Fast Five

The new Fast and Furious movie came out this week and I can't wait to see it. I'v seen every F&F movie to this date and they are easily one of my favorite series. I love fast cars and races on the streets. The movies also have some of my favorite actors, Vin Diesel and Paul Walker. The new movie Fast Five has also added a new character, who will be played by "The Rock" another great actor. I can't wait to see the movie soon and I will be sure to post and movie review over it.

Night Shift #2

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 37-82

The Mangler is the next short story written by Stephen King that I really enjoyed. The mangler is an old school laundry machine. Officer Hunton is sent to the store because apparently someone's arm got stuck in the the machine and was pulled in between the rollers flatting the poor women making for a slow agonizing death.Officer Hunton suspected that the safety bar wasn't working, but to his surprise when he tested it the machine shut off immediately; therefore, the women should have also set it off when her arm went to far into the machine. Hutton discussed the matter with his close friend Jackson and neither one of them could make sense of it. Then next week one of the steam pipes from the blue ribbon laundry machine broke off and burned 6 of the workers, killing 3 of them. Jackson believes that the machine is possessed by a demon. Hunton is then convinced that Jackson's assumption is correct when they find out that the blood of a virgin is one of the ways to posses an inanimate object. Cherry weeks before these incidents began cut her finger on the machine bleeding all over it, they discovered that she was a virgin.Hunton and Jackson attempt to preform an exorcism, but come to realize that the machine is possessed by a much stronger entity, the hand of glory. The holy water does nothing to it and it soon rises out of the ground using the pipes as legs. Hunton runs out of their screaming leaving Jackson behind to die.

I'm amazed by the creativeness of Stephen King's writing. I could never have thought of a laundry machine to be something you could base a horror story off of. In fact credits found it to be so good they made a movie of it. I'll have to watch the movie and compare the the book to it and see what the movie changed. I can't wait to read more of his stories, so far they are all so good.

Im a Scatman!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cnQCk0u49w

This song can make anyone want to dance and if it doesn't then no beat on earth could get those people to grove. The musical beat of this song is just so energizing. The Scatman is simply the best artist to ever exist.

Night Shift #1

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 1-37

Night Shift is a collection of horrific short stories written by Stephen King. The story's are suppose to provoke the fear inside a human's mind making those final minutes before a person falls asleep in the pitch black dreadful. This is the first book I've read of Stephen King's and thought I could sample a bunch of his short stories before I decided to start buying multiple books of his. So far I'm very impressed and find myself unable to put the book down at times. All of the stories are good, but a select few of them are spectacular and one can truly not stop reading even if its 1 in the morning and one eye is closed. The first short story I'm going to share with you is titled the Grave Yard Shift. Hall works at a Textile Mill and has signed on to help clean out the basement of the factory over the week of memorial day. Warwick, the boss, has hired a bunch of men to clean out the basement during the graveyard shift (1-5 in the morning) because the the intense heat in the day. The first shift Hall discovered that there was more trash then any of them could've imagined and that there were tons of huge rats. These rats aren't just abnormally large they are literally the size of a germen Shepard dog. The next day he found a locked door leading to an even lower level. The workers could here the noise of thousands of rats coming from that door. Warwick tells Hall to go find the source of rats and Hall demands that Warwick comes with him. They both go down and discover that this floor goes past the buildings foundations right into the earth. They follow the tunnel and fight mutated rats with wings just like bats. They keep going and soon 10s of thousands of rats are following them. Then they see the impossible, a giant rat with wings the size of a mini van. The mutated rodent immediately attack Warwick and Hall runs away,but trips on a rat and they all swarm him as he starts to scream out in laughter.

I love reading these short stories and really liked this one because of the detail King gives about the main characters life and thoughts. I really like King's Gothic style of writing. The endings are all short and usually result in death there is nothing climatic of the endings and that annoys me, but at the same time it leaves the readers mind open to speculation. King is a literary genius.

Pen Spinning

Recently I saw a video on you tube about pen spinning and I'm now addicted to it. I have been trying to do the tricks in all my classes every chance i get, but I'm failing miserly. Every class i drop my pen easily over 100 times. The main pen spinners are in Japan where its a sport and they are insanely good at it. I need to stop this pen spinning business, but its very addicting. I find myself not focusing as much as i should in class and starting to rage after dropping it several times.

