Book-of-the-Month Advertisment

I read the book Flawless by Sara Shephard for the month of November.  This book is the second in its series.  At the beginning of the story, the book goes back to wen the Alison first discovered the four other girls.  It talks about how there is always this one person in the neighborhood who is the creepy and lonely outcast.  In this series the creepy person is Toby Cavanaugh.  The last thing I read was when the groups' leader, Alison, set a firework towards Toby's treehouse.

http://yayreads.blogspot.com/2010/07/pretty-little-liars-2-flawless-by-sara.html

O'Henry Blog Post

• His real name is William Sydney Porter.
• Born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1862.
• Died in 1910.
• He was accused of embezziling money and was sent to prison for five years.
• While in prison he started writing short stories to support his daughter Margret.
• In 1901 he left the prison after only doing three years
• After prison he changed his name to O' Henry.
• He is mostly known for "The Ransom of Red Chief", which is in the collection Whirligigs.
• O Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver on June 5, 1910 in New York.

"Maqueof the Red Death" Essay

            When most people think of the color violet, they associate it with red, suffering or pain, and that death is near.  In “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe revolves the seven apartments with the cycle of life.  Each apartment has a different color representing a specific time in life.  There are age ranges’ for each color except for the last apartment color which is black.  The age range of violet for the life cycle is sixty or seventy to ninety.  Violet is located in between white and black in this color scheme.

            The seven apartment colors are blue, purple, green, orange, white, violet, and black.  Blue represents a baby, happiness, youth, and being young.  Blue is like the start of life, speaking in colors, birth.  The next apartment color is purple.  Purple represents happiness and fun.  The age range for purple is five to eight years old.  The next apartment color is green.  Green represents adolescence and money.  The age range for green is ten to twenty years old.  That is the color that represents us.  The next apartment color is orange.  Orange represents vibrant, parties, lust for life, autumn and fall.  The age range for orange is twenty one to fifty years old.  The next apartment color is white.  White represents plain, wisdom, and knowledge.  The age range for white is fifty one to sixty or seventy.  The next apartment color is violet.  Violet represents red, suffering or pain, and that death is near.  The age range for violet is sixty or seventy to ninety.  The last and final apartment color is black.  Black represents death and darkness.  There is no age range for black because there is no more life on earth.

            Violet does not relate to me that well right now because I am nowhere around that age.  The only connection that I can make is the color violet and my grandma.   My grandma also drives a white car and so does every other person that qualifies to be in that age range.  That is the only thing that I can really think of for the color violet because I do not know many things that are that old or remind me of violet.  I think that violet is the most depressing part of life because most old people think about death a lot.  Thinking only about death is just so depressing to only be thinking about the negative and not being able to enjoy the last moments on Earth. 

             Thinking of months of the year, some people would consider violet as the month, November.  People would say the month November because it is not quite at the end but it is fairly close.  This color symbolizes not the last stage but what is leading to the last, the second to last.  Sadly, this is one of the critical and saddening part of life.

Edgar Allan Poe Webquest

http://medchrome.com/extras/stories/berenice-by-edgar-allan-poe/

I have only heard of the name Edgar Allan Poe.  I have never known anything about him or his work.

QUESTIONS:

1.) Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 9, 1809.  He had died October 7, 1849.

2.) Tragic childhood events that influenced his writing was when he was that within three years since his birth both of his parents had died.  Edgar Allan Poe and his siblings were separated into different families to be taken care of.

3.) Five of the thirteen theories on Poe's death are drunkness, heart problems, epilepsy, murder, and beating.
4.) Edgar called Virgina home.
5.)  The Poe Toaster was the nick name given to to mysterious person that visited Edgar's grave every year on his birthday.
6.) "The Raven" was published in 1845.
7.) "The Murders of the Morgue" was the first detective story.
8.) The US Military Academy at West Point Expelled Poe in 1831.
9.) Poe married Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe and she was thirteen years old.
10.) "The Black Cat" was written in 1843 and "The Tell Tale Heart" was written in 1843 also.

Second Quarter!

Welcome back to my blog. I like reading William Shakespeare because even though sometimes it is hard to comprehend what he is exactly saying he has a real twist in his stories.

Third Artcle Notes

• Cancer is caused in all, or almost all, instances by alterations in DNA called mutations
• The body has a strict regulation system so that only a minute fraction of the cells that mutate in the body ever lead to cancer
• Genetic makeup is part of the reason that some individuals who live a very healthy lifestyle die of cancer, while others who have poor dietary and personal habits do not
•  Ionizing radiation may be divided into two major types: electromagnetic radiation and particulate radiation
•  Electromagnetic radiation includes X rays and gamma rays. Particulate radiation includes electrons, protons, neutrons, alpha particles, and heavy ions
• A widespread source of radiation is radon, a colorless, odorless gas that occurs naturally in rocks and soil
• Exposure to sunlight is the greatest risk factor for radiation-related cancer
•  The risk of skin cancer has increased with the depletion of stratospheric ozone, which protects us from the Sun's ultraviolet rays
• Some forms of electromagnetic energy, including microwaves, radio waves, and low-frequency radiation
• A growing body of evidence links diet with cancer
• There are 50 cancer-causing substances in cigarette smoke

Second Article Bullets

•  United States is responsible for about 560,000 deaths per year—23 percent of the overall total
• Skin cancer continues to be the most prevalent
• In men alone, prostate cancer is the most common
• In women, breast cancer is the most prevalent
• In both sexes, lung cancer accounts for the greatest number of cancer deaths each year
• The likelihood of developing cancer increases with age
• In the past, people generally did not live long enough to develop cancers
• The frequencies of age-specific cancers have not changed dramatically in years
• The incidence of lung cancer has been steadily declining among men, but it continues to increase among women
• five-year relative survival rate for all types of cancers diagnosed between 1995 and 2000 was 64 percent, compared with 50 percent between 1974 and 1976

First Article Notes

·         “Cancer is a group of diseases in which certain cells within the body lose their ability to regulate cell division.”

