MP4#2) Success

Question: Is money and fame the only way to truly be considered successful?

Answer: 


Although this is an opinionated question, I believe that achieving ones goals is also considered being successful. In fact, I believe that personal happiness is more important than money and fame. Personal success involves working hard and earn the achievement, not just having the accolades
 handed to you. Many people will money or fame have either inherited it or used one important event to skyrocket them to the top. They haven't experienced the kind of success by constant determination and will to complete a task.

MP4 #1 "Catastrophe of Success"

After reading this essay, I realized that I completely agree with what Tennessee Williams has to say about success and what comes with it. I also believe that only a handful of people can deal with success. Those who are hard working and self-motivated have a better chance of sustaining success rather than the ones who become lazy and overconfident in their accomplishments. Everything that was said in this essay is true and by experiencing it first hand, Tennessee Willians only further proved that point.

MP3#11) Poem

Poem about the NCAA Tournament

NCAA Tournament,
Full of surprises,
You never know what your gonna get.
Kentucky over Baylor,
Kansas and Ohio State
In the Final Four when it was set.
In a year there is one time,
when the underdog can shine,
in the NCAA, NCAA, tournament

NCAA tournament,
Final Four is set
Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State and Louisville,
All looking to cut down the nets.
New Orleans is rocking and rolling,
Getting ready for the craziness,
In a few more days the tourney will be over,
and one will be labeled the best.

NCAA tournament,
Buzzer beaters and overtimes,
and many more surprises yet to come.
Thomas Robinson, Anthony Davis,
Siva, and MKG
Finally looking to make the jump.
You're guaranteed to shed a tear,
Because the madness is finally here.
In the NCAA, NCAA tournament.

MP3#10) Organized Person

When it comes to being organized, it depends of what the situation is. When it comes to my room at home, I am not very organized because truthfully, I like it better that way. On the other hand, in school, I am very organized. For example, I date all of my things and put them in order so that I know exactly what is going on. I do this because I firmly believe that being organized in school is the best way to be successful. There are many benefits of being organized because it makes everything easier to find and put away. An unorganized person will have become frustrated when they can't do what they want to accomplish.

MP3#9) News Blog: 19 Years and £1 Million Later, a Past Catches Up

Edward Maher, who was living a normal life in Ozark, Missouri, had his life turned upside down on December 28th. To the surprise of everyone, even his own children, it turns out the Maher has been wanted in England for the past twenty years. Known as "Fast Eddie", he was known for the man who staged one of England's most infamous bank heists. The only people who knew about this were Maher's two previous wife. When the hidden life became to much for the women, they left Maher, but not without him threatening their lives first. Finally, one of the wives told the daughter, who ended up telling her husband. He proceeded to leak information to the police, causing them to arrest Maher immediately after. In a situation where a man has been hiding for almost 20 years, it becomes apparent that no one can be trusted.

When I read through this article, it boggled my mind that one of England's most wanted could be undercover and on loose for almost 20 years. I believe that after about a year, the England police probably gave up instead of pursuing the man that they call "Fast Eddie" In addition, I feel bad for the former wives of Maher. When they first made the commitment, they were unaware of the kind of criminal Maher was. Once they found his out and had to keep his vital secret, I don't blame them for wanted to escape the situation. Finally, although Edward Maher had cleaned up his act and was living a normal life, he had stolen thousands of dollars and deserved to pay the price.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/us/british-robbery-suspect-edward-maher-arrested-in-missouri.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&ref=us

MP3#8) Happy Valentine's Day

I don't really remember my very crush, but I believe it was in fifth grade. I didn't like them too much because I was only in elementary school and no one really went out. I think I liked the person because of their personality, not how they looked. The person that I liked was one that I talked to all the times and we were like best friends. As I got older, the meaning of a crush has changed for me and now holds a far greater meaning.

