Hello, and happy Friday! Today I've decided to tell you about my new humor specialty -- Marco Polo puns. I got the idea after we watched a video about Marco Polo in my Core class. The objective is to find a word that rhymes with "Marco" or "Polo" and make up a fake context in which Marco Polo would be called that name. Here are some greatest hits.

• If Marco Polo had swag, he would be Marco YOLO.
• If Marco Polo's entire family died and he was forced to travel the seas alone, he would be Marco Solo.
• If Marco Polo went to Computech, he would still be Marco Polo.
• If Marco Polo was a Hobbit, he would be Marco Frodo.
• If Marco Polo wore a bunny suit and predicted the end of the world, he would be Darko Polo.
• If Marco Polo was a small, cylinder-shaped, chocolate-covered and caramel-filled piece of candy, he would be Marco Rolo.
• If Marco Polo was a meme, he would be Marco Trolo.
• If Marco Polo was a fictional device from the Hunger Games trilogy that would detonate when one repeated the word "nightlock" three times to it, he would be Marco Holo.
• If Marco Polo had broken up the Beatles, he would be Marco Yoko.
• If Marco Polo was a Chinese yo-yo, he would be Marco Diabolo.

Hello! Happy Friday! Today is March 1st, aka my 13th birthday! Also in today's birthdays are Justin Bieber (19), Ke$ha (26), Ron Weasley from Harry Potter (33), Jensen Ackles (35), Roger Daltrey (69), and my friends Angelique, Kellyn, Christina (13), and Joshua (15). It seems like my birthday is more common than I thought!

I never really gave my parents specific instructions as to what I wanted for my birthday. I just told them I wanted something Beatles-related. I did, however, tell them that I wanted to go to In-N-Out for dinner if I could choose. One of my friends drew me a picture of me and another one of them is doing something similar. I'm glad I have friends and family who care so much about me.

I'm wearing a ribbon that says "Birthday Girl". So far I've gotten 2 dollars, a stick of beef jerky, a cupcake, and a Rice Krispie treat. At first I was resentful that I share my birthday with so many people, but I kind of like it now because a lot of us can celebrate together.

I don't know what else I'm going to do this weekend. Saturday is the 1-year-anniversary of my grandmother dying (R.I.P.), so my mom will probably be sad on that day. If it gets warm enough, hopefully I'll be able to go swimming. But I have a few missing assignments due in Math from the times where I was absent and I want to finish those as well as catch up on my reading.

Happy Friday! Since in three days it will be February 25, I've decided to take the opportunity to write about something I like. I'm going to write about George Harrison, who would turn 70 on February 25 of this year!

George Harrison is really well-known as being one-fourth of the best selling musical group of all time, The Beatles. Like the other Beatles, he was born in Liverpool, a city in northern England. He was the youngest of the Beatles, having been born in 1943. He attended the same intermediate (middle) school as Paul McCartney, who he was a grade below, and met him in the mid-50s. They didn't live near each other, but they rode the same bus home, and they became friends. In 1957 when Paul met John Lennon at a church celebration, he realized that his friend George had talent. Later that year at the age of 14, John allowed George to join Paul and a few of his other friends in their band, which at the time was called "The Quarrymen" after the school John attended.

The Quarrymen experienced several lineup and name changes, but they really hit it big as "The Beatles" in 1962 when they got a new drummer, Ringo Starr. This was after many months of experience playing shows in Hamburg, Germany. They quickly skyrocketed to international fame and success. 

In the mid-1960s at the peak of their fame, George expressed a genuine interest in India and Indian mysticism. He converted to Hinduism in the late 1960s and after breaking up with his wife and his band began making religious music. His first single "My Sweet Lord" was the top hit of 1971 in the UK.

I'm out of time, but I'll continue this blog entry next week. Stay updated.

Happy Friday, again, and happy 3-day weekend! Today I've decided to write about the book I'm currently reading. It's a science fiction YA book called Incarceron.

The title is a play on the word "incarceration", which is a synonym for imprisonment. Yes, you guessed correctly. The book is about a prison sometime in the future. It's not any ordinary prison, though. It's extremely complex and contains all of the world's outlaws, degenerates, rebels, and lunatics. Once you get in, you can never get out. There are two main protagonists: Finn, a prisoner with a bad case of amnesia and a need to escape, and Claudia, the warden's daughter.

Finn knows very little about himself and has to rely on the knowledge of others to get out. Claudia, meanwhile, also feels trapped as she is doomed to an arranged marriage and a neglectful and forceful father. Previously, the boy who she used to be betrothed to died (though she believes he was murdered) and she now has to marry his brother, who she barely knows. Her only friends are servants and her tutor, Jared, who is one of a scientifically-altered race of intelligent human beings called the Sapienti. Finn's best friend is Keiro, who he swore an oath to protect sometime long ago.