Fishing

In two weeks my dad, uncle, and I are going up to Pittsburgh where my family is from for our fishing trip. The second stalking of Tomas Mills is in 2 weeks and we were suppose to go to the first stalking, but the weather was to bad and streams were flooded. Hopefully the weather is gets better soon so we are able to go. We always have a great time and make many memories together. I still remember the fun things we did when I first when i was only 12 years old.

Summer Ball

Mike Lupica
Popular Fiction
Pages 157-214

The first day of practice Mr. Powers already shows that he is going to go hard on Danny because of hid grudge against his father. He makes Danny run laps around the court because made a noise when someone stepped on his foot. The coach barely plays him in games and when he does if Danny makes one bad decision he immediately gets taken out. He calls his father to get advice and his dad tells him to confront the coach and ask him what he needs to do better. When he goes to seek advice from the coach he is told that basketball isn't his sport and that he should play soccer instead. The next game Danny is put in towards the end and starts to do really good, he starts making his shots and beautiful no look passes. At the end of the game they are down one point and Danny does a double crossover to get past two defenders. He thinks he has an open layup and as he releases the ball and turn around to watch it drop though the net, he instead sees this huge 6'8" kid jumping so high that he could've put his elbow in the rim and grabbing the ball out of the air. The buzzer-ed went off and coach began giving it to Danny. The next games Danny didn't play at all and he decided to fake an injury to get out of camp. But then he remembers that Zach Fox looked up to him and what would he think if he quit so instead of giving in he doesn't quite and practices even harder. He and Rasheed become good friends and Rasheed knows Danny is by far one of the bets guards at the camp, even almost as good as him. Rasheed forgets about the past game and tells Danny that he was never friends with Lamar, who is a arrogant jerk. They make it to the championship game and Rasheed has convinced coach that Danny is really good, so he has been playing all throughout the playoffs and has been schooling everyone with Rasheed. Danny steals the ball from Lamar in the last possession of the game to beat his team and prove to coach he is a great basketball player.

Mike Lupica once again has successfully incorporated life messages into basketball. Instead of doing nothing about his problems Danny confronts his coach and asks for guidance. Even after being told he will never be good enough to play he almost quits, but then realizes if he quits at this he'll be a quitter the rest of his life. Therefore, Danny learns to never quit at something and to persevere through the struggles to achieve success. I also like how Rasheed and Danny were able to become friends after they got off on the wrong foot, both boys are really nice and good. In the end I'm happy Danny took it to Lamar and showed his coach that he really is a basketball player.

Summer Ball

Mike Lupica
Popular Fiction
Pages 72-157

Danny and Ty arrive are driven from the airport to camp by a college player named Nick Pinto, who was also very short. When Danny and Ty saw the camp they thought it was basketball paradise. There was a lighted court everywhere you looked and a lake just out in the distance. The kids were broken into different bunks where they would stay for the rest of the month, Danny and Ty were suppose to be in the same bunk because Richie was able to call and arrange it, but they ended up mixing Danny's name up with another kid named Danny and he had to bunk with the littler kids. This wasn't to bad because Danny ended up meeting a kid who was feeling even worse then him, but was even shorter then he was. The kids name was Zach Fox and he said he didn't even want to be here and his parents forced him to come. He got so worked up he almost cried, but he left the room with his ball before he completely lost it. Danny followed Zach to the court were he started shooting the ball and dribbling it. Danny noticed that he was really good at handling the ball and lighting fast like him. When Zach shot his goofy shot Danny laughed because it looked like his shot when he was that age. Danny ended up playing Zach in one on one and really started to like the kid, Zach felt a lot better and looked up to Danny as his idol. In the distance he could see two guys watching him, Rasheed and Lamar. Rasheed was on the team that Danny beat in the 7th grade finals and was their stare player until he fail out on an offensive charge that Danny set. Rasheed already called him out earlier on it saying he could only flop and had no game. Lamar was a taller kid, who was an arrogant player, but probably the best at the camp, he yelled at them saying "look at the two midgets playing they should be using a girls ball." The next day Danny finds out he is on the same team as Rasheed and his coach is Mr. Powers a man who hold a grudge against his father from backing out of going to his college.

I believe that Danny and Rasheed are going to be competing against each other for most of the season and that in order to be successful they are going to have to play together as a team. Also, Mr. Powers might go harder on Danny because dislikes his father just like Mr. Ross did for most of the first book. I can't wait to get to read about them starting to play games and Danny playing Lamar's team.

