I was looking at Bassam's post and I decided that this was what my response post was going to be about.

  I am rambling so let me get to the point why Oakland is a great place. well its a great place for some who is not shy of any one and not afraid to get out there. once you've made friends with kids in your neighbored you will never want to leave. Every day of break i would go to my friends house and play with there wii. there would always be a lot of people playing and that made it the best. The only reason that people think that it is not a good place is because they don't any friends i n Oakland, if you don't then it will be a living hell because people always walk in groups and if your not apart of it then you have no reason to be there.   

I just kind of wanted to point a few things out there. When you said that Oakland is a great place if you're not afraid to go out there, it makes it sound like it is a bad place and that you have to face your fears or something like that. You probably mean that if people aren't paranoid about Oakland or have some stereotypes on violence there and such, but you should explain it a little more.
         Another thing you say that kind of ties in to what I said above is that it will be a "living hell" if you don't make any friends and don't walk in groups. That sounds like a bit of an exaggeration: if you don't make friends and hang out in groups then you'll be in your misery for a long time? I not paranoid, but I do have a few stereotypes on Oakland, basically that it can be pretty violent sometimes. I'm looking at all these posts on Oakland and trying to know the facts and what Oakland is really like and not be stereotypical on it. And life being a living hell by not making friends sounds like a bit of a death wish if you want to go there. I'm just saying, that's what the sentence sounds like or would sound like to someone who only thinks bad things about Oakland. Just a few things I wanted to point out.

Unwind Blog Post #3

           In my final lit-circle discussion for the novel Unwind by Neal Shusterman, my group talked about some very interesting things. The most interesting discussion we had was when we talked about the possibilities of this happening. The setting is supposed to be a while in the future, so at some points I wondered and thought to myself, Could this really happen?. My group actually talked about it and gave a lot of evidence on it. There's one part in the book where a character named Roland tells a lady to do something, and she that it is very strange. However, she only thinks that she shouldn't worry about it and that she should just do what he says, then she can forget about it and it will no longer be her problem. People today already are fine with making a decision if it means that they move their problems and give them to someone else.
           The reason that people in this book unwind kids, or take off all their body parts and donate them to someone else, is because there was a war. It was called the Heartland war, and it was basically fought to protect people from getting all their body parts taken off so they can be donated, but then people decided that that could donate most of them without technically killing them. It was fine for people because they were already adults, and they couldn't get unwound, only kids would. This shows that the people who had the power to disagree to this didn't because they wouldn't have to worry about getting unwound. So they were just pushing their problems away from them and onto someone else. So if this kind of war were to happen, then this would probably be the outcomew.
            The main reason that this could happen is because unwinding is like abortions, except that it happens to kids and that the organs, brain parts, and limbs are donated to people. If abortions become legalized, then people might say no and get into a fight a bit like the Heartland War and people would lose money from the war and then decide to comprimise by accepting something like unwinding. Like I said, people will push their problems on someone else and feel nio regret whatsoever.

Response to Sam's post on Oakland

            I heard in Mr. Sutherland's class that there were some blog posts on Oakland, so I looked at a few and decided to respond to Sam's post.

I happen to live in Alameda, but I still can see the frustration that people who live in Oakland have.  Just because things happen, doesn’t mean that it will happen to you.  This is of course connecting to what she said about there being shootings on occasion, but her never actually being shot at.  No matter where you live people will assume things about you and your community based only on where you come from.  I admit that I do this sometimes. Sometimes seriously, and sometimes as a joke.  I am sure that people in Oakland have plenty of stereotypes about people living in Alameda.

          The part where Sam says that things happening could or couldn't happen to you. My stepdad is a firefighter in Oakland, and he always says that Oakland has a lot of poverty and violence and stuff like that. Of course he works near Fruitvale, so that is obviously a place where there's just a lot of trouble. I heard that some places aren't so bad, and are actually considered nice parts of Oakland. So the people who live in more peaceful areas not in Oakland probably judge that if some parts in Oakland are bad, then all of Oakland is bad. People who don't know a lot about things usually depend on stereotypes for knowledge so they can sound smart.
          The part where Sam says that Oakland most likely has stereotypes on people in Alameda is the next part I want to talk about. I've been to my sepdad's fire station sometimes and I've heard some of the other firefighters say that Alameda firefighters are lazy and get paid for doing nothing. You can get a lot out of that sentence right there. They think that since Alameda barely has any problems that the firefighters in Alameda are bums that sit on a couch all day at their fire station and don't get any calls. This makes me wonder if some people who live in places like Fruitvale think people in Alameda are wimps and people who can't deal with anything because they don't have any problems.
           The last thing I want to say is not exactly a response to what Sam said, but just more something I want to point out. Alameda and some of the nice areas around Oakland will get a bad reputation at some point in time. I've heard that there's a nice part in Oakland called Mont Claire (I think that's what it's called), so it's probably one of the places that is peaceful. Well I saw on the news a while ago that a lady that was in Mont Claire or some other really nice part of Oakland left her 6 year old daughter take care of 2 or 3 of her baby siblings for an entire day. The lady came back the next day and the police came and arrested her (I don't know how they found out). That's just an example that some nice places turn out to get a bad reputation, so these peaceful places and Alameda will probably get that. The shooting in Alameda 3 years ago is another example. A little girl got shot by some kids at a park in Alameda, so that's another sign. I heard that all of Oakland used to be a nice place, but it just slowly turned into a bad place. I predict that Alameda and the rest of Oakland will share the same fate. It's only a matter of time.

