Graduation Speech (Blog Edit)

So basically, this is what my graduation speech tryout is going to be. I don't know if it will make it to the final ceremony, as to be honest, free writing is tough. ._.  Really, the only difference is that I removed my third paragraph, just because I go through recognizing my teachers. While you may already have to assume things from the names of my friends, I just think that it would be too much to add in a bunch of teachers you don't know, since you won't really get why I say the things I do about them. Anyway, this is pretty much my speech.

When I first came here to Golf Middle School, I thought that it was the biggest leap of my life. I was abandoning my friends who with I’ve grown so close to, and I was practically entering a whole new world. I worried many thing of public school, as up until now, I’ve only gone to private, Catholic schools. Would I make any friends? Are there bullies who will give me a hard time? Is the workload way too much for a once 7th grader like me? However, looking back at my life, I could really laugh at all the wild assumptions that I had made. Golf Middle School was a great part of middle school to experience. There are so many odd events here to be told, so many people to recognize, and most importantly, so much to wave goodbye to as I progress with my life.

Obviously, first things first would be to acknowledge my many friends and classmates that I’ve spent so much time with. After all, most of them have been here for me ever since the first day of school here. I’ve had a wide arrangement of friends since I’ve been here,some of them being recent in my life, such as Daniel and Hector, and others going back with me from longer ago, such as Red and Konrad. I greatly appreciate that they all can be able to be edgy and somewhat morbid, while still being sorta witty. We’ve all had great times together, whether it was ranting about PARCC testing in English class, or maybe trading our food around at lunch, or talking about Greek Gods who ate babies. Face it: nowhere else at a school would you hear the phrase: “And now, we yodel.” In fact, everybody here makes a difference to this school experience, even if we’re not really close. Sirril might not exactly be the easiest person to sit next to in Social Studies, and I might not know much about Tom at all, but let’s face it: My experience here just wouldn’t be the same if not for all of you, and I wouldn’t want it like that.

(3rd paragraph removed to avoid confusion of thanking teachers)

With thanking all I have for Golf Middle School, I must finally recognize that middle school is drawing to an end, and that it is time to look forward to high school. I will miss all my friends, as most of them will be leaving to Niles North, though I am heading elsewhere, to Loyola Academy. I want to thank for all that GMS has done to make middle school what it is, whether in tough times or in happy times., all in preparation for this moment. I hope to all the new 5th graders coming in that Golf Middle School will be just as great for you.

How to make a Blog Post

Final Blog Week Post

1.) Think of something that you love, hate, or just want to annoy someone with

2.) Make a clever title

3.) Insert actual picture and/or insert meme

4.) Think of a cool opening sentence that seems casual

5.) Give your introductory paragraph

6.) Stop typing and stream Youtube

7.)                                                                                                        Add edgy humor

8.) Make yourself relatable to people

9.) Insert lenny ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

10.) Begin second paragraph, add more detail

11.) Show how this is personal to you

12.) Don't sound like you have a big ego

13.) Insert dank meme (NOT OPTIONAL)

14.) Shameless shoutout to buddy

15.) End off your subject

16.) Add magic

17.) Publish Blog Post

Now you know how to make cancerous blog posts!

The post announcing the Final Blog Week Post

Don't worry, I'll probably have more to post here after, but I'm just saying, the time is almost up, and I only have one more post to share with you, and I think it's going to be pretty good :)  However, just for the sake of me wanting everything to be in order, I'm ending blog week on a Friday, seeing as it's the end of the school week. Besides, tomorrow, my school's going to Camp MacLean tomorrow, which is pretty exciting, so it's not like there's anything I can do for then, so it all works out. If luck has it, if it rains tomorrow, I could hopefully be doing this:

(which, by the way, the side is a rock climbing wall, and there's a zipline from an angle you can't see)

Anyway, I didn't have anything planned today, so here's something inspirational:

ΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔΔ

Read this Beginning to Ending

Blog Week Post #5

So, I don't know what I was thinking yesterday, writing about some personal stuff of my life, I must've really been feeling braindead tired last night. That was, well to say the least, awkward for me, so let's just move on to whatever's next. I'm fine with keeping that post up, although it's sorta useless. :V

