How does outliers connect to my life

In Malcom Gladwell's Outliers, the book describes several ways in which opportunities effect the outcome and success of certain people. The book also describes how these opportunities can effect all of us in our life. After reading Outliers I have made several connections to how these certain opportunities have effected to my life and lead to my success.
                 One connection to my life I have made from Outliers is my academic success in subjects such as Global. In the chapter about lawyers and their success due to being Jewish and being born in the 1930s I have amde the connection that the reason i find Global intersting and not as challenging as other classes is because of my family history. In the chapter about lawyers, Gladwell explains that the lawyers he discusses were successful mainly because their jewish culture and convenient birth date. "It's 1930, because that would give the lawyer the benefit of a blessedly small generation." (156). I find that my ease with the subject of global comes from my parents who are both archaeologists. History is a subject that cannot be avoided in my house, when it is discussed it is discussed in depth and in a correct manor. We know what we are talking about. This is one connection to how outliers connects to my life.
              Another way in which Outliers connects to my life is in the fact that I learned how to read and write before oct of my peers.  In Outliers Gladwell discusses how what part of the year you are born with effects your ability compared to athletic competitors. "...a twelve month gap in age represents an enormous difference in physical maturity."(24). True, Gladwell is talking about physical maturity rather than mental maturity but because I was born on the 22 of december i was born close to the school cut off. That put me in a class of children who are generally younger, and generally less academically mature. Yes there is an exception to every rule but because most of the english material came easily to me, due to the fact I could easily wrap my head around the material I soon advanced through normal classes. Because I was smart enough I could challenge myself in reading and writing, similar to the way in which Gladwell describes a tall basketball player challenging himself in other athletic skills "Once someone is tall enough, then we starts to care about speed and court sense and agility and ball handling skills and shooting touch." (86) Now I have been in two english honors classes and tend to keep my grade up above and 87. This connects my life to Outliers because it is similar to the section on hockey players and their birth dates.
            The third way in which Outliers connects to my life is my observation of the different system in which parents raise their children. Gladwell discusses the use of "Cultivate Parenting"a form of parenting in which parents encourage their children to be comfortable around adults, asks questions to which they want answer and not to be afraid of authority. Gladwell says on page 103 "They expect their children to talk back to them, to negotiate, to question adults in positions of authority." I remember sitting in the car of my cousin and listening to the way that him and his mother conversed. They talked about things that me and my parents talk about but in a different way. My cousins mother asked a lot of questions and whatever they were talking about was analyzed deeply. I remember thinking that the way they were talking was annoying to me. Its not as if my parents are bad parents and were are in no way poor, but "Cultivate parenting" was more intense in my cousins house hold than mine and I picked up on it. This is a connection between Outliers and my life because I have picked up on what Gladwell is saying about cultivate parenting.
              Outliers, bu Malcom Gladwell connects to my life in severely ways. I'm sure it connects in more ways than the tree that I have listed. I believe that success is a combination of determination, effort, luck and opportunity. AS Gladwell says "The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But intact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities..." (19)  I also believe that is important to recognize these things. Outliers is a great and interesting read to which we can all make connections to in the confusion and adventure of life.

