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Raekwon Smith Public Feed

Raekwon Smith Capstone

Posted by Raekwon Smith in Capstone - Rami - Wed on Friday, May 22, 2015 at 11:56 pm
​The inspiration behind this Capstone began when I was in my Junior year. I was in Mr. Miles’ class and he said, “I wish someone would so video game reviews for their capstone, like play the games and extensively review them in the end.” When I heard him say this I knew I was the perfect person to do this. I was able to mix video games with school and it actually made school fun for once. It was difficult for me at first because I couldn’t decide which games I wanted to play because there are just so many I have an opinion about. Finally, I chose to play new games and let people know if they are worth playing and buying or not. I had more difficulties when I decided that I wanted to play all Xbox One games because the system was my father’s and he moves in from room to room and on occasion takes in out of town with him. This means I had to find time to play the games while I balanced schoolwork, baseball, and people always being around the Xbox. Eventually, I found the time to do this and was able to complete the games to my best capability and write the best reviews possible.


Link to Website: http://gameislifeblog.weebly.com/

Bibliography:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/01/19/resident-evil-review

"Resident Evil Review - IGN." IGN. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


When I first looked at this resource, I already knew that it would be quite helpful. It touches on a genre of video games that I will be reviewing which is Shooters, Role Playing Games also known as RPG’s, Action and Adventure. It show’s me how to format a review and what things I should include. I also know which things would probably be pointless to include. IGN is a well known website and they are one of the official gaming sites. I know they would be a good source and a good model for how a review should look.


http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/10/nba-2k15-review

"NBA 2K15 Review - IGN." IGN. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


When I first looked at this resource, I already knew that it would be quite helpful. It touches on a genre of video games that I will be reviewing which is Sports and Role Playing Games It gives me a good idea on how to format a review and what things I should include. I also know which things would probably be pointless to include. IGN is a well known website and they are one of the official gaming sites. I know they would be a good source and a good model for how a review should look.


Interview with True Black

Video Games." Personal interview. 15 Apr. 2015.

Interviewing True gave me the perspective of the causal gamer. He is someone who loves to play video games but isn’t a hardcore gamer. He provided me with a solid conversation that lasted for more than 20+ minutes. This interview will help show the diversity in the gaming community



http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/11/18/wwe-2k15-review-ps4xbox-one

"WWE 2K15 Review - IGN." IGN. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


I knew that this review would be quite helpful. It touches on a genre of video games that I will be reviewing which is Sports and Role Playing Games It gives me a good idea on how to format a review and what things I should include. I also know which things would probably be pointless to include. IGN is a well known website and they are one of the official gaming sites. I know they would be a good source and a good model for how a review should look.


http://www.twitch.tv/

"Twitch." Twitch. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

Twitch tv shows me examples on how to conduct a live stream video. Twitch allows to you to live stream a video and people can watch you and it tells you how many people are currently viewing you and allows them to comment during the stream. Twitch is a partner with both the Xbox One and The Playstation 4 which are owned by Microsoft and Sony respectively and this would allow me to live stream my gaming as I play so being able to live stream is pretty easy and gives me options on how I want to present my content.


http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/09/26/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-review

"Middle Earth: Shadow Or Mordor Review - IGN." IGN. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

When I first looked at this resource, I already knew that it would be quite helpful. It touches on a genre of video games that I will be reviewing which is Sports and Role Playing Games It gives me a good idea on how to format a review and what things I should include. I also know which things would probably be pointless to include. IGN is a well known website and they are one of the official gaming sites. I know they would be a good source and a good model for how a review should look.



Game Informer Magazine

Miller, Frederic P., Agnes F. Vandome, and John McBrewster. Game Informer. Beau Bassin, Mauritius: Alphascript, 2011. Print.


When I first looked at this resource, I already knew that it would be quite helpful. It touches on a every genre of video games that I will be reviewing which is Sports, Role Playing Games, action adventure,  It gives me a good idea on how to format a review and what things I should include. I also know which things would probably be pointless to include. Game Informer is a well known video game magazine and they are one of the official gaming magazines. I know they would be a good source and a good model for how a review should look.


Interview with Penelope Deoliveira

Video Games." Personal interview. 15 Apr. 2015.

Interviewing Penelope gave me the perspective of the more hardcore gamer. She is someone who loves to play video games and wants to create video games for a living. She has already created her own video game and I was able to play and review her work. This interview will help show the diversity in the gaming community as she is deemed as a “female gamer”


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A Lesson Before Dying Raekwon Smith

Posted by Raekwon Smith in English 3 - Rami - D on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 3:01 pm
“A Lesson Before Dying” is a very heartwarming story. It touches you in the essence that you feel like you’re there the whole time with the characters. It keeps you interested throughout and makes you want to keep reading. This book is a best seller for a reason.

The author of the book Ernest J. Gaines is an award winning author. Born and raised on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. He used his growing up as a premise and setting for a lot of his works in the future. He grew up the oldest of 12 children, raised by their aunt who was crippled. He was born after slavery had ended but he grew up on an old plantation and was impoverished.


He got his basic education at a plantation church, which in the book “A Lesson Before Dying”, the main character taught reading, writing and arithmetic at an old church for a few months out of the year. He later went to a catholic school to continue learning due to his previous school only going up to Eighth grade at the time. At age fifteen he moved to Vallejo, California to rejoin his parents who had moved during The second World War. At age 17 he wrote his first novel while babysitting his little brother. He sent it to a New York publisher who later rejected. Gaines burned the manuscript but later rewrote it, which became his 1st published novel, Catherine Carmier.

In 1956 he published his 1st short story titled “Turtles”. In 1957 he earned his degree in literature from SFSU. After he served two years in the army he then attended Stanford University on a two year writing fellowship. Since 1984, Gaines has spent one half of the year in San Francisco and the half in Lafayette leading a creative writing workshop in autumn at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Gaines currently lives at the old plantation he grew up on with his wife and had the church he grew up in moved there.

