MANDALA!!!!

Well, this is most likely my last English 10 post on this blog. It's been a relatively fun year, despite me only racking up a total of 14 posts.

My Mandala project is nearing completion, as you would probably expect since this is the day before it is due. I am currently in the Library just finding some symbolic representations.

As a preview to those who read this and are interested in what my Mendala shall bring, expect a section on Comedy, Generosity, and on Music. Those will all be there, unless of course I have a random mid-life crisis and decide to totally change it up. That's unreasonably unlikely, so forget I even mentioned it.

I have a list of things that need to be done by the end of the year. As this is my first year at Thomas Haney (Due to the fact that Grade 8 doesn't really count in my opinion) I've fallen much into the trap that many other students are in. Of course, I'm probably not as deep in homework, but the fact that I've delayed a Socials project for approximately a month now is not exactly a good sign. It's due the last Monday of school, and will (according to my plan) be the last thing I have to do all year! (Not counting exams, because they're so easy)

I also have some science labs to do, but those shan't be too difficult. Last on my list is a French project that I'm working on with a fellow named Jon Unger. We've filmed most of it, it's all up to putting it together now. Mme.Preddy is going to give us 2 Guides worth of credit for that project.

I also have one other guide in French, but I hope that going to a Multicultural seminar shall suffice for that.

After that, I just have to bargin with Mr.Crawford for a bit of last minute credit. The course of Drafting and Design is pretty loose with the guides, so I figure that the Pong gif I'm making combined with a few other extra credity projects will fill in about 5 guides.

Well, the bell is going to ring soon, so I'd better get back to work on my good friend the Mendala. I suspect I'll finish it by 6:00 today. At least I'd better, because I have a band concert at 7:00. (You should come, it's Dumas' last concert and both of the groups I'm in are great!)

Speaking of the concert, I'm a little annoyed at the order of songs. Our opener should be our closer in my opinion, and our closer should be second. That way it would be like an Overchure or whatever they're called. Fast, slow, AMAZING. Rather than AMAZING, Fast, Slow like we have now. We also have a phenomenal encore ready just in case, so if you come there be sure to call for one. ;D

The Jazz band is also performing. We have a great piece called "Pick up the Pieces." It's a funk piece with tons of drum solo fills. In other words, this piece is great! I do hope it gets filmed and put on Youtube or something. That way, when people ask if I'm even any good at drums I can show them!

Until next time (or next year), this is Landon, signing off.

~Later

Blog post number X

Although it is true that x is not a number, it is in fact a variable in math, which is what I'm focused on right now. I've just taken the Math unit 1 test, and now I'm busy trying to figure out what the answers I wasn't sure about were. So far subtracting all of my definitely wrong answers I'm sitting at a 90%. Not bad, but I could probably do better.

Anyways, aside from that my life has been quite literally buzzing with excitement. From random hospitalizations to drumming at my Youth group, there is nothing I haven't done lately. Well, obviously that's an exaggeration but it feels like that.

The most thrilling thing that happened in my recent life was when I got to drum for my Youth Group 2 weeks ago. We threw in a random solo section just because we could, but sadly it failed quite miserably. It was still pretty hilarious, and if not for the fact that we got slightly off time it would've been a huge success. Don't get the wrong idea, we didn't get like Booed of the stage or anything, in fact everybody (including the singer) were almost literally rolling on the floor laughing. (rofl for those who care to learn these things)

In the English related department of my life, I learned about some grammar in English. A teen can no longer communicate with their parent, because that would be breaking the grammar laws, thus invoking the presence of the grammar police, who would send you to grammar jail where you would rot in incorrect punctuation for the rest of your non-grammar life. I do believe I just broke the run-on sentence rule, but I hear that the grammatical court of law is now contesting said law and trying to remove it from the list of grammatical laws. If nothing else, they will try to lower the sentence limit to 3 months. (note that's sentence as in jail sentencing, not the actual run-on sentence)

And that's all in my relatively recent life. Tune in next time to hear about me and my bongo solo in concert band! 

How much control should parents have over their teens?

Nowadays, parents have more reason than ever to control their teens. Life is becoming more and more dangerous, and the use of the internet can have unwanted effects. However, does becoming an absolute control freak solve anything? Will restricting everything your child does help them become a better person? Or will it just damage their trust and give them a reason to rebel against you?