Blog: Shoe Poetry Prompt

esquire.com

When I see these fancy shoes the thing that I think of is a classy elderly man. This man, whos name i think should be "Big Bobby" gre up in New York city during the thirties. His father was a big time banker and a well known philanthropist. "Big Bobby" followed in his fathers footsteps and went to school to become a banker and a buisness man. Big bobby was a straping kind young lad. All the ladies wanted him and all the men wanted to be him. After school Big Bobby went off to tour the world visiting Europe africa and Australia. while in Africa he tamed several adult lions to look after sick children. He also invented a vaccine for a disease in Africa which worked so well no one knows what the disease is anymore. while he was traviling in europe he punched 50 nazis in the face at the same time while saving a kitten and a puppy from a house fire. because of this he is known as Big -nazi punching-puppy-cat-fire-saving-bobby-guy. granted not very creative but a respectful title all the same. Upon his return to America his Banking Buisness took off. It soon became the richist buiseness in the World. Big Bobby was modest with his prophets. He kept the wadges of his workers high and was a well known philanthropist. he strted 10 charities and saved millions of lives that otherwise would have been swallowed up by poverty and drugs. when Big bobby was thirty five he met the love of his life -Famous Egyptologist and Archeaologist: Elanore Thornhill. Bobby and elanore had four kids together and adopted three others. In their old age Bobby and Elanore were foster parents for poor children and their puppies. Elanore and Big bobby traveled the world together during the last years of their lives on a sailing boat built out of bio-degradable recycled materials. Big Bobby and Elanore died on the same day, Christmas day- at the same time in the tropical paradise of Madagascar. To this day people all over the world grieve their deaths. hes got some pretty kick butt shoes.

Microfiction:The scent of lavendar was overpowering.

The scent of lavender was overpowering. The sound of the trees moving in the wind was all around us. There we were, in a lavender field on the side of a hill, a whole country stretched out beneath us on the best summer day possible. It should have been a happy moment, but it was the scariest moment of my life. All five of us were sprinting from our captors, the only five that escaped. I feel like we have been sprinting for hours. We must have been. The truck exploded right before sunrise, the sun had now been up for an hour, maybe an hour and a half. The driver was killed, i was sure of that, there was no way that our captor would now that we got away till they realized the truck was missing.

              My sleep deprived brain was trying to work out what had happened over the last couple days. I was pulled out of school-called into the principles office for a talk. When i walked into the office, i was grabbed, stabbed with a needle and passed out. The next thing i knew i was sitting in a padded room with 10 other people, all of them scared all of them young like me. A man walked into the room and told us that we were here to be "evaluated". We were to be shipped to an island off the coast the following morning. We sat there all nigh and at what must have been three we were put in a truck and taken away. The truck exploded about four hours into the drive. I don't know who died, but the drivers i just know that five of is got away for certain and were now running through the country side trying to get as far away as possible from the sight of the accident. Right now all five of us had were running to a chain of mountains. Not a word was spoken all day. At noon we started to walk. We walked on and on, into woods and we reached the bottom of those mountains and climbed. At dusk we came to a waterfall. Behind the waterfall was a cave in which we set up camp . We all went out and gathered firewood. in thirty minuets we had a fire going thanks to a lighter i had in my pocket. 

          questions were asked over the thundering of the waterfall and we learned that all of us were taken out of school. We learned that all of us lived in the same state and we learned that all of us had twins. Then the loudest thunder sounded somewhere, it kept getting closer and closer and thats when i woke up. The end

TU Tuesday blog editorial

My editorial was about the education gap between low and high income students. This particular case was talking about Connecticut where the Governor  created a group called the Connecticut Commission on Educational Achievement to fix the problem. I didn't like this article much. it didn't have a point of view and thats no overstatement, it really didn't. It was only three paragraphs long and included facts only. The sentence with the most voice in it had to be "It's not likely (the commissioners) are going to just hand over their 30-page report and move on. They're going to press for long-needed change." and i don't even think that was the author talking. 

My T-Shirt vote

Creative Contest blog 1!

Q=queen Elizabeth poket beagles

Diet. Dog food recommended for smaller dogs, should watch weight of the dog have been known to gain weight easily which can lead to heart and joint issues

Breed description: Not a pure bread. A cross breed.


Appearance: The Queen Elizabeth pocket beagle is a small Beagle about 13 inches long. They are usually
brown and white.

Temperament: They are a good tempered family dog. More of a house pet than a hunting dog. bBecome very excited.

Health: less venerable to typical beagle defects. Beagles tent to stay healthier longer than most dogs.

Shedding: Very little.

Diet:

Creativity breed creativity

capehorn.jpg

Culinary Poetry Prompt-Peanut butter and jelly toast.