·         Normal cells will get destroyed when the cancerous cells enter the body and multiply uncontrollably

·         Cancer was referred to as a scar in the fifteenth century

·         “Until the eighteenth century, Europeans treated cancer with crude methods like cauterization and bloodletting”

·         In the twentieth century the most important conclusion had been drawn

·         The first virus-induced cancer was discovered by Peyton Rous

·         A virus equals the cause of the cancer, concluded by Rous

·         His work was ignored until in 1966 (4 years before he died in 1970) when he received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine

·         “It became accepted that some cancers are infectious; that is, they are able to spread from individual to individual via certain viruses”

·         Several viruses including hesitations out of the 24 known can cause additional diseases plus the cancer

Social Issue Paragraph

Caitlin J.

Mrs. Zurkowski

1120-104

9-13-2010

Book: Going for the Record

Topic: Cancer

Search Terms:

Pancreatic Cancer

Treatments

Procedures

Symptoms

Causes and Effects

Statistics

Cancer

The key issue that I picked for my research project is cancer.  I already know that cancer can spread, it is deadly, and there are many different kinds.  Some symptoms are coughing up blood, having trouble with swallowing, and a persistent sore throat.  The image for cancer is a symbol that looks like infinity sign and a sideways 69.  I think that cancer is very important and there are so many different types that make it even a bigger social issue.

 

 http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.infoniac.com/uimg/no-cancer-sign.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.infoniac.com/offbeat-news/miracle-man-who-beat-cancer-eight-times.html&usg=__g0C-j3TO2_siAubqvjIMy3H0iI8=&h=287&w=287&sz=67&hl=en&start=76&zoom=1&tbnid=uv31WMDgsTQ_cM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=145&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcancer%2Bdisease%2Bsign%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D585%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=120&ei=NWeRTLXyEM-inQea06S0DA&oei=DmeRTPfTNcG78gbCp8WpBQ&esq=5&page=5&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:76&tx=101&ty=76

Novel Pen Pal Paper

Dear Leah Weiczynkowski,


My name is Caitlin J. and this summer I enjoyed reading your book. This was about you and your dad’s journey together to reach your goal. Her goal to play for the under eighteen team which will lead her to the World Cup and the Olympics. Over the summer I trained for soccer like you, but mine was only for high school where as yours was for a much bigger league. Either way it is intense. I also went to Hershey Park in Pennsylvania where I go every year with my friend, her family, and other families. There is a picture of me and my friend Curtis on the right. I went to a soccer camp in Towson. This was my first year there and it was great. However, I didn’t get to go anywhere special because I swim for the Aberdeen Penguins for the summer and had to train and get in shape for soccer.

Going for the Record was a pretty good book and I enjoyed reading it this summer. I felt that you did a really good job dealing with your dad’s cancer. Dealing with quitting soccer which you have devoted your whole life to was a pretty big deal to me. It left you with a big emptiness which trying to fill was pretty difficult.

Julie A. Swanson’s writing style is definitely realistic. Going out for a soccer team and making it; that’s pretty realistic I think. The way the book is written makes it easy to be read. There are not a lot of difficult words. I felt that you were realistic to me, the reader.

Why did you stop talking to Clay? I mean he was there for you he could have helped you get through your loss. He was such a sweet boy to you. So what if he likes you? That just means that he would do anything for you just to make you happy. Sweet boys are hard to find I was happy when he kept trying even though you just kept pushing him away even more. I’m glad you came to your senses it made the book even more enjoyable.

The social issue in this book was pancreatic cancer. The internet would be a good way to raise awareness of this issue. It could be seen all over the world. Just by word of mouth would be a good way because of course people talk and especially in class. This novel will absolutely leave me thinking more about this issue. This book really hit me about this every day issue. It really had me thinking.

Well good-bye and I wanted to say thanks for writing this book. If there are any other kids out there that read your book I hope that they will realized how big of a deal this cancer is. However, before I go I would like to give you some advice. I would tell you not to push your friends away. In desperate times you will need them in your life. Friends are really beneficial!



Sincerely,



Caitlin J.

My Unique Profile

Hello, my name is Caitlin Johnson. Previously, I attended Good Shepherd for kindergarten through sixth grade. I went to St. Joan of Arc for seventh and eighth grade. I like to play soccer for John Carroll and I really want to cheerlead in the winter. And yes, cheerleading is a sport! I like to look through old photos of when I was younger and when my parents were younger. I like pop music and my favorite artists are Justin Bieber, Auburn, Lit Millionaires, and more. For high school I would like to be completely organized and keep on task during class and not get distracted.