Yes, "nowadays" its easier for teens to get pregnant than adults because of the lack of supply of condoms and condom support from parents

- What advice do you give teens to prepare them for what lies ahead for them

If you are pregnant take responsibility and it can be a beautiful thing and worth the trouble you are going through. Just stick it out. and if you aren't…Stay that way

- In terms of options chosen during teen pregnancy which ones do you see or hear about teens choosing the most? (ie. Abortion, Adoption etc) 

It's sad to say but i have been hearing about a lot of abortions from teen mothers. I just can't bring myself to kill my own child

- What places/organizations do you reccomend teen moms to turn to for help?

i don't know any but personally I turned to my parents. They have helped me through a lot.

I’m finally home from a long day of work and now this!  Now my mind really won’t be quite settled tonight. I just wanted to pop a squat in my futon and eat. Now I’m wondering how I will live with a giant pipeline going through my backyard. Now don’t get me wrong the USA benefits from this a lot, but what is in for us Canadians. Do our oil prices get lower do we get thousand of barrels a day? No! (slams remote) We have to worry about if the pipeline will hold and not burst into our yards. Also, this isn’t any regular oil, but it’s tar sand oil that is significantly dirtier than regular oil. If this dirty oil leaks it is a done deal for my home. (Stutters) W-w-what about the kids? Will they be safe with all the CO2 emissions in the air. (Pace back and forth facial expression as if many things are going through his mind.) I guess I need to calm down and go to bed hopefully the government makes the right decision not to do so.

             (Walks upstairs and goes to sleep soon to be awaken by wife) (laying down half sleep half awake eyes are half open) “Hi honey how was work?” (voice comes from background) “Okay, Did you hear about that XL pipeline thing there talking about! Aren’t you happy? People in America will have oil and won’t depend on other countries.” Why is she so excited over it and it’s like 4am. I jump up out of bed after being so irritable “HAPPY…HAPPY? There’s going to be a giant pipeline going thought our back yard! What if it breaks and kills our kids? We won’t have a home, we will die and LIFE WILL END!”  (wife in background while laughing she says) “Oh stop it honey, get some sleep and we will talk about this tomorrow!” (fades to black)

Things I did well:

-Conflict

-Provides a lot of details and info

-The background comes through

What I need to work on:

Monologue not dialogues!!

Monologue 2 (Environmentalist Blogger)

Character Description-  This is a nerdy blogger who is making a blog about the XL pipeline

(Setting: On a webcam, excited to be talking about this environmental issue, His face is extremely close to the camera)

Hello guys!! (breathes heavily) I can’t believe this is happening (breathes heavier) This new XL pipeline is the revolution for the united states. It’s also the answer to all of our oil price problems! (fixes glasses) Oh my goodness my resources are telling me that the US is planning on making a crazy “ginormous” pipeline that goes from Canada all the way to Texas. Why oh why would we need such a massive pipeline? For oil (moves in excitement.) Isn’t this great! So what if it may be a little dirty. We all our a little dirty that doesn’t make you any less than the next man. Of course there will be a couple problems. One of the problems are the Co2 emissions. (sarcastic voice) Aw man that’s such a bad problem. It’s simply going to get hotter and we can just shed clothes. (smiles and laughs slightly) I don’t see the problem with that! (thumbs up) Also, no matter how you put it oil can spill weither a pipe bursts or if bp hates our world again. (laughs into a serious face) Okay I know that was corny but I tried. My stand is totally for it. I don’t think our country would mind if we had lower fuel price. So tune in next time to and I will recap the results and see weither this pipeline is passed or not. See you next time my fellow blogger conrad muchachos !

Monologue 3

Character Description-  A Congressman from Texas who must make a decision to pass or veto the pipeline. He is confused because he has family in Texas who might have the pipeline in the backyard and family that is complaining about oil price!

(Setting: Sitting at the table in the white house by himself after the meeting to propose the XL pipeline. Thinking to himself after the meeting...confused trying to make a decision.)