Now in the book A lesson before dying, it is set in the 1940’s and a guy named Jefferson gets into a car with these two cars he knew while walking down the street. The guys decide they’re going go to the liquor store and the driver says that the old man that owns the store is going to let them pay him back because they have no money. When they proceed to the store they pick up a bottle and tell the man they have no money but they’ll pay him back. The old man says either you have money or you leave so the driver goes behind the counter and does something to the old man but the man grabs a gun and starts shooting and the other guy begins shooting. After it finishes, everyone is dead but Jefferson, who stands there in shock hears the old man calling him but Jefferson stands still.

The old man finally dies and Jefferson grabs a bottle of whiskey and begins drinking to calm his nerves. He finally realizes what happens and looks at the register and takes the cash since he figured no one would know. He grabs the whiskey and leaves as two white men walk in the shop. Now he is on trial and the public defender tries to free him but belittles him in the process calling him a little boy and nothing but a hog who is incapable of the planning a murder and robbery. The jury doesn’t move because it’s the 1940’s and during that time, two men word against one black man’s doesn’t help.

So he gets charged with a crime he didn’t commit and is sentenced to the chair. Jefferson’s god mom said she wants him to die a man, not a hog and asks her friends nephew who is a school teacher to help him become a man before dying. Hence the title “A Lesson Before Dying.” This story keeps you hooked and you may become attached to some of the characters, especially Jefferson. If you like books like “The Heart Of A Woman” by Maya Angelou then you will enjoy a book like “A Lesson Before Dying”.

This book uses very strong language and controversial language you may not feel comfortable with but that’s one of the things that makes this book so good. The structure of the book and the way it flows is very well done. Going into the book I expected to be entertained and enjoy the book based directly off the title of the book and because I heard the movie was good. All in all, this book met and exceeded my expectations and I have to say this is now one of my all time favorite books.


Author: Ernest J. Gaines

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group

Publication Date: 1993

Pages: 256

Genre: Fiction


Photo on 10-29-13 at 6.12 PM
Photo on 10-29-13 at 6.12 PM
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#Writing2Connect Raekwon Smith

Posted by Raekwon Smith in English 3 - Rami - D on Monday, October 21, 2013 at 2:14 pm
Writing helps me connect to different life situations. It allows me to express myself without having to say it aloud. Sometimes the experience of writing then reading it and better than listening to someone speak. Writing allows me to connect to other people who can relate to the same things I'm writing. Some people feel the same pain and express it together---I'm not one of those people but I surely know people who are.
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Humanities Final Portfolio 2013

Posted by Raekwon Smith in English 2 - Block on Tuesday, June 11, 2013 at 10:34 am
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Screen Shot 2013-06-10 at 8.13.56 PM


Over the course of the year I’ve learned a variety of things about the different time periods and people in those time periods. Those time periods and people in them were very significant to the shaping of the history in the world. I learned about two main ideas that stood out to me, The 1st main idea was “No one is really innocent, everyone is guilty of something” and the second main idea was “
Revolutions cause the world to change in unexpected ways” .


These stood out to me because they are so true. When we were conducting the trials in World History, we learned that everyone in the cortes trial was partly guilty for why Cortes did what he did. Also in the multi-national elite trial, everyone was partly guilty of why poorer countries are taken advantage of. One quote from the trial is “We bow down to the system of profit, we’re brainwashed into taking as much money as possible, just as the leaders of rich countries like the United States would do, and their leaders are ridiculed too. We are no better, or no worse.” This is saying the the ruling elite in the poor countries are following the ways of the US and how we handle business here and they are just modeling our work Another quote is “Our country is not where it needs to be. No country is perfect, we have to work to move our way up.” I strongly agree with this quote. No matter what, every country has it’s problems.I’ve always believed this and after the trial, it furthered my beliefs in this.


The only country that came close to perfection was Atlantis and we aren’t even sure if it existed. I believe every country does need to build it’s way up. No country starts at the top. The United States started from the bottom and now they here at the top. Every country wants to get to the top so they can provide a better life for the people in their country. If they are struggling then no one there has the luxury to live a comfortable life.

During the trials I learned that in order to get significant funding from the bigger companies, countries have to decide if they want to please the companies or the residents. They can’t come to a decision to satisfy both parties because no matter how they try to balance the choices, it always favors one party more than the other. My group was faced with the challenge of trying to do so, as were 5 other groups and no one truly succeeded despite who was said to be the “winner”. Now some revolutions that changed the world would include the French Revolution, the American Revolution and the Haitian Revolution. The American and French Revolution are the two best known revolutions but the Cuban Revolution is significant also.


The French Revolution was huge in changing the future of Europe as prior to this Great Britain ruled over the French. The French people were sick of the way they were being treated so they did something about it and they enlisted some of the biggest names, manly Napoleon Bonaparte. He was a big reason the French Revolution went the way it did. For the American Revolution the Americans wanted to break free of Great Britain’s control over them. They fought back and overthrew the government. They also enlisted a historic figure in George Washington and he helped get the now United States their freedom. Over the course of the year I learned why this was all important. Doing research on it helped because prior to this I would always hear little details here and there about it but never the full story.


I began to compare the two revolutions and see which one seemed more important but in the end, they both were important in shaping the future. If neither one occurred, I wouldn’t be writing about this. I might be working somewhere through forced labor by Great Britain.The history of these revolutions made sure the future was bright for it’s kin. In the present there have been other revolutions inspired by this two which helped their country gain independence and they aren’t ruled over by another country.



