Blog Reflection

I think that my best blog post was my Krista Ramsey blog post because I included a short summary of what the article was about and then I explained why I decided to read it and what I got out of it. I also examine the woman whom Krista Ramsey talks about, I give a short summary of her life and then I explain why Krista Ramsey probably wrote about her. Then  I wrote a prediction of why I thought the woman ended up how she did and what she could do to change it. I also analyzed Krista Ramsey's purpose of writing the article in the first place, I thought it was something that a lot of people could relate to and that it would make some of the people like her feel better about themselves knowing that they're not alone. I referenced the  Krista Ramsey article when I said, "when she put out a notice for a room for rent, with her phone number in tearable strips at the bottom of the page, there wasn't a single taker," I decided to use this quote because I felt like it was a strong sentence that makes you feel pity towards the woman and it makes you want to do something nice for her.

Next year I want to be more diverse in my reading choices because I read a lot of fiction, science fiction, and realistic fiction, I don't read that much Non-fiction, and I think that I should be reading more Non-fiction. I think that I'm going to set a goal for myself of at least 15 books read completely by the end of sophomore year, and eight of them have to be non-fiction. For my writing, I didn't do a lot of writing this year, but it wasn't because I didn't like it, its because I either didn't have time or just forgot about how much I love to write. I am currently typing a book that I have named The Rogue Soldier, but I rarely have time to work on it. My goal for writing next year is to get at least half way done with my book. As for improvement in my writing and in my reading, I think that for my reading I have to be more diverse with my genres and I have to stay with one book, because this year I would start one book, then I would drop it for a while, start reading another book, drop that one, and so on. With my writing, I guess that if I had to have something to improve, it would be my diction, right now I don't have very elevated diction, so sometimes my writing sounds sloppy. For my last sentence I would like to thank you  Mrs. Noble for a great year and introducing me to the blogging world.


  Best blog: http://gerardosreadingblog.blogspot.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

Bomb blog post #3

I have not finished the book yet but I am pretty close. The Americans found out that the Germans were at least two years behind them with the bomb project. At this point during the war, Germany was on the retreat throughout Europe and the war was drawing to a close. The U.S. tested their first plutonium bomb in New Mexico at a site named Trinity. Early in the morning on April 16 there was an explosion which had the equivalent force of 20,000 pounds of TNT. It was a success. The sound of the explosion could be heard from 20 miles away.

The news of the successful test at Trinity infuriated the Russian dictator Joseph Stalin. He demanded that he get a bomb at once. The KGB had had little success with the Americans, until they met Klaus Fuchs, pronounced like fooks. He was a British Physicist and a soviet supporter. The Manhattan project needed new scientists so the British sent their scientists. Klaus Fuchs was included in the package.

The KGB was ecstatic to hear that they finally had a spy in the Manhattan Project. Joseph Stalin wasn't as pleased. He said he wanted results and if results weren't provided, heads were going to start rolling. The Russians used the American plans give to them by Klaus Fuchs to finally build their own bomb. The war was won and a new one began, the Cold War. The U.S. was surprised and infuriated by the news of the Russians successful test.

Bomb blog post #2

I am finding this book extremely interesting which is increasing the speed at which I read through the pages, I am more than half way through the book, and so far, it appears as if the Germans are winning the race to the Atomic Bomb. Leslie Groves was put in charge of the Manhattan project by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Groves then put Dr. Robert Oppenheimer in charge of Los Alamos, the city in New Mexico where the Atomic Bomb was being built. The United States was making great progress, but they didn't know how far the Germans were with the Bomb project so they had to assume that the Germans were ahead.

Meanwhile, the Russians were also trying to build their own Atomic Bomb, but they were invaded by the Nazis, which temporarily thwarted their efforts to build an Atomic Bomb. With all of their resources being spent on the war against the Nazis, the Russians had little to no supplies and resources to attempt to make a bomb. So with no other option, they decided to try and steal the plans to the Atomic Bomb.

That is where Harry Gold comes in. He was an American born communist supporter, that really didn't care about the war or its outcome. But when his buddy that was also a communist supporter told him about a new line of work that payed very well, he couldn't help but find out what it was. IT turned out to be spying, something that Harry had no interest in, but when they said to himthat even being at this secret meeting with the KGB was already a criminal offense, he thought it would be easy, so he went for it. As it turned out to be, he was actually pretty good at it.

