Reflection

   From the end of my 8th grade year until the end of my 9th grade year I have changed in many different ways. Some of these ways were bod but most of them were good.

   First, One big way that I changed was my attitude towards school. When I was in 8th grade I didn't really care for school a lot, I thought it was just a waste of time. But now I feel as though school is important and without it, it would be hard to do some of the thing that you want to do in your life.

   Second, In 8th grade I use come to school late, play in the hallways, and run around the building. This year I come on time, and come to class and dedicate all my time to doing my work.

   Then, One other thing that changed during my 9th grade year was that I get less sleep. In 8th grade I could go to sleep around 11:00 and wake up at 8:00, but now I don't go to sleep until 1:00 and I have to wake up at 6:00.

   Next, When I first came to Parkway West I wanted to just stay to myself and do all my work without talking to anyone. After I got in the school my plan slightly changed, I still got my work done but i met some new people that I talk to now.

   Last, During my 9th grade year I have become more and more optimistic about my future and what I want to do in my future. As I think about the things I want to do I get more and more excited and willing to push myself to meeting my goals.

NBA Playoffs 2012: Why the 76ers Have a Great Shot at Making the NBA Finals

 http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1189741-2012-nba-playoffs-why-the-76ers-have-a-great-shot-at-making-the-nba-finals
   This article is about how the Sixers have a great chance of winning the eastern conference playoffs this year, and why they have a great chance of winning the eastern conference playoffs.
   One of the key reason why this article says that the Sixers can win the eastern conference playoffs is because "they have great chemistry", another thing that this article states is "during the playoffs, they've solved an issue that haunted them throughout the regular season—winning close games. Five of Philadelphia's six playoff wins have come in tight games."
   I also believe that the Sixers have a great chance of winning the eastern conference playoffs this year. The reason why i think this is because even tho the Sixers have no star players they are still a very young, healthy, and talented. Other teams have players that are as no in the best shape, like if the Sixers win this round they will have to play the Miami Heat and there star "Dwayne Wade" has knee problems and bosh is hurt.
   Another reason why I think the Sixers have a great chance of winning the eastern conference playoffs is because they are a very fast team and they can get rebounds, if they get a lot of fast break points then it will be easier for them to win.
   One thing that I think is holding the Sixers back is a star player, because if they had a star player to make big shots in close game situations I think they would feel a lot more comfortable in close game situations. But because they don't they will have to relay on what they do have, which is speed, defense , and there ability to get it in and score close to the basket.

To Be the Best Humans We Can Be

  This article is written by a police man named Tim Wilson and it is about how he feels to say that actions speak louder then words, and he wants his kids to feel the same when they grow up.
  Some details from the article are  "live in the moment, do not attach yourself to physical things, treat others the way you would like to be treated, find happiness in the service of others, make the most out of today, follow your dreams, don’t take yourself too seriously". One more example is "But for me, it’s not enough to write down my beliefs. I try to be the best person I can be every day—even in very difficult circumstances, even with offensive people."
  I agree with his statement that actions speak louder than words. The reason why i agree with the statement is because people can talk all day about what they want to be in life or what their going to do, but if you don't prove it with your actions it will just be another "Belief" that you have.
  For example, I can walk around school and walk around the streets saying that I will be the best basketball player in the world one day, but if i don't put in the time in hard work it will just be a lost dream.
  I think that if more people thought that actions spoke louder than words then there would be a lot more people who would go forward and do things with their life, and not just sit around, watch T.V, play the game, and talk about what their about to do but never do what they say.
  I like to take action in things that I feel as tho i would like, and feel comfortable doing for the rest of my life.