Unwind book post #2

            In this second lit circle group discussion on the novel Unwind by Neal Shusterman, we talked about what would happen and how the characters in the book might end up. We also wondered about some of their reactions to things. One of these questions and discussions was about Conner and how sometimes he couldn't control his anger at certain points. He would just turn around and get in a fight with someone for no apparent reason. I had a theory for why this was. A few chapters before this happened, a kid named Cyrus Finch (CyFi) was introduced in the story. He was kind and was always in good humor, but later on, he stole gold necklaces, Christmas ornaments, and other valuable items. Later on, we find out that CyFi had been given a part of someone else's brain when they got in an accident. That someone stole valuable items, so at certain points, CyFi would be controlled by that piece of mind and start to steal things and talk differently. This could have been what happened to Conner. Maybe he had been given part of someone else's brain, and that person got in a lot of fights or had mental problems where they couldn't be around crowds. This could have been why Conner would have sudden impulses to punch someone because they were being too loud.
            Something else that I wondered about why Lev all of a sudden hated his parents. They obviously showed that they didn't want Lev to be unwound, but when he realized that it was wrong, he said that he hated his parents and was surprised he meant it. My lit circle group said that Lev suddenly hated his parents because their religion was more important than Lev. They also said that he hated them for not being able to see that unwinding was wrong whether it was a religious matter or not. I think that these answers kind of answer my question on Lev and his parents, but it still makes me wonder why Lev was surprised to hear himself say that as well.

Revisions for Corbally's essay

Kathy, Lhadze and Luis, here's the essay.

Kathryn Douglas, Lhadze B., Jesse Valdez, Luis Alba

21 September, 2010

Writing One, 6^o

Mrs. Corbally

Pearls Before Swine

            “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” (Matthew 7:6)

            The silence never sounded as loud when Paul held Abbey’s dead body in his hands. He stepped away from Abbey and held the bloody pen in his hand. All his memories of Abbey were playing in his head. Slowly, all of those memories became clear. He knelt beside Abbey, and closed his eyes.

 *                                 *                                         *

            His years of high school were the whole reason why he ended up killing Abbey. Paul and Abbey had been a great couple. Paul loved her; he would do anything for her. He remembered picking her up from her house in his truck and getting out of the car. Abbey came out of her house in her little red dress, nimbly walking over in her heels while putting on a delicate corsage. He was stunned at her amazing grace and beauty. He opened the truck door for her and headed to prom. Paul was nervous and the ride was quiet.

            As they entered the gym where prom was being held, he had a slight feeling someone else was looking for her. Paul and Abbey sat at a table with their friends from high school. They had fun with their friends, but as they left to dance, Abbey and Paul remained silent. As the night went on, Abbey acted strange. She kept glancing around as if she were looking for someone. She suddenly stood up, walked away and never looked back. Paul wondered where she was walking to, but it didn’t take him long to figure out. She was walking towards someone who just came in. As Abbey went over to him, Paul began to notice something strange: he had a pig tattoo on his biceps. Anger boiled inside Paul’s stomach. Abbey, with no sense of pity or regret, kissed the man with the pig tattoo. Paul jumped in his seat and stared at them. Fury exploded within him, but he didn’t want to make a scene. He got up and left, thinking about how Abbey could have just done that to him so easily.