Happy Friday! And happy 19th birthday to Harry Styles, too. Today I've decided to write about what I am going to do over the weekend.

We have a three-day weekend this week. It will be the first of three in February. The only week we don't have Monday off this month is that of the 25th. That week ends on March 1, a.k.a. my birthday. 

Sometime after school today I'm supposed to get a phone upgrade! It's exactly one month before my birthday or the day I got my phone in 2011, so Sprint has allowed me to trade my phone in for a newer, better one that has more capabilities. Not to say I'm not thankful but I'm kind of happy. I've had the same phone for two years while everyone has got new ones that can do more things. I'm still not sure whether or not it will be easy to import all of my contacts, though.

On Saturday I won't have much of anything to do, so I'll probably just stay home and hang out with my family. Since it's Groundhog Day we will probably watch the TV event that goes along with it.

Sunday is the Super Bowl. I'm not really as into football as the rest of my family is, but I'm excited and happy for the San Francisco 49ers. I hope they win over the Ravens. I'm also glad to see Beyonce perform and all of the commercials that they air with it.

Monday will be sort of like Saturday, but I hope if I have any homework to do I'll have completed it by then. I wish it was warm enough to go swimming or spend most of my time outdoors, but I haven't seen such luck with the weather lately. I hope it gets at least a little warmer soon; I'm tired of the cold and the rain since there isn't anything to do. 

Hi! Today is not Friday, but we were told to categorize this assignment under that blog because it had nowhere else to go. That blog assignment, in case you were wondering, is to reflect on a program we've began using in Computers class and evaluate its usefulness. 

The program is called Ribbon Hero. Basically, the objective of it is to learn how to use various Microsoft media such as Word, PowerPoint, Office, Excel, and the likes by doing various assigned exercises. The program has several levels, all of which have a historical theme. (Middle Ages, Egypt, 1960s, Greece, etc.) Within the themes there are certain activities per each Microsoft program. You get points for following instructions and making documents look better. 

Personally, I liked Ribbon Hero better than the original tutorial program we used for Microsoft programs in which we had to take notes on videos and then display what we'd learned in documents. This was more like a game and it rewarded us for showing what we already knew (instead of telling us what we might already have known) and not using any help for us. I also thought the themes made it more interactive and memorable. It was also very practical that in order to move onto a different level in Ribbon Hero, you had to have accumulated a certain amount of points. Some people in my class didn't like Ribbon Hero as much as they liked the original Microsoft tutorials. They said it was because it may be hard to remember what we had done in the game before without taking notes. Somebody else suggested that we take notes. I think that charting what we learned and had previously had trouble with while still having fun is a good way to merge or meet in the middle of both tutorials.

Happy Friday! I didn't know what else to write about, so I decided to talk about the unit we're starting in History class. We just wrapped up our unit on Asia and Japan last week and started a new one on Tuesday after our three-day weekend.

This new unit focuses on the Early Middle Ages. The specific area of the textbook that we're studying is Chapter 9. All of the history involved in this chapter took place in Europe, a continent which we haven't studied much of. The Middle Ages began immediately after the fall of the Roman Empire, which we studied earlier in the year. After this fall, many groups began to flood in from various directions and create settlements. The leaders of these settlements called themselves kings and established kingdoms in the now-vacant areas once covered by the great Western Roman Empire. Thus the Middle Ages, or "medieval" period, began. 

Usually the Middle Ages are said to go from the 500s to the 1500s but some key events in our history book took place a bit earlier. Although the Roman Empire had ceased to exist, many of its influences were still alive and well. The spread of Christianity by missionaries into the farthest corners of Europe began in the 300s and 400s but continued well on past the Renaissance. One such example of this was (now Saint) Patrick, who was huge in spreading Christianity to Ireland and Britain. 

Perhaps one of the greatest figures of the time figure was Charles the Great or Charlemagne, who I wrote about in my Core Concentration blog entry yesterday. He led the Franks and established a huge empire in what we now call France. He was also key in spreading Christianity through Europe after Rome's fall and expanding his kingdom beyond the borders of what was once the Roman Empire.

We've only started the unit and I know there is so much else to learn, but I just thought I'd share with you what I know and have learned already. Have a nice weekend!

Happy Friday! I don't know what else to write about, so I decided that I'd blog about one of my favorite books. The book is called Divergent and the author's name is Veronica Roth. I read the book before I went into the sixth grade and I finished the sequel the day it came out.

The book is about a society in dystopian (post-apocalyptic) Chicago and is the story of the girl who changes. The society is split into five factions, the lifestyles of which all center around one particular virtue. There's Abnegation (the selfless), Erudite (the intelligent), Candor (the honest), Amity (the peaceful), and Dauntless (the brave). The protagonist, Beatrice, is from Abnegation. She is sixteen years of age which means that soon she will have to take an aptitude (placement) test and choose the faction to which she will devote the rest of her life.

