Apolo Ohno

In the 1500 m final, Apolo Ohno placed second after two Korean skaters, Lee Ho-Suk and Sung Si-bak made contact and crashed into the wall during the final turn of the final lap. Ohno was in fourth place leading into the crash, and as a result, moved into second place, earning the silver. Fellow American skater, J. R. Celski finished with the bronze medal. The gold medal went to South Korea's Lee Jung-Su. This win allowed Ohno, with six career medals, to tie Bonnie Blair for most medals won by a U.S. Winter Olympian. Training for Apolo was long,tedious, and tiring. In preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Ohno lost over 9 kilograms (20 pounds) of weight from when he appeared at the 2002 Winter Games. He went down to a 65.7 kg (145 lb) bodyframe and a 2.5% Body fat percentage enduring a 5 month 3-a-day training program combined with a strict nutritional program. As a result, he can lift double the weight he could before the training. His father chose to name his son Apolo after the Greek words "Ap," which means to "steer away from" and "lo," which means "look out; here he comes."

During the U.S. Short Track Speed Skating Olympic Trials held September 8–12, 2009, in Marquette, Michigan, Ohno won the overall meet title and defended his national title. He won the finals during the 500 m, 1000 m and 1500 m races.However, during the 1000 m time trial, Ohno came in second to J. R. Celski despite skating a personal best of 1:24.500 to Celski's personal best of 1:23.981.Celski, who finished second overall and was leading in points after the first two nights of the trials, was injured during a crash in the semifinals of the 1000 m race when his right skate sliced into his left leg; he did not skate in the 1000 m finals. Ohno had a narrow victory in the 500 m, beating out the silver place finisher Jeff Simon by only .039 of a second. Ohno, Celski, Jordan Malone, Travis Jayner and Simon Cho were the top five finishers at the trials. Afterwards, Ohno said about the nominated team: "This is the strongest team we've ever had. I feel really good about how we will do in the next Olympics".

John Wall #11

The names come tumbling out of his mouth steady and true, as if John Wall wants you to know exactly how much thought he has put into what he's about to say. First come the all-timers: Magic, Isiah, Pistol Pete, Jason Kidd. Then Wall lists today's gold standard: Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Derrick Rose. "There are so many great point guards," says Wall, the Kentucky freshman who bestrides college basketball, circa 2010. "I know it's not going to be easy, and it's going to take so much work in the gym and studying the game, but my goal is to be the greatest point guard ever." It's the sort of statement that, voiced by any other 19-year-old on the planet, would draw eye-rolls and maybe even laughter. But halfway into what will almost surely be his only college season, Johnathan Hildred Wall of Raleigh, N.C., is persuading people who know the game that those aspirations shouldn't be dismissed as mere youthful bravado. "I've been around him, and I watch how he works," says Kentucky assistant coach Rod Strickland, who played point guard in the NBA for 17 years. "He wants to be great. When he tells you that, I believe that's seriously on his mind."

Also not laughing is North Carolina coach Roy Williams, whose Tar Heels fell to Wall's Wildcats 68--66 on Dec. 5. "A lot of guys say things, but I believe he has the hunger to do that," says Williams, who calls the 6'4", 197-pound Wall the finest point guard he has seen emerge from high school since Kidd, nearly 20 years ago. "He has great size and speed for a point guard, tremendous lateral quickness and an ability to defend, make big plays at crunch time and make other players better. I think the sky's the limit for him." In the fourth season since the NBA's age-minimum rule forced most players with pro aspirations to spend at least a year in college basketball, Wall is the clearest example of a must-see freshman talent (for both college and NBA fans) since Texas's Kevin Durant, who in 2006--07 became the first freshman to be named national player of the year. Wall is on track to be the second, not least because his 17.2 points and 7.3 assists a game had led No. 3 Kentucky to a 15--0 record at week's end. But unlike Durant, who was famously taken behind Greg Oden in the '07 NBA draft, Wall isn't the subject of any debate.

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS!!!!!!

For superbowl XLIV i really want thew saints to win because i think they deserve it and it would be nice because its the first time they have ever been in a superbowl. Just the fact that they made it to the super is a great achievement. But i think they can go all the way. The New Orleans Saints finished the season with an NFC best 13-3 record and went on to advance to the first Super Bowl in their 43 years as an NFL team. It had been a long journey for New Orleans. After joining the NFL in 1967, it took them 21 years to record their first winning season and another 13 years after that to win their first playoff game. Five years later, the New Orleans area suffered another setback when the Louisiana Superdome was devastated with the rest of the city by Hurricane Katrina, forcing them to play all of their home games in 2005 elsewhere as they finished with a 3-13 record. But in the offseason, the team's fortunes began to turn. First, they signed pro bowl quarterback Drew Brees, who would go on to throw for more passing yards than any other quarterback over the next four seasons. Drew Brees is also one of my favorite players because not only is he a talented young man but he is a good person. he was a really big contributor to the people of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

Everyone is saying that the Colts are unstoppable because of Peyton Manning. Don't get me wrong, because Peyton Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks but he is still human. I believe that if the saints keep it close, they have a very good chances of winning the superbowl. The defense has to be strong and relentless. the more pressure they put on Peyton Manning, the better. The Saints offense should take of its self. But the running game has to be there.

