current event

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/29/son.charged/index.html

In Atlanta Georgia a 17 year old boy was charged for the murder of his mother and two younger sisters. His mother was a deputy in Atlana. The motive behind this murder is still under investigation. They are not sure if it was his mothers weapon that was used in the murder or if it was a weapon that he had gotten on his own.

I think that this is pretty sad. This is an entire family that has now been destroyed. The mother and two daughters are dead. There was no word on the father, and now this 17 year old will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison. I wonder though why he would kill his mother and daughters.

civil war

Mason Newstead

Elika Dadsetan

Humanities

Per 1/2

1/07/08

The Civil war lasted for four years , it went from April 12 , 1861 to April 9 , 1865. It was Americas most deadly war. The roughly 620 ,000 casualties were all American deaths. This war changed a lot of things in America. It was the war that ended slavery. Basically the South wanted to succeed and the North wanted to end slavery which created very high tensions between the two. The war was a very horrible one because it really broke down America. Every casualty in the war was that of an American citizen. Every building destroyed was an American building that would later need to be rebuilt regardless of the winner. Although there were many bad things about it , it did happen for a reason. Had the south succeeded , or had the outcome of the war been different , our country could be much different then the one we are accustomed to today in everyday life here in America.

With the slave owning South and the anti slavery North tensions began to escalate. During the the 1850's Abraham Lincoln was the president. He had the difficult task of deciding whether or not to allow slavery any longer. He made the effort to stop it by banning it in the new states that America was acquiring , this was during a time when we were expanding quite rapidly. He figured that the states that didn't believe in slavery would do their own thing , and slavery would end up being abolished their on its own. He figured that If he did not allow it in the new states then slavery would be contained enough to the point where the southern states that did own slaves would eventually become non slave owning states. The problem was that the south also saw this coming and they did not want to loose their power. During this time The south had a lot of control of the federal government. The North's fears were that the slave powers of the South already controlled the government. While the South was afraid that the anti-slave North was a threat to their power in the federal government. Tensions continued to escalate in America. The North evaluated the morality of slavery more and more and a general consensus formed in the North that slavery was wrong. Many people gathered in their political parties at that time. Although many thought that slavery was right and many people thought that slavery was wrong , they still had different ideas about what the government should be doing. First there were the republicans who were completely antislavery. Then there was the free soil party who wanted to prevent the spread of slavery , like Lincoln , although by 1854 they were pretty much absorbed by republican party. Then there were the democrats who were entirely pro slavery. Lastly there was the constitutional union. They were pro slavery , but their approach to it was to simply not do anything and leave things how they were. So their were four parties , an extreme and a mild approach from both sides. What is kind of funny about this is that today democrats are regarded more as the party that cares about human issues like gay rights or immigrant rights , things along that line. Also the republicans today are the ones that are more interested in money and doing the more profitable thing. So if the views of the modern day republican and democratic party were given the issue of slavery in the 1850's they would have been the exact opposite from that which they actually back in that time. The democrats of today would be antislavery , while the republicans of today would be proslavery. But , that isn't a completely valid argument. The republicans really didn't view slavery as a big human rights violation that needed to be stopped. It was more that they wanted to slow down the moment of the south to keep them from taking over. The reason that the South was doing so well was because of slavery and the massive amount of free labor that was because of it. So if the North were to cut out slavery in the South , then they would in turn loose all of their free work force in turn weakening the South to the extent that the North would gain political power over the United States. Over time tensions continued to grow between the North and South. Their main problem with each other was simply slavery. Having a war was pretty much inevitable. Up until the point of the civil war the North and South had been making simple compromises when dealing with the issue of slavery. Such as the gag rule , which restricted the discussion in congress of petitions for ending slavery between 1835 and 1844. Or the compromise of 1850 which decided which states that were gained after the Mexican American war would become slave states or not. Although the North and South were attempting compromise it really wasn't doing much. The North and South were being rapidly torn apart. War or succession was right around the corner. Congress did nothing but fight about the issues of slavery. The economy was at a standstill because trade became very limited between the North and South. When the proposition of a railroad to be put in across the United States , too much controversy arrived simply because members from the North and South in government simply could not agree on anything by now. The North and South were basically hanging together by a thread in 1860. That thread was severed when republican Abraham Lincoln was elected in to office. Regional leaders of the South agreed that Abraham Lincoln would be the one that would put an end to slavery and they could not have that. They decided that the only thing to do would be to succeed. This was the start of the war.