We all like fancy food
Food that sizzles
Food that gleams
food served on a fancy plate

I Like Fancy food
Spagetti
Brotwurst
Ratatouille

But sometimes
when I need something
when I wake up hungry
or need a snack
I take some bread
fire up the toaster
and make
Peanut butter
and
Jelly
Toast

TU tuesday guest speaker

Poise: I thought that the guest speaker: Kristi Gustafson Barlette was completely confident in her speaking. She seemed relaxed, she knew what she was going to say and she wasn't nervous. She told us that she had once spoke in front of at least one thousand people at a SPAC concert. After that speaking to a couple of sophomores should be no big deal. She made good eye contact and was not afraid of the audience, which caused us to pay attention. She also demonstrated her confidence when two of the people in the class were talking and Kristi was not afraid to let them know that she thought that was rude. That let us know that she was serious and she wanted us to hear and to make use of what she had to say.

Clarity: Kristi spoke well and clearly. She was loud enough to hear and did not stumble on her words. I did not realize in any part of the presentation that she was using unnecessary words. She being a journalist, I do not think that she would do these things anyway. The way she talked and to vocabulary she used flowed nicely. I remember thinking that she talks like some might write. It seemed that everything she had to say was planned out, or get the point a crossed.

Volume: All throughout the presentation her volume was loud and clear. I don't think that there was a point when I couldn't hear her. Her volume me filled the whole room and kept us engaged.

Information: The responses she provided to the question we asked was relevant and helpful. It provided a insight into what writing in the "real world" is like. She had plenty of details to support her opinion and in some cases stories. Like the "Its gotta be HUGE" guy story about Tony Fucillo, provided a lot of good examples to what happens when you upset someone with your writing.

Organization: Kristi was very organized. She never went off topic, or said things that didn't need to be said. I sometimes found it neat how organized her speaking was and as I said before I thought it almost sounded like writing.

Lastly I participated well in the class discussion. I asked five questions I think, and they weren't simple questions either. My questions made her think and discuss what her answer was. Some of the other classmates also did well in asking questions. Some only asked one or two, other asked many. Some didn't ask questions at all, which was unfortunate for them.
I do think that you should have her back to talk next year. She showed us what some of the positives and negatives of writing was. As well as gave us some insight into the whole college challenge, which some of us are slowly nearing.

3 articles and comments

http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Playing-dairy-queen-for-a-day-2229727.php
Why do you think that you love cows so much?
Do you think that after milking 600 cows everyday you would become board with you job?

I found the way that this article was writhed to be entertaining.

It was and interesting topic.

https://secure.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?newsdate=11/6/2011&navigation=nextprior&category=LIFE&storyID=1093432
Do you think that everyone is motivated my resistance?
Do you think that resistance and anger in this case are the same things?

I find this to be true for myself, if someone insults me or put me down I want to prove them wrong.

I find this trait to be a good one in myself and in others.

https://secure.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?newsdate=11/6/2011&navigation=nextprior&category=LIFE&storyID=1093432
What do you think readers can learn from this story?
What trait do you think it takes to accomplish such an optimistic way of life? Courage?

I like articles like this one because it put things in perspective for people.

Some diseases can be more crippling than others, this one seems to be up there. I find it amazing that Mr. Young can be so normal with such a difficult disease.

Thankful Four

Blog opinon promt #5

This i know not to be true. yes i think that we can all agree that cars make things like transportation and Independence much easier but really if your smart you dont have to rely on a car at all. First of all its not that hard to find a friend who has a car. Second there are things in the world called buses, they're out there. Believe it or not when you walk you also move, or when you ride you bike. Running is like a faster version of walking. In America where town like Guilderland exist and  most families can afford to give their kid a car it seems impractical not to have one or not to use one. But if your smart you can learn to get anywhere with anything. Plus there are up sides to not having a car. fist you buns will be solid because you walk and run a bike everywhere. Second the trees and the grass will like you better because you have no carbon footprint. And third when you do get car its going to be so much cooler because its the first car you have. We dont need cars to get around all we need are solid thighs and a creative imagination.

