigh. A person would be able to "find themselves" in a bank vault. They could steal all the money they need, and get out unnoticed. The one problem with that plan is the lack of transference of invisibility. People can not see the thief, but they can see the floating stacks of cash. This drawback dose pose an advantage in another field: revenge. If somebody robs or emotionally scars the unseen wonder, they can tail the assailant back to their homes, destroy and disrupt their surroundings, and cause emotional mayhem.

Desperate Times.....

  A time I had to use drastic measures to solve a problem was when the family car was stuck in the driveway because of snow. The car was completely unresponsive. Any attempt to move the car up the driveway or onto the street was fruitless. Our Chrysler Town and Country was sitting on a platform composed of a foot of an ice and snow mix. My father and I tried digging the car out, which did not work at all. We also got semi-boiling water to melt the Snow. That worked at first, but hot water freezes faster than cold, and we ended up with more ice. Our final solutionn to the winter problem was to do a seesaw tybe apparatus to lift the car off. We built a simple balance and gathered cinderblocks and logs from the back yard. We had almost two-hundred pounds of cinder blocks as well as our combined strength. We applied an extra hot water layer on the back tires for backward movement. We told my mom to hit the gas. My father and I pushed with the power of a thousand burning suns and hoisted the car off the wintry mix. After that mishap, my family went out and bought copious amounts of rock salt.

"What's the worst that could happen?"

  A time that I had to convince someone to let me do something was when I convinced my father to let me get an E-mail and, subsequently, an XBox Live account. I was about 11 and we had been faithful Playstation owners. Then we decided to get an XBox 360. Some of my friends played on live and I wanted to join them online. My dad did not believe I was mature enough to play online with people who are much better than me. I told my dad that if I could make it through a game of GTA IV without losing my mind I could get an XBox Live account. I used his and joined a team death match game and after a couple minutes of playing, I realized that I was going to be completely decimated. In the end, I received the title of "pacifist" because I did not score one single kill. I kept calm and collected and got my XBox live account. Today, I am the highest rank available on GTA IV online.

Tenth Grade Achievements



The ACT Plan test was a quite fun experience. It gave me a taste of what is to come in my education. The test also highlighted the capacity and extent of my knowledge. I did exceptionally well on the test, and after mailing my results out, have been getting many letters from various colleges in the mail. Multiple colleges like; Xavier, Johns Hopkins, Brown, and Rice have sent letters inviting me to tour their campus and consider enrolling in their schools. After reading the plethora of mail, I felt particularly wanted and appreciated. I still feel that I can do better, though.

The OGT's

I believe that the test I am most unprepared for is the Ohio Graduation Math test. Thus test will most likely be the hardest for me because there is so much to remember for the math test. In reading and science, all the answers are (usually) in any text provided. I have been speaking English all of my life, and I fell it will be the test I do the best at. With the math test, there are multiple formulas, a plethora of rules and operations, as well as whatever we may not have gone over this far in the year. In preparation for the math OGT, I will most likely spend more time on math than I normally would. I will spend much more time on Khan Academy than I do now, and will go over the older material as well as some subjects we have not even touched on yet. If all else fails, I will do a lot of extra credit assignments for math to get extra knowledge and tackle much harder math-related questions.