New Fashion Wrinkle: Stylishly Hiding the Gun

    "New Fashion Wrinkle: Hiding the Gun" is a article from New York Times, written by Matt Richtel. This article tells you about how clothing that has gun concealed pockets are starting to become a new trend.
    Some evidence from the article is "Several clothing companies are following suit, building business around the sharp rise in people with permits to carry concealed weapons. Then Shawn Thompson said, "Most of the cloths I used in the past to hide my sidearm looked pretty  sloppy and had my girlfriend complaining.
    I think this is a good topic because many people feel the need to carry a gun because they think of the streets as not so safe, and if they had a piece of clothing they could just put their gun in without no one seeing it more people would feel safer. One other thing I think is that the law is a little to soft on the gun law, because just because you have a permit to carry a gun that make you any better then some one who has no permit. Permit or not you can kill someone for no reason just as others do.  
    I also think that if people have guns then it would make them feel like they could do any thing they want to people just because they have a weapon. If someone does something to someone that has an gun and they do not like what that person said then it will most likely end up in shooting and killing.
    Some questions that I have is what does the government think about this situation? Or, do people think that this clothing will cause a rise in the crime rate?
    This is some of the things that we should ask are self before creating and making new things to keep or hide guns.

Afghan Girls, Scarred by Acid, Defy Terror, Embracing School , By:Dexter Filkins

    In "Afghan Girls, Scarred by Acid, Defy Terror, Embracing School" Dexter Filkins explores the topic of girls in Afghanistan not being able to go to school without them and their parents fearing them getting hurt. Most of the girls that were injured while trying to go to school, did not want to go back because they feared what would happen if they did.

    The article has quotes from girls that were apart of this, their parents, and the principle. One very important fact that I found in this article was that even though some girls suffered injuries from trying to go to school, they still went even in fear of getting hurt badly or even killed.

    I think that girls should be able to go to school and get an education, just as males are able to. The reason I think that girls should have the same rights to learn as men is because no one wants a wife who cant even read. Plus if she stays at home all day where will your kids get their knowledge from?

    I think that girls not being able to go to school in Afghanistan is similar to what use to happen earlier in the rest of the world. In earlier years of life men thought that all women were good for was to stay at home and take care of the babies and in Afghanistan they say the same things.

    This article made me really think about the topic of women not being able to get an educating and when they try to they can get hurt or killed for it. It made me think about if my mom or sister wanted to get an education but every day they walked to school its a man there with a weapon threatening them. I would not want them to have to face challenges like that just to get an education.

Dirt-bike tragedy an example of bigger problem

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20120409_Dirt-bike_tragedy_an_example_of_bigger_problem.html

    This article was about a boy who was killed on a dirt bike during a cop chase, and how his family is unhappy with the situation because they say that there are farther more and bigger crimes being done and they worry about people riding dirt bikes, and cops are not even allowed to chase these bikes but they do it anyway.
    I think that the cops were wrong in this case because the law states that cop cars is not permitted to chase these bikes, they know what type of dangerous situations they put the riders of the dirt bikes in when they chase them, but they still continue to chase them. I also agree with the family by saying there are much bigger crimes in this world then riding a dirt bike, instead of chasing them threw the streets they could be watching for other crimes like, fights or shootings.
     Another big thing i dont get is why are dirt bikes illegal anyway, they are just another way to have fun, and if the government really feels a certain way about the bikes why do they let them sell them in stores.
    plus its also not fair that cops can just take something that you spent your money on, its not like they are cheap, some cost just as much as a brand new car or motorcycle.

He was no angel but does that merit a death sentence

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120327_Jenice_Armstrong__TRASHING_TRAYVON__He_was_no_angel__but_does_that_merit_a_death_sentence_.html