            As Paul drove his truck in anger, his mind was still on Abbey and how he witnessed her cheating on him. He began to think cruel thoughts, all in which included revenge. The tattoo of the pig was on his mind since he had left the prom. He wanted to know who that man that he hated more than anyone else was. He began to swear at the top of his voice, all of them being about Abbey and the man that she was with. While driving, he spotted a pig, and the remaining amount of rage that was inside him was vented out. When he saw the pig, he thought Abbey and the other man and the everlasting pain that they had inflicted on him. Acting on impulse, Paul drove his truck as fast as he possible could, and he rammed into the pig. The truck shook and swerved. When it stooped, Paul left to see if the pig was dead, but when he found nothing, he realized that he had imagined it; the pig was merely a hallucination. He wondered why the car had shook if he did not hit the pig. He noticed a boulder a few feet away from where he was; that had been the cause of his crash. As he realized what had happened, he began to laugh. He was still laughing when he saw two bright lights coming closer and closer. In a matter of seconds, he heard a horn blare, and everything went black.

                                    *                                       *                                              *

            The next thing Paul knew, he was in a room with shiny white walls. He then noticed the numerous amounts of wires attached to him. It didn’t take him long to realize that he was in a hospital. He touched his face and felt his grown facial hair all over. His eyes felt tired and heavy. He looked towards the digital clock. He noticed something strange. The date was 3 years after prom. Everything in between that and now was all just a blank. He was about to gasp in shock, but pain all of sudden shot through his entire mouth. He looked in a mirror next to him and saw that something was clamping him jaw down so much that he couldn’t speak. He thought while in pain, I shouldn’t have tried to run over the pig. I shouldn’t have lost control like that. In half an hour, some surgeons came in to check and fix whatever was clamping down on his jaw. As they were fixing it, he felt jolts of pain that felt like needles being poked into his gums and being twisted. When they were done, one of the surgeons got a mirror and asked him what he thought. There were two thoughts that went through his mind: (1) He was astounded at his reflection; he had hideous scars all over him. His face was unrecognizable. (2) The voice that spoke to him was extremely familiar. Paul was frustrated that he couldn’t figure out whose voice that was.     

            When all the other surgeons left, the one whose voice sounded familiar stayed behind. She cleaned up the rest of the tools and put them on a cart so she could take them back. She took off her surgical mask and then someone else called her. Abbey. She said she would be right there after she put the equipment away. When she turned around to take the cart, Paul caught a glimpse of her face. That glimpse was all he need. Everything that happened after the prom came to him: Abbey cheating on him, driving away in anger, crashing into the boulder, and the most memorable flashback, the man with the pig tattoo. He must have looked like he had a fearful expression on his face, because Abbey told him, “Don’t worry, Sir. You’ll get those scars fixed in no time. Good-bye”.

As she left He saw the man that called that had the clear tattoo of a pig, and an engagement ring brighter than the sun than had engravings on it. Paul shook with fury on his bed when he noticed these two things. If he didn’t have the thing on his jaw, then the entire hospital would have heard his scream. They were the screams of revenge.

                        *                                          *                                               *

            Abbey came in and closed the door. He decided that if he wanted revenge, then there was only one thing he could do. Ignoring every pain in his body, he grabbed Abbey by her collar and took a pen out of her pocket. He looked at Abbey, and his brown eyes, full of rage and hatred, met Abbey’s grey eyes, full of shock and plea. Fighting the pain of his jaw, he said to her, “Abbey.” Paul grabbed her wrist and stabbed it with the pen, cutting it open. She opened her mouth in preparation for a scream, but Paul swiftly covered her mouth. “Be quiet”, he said in a murderous tone. He caressed her face and held the pen up to her neck as she slowly started to lose consciousness. He remembered that horrible heartbreaking day when she cheated on him and caused him to get in a crash. He wanted to make her suffer for what she did to him. The last time he saw her, she was looking at him, deviously giggling. She was different now. Ugly, he thought, that pig man made her ugly, the way she smiled at him, and she never smiled like that at me. She could very well be dead to me. I want her dead; if I can’t have her, neither can that pig man. He then said to Abbey the last words she would ever hear.

“Pearls before swine, Abbey.”

 He took a deep breath, and jammed the pen into Abbey’s soft neck. Her eyes flickered and she was no longer. His hands were soon soaked with Abbey’s crimson blood. He dropped her and wiped his hands on his hospital gown. Paul looked over her dead body on the floor, dropped the pen and limped to the door. It creaked as he opened it slowly. Once he was outside, he looked both ways down the hall and dashed. Running down the white halls, memories of the good times flashed back into his head and he snickered bitterly. He could see the security guards running towards him, they had heard the beginning of her desperate cry. Paul had not covered Abbey’s mouth quick enough. He realized that the guards had him in checkmate. He went with them quietly. He was not only going to prison, but he was going to Hell.