I want to write about #94.

on sunday It was my fathers birthday. And as usual my grand parents and my great aunt come up for dinner. As they talked and ate somehow the conversation got turned onto the subject of my Grandfathers and My aunts childhood. My aunt was born in 1928 and my grandfather 1930. They both lived and worked on the Gade farm with countless other uncles and cousins and aunts and friends. They got talking about what they used to do as kids and soon the conversation turned to practical jokes. In the fine days before toilets were common in the average house, evidentially it was quite a knee slapper to tip over an out house. My grandfather talked about he liked to play pranks on Halloween. Soon i was asked why kids today didn't play pranks like these anymore. Besides the fact that none i can think of owns an outhouse people are just too scared to play innocent pranks anymore. If i played a prank like one of those and got caught by the police the school would have a hissy fit. I explained this to my grandfather and he shrugged. This insight into the past shows me how uptight our society has become. You cannot do anything now without getting in trouble. Believe me i don't smoke or drink or any of that stuff, but if you do something small like tip over and outhouse (if there were any) or teepee your least favorite neighbors yard you are bond to get your butt kicked. I listened to my elders talk about those days before WWII and times during the depression and it sounded ver peaceful. There was no route 20, there was no TV, there was no mall or developments, everything was either farm land or woods, at least in Guilderland. So its not so much that i wish they would understand us more i just wish we understood them more. They have a certain air about them of simplicity and always knowing what to do. Maybe that just Grandparents for you.

Magnetic poetry

P=Peru

 #1. One of the most popular sights to see in Peru is the historic Machu Picchu city in the Andes mountains. Machu Picchu was built in the 1400s by the Indigenous people known as The Inca. The Inca have sence been wiped out due largely to the Spanish Conquest but their legacy of Machu Picchu still remains. It may be quite a kick but its well worth it.
http://www.travelblissful.com

#2. Another popular sight and destination is a visit to the city of Cuzco. Cuzco was the capital of the Incan empire and offers things such as Peruvian cocoa tea, kayaking, shopping, hiking, and of course historical tours.

#3. Lake Titicaca is a popular destination. It is the highest located navigational lake.Trips to the lake start in Puno which is a spectacular city. While at Lake Titicaca you can visit the floating islands. The floating islands are islands made of reed which the indigenous people of south america used to use to increase faming and living space.

#4.The capital city of Lima is a popular destination spot with many historic museums, buildings.although Lima seems to be a nice city in the day it is not recommended to go wandering around at night.

#5. Hauacachina is a oasis in the middle of a vast area of sand dunes. It is located on a lake and offers things like Sandboarding and riding on the Dune Buggy. Expect to find sand everywhere after Sandboarding and Dune Buggy riding is supposed to be very exciting.

#6. Colca Canyon is the deepest above water canyon in the world. Much deeper than the Grand Canyon of America. You can go visit for a day or go on a several day hiking trip.

#7. Arequipa is a city in the shadow of the volcano El Misti. It offers things like wonderful plazas and historically beautiful architecture. From here you can arrange hiking trips to Colca Canyon and El Misti.

http://www.peru-travelinfo.com 

Eat well, stay fit, die anyway

I didn't know what to think about this proverb at first. I thought it was kind of comical accutally. Its more of a pesimistic point of view to life I think and i dont really agree with that way of thinking. It is true though. No matter what you do death comes for us all in the end. But i do believe that its best to live life like their will be no tomorrow. Why not enjoy today you only have one. Death comes for us all in the end and he comes for some earlier than others. What if by this time next year, i am not alive? Will i be happy with the life i have lived. I would personally yes be happy with my life, but this is a question that everyone should ask themseves. You have to live each moment to its best potential. So even though this proverb may seem meloncolly, it insipred in me a good thought.