Links:

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1wAA2Eo3jdgxg7drz4pxzMTcnDyGzac95BTCcDP1qrvw/edit


https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/10RaFC1SquQqNKKlDqPg6XjLFbsIxp5WhDTOkGGxjCrY/edit


https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1Mf6_c5bubgL_eeMnjhUxIwUNcQ1WQ6TGjQoGAKotTog/edit


https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1ERAhtemWH6KT1x2HcBpIbamdwGG4SL2I9QCOfeEAVwQ/edit


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Screen Shot 2013-06-10 at 2.15.45 PM
Screen Shot 2013-06-10 at 2.25.30 PM
Screen Shot 2013-06-10 at 2.25.30 PM
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Colonialism in Asia

Posted by Raekwon Smith in World History - Block on Sunday, June 2, 2013 at 9:27 am
The basic ideas of colonialism was a global trade with a purpose


India, Malaya, Dutch Indies, Ceylon and the Philippines were rich in natural resources.


If you had enough land for your family and were told to grow crops for Europe then you would begin starving due to you losing crops.


When a colony was made they threw anyone in it forcing them to co-exist


Turned colonies against each other


Used bribes and small steps when taking over the colonies


Europe is getting most of the profit


Made the asians that if they had lighter skin then you were better and more beautiful.


Europe controlled over 84% of the world



Questions


Does colonialism still exist or is it over


How can you strive when your overseers have given up


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El Cuento de la Rana Ricardo Smith Andrès Roberts Daniela Hershey Anna Truong

Posted by Raekwon Smith in Spanish 2 - Bey on Friday, April 26, 2013 at 10:34 am
​Here is our song





Spanish Song Real Final
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Crossing Boundaries: 2 For 1

Posted by Raekwon Smith in English 2 - Block on Tuesday, February 26, 2013 at 7:07 pm
Robert Smith became a parent at the age of 18 after he was fresh out of High School. He later on introduced another child at the age of 19. He explains his High School years, his relationships in school and his ups and downs of being a teen parent. 


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What are you talking about?

Posted by Raekwon Smith in English 2 - Block on Monday, January 14, 2013 at 7:23 pm

Over the past few weeks we have studied the art of language and why it is very special. We watched a video showing people and the different vocabularies they have from each other and accents. It showed what makes groups different from each other. We were assigned this project called the language autobiography which is what you are reading now. I've learned much from this unit and hope you can learn more from my paper.

My cousin from Washington D.C. and I have two different vocabularies that we use. Here in Philly, our city-wide word is “jawn,” which is pretty much our version of a noun because it can be anything or anyone. In Washington, they have no idea what that word means and have never heard it used in a sentence unless they spent time here. When my cousin was staying with me and my family for a funeral, we were sitting in my room watching sportscenter when his friend called. He started talking on the phone with him and after about 5 minutes of talking he yelled, “Yo I’m so clutch.” I said “What?” He explained that when he said that he was expressing that since he was right about a bet and he won he was now considered “Clutch.” This confused me because this was the first time I’ve heard this. So later that day we went to the basketball court behind my house. I said during a game of basketball that I was “frying him” and that “my jumpshot was chicken”.

He looked at me with a confused look and then he asked, "Ya jumpshot what?”

I said "My jumper chicken. That’s the word we use here. What do yall use in DC?"

He said, "We just say our jumpshot butta."

“Oh okay, we used to say that but then we started using different words like cheese, and chicken, and how when you make a jumpshot in someone face you say “Facial” because it’s funny and it makes sense in this situation.”

He answered back that they say that back home also because it’s pretty much a universal basketball slang term. We continued our one on one game and I posted him up and scored on him. I said “I just took you to the weight room, get your weight up youngboul.“ He laughed because of my statement. I kept forgetting he was from Washington D.C. and they don’t have the same vocab we have. I explained that taking someone to the weight room is just posting someone up and scoring on them and that youngboul is a word we use for someone younger than us or just a word to make fun of someone. Language can help you get a better understanding of people, so you can befriend them and won’t be left out in the dark in a conversation. In the past I believed that language was just something we spoke and was exclusive to a certain race and could be taught to another if willing or forced. I didn’t think it had any meaning behind it or could be looked at with a deeper view.

Over the weekend we continued to have conversations and discovered a few more new words from each other’s vocab. One word he used that wasn’t new to me, but isn’t used in Philly, was “partna.”

I’ve heard that word used before in other states, such as the southern states, and when I visited Washington D.C., but other people have not heard this word before. “Partna” is just another word for friend. When I want to say something like this, I say “mans.” Language is very different and similar in certain places as I’ve stated above. The point I’m trying to make is that language helps people fit into a certain group. Language can help define who we are as person or race.

People will judge you by the language you speak or learned to speak. Last year, One of my friends who attended a different school asked me, “How you black speaking spanish?” He was judging me by my race and the fact that I’m speaking another race’s language. Over the years I’ve heard a good number of languages spoken and I, for one, can say that I’ve judged people on the race and language they’ve spoken. I’ve often caught myself judging someone who is a foreigner living here in America and who refuses to speak English.The environment around me influenced and taught me that foreigners were bad because they “invaded our country, but don’t want to speak our language.” The environment around us can  be a big influence on our language and how we react to other languages. A quote from Sandra Romo, “The verbal environment influences language learning. From ages one to three, children from highly verbal 'professional' families heard nearly three times as many words per week as children from low verbal 'welfare' families.” I hope to influence other people on finding their own language and don’t allow bad influences to make you believe another language is bad. When it all boils down, we need each other to prosper.





Romeo, S. (2012). Factors that influence language development. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/list_6018235_factors-influence-language-development.html

Dig Story Raekwon Smith from Raekwon Smith on Vimeo.

Tags: Language, "English
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Keystone Pipeline Smith

Posted by Raekwon Smith in World History - Block on Monday, October 15, 2012 at 9:43 pm

The project was about the Keystone Pipeline and how it was going to carry oil from Canada to the Southern parts of the U.S.A. Some people were for it getting built and some were against it. In Class we brainstormed about monologue ideas and the people or objects we would portray. My partner and I chose between the ones we brainstormed our 5 best combined. We chose the following 5; A canadian hockey player, a bulldozer operator, a jobless man living near the construction site, a farmer whose land will be plowed through, and the a water droplet infected by the oils from the tar sands.


