Avatar

Last weekend I went and saw the movie Avatar. It was about former Marine Jake Sully who had lost the use of his legs, went to a far off galaxy to a small moon called Pandora, which America had colonized. He takes the role of his brother’s avatar, which is a body that your mind enters, and the body is very similar to the Na’vi people on Pandora. The people were great warriors and were very strong, and had many connections to almost everything around them. The Na’vi’s home is on a huge deposit of unobtanium, a very rare mineral that sells for 2 million dollars an ounce on Earth.
This movie is very much like South Africa. The Na’vi people’s home land was colonized, much like the Zulu and the Xhosa, and once they found out that there was a fortune to be made (unobtanium in Avatars case, and gold and diamonds in South Africa’s case) they started to push the native people off their land.
I think that this movie, really says something about how much not so much America, but the whole world has pushed peaceful native people off of their land, just because they were short on money. I think Avatar was a great movie, not just because of the special effects and action, but because it should open the eyes of people, because just because that natives can look and act different, they are still people, and they should be treated so.

In the movie, Jake gives information about Hometree (the Na’vi’s home) to Colonel Miles Quaritch, a ruthless military leader who only cares about money, and has no regard for the native people. Jake did it because the Colonel promised him he’d get his legs back if he cooperated so he did. Finally, Jake wakes up and sees that this is wrong, but it’s too late. The Americans attacked home tree and tore it down. It killed almost all the Na’vi and Jake had the people fight back. It worked, and the Americans left, and Jake left his human body forever.

Semester Reflection

This semester, I definitely grew a lot as a writer, reader and I have even gotten better at analyzing things at a more critical level of thinking.


One thing I definitely improved on was my writing, as in establishing a connection between me and the reader, using ETHOS and PATHOS. One thing I did was in the
letter to the U.N, I said that if they didn’t do anything to stop the genocide, they would have had the deaths of thousands of people on their hands. I would never have been able to establish that kind of connection before this year. Also I have gotten better grades in my writing. At the beginning of the year, I got a C+ on a paper that I spent a very long time doing. Ever since then, I had also gotten C+’s, but I knew I could do better, and on the last piece I wrote, I got a B.


This semester, I also grew as a reader. I feel my comprehension has grown greatly, and an example would be the American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It was easily of the most difficult pieces of writing I have ever read, and it took me quite a while to grasp it, but I eventually did.


Our debates this year were very interesting, and I feel I learned a lot from them. I especially learned that your own point of view could be wrong if you looked at it from another person’s perspective, especially in the Rwandan Genocide Debate. I saw that in the case of the Belgians, they thought France was at fault, but for the French, it was completely the opposite.


I also learned a lot about researching, and how credible your sources need to be. For example, I found out one thing about the genocide on BBC, but I found something completely different on a different, non credible website. I found out that it is better to use the more credible website.


Lastly, I learned how to analyze things on a different level, like The Man in the Well for example. At first glance, it seemed like a basic piece of writing, but if you stopped to look at it, and try looking at it from a different perspective, there was a lot more to it.


So like I said I learned a ton this semester, and I will carry that with me all the way through high school and throughout the rest of my life.

Im an Aborigine

If I had to choose a country to be a native from, I would be an Aborigine from Australia.
Although the Aborigine culture may have been wiped out, when it comes right down to it, the Aborigines had it the best out of all of them. I would choose this because you wouldn’t have had to been a slave, or you would not have been killed because your ruling country had put you in a random group of people or have been wiped out by small pox.
If you had lived in South Africa, or America, you would have been pushed off your land just for money. The Native Americans were pushed off for farmland and for more of the European people. In South Africa, you would have been pushed off for your gold and diamonds.
If you were in Rwanda, you would have either been treated very well, possibly having your best friends be your slaves only to have them turn on you and hack you to death with machetes, or you would have been treated like dirt for a long period of time, and then hacking people to death in the streets with a machete.
Like I said, the Aborigines did have some tough times, but id rather be one of them then a native from any of those other places

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has easily the best ending to a game. If you don’t know the game, it takes place in America in the future and it takes you through the role of Gary “Roach” Sanderson “Soap” MacTavish, and James Ramirez. As you play, you go through a series of missions, like blowing up a fuel station on the side of a snowy mountain, to trying to retake Washington D.C from the Russians.


