Second Chances

They say everybody deserves a second chance, and while I believe that is true sometimes it hurts to give that person second chance. You think to yourself they wouldn't need a second chance if they didn't mess up the first time, but then again everyone makes mistakes. Even though I am giving you a second chance don't think that there will be a third because I been put through enough. So remember yes this is your second chance but it is also your last.

Phone call

My dad's friend and I were talking on the phone when we finished I returned the phone to my dad. Not knowing it was still on speaker phone she said "Oh gosh! Sean that was Perry?! She sounds like a little girl over the phone!"

Old

Did a night hike. It was short. Only two miles. My dog, Oreo, was having some trouble, so we turned around. She's getting old. I'm starting to worry about her. She has trouble keeping up with us, she has doggy arthritis, she snorts, and she produces stinky farts; which apparently a lot of older dogs do. She's an old dog now. Crap. I don't want her to get old, she might die soon. Hope I'm away in college when does.

Childhood Obesity, What's Killing Our Future's

The you and the world is a project about YOU.  Well, you can kind of add the world to that statement as well, but that’s beside the point.  This project is about exploring a subject that you feel like exploring.  The only rule is that the subject has to be some type of world issue.  My topic is childhood obesity one of the biggest issues there is.

    Childhood obesity is important to me because I always feel bad about it.  Whenever I see an obese person, even if they are extremely mean, I pity them.   I wonder how they go through life without running, or any exercise at all.  I wonder what stress they must go through, and I pity them.

 


I have discovered that childhood obesity leads to depression through bullying, Heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and sleep apneal.  These are all serious problems, and just add on to the already bad reputation being fat has.

            I wonder if there is any cure for obesity.  The reason I wonder if there is a “Cure” is because obesity is both a physical, and mental disease.  If an obese person concentrates on working out and losing weight, they might slip back into it again.

            My next step will be focusing on seeing if this disease has any cure.  If it does, I will research that, and then move on to any other cures that might exist.

 

Willie Willson, Signing out

Save me now- Mary Mary Feat. Kirk Franklin

It was once upon a time not long ago
Lived a little black boy in the middle of the ghetto
Pretty good kid but he always found trouble
Inner city life it ain't hard to find trouble
No income in the home you find struggle
2 years struggling it's no puzzle
He hit the block hard and found him a hustle
Burned the wrond bridge and now he needs muscle
He tried to let it go but the streets don't forgive
I guess they ain't heard of live and let live
But after going round and round he broke it down finally found out
That only god can save him now

[hook]
Save me now, please save me now, save me now, please save me now
I'm on my knees, down at the floor
You're the one i need oh lord
Save me now

[verse 1]
I heard the story many times before/still i'm wondering
How in the world did i get here/and what am i doing
Took the ring and acted like i do/without the ceremony
Now i got three little ones and i'm/hurting and i'm lonely
Threw away my dreams when i left school/now i'm 22 never should've choose him over you

[hook]

[bridge]
Take me away/i don't wanna stay here
I wanna go/back to the beginning
To that place/where love is forever
You and me together
Lord will you please 

Potpourri

I was once a child laborer.  


Every year, Friends Select hosts the lower school bake sale and bazaar.  It happens, without fail, the Wednesday before winter break.  For months before, every student must help create crafts to sell for a few cents to their peers.  In 2nd grade, Tr. Rita informed us that we would be making scented pillows.  We spent a few hours everyday sewing rectangular pieces of fabric 3/4 of the way closed, turning them inside out and then stuffing them with cotton a potpourri.  We were given no compensation for all of our blood, sweat and tears.  In fact, I had to buy my own pillow a few weeks later.


I recently found the pillow, after 10 years of sitting in my drawer.  It didn't smell like potpourri anymore.    

Jordan Debate

Recently, I was involved in a debate over Skype with two kids from Jordan. We were able to utilize technology in a completely new way for an activity that has become relatively monotonous over time. We debated the topic: The United States should actively spread democracy in the middle east. When you think about it on a surface level, this is just really really cool. We were able to learn and collaborate with some of the smartest people around the world. Our opponents were named the top debaters in a region including Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, etc. We had relatively little background knowledge when this was assigned to us, and our opponents live this every day. Aside from being extremely well prepared, they were able to apply the knowledge they have amassed through their daily lives and apply it to the debate. Although we were definitely outmatched, we held our ground. This was able to challenge us in a way that simply debating Philadelphia schools wouldn't be able to. 

Australia: Healthcare and Education

A Day in the life of and Australian Child (12yrs)

I believe that the life of a 12 year old in Australia compared to that of my life in as a 12 year old in the U.S may differ based on socio-economic backgrounds. The public schooling in Australia compared to the U.S is very good. I mean Australia seems to have a structured and fundamental way of going through education for all there young, while the education in the US as far as public schooling is kind of a jigsaw puzzle. There are some perks, to the schooling that one may receive in the U.S depending on where they're living or what neighborhood they live in, but overall Australia seems to have a more cohesive way about education and learning for there young throughout life.

Egypt Gapminder: Health and Education

The first picture represents the ratio of girls to boys in primary and secondary education in Egypt in the year 2005.
The second picture represents the Infant mortality in Egypt in the year 2005.