The deep Southern states that were the most prevalent for having the larger amount of slavery were the states that seceded first. Following their secession four more Southern states joined in after the Battle of Fort Sumter joined with Lincoln's call for each remaining state to provide troops to retake forts and fight back the secession. The upper South states said that they refused send troops to fight against their fellow neighbors in what they thought to be an invasion. The Secession of these states took place during February of 1861. The 7 states that seceded were South Carolina , Mississippi , Florida , Alabama , Georgia , Louisiana , and Texas. These seven states formed the Confederate States of America on February 4 , 1861. Their president was a man by the name of Jefferson Davis. Their governmental structure was pretty much identical to that of the United States Constitution. As mentioned previously , two months following the battle of Fort Sumter four more slave states had now joined the Confederacy. These states were; Virginia , Arkansas , North Carolina , and Tennessee. The northwestern part of Virginia Seceded from Virginia and joined the Union in turn creating the state which remains to this day , West Virginia.

The Union had a much larger support of states. The Union consisted of: California , Connecticut , Delaware , Illinois , Indiana , Iowa , Kansas , Kentucky , Maine , Maryland , Massachusetts , Michigan , Minnesota , Missouri , New Hampshire , New Jersey , New York , Ohio , Oregon , Pennsylvania , Rhode Island , Vermont , Wisconsin , Nevada and West Virginia. The Union also received support from territories such as: Colorado , Dakota , Nebraska , Nevada , New Mexico , Utah , and Washington. So it was pretty obvious that the Union had a lot more manpower. But, they did not have as much motivation as the South. It could have been just like the revolutionary war. Although Britain was much stronger that America, America prevailed because it was either win the war or die. They had no alternative. Same with the South In this case. They were going out on a limb. They were risking it all to remain a powerful slave state. So, you know that a country like this is not going to give up without a fight.

Because the two country's were bordering each other there were many battles that occurred throughout the war. The number of battles comes close to 10,000 in the few years that the civil war lasted for. Also because they created strong bases on either side of the border, the battles didn't usually take place too deep in to either country. 40% of all the battles in the Civil war were fought in Virginia and Tennessee, both of which where bordering states to the United States, and the Confederacy. From Lincoln's standpoint he was not looking to go invade the South. He said he was not going to try to end slavery end slavery where it existed. But he did say that he would use whatever force necessary, no matter how big or small, to maintain the possession of federal property.

Winfield Scott, who was the commanding general of the United States army during that time devised a plan called the anaconda plan. His plan to win the war was called the anaconda plan. He said that this plan would end the war with as little bloodshed as possible. that a Union blockade of the main ports would be very successful at weakening the Confederate economy. Then they would capture the Mississippi River which would split the South. Above is a cartoon sketch from the time of the civil war of Winfield Scotts anaconda plan. Lincoln adopted the plan, but overruled Scotts warnings against an attack on Richmond. This anaconda plan would prove very successful at ending the war without much fighting if all went well. They wouldn't need to fight the South, they would just need to wear them down. Lincoln cut off all ports along the South. This brought all international trade with the South to stop. The longer Lincoln delayed the South from fighting, the longer they would simply run low on racecourses. The longer they ran low on racecourses the sooner they would agree to ending slavery and joining again with the North to Bring back the strong America. But of course that isn't the case. If it was we could have actually ended up saving hundreds of thousands of American lives. But of course it wasn't as simple as most people had expected it to turn out.