My partner and I learned a lot from this project. We learned all about the negative outcomes and positive outcomes of building this pipe. The negative outcomes we learned were tar sands release three times the amount of CO2 as regular oil drillings causing more global climate change. The positive outcome(s) we learned were, safe oil transferring within America, and also this can help America’s debt with third world countries.

​
Monologue #1:

Title: Cropped From the Picture

(John Lucas III Lives in texas and the pipeline is going to force him to leave and give up his his land for the pipeline to run through)

(Walking towards mailbox)Let’s go get the mail, hmmmm what’s this, from your friends TransCanada, (talking and walking towards table) let me sit down cause last time I checked they ain’t ma friends. ( mumbles reading letter) WOOOOOOOW aint that something. They tryna destroy our land and pay us for it. TransCanada that big company up north think they running stuff up in here. Those Canadian’s think they slick don’t they. Well I got something for em, A BIG FAT NO. I can’t believe this BS. Our family has lived on this farm for decades and a few thousand dollars isn’t going to change that. My great great great Grandfather brought this land years ago with my great great great grandmother. They built this farm from the ground up into what it is today. People think it’s all about the money and people will do anything for it, well newsflash, people also have morals! Myself and others care about family values and don’t let money change us. There is no chance in hell I’m letting someone take my land let alone a non American. I didn’t really care about this little project they had going on anyway but this did it and now, I’m ANGRY. I was going to stay out of way but, noooo those Idiots just had to run through our land. Why not the Taylor’s from across the way. I never liked them but I guess what goes around comes around. I’m just so mad that this is happening. If my grandfather was here today I believe he would feel the same way and be fighting for our farm to stay just like me. Back in the day, the Taylors who where big names in the town tried to kick us off my land, My grandpappy didn’t give up when they came a marching so I shouldn’t either. If I’m going to keep the family tradition going then I’m going to need to some help. Maybe if I call all my cousins and siblings maybe it we could do it but only if we put forth our best effort. I will put my life on the line if it means this farmland stays here. I want my grandchildren to be able to witness their ancestors work 1st hand.(Stands up and says it loud and proud) So when them rich Canadians come marching down here tryna act like they tough, I’m fittna put up the fight of my life. Although on the other hand that money could supply more than taking the cows and crops to the market every week. (Slaps self in face) Snap out of it man don’t think that way. Grandfather wouldn’t condone this type of thinking. He would march right on up here out of his grave and smack me around like a little kid. Then again, this money could change my life and I could actually leave this farm because the family tradition kinda sucks. I want a normal life where I don’t have to wake up every morning at 5am. I could get a normal sleep and I could work a normal job. I might even find true love and not some blind date my cousin joey set me up with. This girl Stacy I met on eHarmony wouldn’t want a farmer as a husband. No no no I can’t let greed and love consume me. I need to follow in my ancestors footsteps and maintain our land, it’s the only way. That’s final, I’m going to fight for our land. This Company wanted war, (Yells it) Well I’m going to give them war. May the best man win and may God have mercy on your soul. Time to get ready to enter battle because I will emerge victorious, I guaran-damn-tee it.


Monologue #2:
Title: Skating On Thin...Oil?

It’s been what, about two months since the Flyers traded me to the LA Kings? (Walking to the locker room) That’s all it took, two months for people to try and get me to do things I don’t want to do. It all started in my interview with ESPN (Hand on chin as if you’re thinking) when they began to ask my personal opinion on the Keystone Pipeline and whether it should be built or not. They asked because...well...the pipe was going to be built straight through my hometown. At first, it didn’t matter to me, but when I found out it was being built through MY hometown...my view on it changed.

After my interview with ESPN I was stopped by my manager, he stopped me with simply a hand up on my chest. He wasn’t finished on the phone.


Who was that? Tell me what?

He told me I had to promote the pipe, and I’d get money from the TransCanada company.

“First of all, won’t people think of me as a hypocrite? I just told people on national television that I don’t agree with the pipe now they’re going to see me on posters and billboards agreeing with it?! (slam fist on bench) Great, this is just great.”

Today was the live news broadcast, the day I would become a hypocrite.

“Hello everyone. As you know I am Simon Gagne of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team. I’m here today to discuss the Keystone Pipeline that TransCanada is going to built. Now I’m not that prepared to talk today, I didn’t have much time to think about things. But here it goes...” I started to pull out the paper (pull paper out of pocket) my manager handed me. As I pulled it out I looked over to my manager who was smiling and then at the CEO of TransCanada who nodded his head in a mafia, thug, kind of way.

“...So the pipeline. What it can do for us as Americans is provide about 4,000 jobs...and...and...” I was choking up. This all just didn’t feel right. The crowd was silent waiting for my words to pierce their ear drums.

“...Forget this. If I’m going to talk about this STUPID pipe I’m going to give MY opinion. This pipe has to be the worst idea ever created, big deal we’ll get more jobs, half of America is too lazy to even work anyway. You go to a restaurant or store where the lady or guy is rude or disrespectful and obviously they seem they don’t want to even be there working, then get rid of them and give that job to someone that is willing to work and NEEDS the money. These tar sands release 3 times as much CO2 as regular oil drillings, why is that a positive outcome? Oh my mistake it’s NOT! Do you not see the world’s climates changing as we speak? In the long run the world would be completely destroyed! Climate change will be the main problem in this world! Now if you’re with me, then be with me! Be against this pipe, against TransCanada, and join my side in stopping this pipe from being built!”

The crowd was silent...but...within seconds, there was a roaring thunder of clapping from everyone.




Monologue #3
Title: The Opportunity

“Yes, I’m here to apply for a job.
...Okay...fill this part out? (reach for paper) Okay...bring it back when I’m done? Okay thank you.”