The y-axis or Life Expectancy for both graphs lay in or near 70 years but the x-axis, which is different for each graph, tend to be higher and radiating in the 20 or 30 area. While for the other graph, it's radiating in the 90s. The Infant mortality seems to be decreasing quickly over the years while Ratio of girls - boys is slowly increasing.
Screen shot 2011-05-03 at 12.28.11 PM
Screen shot 2011-05-03 at 12.28.11 PM
Screen shot 2011-05-03 at 12.28.49 PM
Screen shot 2011-05-03 at 12.28.49 PM

Day in a Life-Panama

​click here

The life of myself and a child from Panama are very different. Those children are faced with many dangers. They are in a society held back by the amount of money the family earns. They are faced with dealing with the threat of catching diseases. They are required to have certain school supplies are they will not be allowed to come to school. There literacy rate is quite high for what I expected. There diet of seafood, chicken, and corn is much healthier than what I eat. By the age of 40 most will be dead or be very ill. The health care system there is not very strong.  The one thing that will always persist in there lives will be the lack of a strong education fundation and lack of a healthcare system to prevent such deadly diseases from killing children. It just makes me feel bad that so many americans have such great healthcare systems but take advantage of it by killing themselves with such bad products sold by consumers in this country. 

How Many Wars Are There?

War on Terror

 

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQdZX6Szji2h_Ls5_X8Ix0XRGI3iMMbaRkwWiOZYjTzxGAvFAYv

 

         Hello and Welcome to the first of many articles by Aaron VanBuren on the topic of How Many Wars Are There? I was given this project called You and the World. Today was going to be about basics of the United States Military and the Wars we have been involved in. The sub-topic is War on Terror. I am interested in this topic because of the new we all heard about on Sunday, May 1, 2011 of Osama Bin Laden being killed.

 

After a decade (10 years) we found Osama Bin Laden and we killed him. I was surprised but I discovered that he was the leader of Al Qaeda, which this group of terrorist caused so much pain and heartbreak because of the attacks on 9/11 (world trade centers, pentagon and flight 93), U.S embassy, USS Cole bombing and more over a two decade period. In my research I founded out that President Obama and the U.S Military had a lead on Osama Bin Laden location since August of 2010. Since then they have been looking for him and about a week ago a group of unknown U.S soldiers killed Osama Bin Laden and with DNA they verified it was him.

 

I really wonder why it took us this long to find Osama? Also how does the families around the world fell about his death? I still think in the back of my head when will I hear the sounds of guns blazing and bombs dropping?


Look forward to a continuation of this topic. The plan for the future is too answer the questions I didn’t answer and give some more information about the topic. BYE see you next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bad traffic



Through out this quarter we were assigned a project named ‘You and the world’. You and the world is a research project that has us teenagers connect with more than just our daily issues. With world issues we choose these world issues and than explore the topic keeping in mind what we learned, and what we would like to learn more about.

 The second largest criminal activity goes to human trafficking. Human trafficking is an act of transporting humans especially women and children through use of force for sexual exploitation. According to UNODC human trafficking is all around the world, all countries in the world is affected by trafficking. About 80% of human trafficking involves Sexual exploitation, and 19% involves labor exploitation. I became interested in researching human trafficking when I first the movie  ‘Human Trafficking’. While watching the movie it was the first I heard of human trafficking and I wanted to learn more about the topic. I wanted to learn how much of the world is affected by it and what is being done to stop Human trafficking.

 Through my research I have discovered that there are 8 main topics on the causes of trafficking:

·      Drug and alcohol abuse

·      Expansion of organized crime

·      Illiteracy and lack of education

·      Lack of political will to end the practice

·      Corruption

·      Poverty and unemployment

·      Low status of girls in many countries

·      Inadequate or non-enforced laws

 I also have discovered that are different forms of exploitation:

·      Forcing victims into prostitution

·      Subjecting victims to slavery or involuntary servitude

·      Compelling victims to commit sex acts for the purpose of creating pornography

·      Misleading victims into dept bondage

 

I wonder what are all these countries doing to stop human trafficking or if some of the countries are doing anything at all. Do traffickers let their victims free or do they kill them?

 Through out this learning experience I would like to go into depth with Human Trafficking in the U.S. What is the U.S doing to prevent Human Trafficking and how much of the U.S is affected by trafficking. 

Learn more from these websites: 

http://www.humantrafficking.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking#United_States

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html

http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-human-trafficking

Another Mass Murderer

For this quarter of our school year, our teacher, Mrs. Dunn, has assigned us a project that lets us blog about a certain world issue of our choice. Out of the many global issues, I chose diseases and more specifically, Cancer. This one issue really stood out for me because of how it affected my family and millions of other families. I don’t know much about Cancer and this is a great chance for me to research about it and share what I learned with the world.

I discovered that there are more than one types of Cancer, and many causes to them. Cancer is developed when the body can’t control the growth of abnormal cells. These cells are also called malignant cells. Viruses, radiation, obesity, genetic problems, excessive drinking, and even excessive exposure to sunlight are just few causes to this life-taking disease. The three most common cancers in men of the U.S are Prostate cancer, Lung cancer, and Colon cancer. Similarly, the three most common cancers in women are Breast cancer, Colon cancer, and Lung cancer. Basically, Cancer can develop in almost any organ in the human body.

In my family, so far I only know 2 people with cancer. They both were my grandpas, and one of them died from it. I never really knew him because he died when I was young, I don't remember the exact year. We also lived in different countries so it was hard to see each other, but I do remember some memories when we were together. My mom always talks about how great of a dad he was to her and how much fun me and him would've had together if he was still living. My other grandpa is still living, but a tumor keeps growing back. 

I wonder if Cancer will ever be cured other than by the use of Chemotherapy, and if it will be a positive or negative affect towards the world. For example, if the movie “I Am Legend” ever comes to life.

 

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002267/