 (having the XL Pipeline folder in front of him trying to make a decision)

Man, (slams folder and un-tucks shirt.)  This is crazy!! I don’t know weather I should support this or not. There are many upsides and downsides to this plan. Sometimes I think being a congressman is to hard. Doesn’t Barack know that by passing this there will be lives ruined and paranoia? What about all the families in Canada and even the United States with pipes in their backyards! Then again we American will get thousands of barrels a day. Cousin Louis is always complaining about fuel prices. This XL pipeline can shut him up (laughs then pauses to think) It’s too much to decide! What if the final vote comes to me! (grabs face and looks nervously) What will I do? Also, since most of my family is from Houston what if the pipe goes through my grandma’s yard! She would kill me if she knew I helped the process of getting that thing in the back of her house! Oh my gosh and imagine the embarrassment at the family reunion! Well, I can simply ask for Mr. Obama to move her out. But as for everyone else… (shakes head in despair) Just imagine if the pipes burst. That would be so tragic. Hopefully we make the right decision.

By Sterling Perry:

English 2

                                                 In What Do We Trust?

            I was sitting in Mr. Block’s class thining of a topic to use for my essay. I honestly didn’t know what to write about. Mr. Block was talking about elements of a great essay and “hot words” as he calls them. I soon got bored, turned on itunes and began to jam and stop paying attention. All of a sudden I see him walking over as if he knew I wasn’t paying attention. He says, “So, Sterling can you read your scene?” I read it and he says you know trust is the first thing I think about when I hear your scenes. I think to myself, “Wow that’s like the perfect topic to write on.”

The strobe lights flicker, vision blurred, adrenaline running high and my clique hanging tight. Dancing, sitting, eating, talking and repeating the process. Man, was that a crazy night.

After 6 days of fun in Florida we approach the last day; the day we all been waiting for. My cousin, two friends and I were wondering what we were going to do for the last day in Florida. My mom and dad comes in the room announcing what we’re going to do. “Everyone! We are going to Universal Studios; So get dressed and ready to go we are in a hurry!” We rushed through our bags looking the freshest outfits we had and got dressed. I wore a Dark grey T-shirt with a lime green smiley face, my skinny jeans, a grey OBEY snapback and a pair of all black and lime green Jordans.

Ready to go we headed to the car where we soon fell asleep. “We’re here every one!” Anxious to see what was in store we hopped out the whip and ran into the park. Our first ride was harry potter. The line was so long my cousin Eric and I decide to talk to a couple attractive girls who were standing behind us. After a long conversation about nothing and exchanging numbers they handed us a flyer. “Come meet us at The Groove tonite it’s the hottest club in Orlando you have to be 16 and up” one of the girls said, “It’s from 10pm to 2am.” “Ok, sure we’ll be there” I said and we got on the ride. After riding a countless number of rides, chicken wings and slushees we were done for the day.

           Despite of a great night there was one problem. We forgot to ask about the club. We were on our way out the gates when my dad looks side to side and asked “ Isn’t there a teen club somewhere in this park?” I responded, “Yea, is it okay if we go tonight?” “Sure but be back at 2am” my dad said.

            What does a club and some girls have to do with trust? Well, we don’t often realize how important it is to be trusted. If my dad didn’t trust me he wouldn’t have let me go to the club (or anywhere else) and I wouldn’t have that amazing story to tell. In the long run without the story I wouldn’t be writing about trust. I would be writing about something else boring like algebra or something.

            In every essay or paper your teachers always say use the who, what, when, where method. So, why not start now? What is trust how do I define it? I think it’s having faith in someone or something to come through for you. Who should we trust? Obviously people who are there for you friends and family. The sad thing is that some family and friends can’t be trusted. When you really think about the word trust I’m sure, like me, you can recall many life situations. On that note why not share another of my experiences.

The clock winding down and the rivalry and tension is in the atmosphere. This game was anticipated and waited for all season. The crowd was going wild, signs were raised and trash was definately talked.
           

It was like a moment from a basketball movie. The game was close and my team was expected to loose. The opposing Bulls had a team of superstars but my team stood strong.
First though third quarter was a blur. All i could remember was the fourth quarter. After a few more long minutes the game came down to one moment.

            The game was tied and i had the ball coming up the floor. Out of the corner of my eye I see the crowd going wild as my heart beats faster. Twenty seconds left “Isolation isolation!” i call as I stand at half court. 10, 9, 8 and down it goes. Behind the back into a slick spin move, shoot the jumpshot and....BOING! I missed the shot to win the chip. My team mate Greg snags the ball and throws it up with 3 seconds left and makes it. We all go crazy and the crowd runs on the court.
Even though we won i still felt that i should have trusted my team more.