I sat there filling out the job application. Name: Cosmo. Height: 5’11. Eye Color: Brown. Birthday: June 22nd 1983. Address: 610 Walnut Street, Topeka Kansas. Health Problems: None. Allergies: None. Worked with welding before? No.

This form felt like it had a million questions on it, that, or I just haven’t filled out a job application in years.

“Here you go. (Hands paper to person.) Thank you. When will we hear from you if we got the job or not? About a week? Okay. Thank you. Oh Ma'am, will I need to go through training? For welding only? Okay. I’m sorry I’m asking so many questions, but will there be many jobs open? Over 4,000? Awesome. How long is the Pipe? Okay. Thanks again. Good bye now.”

Wow. 1700 miles long...that’s incredibly long. If I get this job, I wonder how much I’d be paid.

(Opens door)

“Hey hun. How was your day? Mine was good. I have good news. Care to hear? Alright so, I went down to the community center today and guess what I saw? That’s right! A poster for job applications! You ask what about? I will tell you baby! It’s an application for a welding job. There’s supposedly a pipeline being built from Canada to Texas, 1700 miles long offering 4,000 plus jobs! Babe! This can be our chance to get away from our finance troubles, this is our opportunity to get free from the constant letters coming in about us not paying our bills. The pipeline will carry oil from these things called tar sands in Canada. I know baby! I love you so much!”
I felt this was the chance god gave us. The feeling that he put us through the poverty to give us this opportunity.

About a week later I received a phone call.

“Hello. Yes I remember applying. Wait...I did? I got the job?! Thank you so much! When do I start!? OKAY! I will see you monday at 6! Thank you for this, my future will be brighter now, for my wife and I.”

“Babe! I got the job!...Yeah! They just called! I start on Monday, 6 AM.”




Monologue #4
Title: Oil Addiction...My Life From the Pipe.

Hi guys my name is Lakely and I’m an oil addict. Two years ago Oil was introduced to me by a pipeline by the name of Keystone who spilled hundreds of gallons of oil that I soaked up and became highly addicted to. For 2 years i was doing 10 gallons of oil a day. It really messed my life up, all the people I ever loved started to leave me because I was contaminated and they couldn’t live with me anymore.e  I promised myself that i wouldn’t get addicted to oil because many of my famous family members like my cousin red deer, and my other cousin Red butte became oil addicts. Yeah I know my family likes to name their children Red blank. Anyway, the oil just made me feel so warm and feel good. I didn’t care it was hurting me I just knew all my troubles were being washed away. My life was stressful up until I found oil, I was carrying different boats across me everyday and having fish and ducks and what not swim and you is no fun at all. The day the oil spilled in me I was having an argument with a Duck named Bill about how the chicken came before the egg. Keystone was flowing over me and then it just busted open and just spewed all of me. I was like “woah dude, what is this. And Bill was like “I don’t know but this is gnarly dude” I’m sorry about the sound affects but it makes it sound more interesting. So now I’m sitting with my friend Bill snorting oil and my friend Bill say’s to me “Hey, do you know what this stuff is” to my response “ I don’t know Gasoline” and Bill says “ this is the stuff they call oil.” That’s when it hit me like a ton of bricks that the high was setting in. I was now hallucinating because I was now seeing Dolphins and Sharks making babies. After that day I did anything I could to get my hands on oil whether it was stealing my friend Bill’s oil or sending other lakes to get my oil. So guys as you can see this experience is one you can learn from and Keystone oil really was a bad idea. Thank you for listening to my story.




Monologue #5

Title: Work Hard, Bulldoze Hard


It’s another day at work on this pipe. There is 1500 more miles to lay down. I’m stationed here in Texas. I’ve been operating bulldozers since I can remember. My dad was a construction worker and he would sneak me to work and let me play with the equipment trying to hide me from his boss. “Hey boss (turns off bulldozer) this is a lot of work. I’m not making enough to support my family and I may need to work overtime. Why not, what you mean it’s not enough hours to go around. (pause for 5 seconds) Thanks you’re really nice. (turns machine back on) Well thanks, I think I should get back to what you’re paying me for.


I went back to work for the rest of the night. I finally got done at midnight. I was starving. A few of my coworkers and I went out to the diner about 10 minutes away.


“Today was hardcore. I know... I asked the boss for some overtime. Yeah he gave me some, me and Amanda are having troubles with money...she said...she’d leave me...if I couldn’t support us. I know, she’s... I don’t even know.” I’m glad I got this overtime though because without it I would be doomed. Well dinner was great man, Imma bounce and let y’all handle the check. I’m out.


When I got home I talked to my wife about my overtime. Hey babe guess what, no babe don’t be silly. I got overtime so I can make more money for us. Yeah I won’t be home as much now but it will only be for a few days. I love you to.



Background
- 1700 miles long
- The United States spends 475 billion on oil a year
- It will Cost $7 billion and carry an estimated 800,000 barrels of oil a day.
- construction will begin in the “first quarter” of 2013


Argument for:
- 1300 Construction Jobs
- cheap, reliable energy
- TransCanada has received lots of support behind the project especially from those who are American and Canadians that work at oil refineries who signed 17 to 18 year contracts to ship over hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day.
- the Gulf Coast portion could cost $2.3 billion and create about 4,000 construction & support jobs
- provide energy security within the U.S.