Bomb blog post #1

The book I chose to independently read is the book called "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin. The book is based off of the amazing story of the race to build an atomic bomb. The book begins by introducing Harry Gold, a soviet spy during World War 2. The author then goes on to introduce Dr. Oppenheimer, the leader of Los Alamos. He introduces Dr. Oppenheimer by telling a short story about him, it was about a time when he was on a date and he excused himself from the car to go walk for a while, the girl agreed. While Oppenheimer was out, his date fell asleep in the car. She awoke hours later without the return of Oppenheimer, she called the police and they began a manhunt. They went to his house to look for clues and they found him sound asleep in his bed.

I believe that this short story depicts Dr. Oppenheimer very well because he was an absent minded  young man, but at the same time, he was one of the most brilliant men in the U.S. I also think that it is a good way to introduce him like this because it shows us some of his characteristics and how he acts, it also gives us something to go off of to compare throughout the entire story.

Proceeding the short story and background of Dr. Oppenheimer it explains a little bit of the current state of being of the world, it explains how Nazi Germany is quickly expanding its empire using its lighting war to crush opposing countries. Then it shows the pictures of all of the significant figures of the Manhattan project along with soviet spies and German scientists. This gives us an image of all of the people involved which some people could see as a negative thing while others see it as a positive thing.

Satire blog post

The satirical article I chose to use was one called " People are Dying to get in" by Hannah Good. It starts off by including some statistics about crime rates increasing in the united states. It also states how the jails are filling up with the major offenders like murderers, rapists and serial killers, but the real criminals are slipping under the radar. The shop lifters out in the open are causing much more harm than a rapists in jail. Many people like Hannah Good believe that we should be cracking down on these criminals committing petty crimes.

In 2013 it appeared as if the people in favor of cracking down on these petty criminals got their wish, more than 3,000 petty criminals got life sentences for their crimes. But as the jails started overflowing, paroles were given out like free ice cream in the summer, and once again, the only people in jail were the murderers, serial killers and rapists. Hannah Good believes that with every step forward, they are taking two steps back, and that eventually even the worst offenders will be released on parole.

What makes this article satirical is Hannah Good's inclusion of ridicule towards the governing system of the jails, including her comment about handing out paroles like free ice cream on a hot summers day. She also makes it humorous by repeating the word petty, and saying some of the stupidest crimes like robbing a store right next to a police station.

Krista Ramsey post

The Krista Ramsey article that I chose to read was the one titled, "Carolyn Greco Feels Like a Ghost". The article is about a woman who feels like she has no purpose in the world, she's been married twice and divorced twice. She became a mother at twenty one, studied hard, plowed right through college and then when back to school a couple years later for a master's degree. Nowadays she's used to being ignored and when she put out a notice for a room for rent, with her phone number in tearable strips at the bottom of the page, there wasn't a single taker. She has trouble finding the motivation to get out of bed in the mornings and doesn't feel like there is a reason to.

I think that Krista Ramsey wrote this article to show people like Carolyn Greco that they are not alone with the whole being ignored thing. There are a lot of people in the world that can relate to this story, being ignored and treated as if you don't exist your entire life, I can see why it would be hard to get out of bed in the mornings if I were being ignored like that. Thankfully I have plenty of friends and family members that know that I exist, that I don't have to feel that way.

I hope that this article inspires other people to do something the next time they see someone sitting alone at lunch or standing alone at a social gathering, because I can only imagine how it must feel to be treated as if you were a ghost. I also hope that Carolyn Greco can someday find some happiness in her life so that she doesn't have to keep searching for reasons to get out of bed each morning.

Einstein blog post #13

Albert Einstein is nearing the end of his life and at this point he has proved his theory of relativity, E=mc(2) and that you don't need to have socks on every morning to be incredibly smart. The reason that I bring up the socks is that Einstein almost always forgot to put on his socks in the morning. Many of the local kids would ask him why he didn't have socks on and he would respond by looking down at his bare feet and saying that he hadn't even noticed that he didn't have any socks on. The true reason is that he had so much stuff going on in his head that there was no room for socks or regular every day things.

Unfortunately, not all of Einstein's big discoveries went down in history as good things for example, the atom bomb originated from one of Einstein's ideas, but he never meant for them to be used as a weapon of destruction. Einstein was appalled when he learned that one of his works was being used to kill hundreds of thousands of people. Einstein, nearing the end of his scientific carrier and life, began to observe the stars as a way to pass time with friends, he liked looking at the constellations and at some times making a few of his own.

Albert Einstein, the greatest physicist of all time, died on April 18, 1955. He had internal bleeding and in the week he was preparing a big speech, he died peacefully in his sleep. His brain was salvaged and was studied, but the rest of his remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered. During the study of his brain, scientists found that he used up to 15% more of his brain than an average human. His IQ was estimated to be between 160 and 190, but since it was never determined, it stayed at 160. Although he is dead, the legacy of Albert Einstein will continue.