Today, I think I'll just tell you my ENDing thoughts on middle school, seeing as I'm about to graduate. First thing is: learning is taken seriously. It's not everyday that you get to play a game about grammar or sing really awful songs about math in middle school, which is pretty stereotypical for grades below middle school, but you should get my point anyway. I guess another thing is that with serious work, came serious homework. This was the shifting point of "little homework" to "homework that'll fill up my afternoon", and while for the most part it isn't that bad, STAY ON TOP OF THINGS (If you read yesterday, you'll know what I mean) . At least we actually started to learn specific, interesting studies. For example, we finally went into detail about WWII when in middle school, and we can't just teach that stuff to innocent little children. Not to mention, you teacher becomes less like a parent, and more like a supervisor, or a helper. You have a lot more freedom in middle school (and believe me, this is still nothing compared to college), Believe me, if you just hang out with your friends, you'll know that middle school isn't all that bad, thus ending my thoughts and advice.

As my blog buddy would say, "Carry On".

It's Complicated ._.

Blog Week Post #4 (btw, back from weekend!)

I guess Friday was great, school was shortened to play volleyball for the rest of the day, 3rd Period English broke into song when the song "I'll Be Back" was played on youtube, and we learned in music how to play that song from the Curious George movie (Upside Down) on the guitar. Moving aside from that stuff, I guess I have to share the sadder parts of the weekend. The truth is, I'm very behind on a lot of work, and I'm getting some mediocre grades. My parents are really stressing over me to get work done, especially since I'm going into Loyola next year. Although, truth be told, I think that I have too much work to be able for my parents to comprehend. Since I don't want their heads to explode (mind you, all over me), I'm sorta have to debate to myself: Should I tell them? I really just truly believe in enjoying my life, all I wanted was for my grades to be anything but failing. Of course, my parents don't see it that way. They want to push me to my full pontential, since I've before been a straight-A student. Should I tell them and face the consequences, or should I take care of this on my own? I was told to write about a part of my life that is complicated, but ironically, I'm writing about something that's now. :/

Anyway, depressing stuff aside, I went to Six Flags this weekend. Any hype for the new 2D Joker Rollercoaster?

Test Ranting

Blog Week Post #3

If the sight of the picture above is making you soil your pants in horror, you are not alone. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened despite not knowing what this is. Well, for your sake, at our school, our standardized testing is carried out by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, therefore, we have to take the dreaded PARCC tests, or better yet, as we call them, the CCRAP tests. These dastardly papers force you to answer a couple of two-part answers with answer keys that match up to what I five-year-old would answer, then it forces you to write an entire essay. PER TEST, which I tell you, has about three or four of them. And believe me, even those are rigged. I remember in preparation for this test, our class had to take the role of the parcc graders of essays, and review previous submissions on our own. We obviously praised the good ones and laughed about the bad ones, but when she revealed to us what the PARCC test rated the essays, barely any of our ratings agreed, and believe me, there were some stupid ones in there!
Anyway, back to the topic, these poorly-made tests make up the worst week of the entire school year, and it doesn't even matter. It's not like our grades depend on it, it's not like the teachers take the reviews seriously, but after all that, why does it matter to do it in the first place, If I didn't have my own personal standards, I would've just put in a bunch of chat spam into the essay (at least, if we took the tests via Chromebook). Believe me, PARCC tests aren't worth the effort.
So you can bet I slapped myself in the face as a reality check when my mom announced that I would skip PARCC testing. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I know you think I'm probably really lazy because of this, but it's a long story. Point is, my siblings and I go to different schools, and so they have different spring breaks. I already spent my spring break in Charleston, SC with my cousins (which was awesome), and so my siblings' spring break was during the week of PARCC testing. My family was going to Florida, so I obviously couldn't stay behind by myself. My mom wrote a note to the principal excusing me, and that's how I avoided the worst week of my life. (Also, if you're wondering how I know how bad it is, every grade has to take it, so I suffered through it back in 7th grade.)
So, that's all I have to rant about for PARCC testing. If you have any horror stories of this test of your own, please tell me! Really, I think everyone should come together to allow our schools to hang this sign in the hallways:

...At least, for the English tests. I really do not mind the Math Segment. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

If I could spend a day...