Argument against:
- Tar Sand Oil not clean
- Climate change throughout years
- Have to destroy the planet just to get tar sand
- Brazil mines have 2.3 million barrels a day
- Tar sands are a high-carbon fuel mined from beneath Canada’s Boreal forest.
- in order to collect oil from the tar sands companies must destroy forest systems
- Tar sands mining effects: Canada’s forest systems, huge clean water systems, and disrupt people’s lives that live in the area.
- tar sand extraction emits 3 times more than the average oil extraction in America
- Extracting the fossil fuels from the tar sands from the sand, silt, and clay requires massive amounts of water, 3 barrels of water make one barrel of oil collected.
- pipe goes right across water supplies (pipe could leak)





RESOURCES:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/k/keystone_pipeline/index.html?8qa


TransCanada

White House Memo

NYTimes: Keystone XL

The Undead Pipeline Returns

Friends of the Earth: Tar Sands

Canadian Broadcast Corporation: Keystone Pipeline

Fox News: Keystone Pipeline

Public Broadcast System: Keystone Pipeline

National Public Radio: Keystone Pipeline

YES Magazine: Keystone Pipeline

Tar Sands Action

Tar Sands Blockade

Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math

monologue from Raekwon Smith on Vimeo.

LAKELY from Raekwon Smith on Vimeo.

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Spanish Who Am I Project Ricardo Smith

Posted by Raekwon Smith in Spanish 2 - Bey on Monday, October 1, 2012 at 12:43 pm
​Here is the link to my video
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Descriptive Essay: The Toe That Was Overlooked

Posted by Raekwon Smith in English 2 - Block on Friday, September 28, 2012 at 9:14 am


“Oh man that doesn’t feel good.” That’s what I was thinking after making a great catch where I reached out near my foot to make what’s called a “shoestring catch.” I came off the shady baseball field, overlooked by the many trees on that dark afternoon. “Why does my foot hurt so much? It’s mostly my toe.” I was thinking. I came in limping and wincing in pain as if someone just stabbed the side of my foot multiple times. 

As I went to sit down on the bench, my grandfather asked me what was wrong and I said “My toe hurts a lot. And part of my foot.”

  He said, “Don’t give into the pain.” 

I replied, “I’m not, but my foot hurts like a mug.” 

Afterwards, I just sat there rubbing my foot hoping it would nurse it back to normal but it didn’t work. I then went into the field limping and cursing my foot under my breath. I played the entire game limping and fighting through the pain, so I could try to help my team. After the game we had lost by 5 points and I was upset because it was a very winnable game. My mind was cluttered with thoughts of how we could have won and my thought process snapped with every step I took as the pain really set in. I could barely walk now as I headed to the truck to give my teammate a ride home. I went to sleep that night trying to get ready for a full day of pain and suffering. 

This was the stupidest thing I’ve done so far in my life. That kept going through my mind as I was constantly walking and stopping to rest and massage my throbbing foot. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to make it home if my foot didn’t stop hurting. I felt like there was a 1 ton weight just sitting on my entire foot. I had a playoff baseball game in 4 days and I was in no condition to play, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to miss my 1st high school playoff game. Even if we lost, at least I was there. My parents said, “Soak your foot in epsom salt and you will be just fine.” But I was thinking, “Put yourself in my place, then lets see if all I need is epsom salt.” When I got home that night I slowly limped over to the bathroom to fill the blue tub with water to soak my foot in epsom salt. As I lay down on my bed my head began to throb as I wondered whether or not I would be able to play come Monday afternoon

Over that weekend I tried to stay off my foot as much as I could, but of course I couldn’t since neither my family nor I realized the excruciating pain I was going through. My parents had me doing work over the weekend; I helped clean the house and the front lawn. As I was getting the push broom out of the shed a shovel fell over and landed on my toe. I thought it was over for me. I hopped around the yard yelling and stopping myself from cursing the shovel for what it just did to me. I sat down and felt my foot which was throbbing very fast. The amount of pain I feeling was equal to someone cutting of my toe. Afterwards I hopped as fast as I could up the steps and into the house so I could ice my foot and rest up to finish cleaning the yard. I finished cleaning the yard 2 hours later with ice on my foot. I shivered the whole time and I couldn’t feel my foot after 15 min. of having it on. Later that night, I soaked my foot in epsom salt again, which didn’t help but my parents insisted. I went to bed that night ready to just give up on playing in the playoff game, but in my mind I would have seemed like a punk. So hurt foot and all, I wasn’t going to give up.

Monday finally came and I woke up. I had a slight headache and my eyes were kinda blurry. I got out of bed and stopped myself from yelling and waking everyone up as I put pressure on my foot. I tried my best to walk to the bathroom supporting myself on the walls. I thought to myself hopefully I will be able to make it through the day. I told myself that after the season I would go to the doctor to see what was wrong with me. I never complained about my injury as much as most people would think. I never even asked to stay home from school or miss a baseball game. When I got to school, I was greeted by the warm welcoming of walking up the stairs to the 3rd floor. In a few hours we would be leaving for the bus to take us to the baseball field. When 1:30 finally hit and it was time for us to leave, the moment of truth awaited me.

As we slowly walked off of the bus to see what the field was like, I sighed with relief because I noticed my limp wasn’t as bad as before. We started our routine warm ups, stretching our bodies, doing push ups, jogging and getting our throwing arms loosened by playing catch with each other. We had to do one exercise called “Frogs,” where we act like frogs without the jumping part. I still couldn’t bend my toes and when I did, a quick jolt of pain made me cringe to the point that I didn’t want to play the game at all. I knew that wasn’t an option though, and I fought through the pain. The game was starting in 5 minutes and people were trying to hype themselves up in their own way. Some people listened to music, others kept warming up or talked to teammates. I just sat on the bench by myself and prayed. The umpire then let the coaches and captains know that it was time.

Throughout the course of the game my foot felt fine, but it could have been better. I still felt the occasional shock of pain, but not as much. I had a very big hit that started a rally for us. They only gave me a double. I hit the ball so far they thought they couldn’t find it because it went into the woods. Although, soon as the umpire said go back to 2nd the kid on the other team found the ball so I got robbed of what could have been a home run. You can’t imagine the amount of disappointment I felt when the ump told me to go back to 2nd base. I think my face looked like I just lost my best friend. We hung in the game for few more innings, then the other team started to score run after run and we lost. I was happy that we had made it that far and that the captains got to go to the playoffs. After the game my toe felt like it was very overworked. I just chose to put my slides on, hop in the car and deal with the rest later.