DULCIS BREVIS Poetry Prompt

Whale

Huge
Pale
Blue

Under
Deep
Loud

Splashing
Breaching
Swimming

Echo
Deep
Down

Everybody said the old Bosworth mansion was haunted ..

but I never believed them. I didn't believe in ghosts, or monsters or demons. As i look back at that night so long ago i still dont know what happened. I don't know how we got out of that house i dont know what to think. The world works in funny ways.
             It was a high school dare to go stay at the Bosworth mansion Halloween night. We all knew the history of the place. It was built in 1820 by the richest man in the county for his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Bosworth lived in and loved that house. It was the envy of the whole town. Mr. Bosworth died when he was eighty three, Mrs. Bosworth was devastated. One morning she was found dead, with a knife in her heart and a suicide note in her hand. Mr. and Mrs Bosworth loved their house and they never left it.
        In the year 1900 the old and decaying mansion was rebuilt by a wealthy business man and his large family. They lived there for a year and then that winter they never came out. Nothing was seen of them in the spring. A police investigation found the whole family dead, of unknown causes sitting in chairs.
         So there we were Halloween night inside that old drafty cold house. all sleeping upstairs in an old bedroom. The cobwebs hung from the dark dusty ceiling like curtains and the curtains hung from the windows like cobwebs. There were five of us all alone in this huge house. We were trying to sleep but i don't know how many of us were. i was too busy listening to sounds far off in the house holding my breath in spite of myself. I was scared.
            Thats when i heard something that made my heart jump to my throat. What sounded like a hand slapping hard against a wall came from somewhere downstairs. Maybe even the base meant. My whole body became cold. Everyone else was awake.
    "What the hell was that?" whispered jimmy, his eyes were wide. Dan, the kid next to me started the breath fast. The next thing i knew the lights (which we assumed were broke) were going on and off like lightning. Every door in the house was slamming, every last one. And the air hung with the awful smell of rotting meat. It was rancid, penetrating deep into our lungs. Every last one of us ran for the door of the bedroom.
     I did't know what to do but run. and then everything stopped. The lights the doors the smell. The only thing now was the crying of someone. At first i thought it was one of us, but it was coming from the base meant and coming up the stairs. We watched in horror from the upstairs landing as a young girl emerged form the basement. She was dressed in a white dress and covered in blood. she looked at us and she had no eyes. Then full blast came back the smell of rotting meat. and she screamed. We watched as she rotted before our eyes. Someone behind me threw up and we ran out of the house past the girl and into the street.
       From that night on, after i started talking to people again and stopped crying randomly in public i knew that what i saw that night was a ghost, or a family of ghosts. Two years later the house burned down on haloween. I watched with half the town as it happened, Through the burning worded pillars and windows i watched as something i still don't know what ran back and forth silently screaming.

October 25 TU tuesday

Eradicate-To remove or destroy.

"lived in a Modular home."-Standardized units.

Ideological-Visionary or speculative.

"Back then it was liberating"  Free from bonds.

"end the economic disparity." lack of similarity or equality.

These words were taken from an article on the Times Union web site about the "Occupy Albany" movement. Some of the words I picked out did not add much of a tone to the piece like the word modular, it was just a word that I didn't know the definition of. The other words however like Liberating and Ideological and Eradicate all had a kind of "free speech/protest" kind of feel.
In the article they said things like we had to "eradicate economic inequality" which also added to the extreme protest type nature of the piece. Other term on the article that accomplished this effect were terms like the "end of economic disparity." Overall I think the best sentence to sum up this article was the last sentence in the article itself- "We may not know exactly how to fix this problem, but it need to be done. And you can't ignore us."

Owl Moon blog

My whole family are readers. From a young age my parents read to me and I listened. My mother read the whole Harry Potter series to me and my brother and then we read them our selves. She read us books like This when we were very young. i remember this book and it takes me back to when i was about five, and every night my mom would read to me before i went to bed. Or when i was sick my mom would read to me until i fell asleep. What is kind of ironic is that i don't actually remember what this book is about. I just remember the title really well from my child hood but if someone asked me to tell them the story i couldn't even start. oh well i guess i can go back and read it some other time. Its important to be able to go and remember things from your past, it helps you remember who you are

O for Oswego

What I like about Oswego
Its close to home It s about three hours away, 
Its in a nice location and a nice town,
Has a lot of sports including a good lacrosse program,
Close to ski locations,
Offers and anthropology minor


What I dont like
 its campus is huge. http://www.oswego.edu/about/visit/maps/campus/index2.html It gets really cold and snowy up there by the lake. The average low is 18 degrees in January and 20 degrees in February and it only get to about 38 degrees in April.
Its expensive.
$12698.50 a year

I chose this picture because it wants't too serious or up tight like the other pictures. This picture made me look at the faces of both women and wonder what the first was telling the second. It made me wonder if she wanted to hear what was being told. Was it gossip? Was it a joke? These are some of the things that this picture put into my mind. 