MP3#7)Duke Sinks North Carolina at the Buzzer

Duke (20-4) was coming off a rare home loss to Miami on Super Bowl Sunday and was looking to rebound against the 9th ranked team, the North Carolina Tar Heels (20-4). Throughout the season, the Tar Heels have been significantly higher rated than the Blue Devils and believed a matchup at the Dean Dome would be a walk in the park. This is one of the best rivalry in sports and on Wednesday night, it lived up to the hype. The game started out fast, with the Devils getting their points off threes from Austin Rivers, Seth, Curry, and Andre Dawkins, while the Tar Heels were getting points in the paint from Tyler Zeller, who had 19 points in the first half. After 20 minutes of play, Duke was playing tough with North Carolina, down only 3 (43-40) at halftime.

The second half was a different story for the Tar Heels, as they came out and took control of the game. Harrison Barnes had the Heels to a double-digit lead that no one thought they would relinquish. However, throughout the later parts of the second half, the Tar Heels were unable to put the Blue Devils away, giving them a slight chance in the end. The run started with 2 minutes left on the clock. A three by Tyler Thornton cut it to 7. All of the sudden, a Duke steal led to a Seth Curry three and just like that, the North Carolina lead was 4. With a 1:30 left, Kelly hit a baseline jumped to cut the lead to 2. After Zeller made one of two free throws, Duke came down and Kelly attempted a three which was miraculously zipped in by Zeller, cutting the lead to 1 with 15 seconds left. Again, Tyler Zeller was only able to make 1 of 2 three throws, setting the game up for a photo finish. The fantastic freshman, Austin Rivers, who had already sunk 5 three-pointers and had 26 points in the game, was determined to flex his muscles. With 5 seconds left, he stepped up and took the biggest three of his life. To the enjoyment of him and his teammates, the ball fell through the net as time expired, giving Duke the 85-84 win. This was a game was of the best of all time and has gotten Austin Rivers' name etched into the wonderful rivalry.

Since I am a huge Duke fan, I felt that I had to write about this because it was such a great game. Going into it, I would have been happy if the Devils were able to keep it within 10, just because all of the talent that North Carolina had. With three minutes left, I thought it was over and was about to go to bed. I decided to stay up and witness the best comeback I have seen in about 10 years of watching college basketball. I was so happy when Rivers hit that three that I actually hit my head on the ceiling, waking both of my parents up. They should have been mad, but were not because I was so happy. The Dukies were able to steal a win against a top 5 team and this has to give them a wealth of confidence going forward in conference play.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/sports/ncaabasketball/ncaa-basketball-roundup.html?ref=ncaabasketball

MP3#6) Thoughts about the Super Bowl

The super bowl is a huge event, and was even bigger this year because the Giants were in it. The New York football Giants had won two road games over Green Bay and San Francisco to get to the Super Bowl  against the Patriots. For the other part of the world, the Super Bowl is huge entertainment event because it is the biggest game of the year. What has made it so popular is the Super Bowl commercials and the halftime show. During this year's Super Bowl, I thought that although the halftime show was amazing, the commercials were as weak as they have ever been. I didn't care because I was constantly focused on the game, but others around the country must have been disappointed. All in all, the game was fantastic, and it came down to the final play. Once that ball hit the ground for the final time, my friends and I were jumping around because our team, the New York Giants, were Super Bowl Champions. This has been an amazing season for the team from New York and can only hope that they can continue this run next year.

MP3#4) "Charity Lottery"

If I had won $10,000 in the "Charity Lottery", I would donate all of the money to research for individuals with autism. The main reason I would do so is because my 7 year old cousin has autism and I know how hard it is for him, as well as my aunt. She works so hard to make his life as simple as possible, but sometimes, that just can't happen. Another reason why I would do this is because I think something can be done so severely to decrease the case of autism that the victim doesn't seem to have anything wrong at all.  I know that researchers are close to discovering a solution to this ongoing problem, and feel that this 10,000 would put them over the hump.