            That brings us to another topic which I really don’t like talking about. Don’t worry though I’m not going off to something completely irrelevant. This topic I will be talking about is trust issues. Now don’t get me wrong, just because I didn’t pass the ball means I have trust issues. Trust issues, is also song by a famous rapper/r & b singer, but nothing more. Trust issues is more of a fad than it is a problem now. It’s also used as an excuse for many things. For example, i ask out a girl who I know likes me. She obviously isn’t ready for a relationship but likes me and doesn’t want my feelings hurt. So what does she say? I’m sorry but I can’t go out with you, I have serious trust issues but maybe we can take our relationship farther another time. My facial expression says “It’s cool” but inside I’m saying, “That was the worst excuse ever! Just say no and be done with it.” I’m tired of that same excuse being used over and over again. Like everything else in life teens miss interpret it and turn horrible things into stupid fads.

            This portfolio will contain all the of the projects and work done this year in 9^th grade English. To me this year was ok. I feel as though I could have done way better. Looking back at my old work I’ve seen how far I’ve come and how much better I am now. Also from looking at these papers over with teachers I learned a lot from my mistakes. Also while looking back at my old projects it makes me think if I knew what I knew now my grades would be way better.

            Since now I can easily see my improvement I’ve become more confident knowing that I am a better student now. Even though I am better now I still have trouble with certain things like introductory paragraphs, conclusions and my work ethic.  Those things will come sooner or later but until then I will work with what I have.

My first paper at this school was a Memoir called “Snapshot of My Life” In this assignment we had to tell about a story or moment in our life that was important to us. I told about my relationship with my sister and how her going to college brought us closer.

                                      Snapshot of my Life

Do you have an older sibling? If you do or don’t you should know about the love hate relationship that brothers and sisters have. The younger one is always annoying, the oldest one is bossy and they never get along until later. Well my story is the same just with a more in depth perspective of what it is like and some of the life lessons I learned from her.

As baby I loved my sister but she didn’t always love me as much. When I sit with the family at dinner they tell me stories about how I used to break my sister’s barbies, mess up her board games in the middle of them and just flat out annoy her. I never really knew as a kid that I was being annoying. I was just being a kid. On the flipside they would tell about times when my sister would deliberately make me cry or mad. Sometimes when they tell stories I often think about what I would do if that happened now.

Pre teen years weren’t the best either. At the time I had thought I was a “grown man.” Thinking that way wasn’t the best idea for our relationship with each other. The arguments were always over stupid things like eating each others food in the refrigerator. It was the same thing everyday tantrums, yelling. Me and her were like two trains on the same track, a wreck. To us it was a usual thing. I got on her nerves she got on mine. Soon my mother decided to intervene and help us get along. My mom told me that one day I would miss her and would regret treating her like I did. At a young age I wasn’t trying to hear that “foolishness” as I called it. 

When I turned ten I didn’t know but a life changing event would happen. My sister was leaving for college. It seemed to come very fast but at the same time I didn’t really care. As a matter of fact I was happy she was leaving. With her gone I wouldn’t have to worry about her bossing me around, getting me in trouble and just being a pain. To me this was a dream come true.

Freshman year was the best. I frequently called her to see how she was doing but the conversations weren’t long. I just wanted her to feel like I cared when I really didn’t. I began to reminse on what my mom said to me early on but once again flagged it off. I was only 11 and a straight A student I had nothing to worry about. At that age all I thought about was video games and ice cream, let alone my relationship with my sister.

Sophmore year rolled around pretty quickly. That was the year when I had thoughts about my sister I was wondering was she ok. My mom sat me down and asked me did I really miss my sister. After a long and dramatic pause (which probably only lasted a few seconds) I broke down and said yes. All of a sudden it was like a burden was lifted off my chest.  It all hit me I was being a jerk and had a feeling that I was being a bad brother to he. I began to stop taking her for granted and really appreciate what I had.

Junior year was when I was ready for my sister to come back. Unlike before, I would call her everyday to the point where it was annoying. Now older and more mature we had great and meaningful conversations and even hung out every once in a while. Since I couldn’t have her at home and I still missed her I came up with a crazy idea. I knew it was wrong but I had nothing else to lose. I started befriending other girls in and out of school to try and take her place. But there is nothing like the genuine relationship of a real brother and sister. They filled the void temporarily but I just knew it wasn’t the right thing.