My favorite mission is where you attack a boat from underwater, and have to destroy a bomb. It’s really fun, because it takes a lot of stealth, like pulling a guard under the water to keep him from alerting the other guards.


So the game is amazing, but the true best part, was the end. A corrupt General Sheppard has killed Gary “Roach” Sanderson, a precious member of the British S.A.S. So to avenge his death, you play as “Soap” Mactavish (the main character from the first game) led by Captain Price (your commander from the first game, who is presumed dead, but you rescue him in a previous mission) on a suicide mission to avenge Roach’s death by killing General Sheppard. Towards the end of the mission you get into a boat/helicopter chase after Sheppard. You shoot his chopper down, but you drive your boat off the edge of a water fall. When you get out of the water, you have to try and stab Sheppard, but he jumps and stabs you instead. You fall to the ground, and Sheppard explains why he did what he did. He reloads his pistol, points it at your head, and right as he is about to pull the trigger, Captain Price runs up and tackles him to the ground. You watch them fight for a while, and Sheppard is winning for the most part. He knocks out Price, and his going to finish him. Right as this happens, you pull the knife Sheppard stabbed you with out of your stomach, throw it at Sheppard, and kill him. Price comes too and carries you to the safety of a helicopter that just landed. Luckily it is your ally Nikolai, and he says he knows a safe place to take Soap.
This was the best ending to a game ever. It ended unexpectedly, and it left you wondering if there is going to be a new Modern Warfare game after this one.


Comment if you think this is the best ending to a game

Marvel Vs. D.C

The big debate in the computer lab over the past few weeks/months has been Marvel or D.C, who is better? The obvious answer is Marvel.

It’s almost no contest. Marvel’s skills and characters are much better than D.C’s.
I will admit D.C does have some exceptional characters, like Batman, Green Lantern and Super Man, but if you were to put them up against heroes like Wolverine, Thor and Captain America, they are no match.


The second reason Marvel is better, is because Marvel characters are much more creative. They have heroes from mutants, a science experiment gone terribly wrong, to a scrawny want to-be marine who was given a high powered stimulant to turn him into a super soldier. All D.C has is aliens and rich guys in tights.


The third, and maybe most important reason, is because of their teams. Marvel has the Avengers, who are maybe the most spectacular mix of super heroes in the whole comic world, put together into one team, to fight evil. They have Thor, Captain America, Spider Man, Hawk Eye, the Hulk, Iron Man, and so many more, they are just amazing. Marvel also has the X-Men, a team of mutants formed by Professor Xavier. They have Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, Night Crawler, Beast, Wolverine (my personal favorite) and so many more. D.C does have their fair share of teams, like the Justice League of America, and the Watchmen, but Marvels teams simply out match them in number, size and power.


My favorite Marvel characters are Captain America, and Wolverine. Steve Rodgers wanted to join the Armed Forces in WW2, but was unable to because of his body size. The military did have one job for him though. He was used to test a drug, which was supposed to create a “super soldier”. He and his friend Bucky Barnes got the drug, Steve became Captain America. He and Bucky fought side by side in WW2, and worked on several classified missions. On one mission, they were sent to destroy a plane that was strapped with a bomb and was heading for the U.S. Bucky and Steve jumped onto the tail of the plane before it took off. As the plane took off, Steve Rodgers was thrown from the plane, but Bucky held on, and managed to destroy the bomb by setting it off prematurely. Bucky died from the explosion and Steve Rodgers was haunted by it ever since. Today Cap fights for America and against terrorists.


Even though Cap is a great super hero, you just can’t beat Wolverine. James “Logan” Howlett, or Wolverine, is a member of the X-Men, and many other groups, teams and organizations. He is over 100 years old. But I guess if you had a metal skull and near invincible healing powers; you’d live to be over 100 years old too. Along with his amazing defensive attributes, his claws are unstoppable. They are made of bone and razor sharp and super strong. They can bust through a brick wall and rip someone to shreds. Wolverine has to be, my favorite super hero.


So after reading this, the choice of who is the better comic company, the answer should be obvious. Marvel all the way.

Please comment with your vote.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine_(comics)