Blog Week Post #2

So basically, the question this time is: If I could spend a day with any three people, who would they be? Well, just going to say it now, but I personally think it would be awesome to spend a day with Arin and Danny from Game Grumps. If you don't know who they are, basically they are the famous duo of the gaming youtube channel, Game Grumps. Despite the fact that I've only heard of them recently, they are by far, the funniest gamers I've ever seen in my life. Not to mention, they did and are currently doing playthroughs for a lot of games that I really like, so that's pretty cool. I just really think it would be cool if I ever got to hang out at their house and just play video games for an entire day, because let's face it, that would be pretty cool.

As for a third famous person...    I guess just for things to fit in, I would also like to include Ross. He's another member of the channel Game Grumps, although he's not exacly the center of it like Danny and Arin, although he is the close 2nd. I'm personally not that much of a fan of him, but I guess I would also keep him around because he's sorta good at games, and he's huge, in my opinion, to go to for comic relief. I'm not saying that he's funny (or at least, as funny as the other two), but a huge part of Game Grumps is that everyone treats him like he's a huge jerk, and he's completely fine with it. (If you want to know what I mean by this, look up some of Ross's levels on Super Mario Maker.) I think that would make for a good pick of 3, Arin, Ross, and Danny of Game Grumps to play video games with.

KAWAII

Blog Week Post #1.5

Are you having trouble concentrating? Are you feeling down or agitated? Let me help you with that:

Let's be serious about this ._.

Blog Week Post #1

A Tribute to my Uncle ChrisJohn

So I obviously don't have a photo of him to put here, but that isn't important. :/

Anyway, the reason this uncle of mine is important to me is because he's really done a lot for me in the past year. He's really fine about letting us and "his kids", obviously my cousins, see each other practically every weekend. Sometimes, he'll even take us somewhere, like the movies. He is really chill, and will pretty much do anything to make us laugh. If you've ever met him, he never really greets, but says something witty about how your life must be going, which I like so much. In fact, he's the only person I know, (and probably the only one you'll have heard of) to dab in church when he gave a speech.

So yeah, he's pretty relaxed, and doesn't worry that much, but at the same time, he can be serious and relatable with you. He was my Confirmation candidate for me this year, which was really nice of me. Not to mention, if I'm doing bad in school, he can tell it to me with being serious but not making you fell like dirt, which is honestly the hardest thing to do in the world. I personally think he's my role model. True, I can be un-serious at many times, but I just hope that like, him, I can be chill and serious at the same time, not one or the other. My uncle ChrisJohn is the best, closest uncle I probably could've asked for.

And also, NO, HE IS NOT DEAD!!! This was just the closest picture I could find to a tribute.

Prepare Yourself...

So, if you couldn't tell....      this place has been practically dead for a whole long time. Way more than it should've. I don't want to go into detail, but let's just say that there was stuff I was supposed to be doing. Anyway, with blog post ideas piling up, recent inactivity to be made up, and some other factors that probably don't exist but am making up for the sake of this looking good, I present to you BLOG WEEK. From this day forward, I will be making a new blog post every single day until...   well... whenever I'm done. Actually, come to think of it, these are supposedly the last blog posts I plan on doing, so what a great way to end this off! Be sure to check in every evening to see something here for the sake of wrapping up the school year!

Are field trips really needed?

There are many haters out there who think that it really is better for standard education to dominate over field trips. Some people think that these visits to the museums don't teach anything to those who come, as us students wouldn't bother to carefully read information or remember it for a test, and probably just goof off with our friends. Besides, field trips often aren't cheap. Likely, you would have to take from your own family's earnings to pay for lunch and museum access, which can be surprisingly overpriced. With all of this said, is it really necessary to have field trips if it's going to be wasted?

So interactive ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

YES! Field Trips are not wasted! Sure, we probably goof off with our friends, but its not like we don't pay attention to anything there. I think we're safely past the mindless 3-year-old boredom of "adult stuff". Besides, what's more important is that museums offer a more interactive experience than that of standard education. It's not like we can bring all of those artifacts, photos, structures, and large-scale dioramas to a classroom to study. If one does pay enough attention at a museum, it can really open your eyes. For example, we could see the true pains of the Holocaust much more with respect when interacting with examples and recreations rather than reading about it in a book. Even if we choose to have a bit of fun among classmates, there's still so much history surrounding you in a museum that it couldn't possibly not affect you in any way. We need field trips to be able to bring an education experience that can surround us, no matter the setbacks.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND short blog ending.

