Christmas Time :)

Imagine- A holiday where you unwrap present after present. Eat tons of delicious food, while spending time with your family. The snow glistening on the ground, and driving around at night to see the illuminated streets. There’s good news. It’s called Christmas.

To tell you the truth, in my opinion this is my favorite holiday. I love Christmas. One of my favorite things to do is when my family and I are in the car driving anywhere, the Christmas carols are blasting. There are so many different songs, and they all can put me in a different mood. Some are about the beautiful weather, and some about being together. Some are even about being home for the holidays.

Another thing I enjoy is putting up the Christmas tree. The tree is pretty much the centerpiece of the room, and when the lights turn on I can always tell that Santa will be coming soon. Looking through the bins of ornaments is like going on a ride down memory lane. All the “Baby’s first Christmas” ones are still shiny like when we got them.

Gingerbread Cookies- What’s not to like? Every year my cousins and I go to my grandma’s to cook. Not only the gingerbreads, but snowmen, trees, and many other fun shapes. The frosting is pretty good too. Usually, we put Red Hots on for the face. After we are done cooking and the cookies are cool, we separate them into separate bags of either the ones we made, or the ones we just want to take home.

Christmas day is a lot of fun. My little brother and sisters wake up very early. Sometimes even at five in the morning! When my parents are finally up and have coffee, we see what Santa brought us. I love seeing my siblings’ eyes light up as they open every gift. After a while, my Aunt Colleen and cousins come over. They usually bring over their favorite gifts, and we show them ours. I love spending Christmas day with them.

The Rwandan Genocide

The Rwandan Genocide. Who was responsible? There isn’t really an answer to that question. The only answer is who the blame is given. Belgium played a big part. They first contributed to the separation of Hutus and Tutsis by giving them identity cards. Did they expect everyone to get along? United Nations. They were supposed to be the ones uniting people across the globe but when it came down to it, they wouldn’t send any troops in to help save innocent lives from being taken. United States. A very large world power. But when CNN had the slaughtering that was going on on TV, all they did was turn their heads and look away. Juvenal Habyarimana. Brainwashing innocent people, offering land, food, and money, and broadcasting on the radio that if they didn’t kill the Tutsis that they would be killed. Romeo Dallier. He did nothing but stand around because the United Nations wouldn’t give him and troops. Paul Kagame. Leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a rebel group formed to fight against the Tutsis. Interahamwe. A group made by Juvenal that he brainwashed, gave weapons, and threatened.

From many standpoints, the blame can be given. There isn’t one specific group. The genocide was wrong, and if other countries had tried to help stop it, it could’ve been a lot different. The debate we had in class helped me see this. When each country was asked questions, and made accusations, it really showed the good and the bad. If Belgium never gave out the name cards, none of this would be possible. Although other countries could’ve stopped it. During the debate, I learned a lot more about what really happened. I liked being able to talk about what happened, and hear each group’s opinion of who started everything. What I heard was that the Tutsis were upset because they were driven out of their country, and the Hutus were upset because the Tutsis were trying to take away power from Juvenal. Once Juvenal was killed, the war should’ve stopped. In reality, it couldn’t, because the Interahamwe were brainwashed and the RPF were still very active, along with Paul Kagame and the FAR. I’m very glad we got a chance to learn about this, because it opened my eyes to how our country shouldn’t take some problems over another. If they want to help, it shouldn’t matter where it is, as long as everything is okay.

The American Scholar

Emerson’s argument in “The American Scholar” about American society still holds true today.

One reason Emerson’s argument still holds true is people are known for their occupation, and not who they really are. Over the summer, I was at a wedding and when people introduced themselves they would say things like, “Hello, I’m Dan and I’m a lawyer." Why people are dependant on their jobs? No one really knows. People also specialize in one thing, which causes them not to broaden their horizons.

Another reason Emerson's argument still holds true is that people only know how to do one thing, so when they are put into difficult situations they have nothing to fall back on. In Emerson's article, he says "Man is not a farmer, or a professor, or an engineer, but he is all."

Erabus & Realm of Darkness

Haunted houses- the best thing about halloween. (Besides the free candy.)
A few weekends ago, i went to Pontiac with my friend Addie. We went out dinner with her mom and sisters, and after we went to two haunted houses.

The first that we went to, Erabus, was the best I’ve ever been. Even though I’d already been there twice, once each year before, everything felt like new. Every year it gets more and more props and added on. The whole thing contains around 65 rooms, and all the actors in it have on Hollywood style makeup.

When we got there, we had to wait in a twenty minute line. It wasn’t too bad. After we waited in line outside, then we had to go inside and wait some more. While we were inside, there was a video projector playing crazy music and showing old, scary videos. There were actors dressed up as zombies crawling all over the floor, brushing against our legs and other peoples’ trying to scare us. All the commotion was just adding on how excited we were. Finally, when we gave them our tickets they let us in. we had to go up a flight of stairs and we were there. They had recorded videos of a fake news show trying to make us think that there was a killer in the building. They led us from room to room, elevator to elevator, monster to monster. At one part, it a piece of the floor was lit up to make it seem like we were on a bridge. Addie’s sister kept pulling on my sweatshirt because she thought she was going to fall off. There were robotic dinosaurs, zombies, and a tunnel that made it seem like we were going to fall on to the ceiling. Whoever thought of everything in that haunted house is a genious.