Beatrice's test results come back inconclusive, a secret which she has to go to great lengths to hide. She chooses her faction and a tough initiation begins. I won't tell you what she chooses or any of the following information, but I can tell you what I thought of it!

Like I said above, this is one of my favorite books ever. I think it was new and refreshing to the YA scene and I can't wait for the third book or the movie adaptation, which drops next year. A lot of people say that it's too similar to the bestseller The Hunger Games, but I thought a lot of the plot and structure were different in a good way. My favorite character in the book was Peter, a kid who joins Beatrice's new faction with her. He's a villain, but I thought his characterization was really interesting, especially in the second book. I can't say any more, though, which is why you should read it for yourself! 

Happy Friday! Today is our last day of the first semester here at Computech, and this will be my last blog entry for three weeks! This is a happy occasion, but I'm taking today to write about something very important and mournful. 

If you weren't aware, one week ago today in Newtown, Connecticut, 28 people died in a shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School. There were 7 adults (6 faculty members) injured and 20 children, none of them over the age of seven. Afterwards the gunman killed himself on the scene. Nobody knows why exactly the shooter did it, but I don't think we should keep quiet on the basis of bad things like this which affect us nationwide. 

I first heard about this shooting taking place when I was in 2nd Period on December 14th. We stopped doing our work and Mrs. Frazier read us a headline about it. She looked like she was going to cry. I didn't hear any other news about it until I got home. There on the news President Obama was speaking about the children's deaths. I noticed that he didn't say a word about gun control or assault weapons, but shows I saw later did. I identify most with a point I saw brought up by a congresswoman whose name I don't remember, that for years and years America has been putting off dealing with gun control and assault weapon bans, but year after year more and more mass shootings occur. 

I agree wholeheartedly with what she said. This type of thing is tragic and we shouldn't use these innocent deaths as evidence in our political arguments, but what else is going to happen to our young children if we don't stop distributing weapons to people whose hands might turn them into public dangers? This is why I'm for gun control, even though I can't vote. I understand if you want to hunt using a gun, but there's a big difference between a hunting shooter and an assault weapon. Other countries, even countries less advanced than us, have better and more humanistic social policies, which means the only thing stopping us is our will. I think, as a country and as a species, we don't realize how precious our own lives and the lives of those around us are until they're gone. Children shouldn't be victims to "people who don't want their gun rights taken away".

I heard another strong point brought up on Saturday Night Live the next day. Our rights as citizens to own guns are written in the Second Amendment, but that was written in in 1787, when shooting a bullet was slightly more powerful than a slingshot or throwing one. Guns are so advanced and high-tech these days, who knows what crazy things people will do with them? 

Lastly, I'd like to say that I feel sorry for the families of the victims, children or not, of this shooting and massacres like them. I don't understand how anyone could carelessly murder the most innocent members of our society. Rest in peace, too, to those teachers who died protecting their students. The greatest gift, even if it is cut short, to a child is the gift of an education and a chance at a great life as an adult. It's a tragedy that affects all of us when things like this happen. As a minor, it makes me feel endangered. I hope you have a good holiday, whoever reads this. Stay safe.

Happy Friday! I have nothing to write about, so I'll recount what happened last night.

Last night was my winter concert for my band class! Once I got home, I started my Cornell notes about Japan that were due Friday and used the little time I had on the internet. My parents got home around 5 o'clock with my brother as he had a counselling appointment. I didn't have much time to change and get ready, but I did.

We left a little after 6 o'clock. I live across town from school, so it took awhile to get there. My parents almost got lost on the way there, but I helped them out. Our call time -- or time at which we should arrive -- was 6:30. We managed to get there in time. My parents had to wait in the audience for a long time while I hung out in the band room at Edison with my friends. 

Finally, at 7:00, Computech's beginning band played their pieces. There were a lot of them, and pretty generic ones, too. We were next at about 7:20. Our performance lasted about 20 minutes all in all. My favorites of the five pieces we played were "Silver Bells" because I like Christmas music and "All the Pretty Little Horses" because I liked the harmonies in it. We left before Edison's concert and marching band went on. It was a good concert and I didn't have any flute anatomy or nervousness problems. 

I didn't realize how late it was until I got home! We had picked up dinner on the way home and I still had tons of work to do. My parents were tired and went to bed when I was still writing my notes, so I got to stay up more than an hour later than usual reading and note-taking. It was 10:30 when I finished my work, and I was exhausted. But I'm definitely getting the feeling of concerts at my new school. I look forward to our spring concert.