Please read this in your snobbiest critics voice ever...

(WARNING: There Might Be Spoilers!)

Today's film review from Judgmental Basement Losers...

  This is my personal review for the movie, The Maze Runner. For all of those who read the book before this movie's release (way back in 2014 :b), I could tell you were all excited for this movie. With a perfect story-line made for action and adventure, and mixing in an almost flawless science-fiction feel, with a dystopian influence to the plot right at the heart-breaking conclusion...   It all makes The Maze Runner the perfect best-selling book we know it as today, but what about its movie?
  The movie, just as the book, follows the story of Thomas, a teenage boy who awakes to find himself, without any memory, trapped in the Glade, a small shack-town formed by themselves, surrounded by a giant, ever-changing maze, in which deadly, bionic, poisonous beasts named "Grievers" live. He must learn to assimilate himself to this new reality while the "runners", the best of their male population, search for a way out of the maze. However, strange events begin to happen as soon as Thomas arrives, from the arrival of their only female and the antidote for the disease, to Thomas becoming the only (along with Ming) to survive overnight in the maze. Their reality begins to crumble before them, and with the dire situation of Grievers invading the Glade, it is up to Thomas to lead the Gladers to escape the maze and remember what he can to find out who is behind all this.
  I'd say that, both plot-wise and scenario-wise, this movie is okay. It matches the main plot of the book very well, and it does a great job with special effects to set the grand, futuristic theme of this movie. Not to mention, this movie succeeds greatly in Pathos, it really gave me "the feels" when watching this. I admit, (HUGE SPOILER!) this is one of the few movies that I cried watching, as Chuck dies when Gally shoots him just as they make it to freedom(?) from the maze.
  However, there is one part of the movie that really bugs me, along with all other Maze Runner fans. This movie forgets SO MANY details from the original book! I know that movies are different from the books to be interesting to watch (get a hint, Divergent!), but it seems like the only information from the book they used in the movie was just a quick summary some random child made! In the book, the maze has a "virtual roof" (as in later books, we find out it is underground), so it never rains, not to mention the fake sun eventually dies out in the book, but the book seems to completely ignore this, as it rains in the maze, the sun stays perfectly fine, and we see them escape via helicopter to reveal a final scene looking over the maze, which wouldn't be possible if underground!!! In the book, Thomas manages to kill a griever when in the maze overnight by tricking it to run off a cliff into a huge pit located in the maze, which is the same way they escape, but in the movie, the moving walls just "squish" the griever, and they escape through a normal exit from the maze, which isn't as exciting! In fact, they couldn't even get right the fact that Thomas, at first, only remembers his name, because it takes him about a day to realize his name in the movie! Believe me, this is just a quick overview, as there are many, many more forgotten details in this movie. Also, don't even get me started about The Scorch Trials, the sequel book and movie. They couldn't even keep the basic plot-line correct!
  So... with that ranting out of my system, I would say that this movie is overall very good, one of my personal favorites, but it kills me inside to see such little effort into bringing the book to life. For great, emotional acting, great special effects, a good plot, but so much ignorance to detail and in-depth thinking, I give this movie a 7/10.
  Remember to tune in next time (jk), where we will give a quality review for the greatest, most clever, popular movie of all time, Foodfight!.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

Music in my Life

I'm considered musically gifted, which means that I'm able to play almost anything without real effort put in. Of course, my parents were noted when my piano teacher first said that when I was only in 1st grade, so thanks to her, I was stuck with half an hour a day to practice. To be fair, I was too immature at that age to realize why being gifted would be a huge deal, and piano honestly got better after that. I was done playing all of those old pieces composed by people from the 17th century, and it was finally time to play some songs that people knew, like Linus and Lucy (from Peanuts). To this day, I still enjoy playing the piano.