Do violent video games contribute to youth violence?

I think that violent video games in fact to contribute to the violence of young people because kids play video games for a few reasons. They play because they want to do something which they cant do in real life such as shooting and killing people, stealing a car, and other lethal things. Another reason is that they want to do something where they can be free to do whatever they want with a limited amount of rules. Basically, they can be God. The only problem with this is, is that it encourages them to do want to do the same thing in real life. These video games are so addicting and inspiring to them that it makes them act the same way when they're playing the video game and in real life. In other words, they make the video game their role models for how they want to behave.While most American kids do play video games, the center of the video game market has shifted older as the first generation of gamers continues to play into adulthood. Already 62 percent of the console market and 66 percent of the PC market is age 18 or older.

The game industry caters to adult tastes. Meanwhile, a sizable number of parents ignore game ratings because they assume that games are for kids. One quarter of children ages 11 to 16 identify an M-Rated (Mature Content) game as among their favorites. Clearly, more should be done to restrict advertising and marketing that targets young consumers with mature content, and to educate parents about the media choices they are facing. But parents need to share some of the responsibility for making decisions about what is appropriate for their children. The news on this front is not all bad. The Federal Trade Commission has found that 83 percent of game purchases for underage consumers are made by parents or by parents and children together. Here's where the media effects research, which often uses punching rubber dolls as a marker of real-world aggression, becomes problematic. The kid who is punching a toy designed for this purpose is still within the "magic circle" of play and understands her actions on those terms. Such research shows us only that violent play leads to more violent play.

Final Essay

Juston Dea
Period 2
1/19/10


I wrote weekly blog posts this semester in my English class to help develop and improve my writing skills. Most of the topics I wrote about were by my own selection, while some were assigned to me by Mr. Sutherland. In some cases, I chose past SAT questions in order to prepare myself for the actual test coming up in my junior year. The ideas for my topics basically were inspired by personal experiences, by events that happened to me which I thought meant something to me, including current events happening in the world that everyone was talking about. In each blog, the topics gave me a chance to express how I felt emotionally, how happy, sad, angry, disappointed, and reflective. My least favorite, yet favorite blog piece is titled, Adversity, written right after the winter break, which I will go into more detail.

I usually write about topics that either are events that happen to me or to others. Most of the time, it’s about something that recently happened to me or something that I might have read in a newspaper and I can relate to because I’ve been in the same situation before. Some blog posts that have to do with my personal experiences are Adversity, Hawaii, My High School Baseball Career, and Is there another explanation or another point of view? I like to write about my personal experiences because it gives me a chance to express my feelings about events that affects my emotions either strongly positively or negatively. The blog post on Adversity explained how I dealt with life when it gets rough and expressed my frustrations about a situation during winter break. Hawaii was written after a family vacation as a graduation present for my sister and I; she from High School and me from Middle School. Hawaii was a truly positive experience. It was my first time to Hawaii and I got the chance to visit, observe, and try new things on four islands. It was also the first time I had ever gone on a cruise ship. I forgot to write something in my blog post that was extremely sad but meant a lot to me. While my family and I were on the island of Oahu, we visited Pearl Harbor. When I first got there, I thought that we were just going to see a sunken ship like the Titanic. But after looking at all the artifacts and reading all the information in the memorial, it was hard to believe that I was standing over 1,102 of the 1,177 sailors that died during the tragic attack. My High School Baseball Career was a reflection on the NCS game that we lost last year against Clayton Valley. I explained my disappointment and failures in the game. “This was the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my whole life. The pitcher picked me off. Even though I thought I was safe, I went back into the dug-out and I felt so terrible that I just sat the very end of the bench embarrassed and pissed off.” When I wrote, Is there another explanation or another point of view?, I was practicing for my SAT essay writing that I used a lot of my personal experiences. “As a basketball player, it is important for me to have many options and see the whole court.” I talked about how there will always be another point of view because everyone doesn’t think the same way. I included my basketball skills in describing the ways that I think.