I believe that Danny is going to have

Art Gallery

Adam Gayer's abstract painting alludes to a calm content feeling. The effervescent colors imply a benevolent feeling in one. This work of art is truly majestic and dignified.The line patterns and colors really allow the viewer to see the painting it their own unique perspective.

Dank

Dank: (adj.) Unpleasantly damp or wet
The room had a dank atmosphere of a wet cave

My favorite vocab word is dank.

Summer Ball

Mike Lupica
Popular Fiction
Pages 1-72

Danny Walker is back in the sequel to Travel Team, where his team the Middleton Warriors won the national 7th grade travel championship. The book is staged in the summer before Danny enters into high school, where his dad is now coaching the varsity team. It looks like Danny and Ty might be able to play on Varsity as freshmen because of how good they are getting. This summer Danny and Ty are going to the best basketball camp in the country for 13-15 year olds. The Cameron invitational camp is one of the most prestiges camps in the country where college recruits come to watch the middle schoolers play, before they enter into high school. The recruiters are always looking for the next Lebron James. Danny has gotten even better at handling the ball and has perfected his jump shot, but he is still always the shortest player on the court. While Ty has grown and is the best overall player for his age in the state of New York. Danny is excited to get away from Middleton because recently the girl he has always hanged out with (who he really likes) is hanging around with this stud tennis player all the time. The day before they leave for Maine to go to the camp Ty and Danny are playing one on one. Danny blows by Ty easily with a double cross over and he thinks he has a easy layup, but out of no where Ty jumps from behind him and swats his ball down the hill. Danny thinks to himself "that can't be a good sign."

I can't wait to really get into this book, I loved the first one and hope this one is just as good. I think this story will focus even more on Danny's height disadvantaged
and the struggles he will face to keep getting better. The story will also probably use basketball as a way of demonstrating life lessons by comparing basketball to life. The last line that i read suggests that Danny is going to be getting stuffed a lot at camp and he is going to need to practice even harder.

NBA playoffs

The playoffs are wide open this year and anyone who made it into the playoffs this year has a fighting chance of winning the title. Early favorites haves lost their first game to teams that no one thought would even have a chance. The grizzlies were able to bet the Spurs in a shocking upset, will have to see if Tim Duncan can motivate his team to a win to even out the series. Also, the struggling Lakers lost to Chris Paul and the hornets. If Chris Paul continues to play like he has been i believe that the Hornets are a very dangerous team. Other notable highlights are that the Knicks nearly beat the Celtics and have a good shot at winning the series. The bulls are up 2-0 on the pacers, but surprisingly have had to come from behind to win. Also the magic have lost their first game as Dwight Howard was frustrated greatly by the other team. The Knicks are my team and I want them to go all the way, but i believe the obvious final picks as of right now are.

Thunder v. Heat

Travel Team #3

Mike Lupica
Popular Fiction
156-212

The game the Warriors lost by 1 was the last game before the playoffs. Next weekend the Warriors would play the number one ranked team the Vikings, the team Danny was cut from. Ty Ross hasn't played with them all year because of injury and will be able to play this week making them even better. Danny's Dad came into Monday nights practice a little late and was acting a little awkward. He was yelling at the team after every little mistake and making them run suicides for every bad play, he even started to curse at the kids. After, practice Richie drove him home without saying a word. The next day him and will went into a town and Danny caught a glimpse of his dad sitting at the bar just staring into space, he sees him at the bar allot lately and starts to wonder if what Ted Morgan said about his Dad being a drunk was true. Later that night the hospital called the house telling them that Richie was in a car accident. When Danny goes into see him, Richie immediately tells him that he wasn't drunk and explains to him how the first car crash he was in that he was very drunk. People always felt sad for Richie because they thought he caught a bad break, but the truth was that he was drunk that night of the car crash and he ruined his whole NBA career and has never been able to move on. Now Danny knows the truth, but Richie promised that he has quite and that the night he came into practice all upset was the last time he has drank. Danny is giving coaching responsibility of the Warriors for the big playoff game and Ty switch to their team because of how aggressive his father was being. When the game starts and Ty subs in against Mr. Ross team, Mr. Ross couldn't take it and he called timeout and walked over to Richie walker in the stand and sat right next to him to cheer on their sons. The game was tied with 10 seconds left and Danny does it double crossover move just like last time, but this time when he takes the shot its nothing but net... swoosh. The Warriors beat the Vikings and it seems that old rivalries have come to an end.