Pictures like this that catch any human emotion or action can be really powerful. They can be positive or negative or neutral. This picture was, to me, positive. It makes me think of times when i have seen that face on two girls and it is something that we all can relate to. The girls a crossed the table whispering about someone. This was a good picture for me to chose because it shows a light side of people, something that we only see a little bit. 

Famous line blog.

"For several weeks now, I have been painting pictures of watermelons."
Does anyone have a problem with that? i don't see anything wrong with that. People paint pictures of fruit all the time. Sure maybe they have bowls of fruit that are elegant and small but really Watermelons are large and robust, they have a lot of vitamins and a ton of water. I think the reason i paint water melons so much is because when i was young i got into a fight with my brother. it was over something dumb like which one of us was uglier, it was immature. He was uglier. But anyway we got into a fight and he got madder and madder and then when he could not take it anymore i watched in awe as he picked up a baseball bat (we were out side having lunch) and hit a water melon like it was a zombie skull. Everything happened in slow motion as the water melon cracked, sending a splash of water in every direction, and then the juicy red rich contents of the fruit were blasted into the world. water melon went flying like the shells of a bomb. it was like magic. it was beautiful. my brother stood there panting with a melony baseball bat staring at what he just did. I was also staring at the place where the water melon had just been. A tear, slid down my cheek and to this day i have no idea why. That had to be one of the weirdest moments of my life. That water melon was totally distorted, and we did not know why that effected us so much. Thats why i paint water melons. because of my childhood.

TU Tuesday BLOG

This blog was the final blog about The Animal Cruelty blog. It is by Nicole Arciello Berhaupt and this was her one year anniversary of blogging.  This was something that grabbed my attention because although it may seem that a lot of animal cruelty people are vegans or kind of crazy and over the top, they still have a point to make. As humans if you find enjoyment in abusing animals you have some serious issues. Its bad enough to abuse humans who won't fight back, but to abuse an animal who can't fight back its just sick. Personally every time I hear a story on the news about some bozo running a puppy mill i hope to myself that in the afterlife they get locked in a room with several rabid dogs, a bear, a rabid raccoon, and ten upset squirrels. I mean who are you if you abuse puppies? Who does that? I mean you have to be like the lowest of the low to do that. In her final blog Berhaupt reminds the reader that as humans our "relationship with animals CAN be different." She also reminds us that animals, just like humans should "live life as naturally intended." A point that she didn't make which i think she should have is that humans ARE animals, and in my opinion the most un- civilized, wild, cruel and evil animals there are. If we learn how to treat everything below us on the food chain maybe there is hope that we humans can start treating each other like nice happy people.


http://blackboard.neric.org/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_2263_1%26url%3d

Haiku

Like being swept away
by a river un-charted
i walk my own path

Death of a Baby...Murder?

http://blackboard.neric.org/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_2263_1%26url%3
I feel that this is something that most people would be disgusted by.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day

It is pretty obvious why we need breakfast. I mean really after eight hours of sleeping your body and mind needs a wake up call. Your not going to get far through the day running on empty. plus who doesn't like to eat when they get up. Make and egg sandwich or have some sausages. There is a lot to choose from. Pancakes, Crapes, Bagels, Coffee, Fried potatoes, Coffee cake. There is much much more. plus nobody NEEDS lunch. i mean i like lunch but i don't need lunch i can get an apple and i'll be ok.