MP3#3) My first ever memory

My first memory that I can always remember was when I was in Kindergarden. During that time, I was very into the Pokemon games for gameboy and would sometimes have my mom read the words to me because I didn't learn them yet. Anyway, the teacher told each of us to bring in something for show and tell. I decided to bring my gameboy with my Pokemon game in it. While presenting it to the class, I turned on the gameboy to show everyone how the game worked and how fun it was. At the end of the presentation, Mark Dobson turned off my gameboy for a reason that I still can't remember. I started yelling at him and crying because he had not saved my game and some of my progress was lost. I will always remember this moment because it was the first time when I got really angry in front of my classmates and teacher.

MP3#2)Free Write: Glasses

I wish I didn't have these, but unfortunately, I do. In fact, my eyes are so bad that if I didn't have contacts, I would have to wear them all the time. Anyway, I only wear my glasses on the weekends when I am too lazy to put on my contacts.

To continue, everyone in my family wears glasses. My sister wears them when she is driving, my dad wears them when he is reading, and my mom pretty much wears them all the time. It seems that the older someone gets, the better chance they need to start wearing glasses. This is the case with my Dad, who has had 20-20 vision all his life. During the past year, he has became far-sighted and purchased glasses to help him see things close.

Whether it is an aunt, an uncle, a cousin, or a friend, I guarantee that everyone knows someone who need to wear glasses, and that is a pretty cool thing. 

MP3#1)Don't you just love it when...

Don't you just love it when you wait up to go to school one morning only to find out that school has been cancelled because of a snow day? That might just be my favorite feeling. I wake up about to endure a long and hard day of school when I hear my mom yell from her bedroom, "Snow day! Go back to sleep". Those words are like music to my ears as I lay back down in my bed and drift off to sleep.

I have the completely opposite feeling when I expect there to be a ton of snow and then there is none. I purposely go to bed late those nights anticipating being able to sleep in, but end up going to school all tired and grumpy. It might be the worst feeling ever, but it happens at least three or fours times during the school year.

MP2#12) Anticipatory Discussion Questions for Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

4) One job that I hope to pursue later in life is either sports journalism or sports marketing. I would either want to write about sports or manage the salary caps and money for the team. Although there are people who change majors during their college career, (my cousin for examples), I do not think my major will change throughout college. I feel that I have a passion for the details of sports and will continue to pursue my dreams.

MP2#11) Response to Article about Gatsby

The first excerpt that I liked from the article was when Beckerman said, "Not only is Gatsby arguably the greatest American novel, it is also-not by chance- the greatest "pursuit of happiness" story ever written in the country where the phrase was coined"(Beckerman). I liked this quote because from a very knowledgable writer, he exclaimed that this was the greatest novel ever, which is a pretty big honor for the book. Also, I agree with him that it is a great novel, but do not think it is the greatest. In terms of the pursuit of happiness, Gatsby spend the whole story trying to convince Daisy to fall in love with him and as with most tragedies, he fails and ends up dead at the end. The only reason why it isn't the greatest is because the ending was too predictable. I feel that a twist would have put it over the edge.


The second excerpt is one that I 100% agree with. "'We try to use Gatsby as a base, because everyone can relate to it,' Wenzel says. 'The 1920s was a time of having fun, letting loose. The economy was doing well. It seemed like everybody was having a great time'"(Beckerman). As a read through the novel, it portrayed exactly what was going on during the roaring '20s. There was a bunch of partying and bootlegging, but overall, it was a time to have fun. It just so happens that Gatsby was only pretending to have fun to impress the one he really loved. If he were alive, I think he would regret wasting his time during a period where people should have been having the time of their lives.

MP2 #10) New Year's Resolution

I think my New Year's resolution is to pursue sports writing more often. I have just joined the PV Sports Beat and decided that I really have a passion of writing about sports. I think I should continue to write articles because I might want to pursue a career like this in the future.