    This article was about how the boy named Trayvon Martin was murdered while on a visit to see his father in Florida. This article states that the boy (Trayvon) was on his way back to his dad's fiancee's house. as said in the article "Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood-watch volunteer, noticed him walking through the neighborhood and dialed 9-1-1. A police dispatcher told Zimmerman not to follow Trayvon, but Zimmerman did anyway." then when the cops came they saw Trayvon laying there with a gunshot wound, But the man never got arrested.
    At first mostly all people were on the side of Trayvon, but as they found out that the only reason Trayvon was visiting his father was because he got suspended from school for having a bag with marijuana residue inside of it, some people changed their point of view about the killing of Trayvon. Now some people think that Trayvon may have provoked the man who shot and killed him, but still no one will actually know what happened before Trayvon got shot.
    The real question is, even if Trayvon provoked the man, did he have the right to shoot and kill him? I do not think the man had any rights to shoot Trayvon. The reason i say this is because when Zimmerman called the cops and told him about the situation they told him to stay in the car. But he took things in his own hands, he got out the car, followed Trayvon and killed him. Another thing I think is that even if he did provoke him, Trayvon still had no weapon on him, and no one should ever get away with murder no matter how good of an explanation you have for killing someone.
    

Against Knicks, Sixers doomed from the start

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20120321_Against_Knicks__Sixers_doomed_from_the_start.html?cmpid=137039688

    This article is about the Sixers on their lost against the New York Knicks and how they lost to the knicks. Some of the reasons why they lost to the knicks (as said in the article), "Wow, you start out 0-for-14, that's tough to fight out of, said coach Doug Collins" then he said, "We're going to have to be ready to learn to play when people get into us and run our offense, get the ball to the right spots." another reason why they lost is because they did not play very physical.
    I think that the Sixer can beat the Knicks if they really tried to and gave all their afford. The Sixers is a very young, talented, and healthy with great defense. All they need to work on is getting more physical, hustling for loose balls, and fighting threw contact to get easy points in the paint. Another reason they are not as great as other teams is because they have no star players, no one to rely on in close game situations.
    Even with the Sixers not be physical and not having a star player they still managed to come out with a good record this season, they may not be unstoppable but they play their hearts out every game and that's what makes them a great team. If the Sixers continue to play smart, and get a little more comfortable with their teammates, I think they haves what it takes to be the best team in the NBA one day.

For Women Under 30, Most Births occur Outside Marriage

    This article was mainly about how the percentage of unmarried birth has raised over the past years. It also tells how kids who are born to unmarried parents can be effected by this and why most kids are born to unmarried parents are most likely to have learning or behavior problems. But even with people knowing this they still chose not to get married.
    As said in the article, "Ms. Kidd, 21, said she could not imagine marrying her son's father, even though she loves him"
, & "Ms. Strader said her boyfriend was so depended that she had to buy his cigarettes. Marrying him never entered her mind."
   One of the reasons the articles gives you for why less and less people are marrying before having children is because of globalization and the pill , that is a good reason for less marriages.
    I think that most women are not getting married for good reasons, because most men these days still act like kids they don't want to get jobs but they want to have babies or they just get in a relationship and depend on their girlfriend to do and buy everything for them. But I also believe that if two people are going to have a baby together, at least love the person your having a baby with and think about if you can see yourself with him/her for the rest of your life. If you dont fell that way then you shouldn't have kids with that person.
  

76ers maul the Celtics

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/20120307_76ers_maul_the_Celtics.html

    This article is about how people felt about the 76ers point guard Evan Turner and were concerned weather he was just useless to the 76ers or he just needed more playing time. On Wednesday, March 7, 2012 Evan proved that he was a big part of the 76ers starting line-up. He scored his career high of 26 points and led his team to the win over the Celtics. This changed everyones perspective about the point guard.
    I think that Evan Turner is a great player & i believe he is good overall on both sides of the floor, Offense and Defense. But the real questions are, is Evan Turner a soon to be all star,? is he clutch,? and can he hold his to to going to the Championship this year? Nobody knows what they are soon to see from the point guard.
    I believe that if Evan Turner continues to play at they level he played against the Celtics he will have no problem taking over for his team. I also think that if he had a little more time in the game he could get a better feel for the game and contribute more to his team, in points and steals.
    Even if Evan doesn't be the best this year his time will come one day, if you work hard and put in 100% effort its no way that it wont pay off.