I used to struggle with how I judged a situation and made choices, but I’ve gotten better at making those crucial decisions that could affect me for better or worse. In April, I injured my foot and toe, I found a few months later that it was broken and I had a stress fracture. I made poor choices over the course of my injury that derailed the healing process. I’m fine now but it could have been better way before.

In the end I never went to the doctors and for the next 2 months my toe still bothered me. I re-injured my foot and my foot swelled up again causing me to wear slides for the next 3 to 4 weeks. My decision making process during those few months was poor at it’s best. I have learned from the mistakes I’ve made in the past and I have strived to correct and never make them again. I believe if you realize the mistakes of your past your future can be bright!
Tags: Descriptive, "English
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The Change Begins Now

Posted by Raekwon Smith in English 1 - Dunn on Thursday, May 31, 2012 at 10:13 am

Hey everyone it’s Raekwon again and I’m bring you my final blog post called post for change. Thanks for reading my blog posts and I hope they touched you in someway or form. If you are ready my post for the 1st time I will summarize my last two blog posts but here are the links to them 1 and 2 if you missed them. Ok so my first post was info on my topic Government Spending on Prisoners vs. Students. Some things I covered were the spending and alternatives we could do to prevent how much the Gov. spends on prisoners costing taxpayers more money. I talked on the statistics and other graphs on the topic. In my second post I talked about my opinion on how I feel about the spending.

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imgres-1 8.58.01 AM

I also touched on some info I find on private prisons. I talked about my ideas and how I think we can fix this problem that is going on. All right now that that is out the way, I want to talk about this post for change. I’m going to tell you what I’ve done to make something happen. So far I’ve asked some adults if they could address the town hall when they have those meetings and bring this topic up or if they could talk to government officials for me. What’s left to do is see if change will happen. If they consider making a change then that’s a huge step forward that they even considered the idea. 

imgres-2 8.58.01 AM
imgres-2 8.58.01 AM

 Now we were suppose to make our own piece of original content which I chose on make to make a poster with prisoners and students on it telling people to make the choice on who they would rather support which I’m hoping people support kids who could create a better future for us and help the economy. I also made little cards with facts on it about the topic to help raise awareness. Now I would like to take this time to acknowledge everyone that helped me in this process, which includes the following people: Mrs. Dunn, Julia Boyer, My Dad, My Mom and Science Leadership Academy school.

 

This is my Bibliography

 

Screen Shot 2012-05-31 at 10.11.33 AM
Screen Shot 2012-05-31 at 10.11.33 AM
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Blog Post #2 Smith

Posted by Raekwon Smith in English 1 - Dunn on Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 5:33 pm

 Hello everyone again I come to you with my 2nd post on government spending on prisoners vs. students. One of my main issues is the fact that the government gives convicted killers, rapists, kidnappers, etc. health care that a lot of kids in America don’t have and food housing and more opportunities that most kids don’t get. Some new info I picked up is about private prisons. Although they are beneficial to saving money it also has its faults. For starters the security is very bad in some places as it said 3 murderers had escaped before. Also with private prisons they put high profile prisoners in low security places.

 

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356796-125080387129791-Carneadesx

This added to my knowledge because although it’s good to use private prisons for financial reasons it is not for safety purposes. It costs less if the government pays a private prison rather than run it themselves. In my opinion safety comes 1st cause if we aren’t safe than having money means nothing. After we get our security up to protect the people then we can worry about money. Although we can solve the safety issue by just putting low profile prisoners in the private prisons with medium security and leaving the high profile prisoners in the max security prisons. I have an idea that could work but it would take a lot of work and maybe money but the results will benefit us in the long run. 

  What if we built an island like Alcatraz and put all the high profile prisoners and low profile prisoners there with no resources to help them escape and a high wall around the perimeter with sharks swimming around so they wouldn’t try to escape that way. In the long run we would save billions because they wouldn’t have to keep building new prisons and prison cells and also having to pay guards to watch over them. I think this could work if we perfect what my main idea is and if we put the time and effort into it. I wonder if any other people care about this topic as much as I do. I am going to ask teachers and principals if they can help me get in touch with government officials to help this problem get fixed. My bibliography 

            

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Z1A_esca_alcatraz_l
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Government and State Spending on Prisoners vs. Students

Posted by Raekwon Smith in English 1 - Dunn on Friday, May 11, 2012 at 11:33 am

My name is Raekwon Smith and I’m doing a post on a world topic that interests me for school. It’s called You and The World and you pick a problem going on in the world that you want to talk about and then do a series of blog posts on it. My topic is about how the government and individual states spend more money on prisoners than kids and education. This topic is important to me because this could affect our education in the future because all the money we have is going towards funding prisons and prisoners that don’t deserve the care they receive. Prisons cost taxpayers more than $32 billion a year. Every year that an inmate spends in prison costs $22,000. An individual sentenced to five years for a $300 theft costs the public more than $100,000. The cost of a life term averages $1.5 million.One year at New Jersey State Prison cost more than one year at Princeton university.

 

According to heartsandminds.org, States are spending more money on prisons than education. Over the course of the last 20 years, the amount of money spent on prisons was increased by 570% while that spent on elementary and secondary education was increased by only 21%. They provide prisoners with free health care, internet access, weight room, cable television, access to libraries, free sports programs, computer lab, laundry services, funding to earn a degree, free housing, three square meals a day, clothing, and free dental care. Not all kids are provided with that type of care and attention that they give to prisoners. Our state of Pennsylvania is second on the list of most prisons.

Pennsylvania cut the budget for education to spend it on the growing rate of criminals in 2007. There are 46,000 inmates in Pennsylvania and $90 is spent on each inmate per day—which covers food, health care recreation, etc. The national average is only $63. $3.3 billion was spent last year on prison health care services.  Every inmate is guaranteed access to health care when they require it. It is stated in articlebase.com that if 30% of the prison population went to private facilities then it would save $100 million dollars annually but only 28 states allow that.