Personally, I think that parents should have some control over their teens. Not too much though, as that just brings up a lot of dilemmas I mentioned earlier. Your parents give you food, shelter, and transportation before you can drive. It makes sense that they should have a say in some of your life. However, showing that you trust your child will often work just as well. Children who are less controlled by their parents will probably become more responsible adults one day, and will already know how to handle a lot of being on their own. If I had to come up with a percent, I'd say about 65% Teen, 35% parent.

The Hand That Signed the Paper

by Dylan Thomas

The hand that signed the paper felled a city;

Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,

Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;

These five kings did a king to death.

The mighty hand leads to a sloping shoulder,

The finger joints are cramped with chalk;

A goose’s quill has put an end to murder

That put an end to talk.

The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever,

And famine grew, and locusts came;

Great is the hand that holds dominion over

Man by a scribbled name.

The five kings count the dead but do not soften

The crusted wound nor stroke the brow;

A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;

Hands have no tears to flow.

I think that's a great poem, showing that if you give somebody too much power they can make all sorts of terrible things happen just by signing a paper. The poem gives fingers identities as "Five Kings" because they are so powerful when holding a pen. It should really make us more careful who we give this power to, because as the poem suggests it could "Double the globe of death and halve a country".

On the other hand, (pardon the pun) if responsibility like that is given to the right person, good things can happen just by having a paper signed. "A goose’s quill has put an end to murder " is an example of that in the poem.

At the end of the poem, the line "Hands have no tears to flow" seems like just a nice way to end the poem. I thought about what it meant further, and came up with this:

Because the "King" is just sitting on his throne or whatever signing all of these papers, he just counts lives as numbers. If he was to actually go where all of the people were, he'd have emotions for them and not just see it as a numerical value. That's why the hands have no tears to flow. When he's signing paper, he doesn't have any "emotions" towards the people.

Post (it's been a while)

After not posting for about... 2 months now, I've decided that it's time to start up again.

A lot has happened to me lately, most importantly the Pascal Math Contest. There were a lot of difficult questions on the test, still some that I can't even figure out now. I hope I did well on that test, I had a 1 : 5 bet with Justin that I would get 100% on the test. (Basically I owe him a dollar if I don't get 100%)

Another math related occurrence is that I'm now in Math 12! I failed my first test! It's really hard, but fortunately that test wasn't even for marks. (Which is why I keep telling myself I failed it intentionally) I'm now on Learning Guide 4, which is even more confusing. My question is, why on Earth do I need to know what a Logathrim is?

The other day during soccer I got a breakaway! It wasn't really that difficult since there were only a handful of people in the class actually trying, but my breakaway didn't last that long. I'm pretty fast, but considering that David Chin is probably faster and I had to bring a soccer ball with me, he caught up. Right as I was taking my shot, he slide checked me. I still got the shot off (which missed miserably) but after that I tripped over David and flew about 4 feet forward! I have to admit, it was pretty fun. I also got two pity goals, when the other team's goalie just got tired of me missing repeatedly and gave me the ball. (I almost missed the net in fact)

Hmm.... what's happened in my life that's English related? (Besides every time I've spoken) Well, it is literacy week at *school name removed* and I already have 2 items on the Scavenger hunt list! I probably won't do the scavenger hunt, but if some of my friends actually want to then I might join their team and let them borrow my copy of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" (item #4 on the list)

Also in literacy week spirit, I have to write a book review or present a poem. I think that doing a poem will be easier and more fun, because I know that a bunch of my friends have the same assignment. All I'd have to do is give up a bit of time from my Wednesday Lunch. A pretty good deal for some credit in English Class. I probably won't do the book review, because it seems like a whole lot more work than a poem. (I like taking the easy ways out)

Well, that's all of the randomness I can think of for now (even though I have about 2 months worth of events to choose from). 

~Landon~

  

Reality Is a..................

Reality is a shot in the dark



You don't know where you'll land,



You could end up right where you aimed



Or not where you had planned.





It's hit or miss, you'll never know.



Although you can't deny,



The only way to truely lose



Is not to even try.





Anonymous, 2009









Yes, I was the one who wrote that, but I've always wanted to write a poem and sign it as anonymous.



Anyways, it just is supposed to mean that you never know what you'll get in life, but it's better to at least try for greatness rather than just accept mediocrity.

Bad News

Well, I looked at my dashboard and it says that I have 18 posts! Isn't that wonderful? Unfortunately, I actually looked through my blog and found about 12 posts,  meaning my amazing 90% in my Blog turned into a 70%...

Fortunately, I'm here now and Ready to post about "Those Winter Sundays"

And saying that, the bell just went so I'll edit this post later