The blockade continued to go on. It was working rather well. The south's number one export was cotton. The problem was that now they had nowhere to export it. So they had thousands of slaves harvesting massive amounts of cotton that could now not be sold to anybody. During this time hyperinflation occurred. The value of money in the South dropped very rapidly, while at the same time the price of goods went way up. People were starving, there were bread riots. The anaconda plan was working. It was obvious that the confederacy was going to fight back soon. On March 8, 1862 the Confederate and Union Navys had a big battle on the water. This battle was started by the confederacy when their ironclad ship called the CSS Virginia attacked the blockade. After a day of tearing down the blockade the CSS Virginia now had to face the union ship called the USS Monitor. This battle was named the Battle of Ironclads. The battle ended in a draw, which was really a victory for the Union because after the battle they were still able to rebuild the blockade. Also, it was a huge loss to the Confederacy because they lost the CSS Virginia in this battle and that really took a toll on their limited naval racecourses. Also there was another naval battle that resulted in a Union victory that ultimately securred the entire blockade and ended all outside racecourses. from even secretly coming in.

Although the south was being weakened economically they were still maintaining very tight borders. When Union troops would try to attack the Souths Borders in a state like Virginia they were welcomed with vast numbers of confederate troops. The Union hadn't been expecting to be up against such a strong army. The confederacy was also equipped with a very powerful military leader. His name was Thomas Jackson, and his nickname which is still very well known to this day was Stonewall Jackson. He was given the name because he stood like a stone wall up against the Union troops. As the war waged on the confederacy was doing surprisingly well with battles. They were winning a lot, which wasn't very expected. But all of these battles being fought were all advancements from the North going South. Finally there was a major battle where the south were the ones advancing to the North. During this time warfare was quite simple. You would find an open field. Stand in a row across from each other. A line would fire once the opposing side would fire once. The next line would fire while the previous line was reloading. This would just knock out thousands and thousands of troops. Eventually they would charge at each other and engage in hand to hand, sword to sword combat. So the more people in a battle the longer you're starting line, the more people that die. This battle in particular was called the battle of Antitam. From the confederacy it was led by General Lee, who had an army 45,000 strong. He was apposed to Union General Magellan who also had an army about that size. The battle took place on September 17, 1862. It was the bloodiest single day in the United States military history. Eventually Lees army decided to return back to Virginia. Both sides lost an equally vast number of troops but it was considered a Union win because it was Lee that eventually retreated. This battle gave Lincoln the chance to issue his emancipation proclamation which basically freed any slave currently in the Confederacy and allowed them to come to the Union and be free. This was mainly for the already escaped slaves that were already in the union to not be anyone's property anymore.

Along with Antitam there was one other major battle during the civil war. It is referred to by some as the turning point of the war. It was started when General Lee realized that his men were in dire need for shoes. He realized that the majority of his troops were fighting barefoot. So what he decided to do was to cross the border in to Northern territory to break in to a shoe factory to get his men shoes. On their way to the shoe factory they run in to General Meades massive army at Gettysburg and they are instantly engaged in battle. The two sides had vast numbers of men fighting. The Union with about 90,000 men against the Confederacy who had about 70,000 men. It was an extremely bloody battle. It had the majority of the soldiers from both sides of the war fighting there. The battle of Gettysburg lasted for 3 days. There were 23,000 killed from both sides, Equalling out to be 46,000 American deaths in three days. Eventually Lee retreated, Following this battle the Confederacy lost the war. They Union slowly closed in from all sides on the confederacy and inevitably forced them to surrender. General Lee's surrender took place in Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865 at the Appomattox Court house. After the war Lincoln was re-elected. Although they had won now they were simply back together again. Except now slaves were free, 600,000 Americans were dead, and the country was left in pieces. But the country was rebuilt, and it was rebuilt even stronger than it had been originally. The rebuilding of America really brought the North and South back together. It was something that they had to agree on, and unify to make this country strong.