Senior year came and I was now a freshman at SLA. Me and my sister were now the best of friends and I was at the school of my dreams. Nothing in life was going wrong. She graduated and now lives with me and my parents. We are now the complete opposite of what we were before. I thank god everyday that I have her in my life and when everyone else talks about how much they don’t like they’re siblings I just laugh and think “that used to be me.”

         Macbeth and Odysseus are two different leaders from two different eras. Homer wrote The Odyssey in the Greek culture. In this culture there were a lot of gods, demi-gods, remarkable mortals, creatures etc. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in the English culture. In the English culture there are a lot of different dialect, castles, kings etc. Even though Macbeth and Odysseus both leaders and great in battle, their paths were very different in some ways.

  Macbeth and Odysseus were great warriors in battle. The outcomes of their paths were different in a few ways. Both of them endured long journeys and changed drastically through out the books. Macbeth went from a loving, caring and loyal man into a mean and disloyal tyrant. Odysseus went from being a cocky and careless man to a more thoughtful man who cared about his family. In the story Odysseus always wanted to take the long or hard way out of things just so he could have bragging rights. By doing this he got his men killed and made his travels longer and harder. Macbeth, on the other hand wasn’t as cocky, he spoke with his actions. He would make a plan and go through with it and try not to make himself known, because if he does he might have gotten caught.

Both of them were fierce, brave and skillfull in battle and and did not let anyone stop them to kill another person. In some cases they killed their own men, weither on purpose or not. Both of them also showed signs of craftiness and great skill in battle. They were both leaders either good or bad. In the Odyssey and Macbeth they were both kings in one point of the story. As Odysseus went on his journey he was the leader of his men as was Macbeth. Odysseus shows craftiness when he came up with the plan to kill the suitors. By deceiving them he was able to kill them off easily. As he killed them he showed his skill and ruthlessness by killing the lead suitor by shooting them in him in the neck. Also by cutting off one of the suitors’ head. In my opinion shouldn’t have been killed. Macbeth shows these traits in a different matter. Since Macbeth was not king, him and his wife had to use wits in order to kill King Duncan. He also had to think about not getting his cover blown so he killed one of his men who he thought knew what he did. In act 1 Macbeth shows ruthlessness and bravery when he cut an opposing warrior from the naval all the way through his head. “For brave Macbeth – well he deserves the name – Disdained misfortune, with his brandish steel, which smoked with bloody execution. Like valor’s minion carved out his passage till he faced the slave...Till he unseamed him from the nave to the’ chaps and fixed his head upon battlements” Lines 13- 20 and 22-23.    

            This next project I will show is my ME Magazine project. It was my first English project here at SLA. We had to make a magazine that told about us and our interests and hobbies. My me magazine was entitles Heart, Soul, Basketball. 

For every semester we must do what is called an Independent reading project. We must choose a book to read on our own time and do a report on it. The one I will show you is a podcast I made for the book Hoop Dreams.  HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmeBZe4EqME) is the movie. 

This year we were required to keep a journal here are some of my entries…

Why Do We Write?

I write because it is a way to get feelings off my chest that I normally can’t. Its something about putting a pen to paper that is more relieving than talking. Also people don’t care about your problems all the time so writing makes it better.

How Important is it to Fit in?

To me since I am a basketball player I kind of automatically fit in. Fitting in has never ever been a problem for me. I personally think it isn’t that important ti fit inbut as long as you have a few good loyal friends and family they can help you get through anything and take you anywhere.

If You Really Knew Me?

If you really knew me you would know that I hold back a lot and can be very depressed at times. You would also know that I am silly and am a happy guy for the most part. Also you would know about my love for basketball, family and friends. They help me through everything. You also would know that I never work up to my full potential because I already know I can get all A’s if I wanted to.

Has Anyone Ever Exceeded My Expectations?

Yes plenty of times. Sometimes we make assumptions about others and even ourselves based on what we know or have seen. You never fully know what a person can do. Just like science there are variables which means maybe someone is going through something causing them to perform better or worse.

What is an Adult?

I think an adult isn’t really a person of a certain age because they may not be mature enough. So an adult is a person who is responsible and mature. Someone who takes care of their business and is beyond the  puberty stage of life.

Winter Break….

My winter break was pretty good. I hung out with some of my friends and chilled out. I ended up on punishment for the last few days but I still had fun. I am now just waiting for this summer to come.  These benchmarks are harsh and aren’t helping my transition into high school but I’ll get over them.