Write about a color without mentioning the actual color (only shades of it) in the body of the poem

The color lingers in every corner of every house
away from the sunlight, adding shadow to the faces of toys and the curves of furniture
On the edge of the woods it lies in the grass, the opposite of the peaceful summer sun.
It creeps up at night,
like a storm, its hands slowly grasp around you
covering everything, suffocating all light.
By fires it dances in the night
with many arms and legs
slipping in and out of vision.
in the morning it walks away,
creeping over the land.
only to linger in corners and
in the grass

What would i do with 3 wishes?

Ever since i first watched Aladdin i always wondered what i would do with three wishes. For one i think Aladdin was being really selfish and uncreative. If i had three wishes i would wish that no injustice could ever be committed in the world forever. i would also wish to make the natural world flourish for now and always so that all of mankind would forever have enough to eat. And then last so that i had something to call my own i would wish for the power to be able to fly as fast as sound all around the world. Who know, if the chance does pop up to take theses wished i might wish for other things. but i dont think that i would wish to woo a princess with money when i could just woo her with my charming good looks and flying abilities.

Picture blog

   

I chose this painting in the first place because it caught my eye. After about five minuets of looking through other paintings i always came back to this one. I chose it because i feel like this painting resembles my summer. Outdoors, grass and trees, blue sky and a care free no worry "Nothing could happen to me now or ever." kind of thinking. In the summer i was always around some sort of wood or forest. I grew up around and in the woods which also connects with me in this painting. In this painting i like that way that the woods seem dark in a peaceful lazy sort of way compared to the green grass. What i think is a good metaphor in the painting is the far off volcano smoking slightly, barely visible yet if you look for it, its there, like school in the summertime. You don't want to think about it, and you don't think about it but one day it will come, just like one day the volcano will erupt launching your word of green and peace into an hot, ashy poisonous cloud of death and stress. Happy thought. 

My Fortune "Smile It willl make the world brighter." 161 words

 I believe that negativity is a very contageous thing. I belive that happiness is also very contagious.  My fourtune "Smile it will make the world a better place" means a lot to me. I think that, even though negativity is a ver contageous thing that positivity is also very contageous. If we try to make each other happy then we feel happier.
              Yes this is a very corny thing to talk about and my fortune is corny but i am proud. And maybe i was ment to have a corny fortune. But like i said my fortune is what i belive in. How do we know that smiling will make the world brighter? its easy. next time you see a homeless man on the street just smile and then maybe his world of living on the cold streets with people full of sickness, next to rats, wads of gum and unidentifiable globs of filth will just get a little bit brighter.

writing with N

Never after that night did i eat chocolate again. Not once that night did i get any sleep. Now i hate chocolate because of that contaminated chocolate bar given to me by a strange child on the sidewalk. "No Thankyou" i first said but then i stared into his eyes and saw that he would like nothing better than to watch me eat the chocolate. "Now thats what i call chocolate" i said as i took that first bite. Nevousness took over my body spreading into ever cell of my anatomy. Nope to chocolate.

Poem.

Due to the summer days that we spent

countless hours outside

to cool morning sunrises and

pink lemonade sunsets

Due to the thunderstorms echoing in the mountains

we would watch the lightning dance acrossed the earth

only to make way for a calm night of

 fire flies and dreams about what we did today

and what will we do tomorrow.

Ten things you didn't know about me: Jack Marcucci

1. Both my parents are professional archaeologists,
2. I was born in Iowa, i moved to New York when i was 2,
3. I play lacrosse,
4. I was voted funniest kid in Mohawk house in the 8th grade,
5. I'm scared of carnies/hippies,
5. I ate roadkill once,
6. I have seen several mass graves in my life time
7. I tend not to trust people with facial hair when i first meet them. (I'm trying to get past this)
8. I hate the sound of other people chewing food, it drives me literally insane,
9. I have three dogs,
10. I make a mean grilled cheese sandwich.

summer reading list

The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkien,
Are you a Miserable Old Bastard? Andrew John and Stephen Blake,
A Wolf At the Table  Augusten Burroughs,