Corbally's Essay

           As Paul drives his tractor in anger, his mind is still on Abbey and how he witnessed her cheating on him. He starts to boil with anger inside. Abbey's pig tatoo was still fresh in his mind. At the same time, he spots a pig, and hatred bursts inside him. When he sees the pig, he immediatly thinks of Abbey, and the pain she caused him. Then, on impulse, he makes his tractor go as fast as it can possibly go. As he gets closer to the pig, with Abbey still in his mind, he can't find the pig any more. He realizes too late, the pig was merely a hallucination. One of the wheels hits a bopulder, and both Paul and the tractor are sent flying in the air.
           When he regains conscienceness, he sees a white-walled room. The next thing he notices is a numerous amount of tubes attached to him. It does not take him very long to realize that he is in a hospital. He's about to gasp, but something stops him. Something clamps his jaw shut so that he can't speak. He thinks to himself that he shouldn't have tried to run over the "pig". He shouldn't have lost con trol like that. In about half an hour, some surgeons come in to fix whatever is clamping down on his jaw. He sees some of them using screws on his teeth. He feels a sudden pain, but it goes away in seconds. One of the surgeons gets a mirror and asks him what he thinks. He sees himself and is shocked. His face is covered in scars. He doesn't even recognize himself. At that moment, the surgeon that showed him the mirror, and Paul realizes that the surgeon is Abbey. Abbey, apparently not recognizing who he is, tells him not to be so scared, and that the scars will go away once he gets plastic surgery by the plastic surgeons. Paul tries to tell her who he is, but he is unable to speak. Abbey doesn't notice that he is struggling to say something, so she leaves without another word. Paul watches her leave, and as he does, he discovers something glistening like the sun om her hand. He shakes with fury on his bed, and the entire hospital would have heard him, if only it weren't for the thing on his jaw. The shiny object on her finger was an engagement ring, with words engraved on it. And Paul knows that it wasn't him that gave it to her.

Response to Colin's iPad post

I decided to respond to Colin's post on the iPad.

 Why choose Ipad? It does the same thing (sometimes less) as many other tablets just for a higher price for the brand name. The blackberry playbook has live video chat, flash payer built in (which the IPAD does not have), youtube, blackberry compatibility, and any more features. I am responding to this because I wanted to show that there are other things you can get that do more than the Ipad but they aren't advertised for as much.

I'm making this response post to say why a lot of people buy the iPad even though other cell phones can do the same thing. People probably expect more from the Apple company because of all the iPhones and iPods and iTouches and how cool they are. Now the Apple company must be running out of ideas for new technology, and therefore they try to get a lot of money and scam people by taking the ideas of some other company's ideas. Then they take, as Colin said, blackberry's video chat and put it in the iPad. They must have not known that the blackberry has a flash player, or they would have put that in as well. Since the economy is bad, they need more money, so they just steal ideas and put it into something. Sooner or later next year, they'll probably have taken more ideas from other companies and put it into something else. This is assuming of course that they don't come up with anything new by themselves. I actually would be surprised if they were experimenting for new technology, but while they were, and in case their ideas didn't work, then they had some back-up blueprints for something else. Therefore, the Apple company must have been trying to get somethig and put it into something else, but failed to accomplish it. Then, they were stating to lose money, so they decided to create their back-up plan, which was the iPad. Since people had high expectations from the company, a lot of people bought iPads in hope of getting something really cool. But there were mostly ideas from other devices, so the Apple company got a lot of money, maybe so they could use the money to experiment more to invent something better. But that remains to be seen.

Unwind Blog Post #1

             During my group's lit circle discussion, we talked about many things that happened in the book Unwind so far. We talked about what we thought of some of the characters, what they would do later in the book, and why they acted the way they did. One of these characters that we talked about was Lev's parents. We pondered if they really wanted to have Lev be unwound, or if they were just getting him unwound because it was their religion. We ended up mostly agreeing that they just gave up Lev to be unwound because their religion had said that they needed to give 10 percent of their possessions to the Church, and they figured that Lev had to be part of that 10 percent. We said that they probably thought that they wouldn't be accepted into heaven if they didn't give up Lev, and that instead they would be sent to Hell. So they convinced Lev that he would be blessed once he was unwound, and that was his purpose: to save lives by giving away his body parts. This made Lev feel slightly better about himself, because he thought it was his purpose. This probably makes the parents feel better, so they keep enforcing this idea.
             After this discussion, our group talked about Lev. We said that he was a jerk for betraying Conner and Risa's trust, and then expecting them to let him tag along with them again. Now that I think about it, I don't even know what the purpose of going to the office to tell them what was going on. All he did was call his friend Pastor Dan, and he could have done that without telling them who he was at all. He told the office person to tell the police not to hurt Conner ans Risa. What did he expect? They were both Unwinds on the run, so if they were caught by anyone, they would be unwound. He deserved to have felt guilty for leaving them and then being alone.