Facebook is using you By: Lori Andrew's

    The main point of this article is to inform people on how online websites are using the information that you put online to effect what happens throughout the rest of your life. Like what jobs you can get or what other people will think about you even before they meet you in person. The writer of they article (Lori Andrew's ) has studied and researched the problem and she thinks that people should know what other people know about them.
    I to think that you should know what others know about you because why should people be able to get all the information they want on you but its not just that easy to look up a name on a website and you know their whole back round. Thats not fair that you can get judged on what you write on the pictures you post online.
    Yes, now that I have read this article I am a little more concerned about the stuff i write online because sometimes I might write things like "I can't take school anymore" and people might take that as a sign that i don't want to finish going to school or I don't want to go to college. Now I have to watch what I write /say  on Facebook because it will change other peoples views about me before they even get a chance to meet me.

I'm a criminal and so are you By: Michelle Alexander

    This article is about a women who considers herself and everyone else in this world as a criminal. So she ask other people to see if they feel the same.
    Michelle Alexander thinks that every one is a criminal , in some form of way they have committed a crime. When she asked people questions "Haven't you ever committed a crime?" she gets responses like "Well, yeah, but I'm not a criminal." Many people are criminals, because if you drink or smoke when your underage then that is considered a crime. Even if you do not get court doing it, it's still against the law.
    I agree with Michelle Alexander, that every one is a criminal, because every one has committed a crime wether it was big or small. I believe this is an important topic because it is many people who agree and disagree with this topic, and you can get many good responses. Before i read this article i thought it was going to be about people who are in jail, but after i read it, I got a whole different view of the article.
    This article made me think very deep about the topic that "every one is a criminal" because not saying that every single person in the world is a criminal but the topic makes you think and makes you say to yourself the famous quote that "No one is perfect."

Photoshopped or Not? A Tool to Tell , By Steve Lohr

     This article is about the digital online photo editing software that people are using to make famous people look like princesses or barbies. As said in the article "Dr. Farid and Eric Kee, a Ph.D a student in computer science at Dartmouth, are proposing a software tool for measuring how much fashion and beauty have been altered," and "Their work is extended as a technological step to address concerns about the common use of highly idealized and digitally edited images in advertising and fashion magazines."
     I think that online photo editing is okay sometimes if you are just adding some minor details to a photo of yourself or just adding decorations to a family picture,  but when people do things to make them self look like everything about them is perfect or like something they are not it is just too much. I also think the people who use photoshop are not to pleased with all of their features and they just want to look like a model and because photoshop lets you do these things it makes them look how they want to.
    I have used Photoshop before but not because I don't like the way I look, it was just for fun.
When I see others that use this online digital photo editing process they try to improve every aspect of their body. The conclusion on this whole thing is that photoshop is good for doing pictures but it can not change you overall appearance and thats what people need to understand.

In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad , By Charles Duhigg and David Barboza

This article is mainly about the iPad and how people make these expensive electronic devices. In the beginning of the article it talks about the explosion that happened last May and how two people died from the explosion and many others got hurt. Getting it talks about how hard these people that make these iPads have to work. In the article it say's "Some workers' swelled so much they waddled." Also as said in the article "Banners on the walls warned the 120,000 employees: work hard on the job today or work hard to find a job tomorrow." The end of the article just raps it up by saying if the costumers don't ask for better conditions in those factories the workers will continue to be treated badly.
 The question I have is , "Is it fair that the workers at the Foxconn factory work so hard to make these iPads but don't get paid a lot?"
 I do not think it is fair that these workers work all day and don't get paid a lot of money. The main reason why I don't think its fair is because all the workers are bringing the company so much money, they work 12 hours a day, sweat , get no breaks , while the owners just sit back and take all the credit. they should at least make the workers comfortable while they work, instead of just making them stand all day.

Conrad Murray .

