My contest-winning blog!

   What have I learned from this blogging experience? I’ve learned that blogging is a cool way to communicate with people on the internet. You can express your thoughts and feelings on certain things and learn more about other people by reading their blogs.

        

   Blogging has taught me how to be a better writer. Doing all of these weekly activities has taught my mind to think about ideas faster, since most of the weekly assignments are subjects that I don’t have much of an opinion on. It’s very helpful when writing essays because you are usually given a topic that you sometimes don’t know what to write about, but you have to write a whole essay about it in a certain amount of time.

 

In addition to helping me be a better writer, it has also taught me how to be a faster typist. Since blogging requires much typing, one get’s used to the position of keys on the key board. I do the blogging competition in computer class, and one of the things we are trying to do in computer class is improve our typing speed. So far I went from about 32 words per minute to about 50 words per minute—that’s amazing!

 

Not only has blogging made me a better writer and typist, but it has also made me more aware about global events and issues. Writing about Blog Action Day and International Year of Sanitation and Hanami Festival, I’ve learned more about important things in the world and different cultures.

 

I think my best so far would have to be this one, because this is the most I’ve written. I think I’ve improved the most in my writing skills. It is good to write with a worldwide audience in mind because, on the internet, your blog is viewable to everyone around the world. Overall I would probably give myself a 4, though I don’t think my blog is perfect.

 

In conclusion, blogging has helped me in a number of ways and I would like to thank Ms. Wyatt and Ms. Sue Waters for having this competition and Ms. Finklestein for making our class do this.

On December 20, 2006 the United Nations General Assembly declared 2008 the National Year of Sanitation (IYS) . I chose this for my post because I believe it is a very important cause. It is relevant in my life because I realize that some people don’t have the proper sanitation that I have everyday. The goal is to increase awareness and promote leadership and governments to provide better resources of sanitation to the poor. Here are some of the objectives of IYS:

• Increase awareness and commitment on the importance of reaching sanitation
• Secure commitments to strengthen sanitation
• Improve the health of many

One of the campaigns of IYS is “Sanitation is Dignity”. Many of us take for granted simple things like toilets. Can you imagine where you would do your business if you didn’t have a toilet? Where would you hide?

Another thing that IYS is doing is “Smart Sanitation Solutions”. one website you can go to is germantoilet.org.

Here’s some statistics about water problems that affect half of humanity from this website:

• Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.
• Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day.
• More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.
• Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.
• 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)
• Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhoea
• The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.
• Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits.
• Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.
• To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit.… The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labour diversions … are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP, or some $28.4 billion annually, a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.

My recycling video!

Recycling is very important. You should try to preserve and protect your environment. One way that I recycle is by throwing away all of my unneeded papers in a recycling bin. That’s what my school does. We have just recently started a new recycling program where we throw away papers in a paper recycling bin. Hopefully we will be able to recycle other things besides paper soon at our school. In another school that I went to during my elementary days, we threw all of our lunch garbage in a recycling machine that made really loud noises. I’m not exactly sure how it works but I think I saw water in there. Everyone should do there best to recycle!

Here’s a few recycling facts from http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/importance.html :

These are the three blogs that I’ve visited:

1. Kayleighish’s blog from the Netherlands: http://kayleighish.edublogs.org/2008/10/12/skullduggery-pleasant/#respond
2. Ebony2wya67’s blog from U.S.A: http://ebony2wya67.edublogs.org/2008/05/14/about-miley-cyurs/#comment-26
3. Julyaf09’s blog from Connecticut and not the U.K.: http://julyaf09.edublogs.org/2008/11/02/count-three-out/#comment-109

Here in the United States we celebrate Thanksgiving in November! Thanksgiving is a time where we remember what happened when the Pawtuxet Native Americans helped out the Pilgrims in 1621. The Pawtuxets had shown the Pilgrims how to hunt and grow crops, since they were having a hard time adjusting to new life in The New World. They had come to North America to escape religious persecution in Europe and start a new life where they could practice their own religion freely. In the spring of 1621, they and the Pawtuxets had a feast to celebrate their successful harvest.

We also celebrate Thanksgiving to give thanks for everything in general! During Thanksgiving most families have their extended families visit for the feast. Once everyone has arrived, they all sit down at a table and start eating dinner. A Thanksgiving menu usually consists of these things: roast turkey (the main dish), mashed potatoes with gravy, turkey stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn, corn bread, and ham. For dessert, people usually eat pies like pumpkin pie and other various cakes. Menus can vary based on your family or culture. There is no exact menu for a Thanksgiving dinner. For example, some people eat Tofurkey, Tofu cooked and formed to look like a real turkey, instead of real turkey. Thanksgiving dinner can last for hours because it takes a long time for people to finish all that food. These are some pictures of delicious Thanksgiving food:

  

 

Starting from the left: turkey stuffing, turkey, corn bread muffins, pumpkin pie.