Had there never been a civil war and the south would have seceded America would be a much different country than the one it is today. Most likely we wouldn't not have progressed as fast. We would have been limited by being forced to trade between the Union and the confederacy, two separate countries. Instead of it being how it is today where America thrives off of the advancements made from all states. Had there never been a civil war we most likely wouldn't have expanded as much. Most likely the North would have stayed with what they had, while the South would stay with what they had, instead of expanding all the way to Washington state like we did. We can also wonder, what would have happened if the South had won the war. Most historians believe that it would have been impossible. That no matter what the North had more manpower and racecourses. But had the South won things would be very different. They of course would have had their independence. Slavery also would have continued for who knows how long. Neither the North nor the South would have been able to advance the way we did. They would have attempted to become self sufficient, which would have proved to be really ineffective. The country of America is a great one because Americans come together for the better of our country. We unify and we progress. That is what makes our country great.

Bibliography

Dr Marjorie Bloy. “The battles.” Historyhome. 2005. 28. Feb. 2008

http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9355164

Otto H. Olsen . “slaves.” Southernhistory. 2008. 28. Feb. 2008

http://www.southernhistory.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=9406

Don E. Fehrenbacher. “civil war.” Historycooperative. 2007. 28. Feb. 2008

http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jala/9/fehrenbacher.html

Taut

Taut-kept in proper order or condition. like a collector car.

Obsolete

Obsolete. knowing the way technology is advancing, soon HD will become obsolete.

Emaciate

Emaciate means to grow weak or thin. This makes me think of jews during the holocaust.

Tenacity

Tenacity means to stick to somethng. to be tenacious. like tenacious D!

Embezzle

people embezzle money

steadfast

steadfast means steadily directed. a train is steadily directed

lucidity

lucidity means easy to understand
2+2 is easy to understand

insurrection

insurrection means an act or instance of rising in revolt, rebellion, or resistance against civil authority or an established government. so I chose to use the anarchy sign because anarchy is about rebelling against the government

emancipation

emancipate means to free or release
so i chose a picture of a slave
a slave can be emancipated

documentarys

We watched 2 documentarys on the civil war. They were okay. Actually they were pretty boring. It was basically this guy dressed up in a civil war uniform pretending that he had fought in the war. Then he would just explain how the civil war worked. He didnt really explain the reasons behind the war. It was more like how the people lined up for battle, and the weapons that they used. While he talked it just showed a bunch of pictures from the civil war that were being zoomed in and out. I think that for our documentary we are going to give an overall idea behind the reasons of the war. Obviously we are going to need a lot of pictures from the civil war. We arent going to go in to depth about the people or the strategies of the war. More the reasons of the war, the outcome, and the effects of the war.

fidelity

fidelity means exctness or accuracy.

i chose this picture from the movie high fidelity because that is what I think of when I think of fidelity

book report

Author Last, First Name. Title of the book. Place of Publication. Company: Date.

Paulsen, Gary. Brians Winter. New York, NY. Simon Pulse Paperbacks: October 1999.

Reason, Type and Setting: I really like Gary Paulsen and I really like survival books. I really liked reading Hatchet, and this was the next book in the series so I decided to read it. The book is a survival book. It takes place in the 90's

Plot: Basically there is a boy named Brian. He is in a small airplane heading to canada to see his father. During the flight the pilot has a heart attack. Brian is left of the airplane in the middle of nowhere. In the first book he ends up being rescued at the end. But this book is about what would have happened if he had not been rescued and what it would have been like for him to survive during the winter.

In the winter he faces harsh weather. It is extremely cold and there is snow everywhere. There are many bad things because of this, but some good. First of all he needs to make warmer clothes wich he does not have. Also he needs snow shoes to walk in the snow. But the nice thing about the winter is that it is very easy to track animals because of the prints that they leave in the snow.

Character: Brian. He is a 15 year old boy. I really don't know what he looks like. I know by the end of the story he is very slim but in good shape. He is a very determined person. He is dedicated to survival. Well he is simply the main and only character in the story. I chose him because he is the only character. He is very interesting because he is in such a crazy situation that would be so hard to survive in. He is very changed by the end. He is very independent and extremely good at survival. He also doesn't take things for granted anymore.