My portfolio doesn’t say a lot about the person I really can be. I feel like I could have done better and spent more time on my work. The only issues I faced while doing this portfolio was looking for my old work and scanning my me magazine. These problems were easily resolved by asking for help and checking on moodle for all of my work .When people see my work I want them to see a hard working student but this me looking for ns I must put forward the effort to do so. My strengths are in spelling, parts of speech, definitions etc (like when we do vocabulary.) Also I am good at writing papers and getting to the point without adding to much (attracting and keeping the audiences attention.) I would like to work on my weaknesses that were stated in the first paragraph which include opening and closing paragraphs and organization.

Hola mi nombre es Sterling, (Letter)

Tiene: Bistec

Viene Con: Arroz, tequenos y jugo

Es bueno para protenias

Prediccion: Muy bien y sabroso

Reflection

My first impression of Sazon and it’s staff was “WOW” I felt like I was really in Venezuela for a minute. The food was excellent too. It was exciting to try new types of food that weren’t from the US. The first food I tried was the Bistec. My first impression was that it was very tasty, kind of sweet and I wanted more.

One Shot Man Down

The End

            Hello reader, this will be my concluding blog to this series. In this last blog I will summarize the first 2 blogs (for those who didn’t read) and presenting some new facts. Also in this blog I will  be providing some facts and things about gangs that I should have added before.

Blog two talked more about locations of gangs and how it’s spreading to rural areas. 

            In blog one I talked about the different reasons why people join gangs and what causes the violence. There are a lot of reasons  why people join gangs. Some are for protection, a second family, peers or even family run gangs. Turf is the first word that comes to mind when it comes to gang related violence. Since 2 gangs are in the same area it may cause violence or they just might want to take over each other’s “turf.”

            You may ask how does a rival gang know when another gang is on their turf? Gangs do something they call “tagging.” Tagging is a slang word for making your mark. They do this by spray painting they’re gang sign (a sign knowing its them) Sometimes that’s why you see grafitti in the streets.

            Another thing that may identify gangs are colors. Each major gang has a color they wear to identify themselves. For example Crips wear blue and Bloods wear red. If a crip were to wear red he will be penalized which could even be death.

            In order to join certain crews you must be “jumped in” which means you must fight the whole crew by yourself to prove your tough enough and are willing to take a beating for the crew. Some people have died being jumped into gangs.

            Thank you for reading my blog and thank you for taking the time out of your day. Have a nice day

 One Shot Man Down Pt 2

    In the last blog I talked about the reasons why people join gangs, the different ethnicities of gangs and how gang violence is overlooked. Another factor I didn’t include in the last blog was the media today. Do you think that the music we listen to and games we play or shows we watch influence gang violence and activity? (please comment)

     Now gangs are multiplying and are spreading out into unsuspected places such as suburban areas and even the military.  Members of nearly every major street gang, including the Bloods, Crips, Black Disciples, Gangster Disciples, Hells Angels, Latin Kings, The 18th Street Gang, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Mexican Mafia, Nortenos, Surenos, Vice Lords, and various white supremacist groups, have been documented on military gangs. According to the FBI Gang Report (here) our country (in 09) had at least 200,000 gangs coast to coast. Also 1/3 acts of violence are gang related. So I end this blog with the question can gang violence be stopped?

Bibliography

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/justicelawlegislation/a/gangs.htm

http://www.ngcrc.com/ngcrc/page91w.htm

• ​Tiene: dos platanos, pollo, maiz, un verde platanos, sal y pimeinta, agua y chile
• Viene con: Bistec
• Es bueno para: los atletas, los que estan a dieta.
• Prediccion: Yo pensar sancocho es parece
  
  
  

“One Shot Man Down”

            This blog is part of a project called You and The World. The point of this project is for us to find a problem or issue in our world (that we are interested in) and blog on it.

           The topic I chose was gangs and gang related violence and what causes or influences it. I’m interested in this topic because it’s something that’s all around us, that happens everyday and we just don’t pay a lot of attention to it. I found in my research that 100% of cities with a population of 250,000 or more report gang violence or activity.

           I’ve discovered through real life experiences and research that not all people in gangs are bad. Some of the leading causes of people joining gangs are because of  the area in which they live, relatives or family run gangs, peers and protection. The causes of the actual violence can be anything from rivalry between two gangs in the same area or “turf, drugs and even the music we listen to today.

            As I did my research I found that 94% of gang members are males. I wonder why It is so many males if males are known for not holding grudges like girls etc.