By the time we got out, we were out of breath from walking to fast. We had the option to buy things, but we passed them up. Once we got back in the car, we decided to go to another one that was only a few moments away.

After we parked, we got to Realm of Darkness. We weren’t sure how good it was going to be, but by the look of the long line, it seemed okay. To pass the time of getting in we played i-spy, and other little games like rock paper scissors. We were in line for an hour, and no one was happy. Once we were in, we figured out that this one was a waste of time. The things they had in it were interesting, but nothing was really scary. They had a window that lit up like it was storming outside, a fake bridge, a room that looked like it was from the ring with a well in it, but nothing that made anyone scream. When we got out, a man chased us with a chainsaw. That was the best part of that one. But in the end, I was happy with my Friday night.

halloween!!!!!!!

Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. Not only because it is when the weather starts getting cold and the leaves start to change, but also you get to dress up as someone you're not for one night.

First off, Halloween is associated with ghosts. Horror movies and Haunted houses are my favorite. Feeling like something is going to happen when nothing can is a thrill. In the movies, yeah the characters are dumb, and you know half the stuff won't really happen, but who doesn't like seeing some creepy guy jump out at them? Sitting around the house eating candy corn and watching movies sounds good to me.


Haunted houses are the greatest. If you find a good one, you can be scared for a whole night. There are two big ones that I’ve been to in Pontiac, but those aren’t the only ones out there. When they have really nice props, you can sense the fear. Especially when they pop out at you from behind a hidden wall, or jump down from a compartment in the ceiling. Those are the kind to be scared of.

Also, picking out a costume is fun. The possibilities are endless. I’ve been everything from a Disney princess to a teletubby. You can make your own costume On Halloween night, or buying one from the store. Seeing everyone dressed up as different things makes it fun. Oh, and the candy. By the way, if you are in high school and aren’t dressed up people probably won’t give you any.

Another great thing is raking leaves. When you rake leaves, it isn’t like there is just one way to do it. You could make one big pile and jump, or you can do what my sisters do and make a leaf house. (Yeah, it is possible.) And the best part is, that after you’re done with the leaves you can put them in a compost bag and help your parents out. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it.
Lastly, Halloween night. Being with all your friends, dressed up in cool costumes, ready to go. How fun is that? And the free candy. That’s nice too.

The job market's crash

In the past few years, our country has gone into a recession. It has caused many problems, and one of the most affected is the job market. So many people have lost their jobs because most people don’t have the money to buy things that are being produced. In the article, Many Jobs Are Gone Forever , Nick McMaster talks about this problem.

There are a lot of people who work in the big department stores that depend on sales, but aren’t getting any. Also, the car companies have made lots of cuts because of the big decrease in buys. Another that has been in a downfall is the real estate industry. Since people need the financial security, they aren’t selling their homes, as often as usual, so not as many realtors are needed. The only advantage right now is that you can get nice houses for a decent price. Because of all of the major companies like Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler cutting jobs, we aren’t really sure what the people in our country are going to do without them.

In his article, Mcmaster says, “..Economists expect that unemployment won’t return to 5% until 2017.” No one is really sure what is going to happen if any jobs are cut. We need to find some sort of solution to this problem.

President Obama has recently been pushing for more “green job” training (McMaster). If this is going to happen, it will require a lot more people for the jobs, which will help with unemployment. Some economists have said that they can see the recession ending soon. Unfortunately, the new jobs will require a lot more training, and some people don’t have the time for that.
Over all, our country needs to discover some way to stay on top of its obstacles. It is possible, because our country has gone through many difficulties before and rose above them.

Wacky Wednesday

I was sitting in my room when my phone rang. It was about 6:15 in the morning, and I’d been up for a while. I ran to answer, and I thought to myself, “Why is anyone calling me this early?” When I answered, my friend Dominic started talking. “WE DON’T HAVE SCHOOL TODAY!” he said, and I could hear the excitement in his voice. “Right Dom. Why wouldn’t we have school?” I didn’t believe him. “I’m not really sure, but if you don’t believe me then you can check the news.” When we got off the phone, I turned on the TV and started watching. Under the school closings, I saw Stevenson High School and couldn’t figure out why it would be closed. Once I went downstairs, I looked the clock and saw it flashing, and noticed the power had gone out.

As soon as I sat down to eat breakfast, I realized that we really didn’t have school. I was pretty mad that I got up so early. Especially since I already showered, and started putting on make-up. After I ate, I decided to go back to sleep.

About a half hour later, my sister came in my room. “Chloe! Wake up! You’re going to be late for school!” “Allie, I don’t have school today.” She turned around and looked at me with a puzzled expression. “How do you not have school today? I thought you didn’t tomorrow, for conferences?” I laughed a little bit. “Hah, I guess Stevenson doesn’t have power today, so we don’t have school.” She grabbed a shirt out of my closet, as she does every morning, and went into my parents’ room to give them the news. My mom didn’t believe me at first, and I ended up having to show her the news to prove it. When she told my dad, the first thing he said was, “When I went to Stevenson, we never had school days off for power. We went in the dark.” I shrugged my shoulders and went back to my room. I checked my phone to see if there were any important messages on it. I had a bunch of texts from people that said, “NO SCHOOL!!!!!” It was then that I got pretty excited. I started drifting off to sleep, and thinking about all the different things I could do now that I had two days off in a row.