Evaluation:

I definitely liked the novel. It was very interesting and entertaining. It also taught me a lot about survival. I liked that tjis one explains surviving in the winter. In the first book I learned how to survive in the summer, so how to avoid mosquitos and how to fish. Then in this book I learned how to make snow shoes and how to make clothing from animal fur. The books point about life is that the life we live is a very easy one and that if we didn't live in the society that we lived in it could potentially be extremely hard to live. I would definitely recommend this book. It is really good and I know that it appeals to a wide variety of people.

This book is real life. It reminds me that some people in the world today actually have to live like this. Live in caves. Hunt for food. Make clothing from animal fur. Make tools themselves. Most people in this situation aren't even lucky enough to have a hatchet. It is important to read. You appreciate the life that you live more after reading this book.

I think that I would have done everything the same. It would have been very hard, but I would have done the work necessary to survive. I have actually always thought that it would be really cool to be in a situation like this. But I definitely wouldnt enjoy the freezing cold winter. I would not enjoy that. It would just be way to cold, and way to hard. There would be too much effort put in to just keeping warm. Another ending could have been that he never discovered the hunting family and that he could live in the wilderness for the rest of his life.

Author, Context and Trivia:

Gary Paulsen writes a lot of survival books. I have read one about a soldier in the revolutionary war and another about a boy lost from his family on the Oregon trail. Both of these stories were really good. This book is similar but very different. Yet they were all very good. I would definitely read this author again.

current event

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-oxnard15feb15,0,7663055.story

yesterday in ventura county a 14 year old middle school student was shot in the head during the middle of class by a classmate. the name of the boy that was shot is lawrence king. He was shot by another 14 year old by the name of Brandon Mcinerey. This shooting was thought to be a hate crime. Students at the school reported that the victim was openly gay and that the shooter had had a verbal confrontation with him the day before the shooting. Currently king is on life support, but he was deemed completely braindead. His organs will be donated. Brandon Mcinerey will face 50 years to life in jail.

I think this is pretty sad on both sides. First of all there was a 14 year old that was killed for a really dumb reason. He did nothing wrong, he difinitely did not deserve to die, just for being gay. Brandon Mcinerey should not have shot him, he did a very horrible thing. But, this 14 year old is about to spend at least the next 50 years in jail. Obviously he deserves to be severely punished. But this inncident is pretty much taking away two lives from socioty.

rough draft of essay

What I want to accomplish after high school.

My name is Mason Newstead and I am currently an intern at Fox 6 News. Over the past few weeks I have become very interested in the news. I think that it is really cool. I really enjoy learning how everything works there. A lot of things interest me and I think that I may possibly consider going in to news production as a job. Although the times aren't very convenient for me, I still think that it would be very cool. So to pursue this after this internship is over I would need to ask for either an extended internship, or possibly a job. Then when I go to college I will major in something related to media, then following college I will get a job working in news production.

My internship will end in June. But I think that it would be really cool for me to be able to extend my job there somehow. I plan to ask my mentor for a job or just a new internship for the summer. If that is able to work out I would stay doing that until the end of high school. This would give me a great experience that no other high school student would. It is nearly impossible to get an internship at a place like fox, so for me to have an internship/job for over a year in high school is going to be great. I think that that experience will definitely help me get me in to a good college. I would like to attend one of the UC schools. After being accepted I would like to major in some sort of media. So I may possibly get experience making movies or something along those lines while in college. Following graduation I am going to search for a job.

Most likely I will return to fox in search of a job. I think that by then I will have built up some strong connections with the people there and It may be easy to get a job. But if this does not work I will venture out elsewhere. It would actually be more convenient to have a job in news for an afternoon news show. Because then I could get to work, do the news, then get home and still have a night to myself. If I were to work at fox, I would be at work until eleven o'clock at night, and I would prefer not to have a life with such a weird schedule like that.