 A festival that I would like to visit one day is Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan. During this seven-day snow festival, hundreds of beautiful snow sculptures are presented at Odori Park.  I would like to see all of the cool snow sculptures, especially since I live in Florida and have never seen snow before. =)

photo attribution list (in order) :

• http://whatscookingamerica.net/Poultry/Stuffingsm.jpg
• http://www.gourmet-food-revolution.com/images/RoastTurkey.jpg
• Parve Cornbread Muffins for Thanksgiving–Giora Shimoni
• Libby’s® Famous Pumpkin Pie– http://images.allrecipes.com/global/recipes/small/22755.jpg

Browsing around Edublogs, I have come across some very cool-looking, well written blogs. Due to this new assignment, I will now state the top three blogs I like:

1. Hikaru65’s blog

First of all, Hikaru has a really cool header. It is a beautiful drawing of a black and red, fox-wolf. She also has very good  writing and cool widgets.

2. Tonight Productions ©

A very colorful blog. With an original, custom header and a real copyrighted name. Fariha, the girl who created the blog is also a very good blogger and a great writer. She types in multicolored text too.

3. kfinkcomp8’s blog

My teacher’s wonderful blog. It has a really cool theme where you can change the background to a new one everytime you visit the page! It is where I can look at all of my assignments for the blog competition to see which ones are due at the end of the week.

Poverty

We know what it means. We have all heard about it. But have you stopped to think about it? People starve to death and live in poor conditions, while we relax in our comfortable homes and play on our computers. Blog Action Day is a nonprofit movement of blogggers who come together for a cause: to bring awareness to poverty. On October 15, bloggers everywhere will post to discuss poverty in order to start action against it.

Q: How can education lift people out of poverty?

A: Many think that education is the cure for poverty. A person who is born poor can get an education to get a high paying job, and when you get a job, you get money of course! With a lot of money, you will no longer be in poverty. =)

poverty –> education –> job –> money —> not in poverty!

Hot humid weather, swaying palm trees, and lots of hurricanes. Where do I live? Yep, you guessed it! I live in Florida, U.S.A!!!

Florida is state on the southeastern part of America. Its that weird peninsula sticking out of the continent. Florida’s nickname is “The Sunshine State” because its full of sunshine!!! Here’s a few facts:

• state fruit: is the orange,
• state flower: orange blossom
• state bird: is the mockingbird!
• state song: The Swanee River (<– I’ve never heard this in my life)
• state tree: Sabal Palmetto

I go to a charter school. Its actually pretty small compared to other public schools around our area. We have six periods, or hours, which consist of these types of classes: Language Arts, Science, History, 2 electives (or you might have only one if you take reading), and Math (I take Geometry =D).

If you visit my state I recomend you visit Disney World. Its only a few hours away from where I live so many people go there in the summer all the time. Disney World is in Orlando, which also contains many other theme parks. I suggest not visiting Sea World unless you really love fish and other sea life. It is super, super hot there during the summer day, more hot than any other theme park. I really don’t know why it is like that, but you’ll most likely end up loitering around the stingray tank petting stingrays all day.

Here’s a map of Florida:

http://www.floridacountiesmap.com/

Here’s the Disney World website:

click!

You may be wondering many things– why does this avatar have a pirate hat on, why is there a pirate ship in the background, and why is she dancing with a jar of sand over her head — but don’t hurt your brain; I will tell you now. First off, despite the pirate things, I believe my avatar does represent me well. I look almost exactly like it, glasses and all.  Secondly, I do love the Pirates of the Caribbean (PotC) movies. The Curse of the Black Pearl, the first movie, is my very favorite. However, if you’ve seen the second movie, my avatar makes better sense. Pirate captain, Jack Sparrow was running from Davy Jones, a tentacled pirate captain whom he is indebted to. Davy Jones pretty much has power over all seas and controls a dangerous sea creature called the Kraken. If you get him mad, and you happen to be on a ship at sea, you’re dead. But, the one thing that might save you just happens to be a normal jar of dirt. Jack Sparrow did have that and, in a memorable scene, taunted Jones with “I’ve got a jar of dirt! I’ve got a jar of dirt! And guess what’s inside it?” What was inside it was Davy Jones’s heart, an organ that Jones tore out himself. Whoever has his heart, has control over Jones. At least that’s from what I remember. xD

I would like to start off by saying that I definitely don’t know for sure whether or not I’ll win this blogging competition. I chose my title because I thought it would be fun and optimistic. I chose my theme because: A) I thought it had a nice color that wasn’t hard on the eyes, B) I like flowers, and C) I liked how when you scrolled down the page, the flower wouldn’t move.

I’ve looked at all of the other themes before I chose my blog theme. I thought they were all nice, but some were too bright or plain or boring.

As I am writing this post, I do not have a tagline yet, but when/if I do make one it will most likely say: “hello!” or “welcome to my wonderful blog!” I think it’s nice when blogs greet you. I think my tagline will say that my blog is nice and fun!!! =D