I hate to recycle prompts, but I had nothing else to write about, so I think I'll delve into further detail about the book I'm reading with a summary of the characters.

As I mentioned before, my favorite character is Annabeth. I think that's slowly changing. My favorite characters now are Jason Grace (the son of Jupiter) and Octavian (a legacy, or a mortal descended from demigods who has godly powers). Both of these boys are Romans. They both have blond hair. They both play central roles in at least one of the books in the series.

A lot of people dislike Jason because they view him as "one-dimensional" and a "goody-goody", but I think he's interesting. I can relate to him since I don't like to fail or show weakness. Jason's memory was wiped prior to the beginning of the series and he had to regain it back while fighting against mortal and immortal enemies in the first installation in the series.

Even more people dislike Octavian because he's a little evil. He plays for the Roman side and wants nothing more than power over the camp. He feels unimportant as the augur (future-teller) at Camp Jupiter. He's also kind of crazy and has no problem doing whatever it takes to remove what -- or whom-- is in his way. I sympathize with Octavian, but there's no excuse for doing the wrong thing constantly. I hope Octavian redeems himself or at least becomes more important to the plot later on in the series.

Anyways, today is a Friday! It's also Jeanius Day. Yesterday in P.E. we did Fitness Day so I'm really sore. I hope I have a good weekend of relaxation, though. 

Happy Friday! I decided that because of a lack of a prompt and ideas, I will write about the book I'm reading at the moment.

I am currently reading a book called The Mark of Athena. It is by Rick Riordan and it is the third book in a sequel series to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. The book follows the lives of seven Greek and Roman teenage demigods as they adjust to their new lives and venture out on quests to help save the world, mortal and immortal. I'm purposely reading the book very slowly so that by the time that a Reading Counts quiz comes out for it, I'll be ready and able to take it and pass it.

My favorite character so far is Annabeth. She's sixteen and a daughter of the goddess Athena, whose sphere of control is wisdom, fine arts, and warfare. She was very close to the protagonist of the last series, Percy Jackson (who is also featured in this series, The Heroes of Olympus), and they're dating. Right now, the seven demigods (Jason, the son of Jupiter; Piper, the daughter of Aphrodite; Hazel, the daughter of Pluto; Frank, the son of Mars and a descendant of Poseidon; Percy, Poseidon's child; Leo, the son of Hephaestus; and Annabeth, Athena's daughter), are all on a quest. It's kind of a race against time and motivated by a Greek-Roman rivalry among other things. Hazel's half-brother, Nico, is trapped with a few malicious giants who are servants of Gaea and she is desperate to save them. They are trying to find him while still attempting to track and hold off the Romans, who plan to infiltrate the Greek Camp Half-Blood.

So far, the book is amazing! I'm trying to get the full experience and read it quite slowly, too. I plan to do some reading over the weekend.

Happy Friday! If you hadn't noticed already, today is the last day of the first quarter of the 2012-2013 school year at Computech. The first quarter started on August 20, the first day of school. I'm very happy to say that I achieved almost all of my goals for the first quarter. 

As of today, I have a 4.0. I have straight "A"'s in all of my classes. I like all of my teachers and most all of the material in my classes. I'm very proud of myself for doing as well as I could have in the first quarter. I made new friends and achieved most of my social goals. I think that I am set for a good 7th grade year here at Computech.

My favorite parts of the first quarter were probably going out to perform in public for band and making new friends in some of my classes. I learned a lot of new technological skills and I've already started to learn a new language. This has given me a new positive outlook for the second quarter. I learned a lot about myself this quarter too. I've extended my doors and tried and found new things at school that I never would have thought of before.

I've also really enjoyed writing in this blog. I think blogs are an effective way to review and go into deeper thinking about events at school. 

Anyways, see you next quarter!

I have Physical Education, or P.E., 8th and last period. I have a good grade in P.E. although it's not my favorite subject. My P.E. class is quite small and consists of only about 11 people, -- most of whom are from my Core and Computers/Science classes -- so organization is easy. My P.E. teacher is Mr. Brown, who is one of my favorite teachers since he's so laidback. We're 8th Period so we rarely do fitness days and we're unable to use the Edison pool thanks to aquatics, but we do a variety of fun physical activities. Right now we're doing a unit on jump ropes.