 

Private places could provide better care for prisoners while saving money (which would cost tax payers less) and preparing them for when they are released into the real world again to get along with everyone else. Every day 200 new cells are built. There could be private places instead to have a better outcome in the future. Her is picture of a prison cell in a Pennsylvania prison http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/prison-5.jpg. Here is my bibliography.

images
images
Tags: Dunn, English 9., You and the World
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Mi Clase- Ricardo Smith

Posted by Raekwon Smith in Spanish 1 - Bey on Monday, January 30, 2012 at 10:00 am
Movie on 1-29-12 at 6.12 PM
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My 2nd Slide In Building Media Fluencey

Posted by Raekwon Smith on Friday, January 27, 2012 at 7:50 am
In my 2nd slide I learned how to use Alpha to try and take the background out of the person dunking photo to make it look like he was dunking on the Rim hanging on the side of the slide wall. I also used Alpha to take the background off of the Rim to be able to hang it on the side. I used a color scheme of brown, Black and Red which isn't to bright and I didn't put to much on there because I didn't want it to be clustered. I didn't put to much on my last slide either but the pictures weren't alined right. I made the text big also so it can stand out and red is a good color to use to make it stand out more. In this slide I changed everything around and went with different pictures that looked good.
ABOUT ME TECH
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Mis Seres Queridos

Posted by Raekwon Smith in Spanish 1 - Bey on Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 5:53 pm
Spanish
Tags: EduardoRomero
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Pen Pal

Posted by Raekwon Smith in Spanish 1 - Bey on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 11:05 am

Querido Eduardo Romero,

 

         Saludes desede filadelphia. Me llamo Raekwon Smith. Yo tengo catorce anos. ¿Cuando anos tienes? Mi cumpleanos es dos de abril. ¿Que tiempo hace hoy.

        

Me gusta deporte el baloncesto. No me gusta futbol. Me gusta comida Americano. No me gusta musica Chinese. Me gusta musica el rap. No me gusta classica. Me gusta video juego. ¿Que te interesta?

 

Yo soy alto y grande. Yo soy guapo, Africano Americano y Moreno. Yo soy inteligente, interesante, comico, simpatico, y divertido. Yo soy meso menos serra. ¿Como eras tu? Bueno, me voy porque tengo que hacer tarea y jugar baloncesto. Mucho Gusto, adios

                                                               Con carino,

                                                                                                  Raekwon Smith

My pic
My pic
Tags: EduardoRomero
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About Me Raekwon Smith

Posted by Raekwon Smith on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 12:18 pm
I’m a 14 year old boy who loves family, sports, and video games. I Love to just chill and be with my family and have a great laugh. I like to have a good time cause life isn’t a video game you don’t respawn when you die, so I live it to the fullest. I go to I think my favorite of my 4 schools I've went to which is SLA-Science Leadership Academy. I believe I can do anything I put my mind to accept dribbling a football for 10 seconds straight.  
ABOUT ME TECH
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Time

Posted by Raekwon Smith on Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Ricardo Smith Felix Hayes

Before we start you have to know the important numbers first​       

Uno or Una= 1  You say Una when telling time
Dos= two
tres=three
cuatro=four
cinco=five
sies=six
siete=seven
ocho=eight
nueve=nine
diez=ten
once=eleven
doce=twelve
15minutes=cuarto
30minutes=media
Ok first you state the hour then use y to separate the minutes if any.

You say es la when using 1 or una ex. es la una y dos. I just said 1:02
You use son las for numbers 2-12 for hours. So you state hour then use y to connect for minutes 1-30 if any. So it would be either es la una y diez 1:10 or son las tres y ocho 3:08.

Then for minutes 31-59 you state hour ahead so if it 3:45 you say cuatro which is 4.Then connect minutes to hours with menos. Lastly state how many minutes it would take to get to next hour. Ex. if 5:45 then you say sies menos media

If its AM then you put de la manana
Afternoon PM is de la tarde
Night PM de la noche
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Weather

Posted by Raekwon Smith on Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Felix Hayes Ricardo Smith
Band X


What's The Weather like-¿Que Tiempo Hace Hoy?

Sunny-Hace Hoy

imgres
Windy-Hace Viento

imgres-1
Snowy-Esta Nevando

imgres-2
Cloudy-Esta Nublado
imgres-3

Rainy-Esta Hoviendo

 imgres-4
Now is a video to let u see how it's pronounced 
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Months, Dates

Posted by Raekwon Smith on Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 2:17 pm


Felix Hayes Raekwon Smith
Band X

Months

Spanish English
Enero January
Febrero February
Marzo March
Abril April
Mayo May
Junio June
Julio July
Agosto August
Septiembre September
Octubre October
Noviembre November
Diciembre December

When you say the date you always say the date first then the month. For example if its may 1st you say uno de Mayo.

Now here is a video of Ockbar Awesome and Anthony Rodriguez III explaining the months in order
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Greetings, How Are You, Responses, Goodbyes

Posted by Raekwon Smith on Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Ricardo Smith and Felix Hayes
Band X
Spanish       English
Greetings

​¡Hola!               Hi
¡Buenos Diez      Good Morning
¡Buenas Tardas   Good Afternoon
¡Buenas Noches  Good Evening 

How are you
¿Como estas? How are you
¿Que Tal How are you
¿Como estas usted? How are you (Formal)
¿Como estas ustedes How are you (Plural)

Responses
Bien Ok
Mal Bad
Màs o menos so-so
Feliz Great
Mal/horrible horrible
Excelente Excellent

Goodbyes
Adios Bye (Formal)
Hasta manana See you Tomorrow
Hasta luego See you later
Chao Bye (Slang)
Mucho gusto Nice meeting you

Now here is a video of Felix and Ricardo having a conversation
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