The article I read this week was about the man who is accountable for Michel Jackson death. Michel jacksons doctor Conrad Murray was sentenced a maximum of 4 years in prison. Some people were not so much as happy with his sentence but others thought it was fair. Here is my opinion , I think it was fair  that he got four years. The main reason I thought it was fair because Mr. Murray was not the only one who played a role in the death. Even tho Conrad Murray gave Michel Jackson the drug Michel jackson is the one who asked for it. And if M.J knew what the drug was when he asked for it , and knew what it could do to him why would he even try to take it. Now the way I see it is both men were wrong and the knew they were doing wrong so now they both have to face the consequences. This is my opinion about they story of Conrad Murray and Michel Jackson.

Teaching kids how to break up nicely

  In this article they ask questions like "should you delete pictures of your ex after splitting up?" And "is it O.K to un-friend your last girlfriend if you cant stop looking at her profile?". The article also added that "posting mean/embarrassing statuses about your ex is unhealthy".
      First, I do not think people should break up over facebook they should be face to face. If you break up over facebook of just over the internet period it makes it seem like you were scared to tell that person to  his/her face.
      Second, I do not think you should have to un-friend your ex, its just a waste of your time. If you dont want to talk to him/her just dont but if you un-friend they might feel a certain way, or get offended.
      Next, I do not believe that their will ever be a nice way to break up with a person, because if that person really liked/loved you it doesn't matter how sweet you try to tell them it will still hurt their feelings.
      Then, I think the main cause of many break ups is that they dont really get to know each other before they began going out and just rush into relationships.
      Last, If you dont know a person how do expect to be in a long lasting relationship with them , thats just how I feel from my point of view.

The Miami Heat is the number one team in the NBA right now with the record being 8-1 they are almost unstoppable. With their star players Lebron James , Dwayne Wade , and Chris Bosh that has began this great record for this team. Will they be able to maintain a good record throughout the whole season or will they fall off ? I think they will be able to stay number one in the NBA. The reason I say this because all of their players did not really have a good feel for each other last year being that they had a new player in their roster "Lebron James", but now that they know how each other play is will be easier for them to work together and both their offense and defense will flow more smoothly. Another reason i think they can keep great record is because they are mentally focused, they don't just throw up shots and hope that they go in, they play good defense, force turnovers and take smart high quality shots on offense. Next, I think the heat coaching staff also has a lot to do with them winning because they set up all the plays that leads to the easy points most of the time. Last, My final opinion on this subject is that if the heat continue to work hard and win games like they are now no team in the NBA will be able to stop them.

the biggest story or 2011

What was the biggest story of 2011 ? There was a lot of huge stories in the year 2011 but I think that the largest story of 2011 was the killing of Osama bin Laden. I think this was the largest story because Osama was a very known man, but he was only really known for killing people. He had people that cherished his presents and even tho he murdered many people, people were still trying to help him find spots where he could go to keep from getting court by the cops. When he got killed it caught many peoples attention, some people were happy, some were mad, and some thought that this would cause a large war. When I heard this story the first thing I thought about was what will happen next.  Will we have another war?  Or will the situation just pass by? Even tho this event happened months ago this is still a huge discussion in the homes and environments of many people. I still think that this will continue to be a huge discussion in 2012. So with all of that being said that is why i think the story of the death of Osama bin Laden was the most popular and most talked about in the year of 2011.

Should birth control be given to teens over the counter ?

Today i read a article about Obama and what he thinks about the plan B for teens. The article was about if people think it is right or not to let teens get birth control pills without having their parents permission, in this article Obama does not really agree with the thought of giving teens birth control without a parents permission, many people have different opinions about the subject.

   Here is how i feel about this subject. First, I agree with Obama, i do not think teens should be aloud to get birth control pills without a parent. one reason I think they shouldn't be able to get birth control pills is because some teens may not know how to use the pill correctly and could suffer and get sick from taking these pills. Another reason I think the plan B pill should not be giving to teens over the counter because some teens will take advantage of the pill or think its okay to have sex all the time because they cant get pregnant. One more reason i think that way is because some teens may not agree with the pill and if the teen gets caught , or the parent finds out that she is having sex and taking birth control the teen will most likely get in trouble. lastly, If teens began to use this pill they wont feel that their is any need for condoms and it would be a lot of diseases spreading around.