We were required choose a partner and perform an 8-trick routine full of jumps and tricks. For extra credit we have to summarize four facts about health. I didn't have a partner at first but now my partner is my friend Trinity. She is also partners with Brianna. She gets extra credit for testing twice, although we're all doing the same routine. The testing of routines started yesterday, but we haven't gone yet. I barely got any time to practice so I'm a bit nervous, but I'm good at the tricks that I know and jumping rope in general. The easiest move for me to do on a jump rope is the Double Side Swing Jump, where we swing the rope twice and then jump through it the same amount of times. The hardest ones for me are the Forward 180, which requires four backwards jumps in my routine, and the Heel-to-Heel, which involves the heel and sideways motions. 

As I said before, I'm nervous, but I'm good at jumping rope, anyway. Plus, P.E. is my last period, so I always have something to look forward to after it. My locker neighbor in P.E. is Brianna, who helps me when I get my lock stuck. We have a lot of the same teachers in different periods, so we can talk about our work. So far, P.E. is an easy subject for me. I hope it stays this way!

Happy Friday! Today is September 28th, the last Friday of the month, and one of the only days this month where we are allowed to "break" the dress code. On the last Friday of each and every month, students with a "C" or better in every class are allowed to wear jeans as long as they are given a neon yellow bracelet that signifies it. On every Friday we are welcome to wear spirit shirts that we bought beforehand, so technically, my top nor my bottom are not technically in "dress code". I think, because we were not given a prompt for today's blog entry, that I will review my day so far. Today is a special day because we have a rally. The schedule is slightly different and the periods are shorter.

In French, we elected a first-period representative. I lost by 1 vote to my friend Tiffani. We were barely able to use Rosetta Stone and my headset is broken anyway, but I logged on for about 2 minutes.

In Core, we had a substitute, Mr. Smith. We turned in our reading logs and reviewed our SVG packets. Later we took a test and completed and turned in our maps of the Middle East. I finished mine last night, so I read for the rest of the period.

In Math, we just corrected our homework. I got 12 of 14 questions correct. Later Mrs. Pope handed us a sheet of paper with a complex problem on it to solve with our partners, but we are only to work on it on Fridays. I ended up doing the wrong amount of problems on my TMR (Tiger Math Review), so I have homework over the weekend.

At break I got a paper to be a tour guide in the next coming weeks for Manchester kids. I'm excited for the rally, but so far my day has been good.

As I waited outside Room 76 today, I searched around me, and I noticed a few familiar faces. Of course, my Computers and Science classes are identical, but several of the students in the classes share others with me, including Core, Math, and P.E. Many of us have very similar schedules, but what separates us is our electives.

     My electives are French and Advanced Band, in 1st and 7th period, respectively. The distance between these two classrooms is the greatest walking distance between any classes in my schedule. French is in Room 83 with Madame Hutchison and Band is all the way in the Edison campus with Mr. Reynolds. I wonder what it would be like if I had chosen different electives, i.e. Spanish, AVID, or Engineering. These two classes are among my favorites, though.

     Taking alternative subjects that don't stick to curriculum but instead extend to other fields of education is an advantage. The teachers of these subjects must feel privileged and special to be here teaching something other than basics, especially to middle schoolers. Most foreign language classes don't begin until high school, but French gives me advantages in the college admissions process, since I'll probably take two or more years of it.

     I like my basic classes -- Core, Math, Computers, Science, and P.E. but the two opportunities a day I get to reach beyond core curriculum are definitely some of my favorite parts of the day... but not just because we barely get homework!

Recently in Computers class we have been working on an online simulation game called "My Digital Life". As the name may suggest, the game is about digital citizenship and what we can do to create a safer online identity and approach and a clear outlook on technology. The game consists of 7 modules and a game. I believe I have finished 4 of 7 modules.

     The game is formatted as a sort of simulation, and you must follow steps and click buttons to help your friends or yourself when it comes to technology. Sometimes you have to look at options for computers or software, and all of these steps are supposed to help organize a concert for a fictitious rock band called the Still Beating Hearts. We have learned about choosing computers, software, internet resources and credibility, the viral world, wireless communications, creating multimedia products, technology addiction and its dangers, and other technological issues and advantages that we may face sometime in the future. We are quizzed before beginning the module and scored in a test after it. It was a little confusing at first, but I'm pretty accustomed to it now. On my last module I got 90 on the quiz, and 100 on the two previous.

    I think that My Digital Life holds some valuable lessons about tech safety that kids are not always willing to learn. I'm typically veryn good with both computers and the internet, but there was definitely some information in My Digital Life that I didn't know before, and I'm thankful for that. A lot of teens could take from this, too, especially the sections on viral content and wireless communications like texting while driving. It's also useful for school situations, such as the modules centered around purchasing and utilizing computers. The game itself is just another example as to why technology is important to our learning and our future as a species.