I really enjoy this story because it teaches life lessons through basketball, and shows how the game of basketball is just like life. There are times in a game when things won't go your way no matter how hard you try just life life. The important things is that you never give up and that you keep trying to achieve your goal no matter what. I also like how Richie was able to forget about the past and stop feeling sorry for himself and live with his family again. The book also shows that its important to not dwell on the past with the example of Mr. Ross not being jealous of Richie always being number one in their ball days.

Travel Team #2

Mike Lupica
Pular Fiction
89-156

Richie Walker decided to make his own travel team, the Middleton Warriors. Danny was so excited because this meant that his dad would be sticking around with them for awhile and he would feel like he had a real family. The team was very good they only manage to find 9 players and most of them weren't really good. Danny and his best friend will both knew it too. The first practice they had was terrible, but Richie kept telling them to hang in their and the season could be very special. The first weekend of games came and the warriors went 0-2 and lost one game by 40. instead of being the team nobody wanted to play they were the team everybody wanted to play. One night Richie showed up to practice early and caught a glimpse of the girls practice. The best girl in the area, Colby, was making the game look easier dribbling by defenders like they weren't even there. Richie was very impressed and asked her father if she would like to pracite with his team. Then she starts to practice every night with them and Richie decides to let her play on the team. With Colby they were allot better they actually won one game, Danny finaly had someone to pass to when he drove. Things weren't just getting better for the basketball team, but this Christmas Danny was the happiest he has ever been. His mom and dad were looking like a real couple and it felt like one of the perfect family Christmas that you see on t.v. Danny got a Jason Kidd autographed basketball from his father. The next travel game they were in it to the end against the team that beat them by 40 early this season. It was 38-37 with 10 seconds left Danny's team was down. He split the defenders with his double cross over he was always working on perfectly and pulled up for the shot... short. Danny missed as time expired right as things started to look good this happens.

I really like how Danny's family life is starting to improve. The most important thing in life is your family and it looks like he got his back. I can relate to how Danny felt after missing that shot because every basketball player gets knock down at some point in time. It's up to Danny to work even harder and win the next game, which i predicted he will. In life in order to achieve success you need to continue to push forward after your failures.

Travel Team

Mike Lupica
Popular Fiction
Pages 1-89

Danny Walker is the son of a the famous basketball star Richie Walker, who is knows for taking the 7th grade Middleton travel team to nationals and winning it when he was 12. The first season Richie was in the NBA he was in a car crash and now he will never be able to play basketball again. His wife and him are divorced and he hasn't spent much time with his son, and whenever he comes over for the holidays the stay is always brief. However, Danny Walker is cut from the 7th grade travel team, the Vikings, because Mr.Ross says he is to short. He has always been the shortest in his grade, but that hasn't stopped him from being the best ball handler in town or from being the best passer. In pick-up games Danny was the 1st to be picked by a team captain because everyone knew how good he was. Mr.Ross had played with Richie on the 7th grade travel team and throughout high school. Richie was always the star and Mr. Ross was always second stuck behind his shadow. Also, Ty Ross who is the best player in the entire town and one of the best in the nation is close friends with Danny and knows that Danny should have made the team. After, hearing the new that Danny was cut from the team Richie shoes up in town to help his son out, talking about why he didn't make it. The next day Richie was watching Danny play a pick up game, with the boys that made the team, at the fare and blowing by them with Ty on his team. Mr. Ross came up to say hello and Richie took no time is asking why Danny didn't make the team. Mr. Ross could only say that he was to short and if he didn't like the system he should make his own team.

I really like this book because the main topic is about my favorite sport basketball. I can truly relate to Danny because I was cut from the 9th grade high school team in New Jersey because i just moved into town and no one knew me. But the next year I started JV and sat Varsity. Now next year I will again be playing another varsity season for Homestead, after just moving here this year. I really think Mr. Ross cut Danny because he was jealous of Richie. The last quote of the chapter by Mr. Ross foreshadows that Richie is going to in fact make his own team with all the kids who were told they weren't good enough to play.

Upstate New York Farmhouse

The upstate farmhouse is a simple house surrounded by open wilderness expressing a calm a relaxing feeling. The Farmhouse design is very plain and open which conveys a sense of welcoming. The home isn't filled with modern commodities or flashy new technology. The house is surrounded by wildlife and nature, isolated from the busy society of the modern world. The house looks very peaceful and a place where someone could escape to. The swimming pool is like a private oasis for the owners of the house. The public isn't able to disturb the peaceful land that the home is on. This home captures the full experience of living a simple life in the outdoors.