I sometimes write about current events because they are important to me and I want to share my feelings toward the event to others. Also I write about them so I can keep track of the events so I can look back and remember them. The events I write about are very important to me whether it may be music, sports, or world problems. I wrote three blog posts on current events and each one has its own significance. I shared my thoughts about the Kanye West Controversy with Taylor Swift because I love music and I think what West did was extremely rude and unnecessary. “…it’s especially rude in this case because it is her very first VMA award and he just ruined her moment.” To me, global warming is a very big issue in the world today so I decided to write about it in one of my blog post. I wrote all the facts and details that cause global warming and included some suggestions that we as people can do to prevent it and hopefully I can be part of the solution in the future. I believe that if we just stop polluting the air, global warming would not be such a big problem. “The main reason why the world is getting so hot is because of the amount of greenhouse gasses we (as in everyone in the world) give off into the atmosphere.”

My favorite and least favorite blog post was a recent one about adversity. I decided to write about adversity because at the time, I had just experienced a stressful situation and I believe that I handled it very well. In my blog, I didn’t include all the details because I wrote it the day when the problem was solved and I expressed my feelings in an open manner rather than personal. Now, I am going to tell the story behind my blog post. Over the winter break, I was wrongly suspended from a basketball game for actions that didn’t warrant a suspension. The coach quit on the team, the players all knew it and were upset, but the coach put the blame on me by saying that I quit on the team and wasn’t acting like a Captain should. Also, the way that the suspension was carried out was unprofessional, cruel, and personal which caused my parents to pull me off the team. They later had several meetings with the heads of the program to discuss whether or not I would return to the team. As I said in my blog post, “In some cases, adversity may lead to sacrificing the thing you love most.” Currently, I am back on the team, some of the administration has apologized for their actions, and I feel that I have become a stronger person by not allowing the childish behavior of adults to influence me. “But if you quit and give up, you're not giving yourself a chance to mature and grow up.” I realized that adults, teachers, and coaches can make mistakes too, but that doesn’t give them the right to try and hide or shove it under the rug so other students won’t see them in a different light. Unfortunately, in this situation, the adults didn’t want to be held accountable for their actions. I have lost a lot of faith in some of the teachers and administrators here at Alameda High School because of my suspension during the winter break. I used an admiring quote from the movie “Rocky Balboa” as my closing statement on my blog post to show that I got knocked down, but I wasn’t knocked out. “It's not how hard you get hit. It's how hard you keep going after you get hit.”

The ideas for the blogs I wrote this semester were inspired by my personal experiences, events that I felt were important to me and would affect my future, and situations where my emotions ran high or low. I wanted to write about topics that made me feel happy, sad, angry, disappointed, and reflective. I also, picked Adversity, as my least favorite, yet favorite blog piece. I experienced a lot of stress and anger during the winter break, but I believe I have come out of it a better person. I want to close with a quote from the movie, “Invictus”…

“I am (learning to be) the Master of my Fate…I am the Captain of my Soul”

Writing Groups

If there is one thing that i need help with, it would be writing. My writing is not very good at all and i think writing groups will help me start to understand and comprehend how to write better. I think some ways of organizing writing groups is by having different groups focus on different topics or areas of writing. I think this would be a lot more useful than if we all did the same topic because we get to see how other people can write effectively on the same idea in many different ways. I also believe that by doing this, students can get more experience with topics they aren't very comfortable with. I really need to be in a focused group to get my work done. If i am with my friends, i will enjoy my time much and won't get anything accomplished. Im not sure how the groups will work yet but i hope i can learn more and improve my writing abilities. I also think that it is wise that Mr. Sutherland is picking groups otherwise i would be very distracted. I also believe that we should proofread each others papers so we can learn to not make the mistakes of others.

Adversity

Sometimes in life, we are put to a challenge that we won't like weather it may be life or death, a relationship,a friendship, or something you have to decide upon. But what makes is how you deal with the adversity. I think that if you try to fight through it even if you don't achieve what you wanted, it will benefit you in the long-run and will learn what to do if you're put in the situation again. But if you quit and give up, you're not giving yourself a chance to mature and grow up. Some people think of adversity as shitty times and times where everything falls apart which it can very well be. But that will only happen if you let it happen. i think of adversity as a baby turtle. When turtles are first born, most of them either get eaten, before they reach the water,eaten when they get into the water, or they will survive and live long. Adversity is the same thing. You can either let it eat you up or you can fight it and become a better person. But it all depends on what we choose to do.

There are many ways to fight through adversity and grow from it. In some cases, adversity may lead to sacrificing the thing you love most. Sometimes, adversity could end up with everything being the same but a valid lesson is still learned. I think best way to handle adversity is give myself some possible solutions and as the time goes on and things happen, i can make my decision accordingly. The worst thing to do is think about the situation but not communicate to the people who ar involved. This can be very bad because the other people involved may take the information they hear the wrong way. So we need to let out our feelings but not our emotions. But win or lose, you can't stop fighting and leave no regrets. "It's not how hard you get hit, it's how hard you keep going after you get hit."