Around 4th grade, school announced band tryouts, and after realizing that I had no idea how to blow into a trumpet, I made it into band as a saxophone player. This instrument, since the beginning, has always been my favorite. You were likely part of a larger band with people you knew, there is no such thing as a bad saxophone piece, and you could make an easy 5 dollars playing it every time there was a yard sale. Saxophone is really fun to play, and it continues to be that way to this day.

So that's my music life, nothing special, even though my family can't stop making a huge deal about it. :b

Announcement

This isn't anything special, I just wanted to say that recently, I haven't been active at all (Anthony, if you're reading this, this is why I commented all at once ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) because I've honestly been really busy, both inside and outside of school. Although I'm back, I might not be as active as I used to be, even though that's fine. So I'm sorry that I was gone, I'm glad to be back!


So... that's all.

Early President's Day

So...  Trump is President. Oh Brother...

In all seriousness though, let's not make this a big deal or anything. Sure, he might not be the best president, but come on, stop making such a big deal about it, media! There's four more years to document this stuff!
Anyway, this week's blog post isn't about Trump (no matter how much you want me to rant about him), but rather about what I would do if I was president. First order of business, don't be Trump.       ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
In all seriousness (again) though, first thing I would do if I was president would be to continue to negotiate with large food industries to do something about the obesity epidemic. I would influence for school codes to have higher standards on school lunches, make sure there's always a gym class at a school, and then for large industries to take care of the adults of this era, I would continue to negotiate with these large companies to limit fatty foods, and not settle for anything less, along with encouraging fitness advertisement across all media, and possibly setting up new laws that would require testing fitness products to separate "authentic" exercise equipment from fake products that only care about making a quick buck.
Next order of business would be the environment, in which I would reduce the number of power plants in America that in some way hurt the environment. I would again negotiate for the number of industries to limit smog-creating factories. I would also enforce the idea of more greenery in the world, more trees to be planted, and to also take note of how much petroleum and fossil fuels are used daily, and possibly limit that, if this all aids much in any way.
Finally, the big problem in the US is obviously immigration laws, and protecting the country from Isis. I think that rather than blocking foreign travel (TRUMP!), that we should enforce our immigration laws, because hello, we have them! I also think that some sort of border structure (although a wall is pretty overkill) should be put across the Mexican border, so that those who rightfully live here can come in and out. Although really, if we aren't using our immigration laws, it would be somewhat better to actually use them!

So, I guess until I take a career as a government official, we're stuck with Trump. :b

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas!!!

(Or for those of other religions and culture, Happy Diwali, Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Ramadan.)

(taken from the White House blue room)

Wait a minute...

Christmas is over...

It's already 2017...

Well, I'm making a Christmas post anyway! It's hard to find time to make blog posts, especially around the holidays. Again, my Christmas was spent in Florida, so rather than having a White Christmas this year (or any year of my life), I was begging for my life not to go to the beach. (Did I ever mention HOW MUCH I HATE THE BEACH!?!) Anyway, I'm back now.

This year, my present stash wasn't bad at all. I mean, I guess that goes to show how well my entire family knows me. Too bad I suck at finding gifts for them.  Anyway if you're Christmas is anything like mine, you look forward too the presents. My family gives presents to one another for the holidays, and my siblings and I also wake up Christmas morning to find presents from "Santa". I'm not saying anything about whether I believe or not. However, last year's Christmas was so upsetting, that I did question his legitimacy. I woke up in the morning, ran downstairs excitedly, and sat down to open presents. Most of my presents were mediocre, like clothes and movies and the occasional box calendar. However, my worst memory of Christmas ever was when I opened my next present, and found a razor.

I was so embarrassed that of all things "Santa" could've gotten, it was a razor. My parents were joking around about it, my siblings were making fun of me, and I was busy looking around for an open fire to throw the stupid razor in. I mean, what was that present trying to do, scream that I'm going through puberty!?! It's not like "Santa" gave my sister acne cream. It was definitely the worst present ever.

So yeah, I chose to be a downer for my Christmas post and relive the worst part of my Christmas past ever. Nonetheless, Merry Christmas! It's the Happiest time of the year, even though it's over! And with that out of the way,

Happy New Year! 2017!

Here's Your Christmas Gift! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