Today, as you've probably noticed, is September the 11th. Today is a normal Tuesday for most of the world, but for America, we are currently mourning the loss of many Americans. That loss occured today 11 years ago, on September 11, 2001.

     Considering that I was born in March 2000, I was a year and nine months old on that day, so I have no memory of it. But from what I can collect from family stories, my mom was at home with my brother - then three years old - and I, and my dad was at college working for his degree. We had no relatives living in New York or near the World Trade Center at that time, so we were not really affected by the WTC or Pentagon attacks on that day at all. That won't stop us from empathizing with the victims' families, though.

     The 9/11 attacks undoubtedly changed the future of America. Other than the loss of many brave Americans, our nation's viewpoint changed that day in more ways than one: many of us learned to be grateful for what we have, many became grateful for those who work hard to govern our country, and many of us learned to be weary of air-travel. The 9/11 attacks also stirred up a great resurgence in airport security and, unfortunately, new Islamophobia. Many liberals' hatred for then-president George W. Bush grew larger, and the oh-so-familiar skyline of New York changed forever.

     For many Americans, though, these attacks granted us a new sort of hope. Construction workers, architects, and civil engineers used their skills in the 10 years following the attacks to rebuild the WTC and Pentagon. There are now memorials in those places and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where another plane landed, its original target still unknown. So while the 9/11 attacks did not drastically change my life or those of any of my loved ones, it did still change the U.S. as a whole. 

If you've seen my "My Classes" page, you'll notice that I have Computers class in 5th Period. So I'm here today to blog about my first four periods that I've done today: French, English, History, and Pre-Algebra.

     My 1st Period takes place in Room 83. Madame Hutchison is the only French teacher here. In the next week or so, we will start using the Rosetta Stone program to advance in French. For now, though, we are just using vocabulary packets and singing songs as a basis. We watched a long video on Paris and its landmarks and filled in a sheet. My partner's name is Nancy. Last month it was McKenzie. We get new speaking partners every month. I haven't changed tables so far; I hope that Madame Hutchison likes having me in the front. I always do my best to participate in that class. 

     For English and History, I have the same teacher, in the same classroom. Today we only corrected our English packets and spent the rest of the time in a simulation of the downfall of the Roman Empire. My friend Leonor and I were provincials in the province of Britain. We had to trade our goods for military soldiers. Our main good was iron. Eventually, the barbarians (seven tribes represented by seven classmates) took over our province and Rome. We had to answer questions about the simulation afterwards and once I was done, I read for awhile.

     We don't have any homework in Pre-Algebra, luckily. We just have to work on a simple assignment sheet that is due in just over a week, but I'm already done. We did take a three-point quiz, which I scored 100 on. I also got 100% on my homework from last night, because my dad helped me understand it better. Camille and I were the only ones in the class to get 15 of 15. For the rest of class we used our devices to go on a mathematics website where we were quizzed. The first two levels were easy, but the third was more difficult. By that time, it was break, though.

    After this I have Science, where we have a substitute, then lunch, and then band. I'm excited for tonight, because Computech's advanced band gets to play at an Edison football game tonight at 7:00! I have P.E. 8th Period. I hope we don't have to run. I'd rather play capture the flag or frisbee.

For my entire life, I have been sheltered by liberal political policies. My parents are both registered Democrats, because they believe in adapting America to suit the rapidly changing times, but also keeping intact with the core American values of equality, justice, and freedom. As I've grown older, I've learned to agree with these policies and, despite being too young to vote, consider myself a Democrat. I definitely care about the upcoming presidential election because it's incredibly important how vital spreading these values is. The citizens are the future, and the government, and if one neglects to make their share to the government they are lessening their role as a citizen. I strongly disagree with the policies of Mitt Romney and I believe President Obama is a much better role model to the citizens and young people. Unlike Senator Romney, Obama was born into poverty in a mixed-race household, and had to work incredibly hard and use his brain to get to his current position. It even hurts me properly when people peg Obama as "not American" - because President Obama is a wonderful living representation of not only the Democratic Party, but America in general today and the American dream. He's also well-spoken and honest, and his social policies represent justice and equality for all Americans - not just white, straight, rich, Christian men. America is a melting pot of differences and although I won't deny that someone of no minorities could be fit to serve, the last thing we need as a leader of the free world is someone who will not understand the struggles of those not born into privilege. 

So yes, I do care about the election, because I do care about the future of America.