So once I get the job somewhere this is really where my accomplishments would start. I would work my way from the bottom up. I would most likely start out doing either teleprompting of videography. From there I would maybe start doing things like video editing. Then I would learn CG, then TG. With all of my prior experience I think that after about five years that I could be the director of the news show. That would definitely be something to be proud of. five years would be a very short amount of time to move up that fast in a job like that but I believe that it is a good thing to be ambitious and set your goals high. That’s how you really accomplish things in life.

I think that this is a very doable goal. I'm not sure if this is actually what I want to do. But I believe that at the moment it is a good goal to have. If I were to do everything that I plan on doing I would be very happy with myself. Accomplishing something like that would be a great challenge yet it would come with the great reward of being successful and happy with yourself.

relapse

this picture is expressing someone going through relapse which can be extremely painful.

bigot

all of these people are bigots. So someone decided to turn them in to the bigot bunch. A bigot is basically a racist. but it doesn't have to be race.

renovate

in extreme makeover home edition they do tons of renovations on houses.

Resilience

this is David Faber. He is extremely resilient. He is a holocaust survivor. He fought in a resistance as well as survived Auschwitz.

current event

The superbowl. This weekend was the superbowl. It was probably the biggest upset in superbowl history. It was crazy. The patriots that had gone 18 and 0 the entire season, the most undefeated wins in a season lost to the Giants, who nobody thought had a chance. The game was all defense until the last quarter when Eli Manning threw one of the most amazing passes in football history combined with one of the greatest catches in football history. The Giants scored a touchdown and gave the patriots a measly 35 seconds to attempt and impossible touchdown which they failed at.

I didn't even watch the game until the last quarter but it was truly amazing. I, along with the majority of the country was pretty convinced that the patriots were going to win. This game wasn't even going to be close. But I was definitely proven wrong. I am very happy that the patriots lost. They are cheaters, and they beat the chargers too much. I am glad that they lost, and I am glad that I witnessed history on Sunday.

FOX 6

book report-hatchet

Book Report / Novel Summary

Author Last, First Name. Title of the book. Place of Publication. Company: Date.

Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet. New York, NY. Simon Pulse Paperbacks: October 1996.

Reason, Type and Setting: I really like Gary Paulsen and I really like survival books. Ive always heard that this was a good book so I finally read it. The book is a survival book. It takes place in the 90's

Plot: Basically there is a boy named Brian. He is in a small airplane heading to canada to see his father. During the flight the pilot has a heart attack. Brian is left of the airplane in the middle of nowhere

he lets the plane fly until it runs out of fuel. Then he crashes it in to a lake. He is injured in the crash and swims to shore where he instantly falls asleep. He is left in the wilderness of canada during summer for about three months. He discovers fire and learns how to fish. He creates a bow and arrow. This was all able to be done with a hatchet that he happened to have with him when he inegalitarian.

Character: Brian. He is a 14 year old boy. I really don't know what he looks like. I know by the end of the story he is very slim but in good shape. He is a very determined person. He is dedicated to survival. Well he is simply the main and only character in the story. I chose him because he is the only character. He is very interesting because he is in such a crazy situation that would be so hard to survive in. He is very changed by the end. He is very independent and extremely good at survival. He also doesn't take things for granted anymore.

Evaluation:

I definitely liked the novel. It was very interesting and entertaining. It also taught me a lot about survival. Its point about life is that the life we live is a very easy one and that if we didn't live in the society that we lived in it could potentially be extremely hard to live. I would definitely recommend this book. It is really good and I know that it appeals to a wide variety of people.

This book is real life. It reminds me that some people in the world today actually have to live like this. Live in caves. Hunt for food. Make tools themselves. Most people in this situation aren't even lucky enough to have a hatchet. It is important to read. You appreciate the life that you live more after reading this book.

I think that I would have done everything the same. It would have been very hard, but I would have done the work necessary to survive. I have actually always thought that it would be really cool to be in a situation like this. Another conclusion could have been that he didn't get rescued and he would have to continue living there and survive during winter and the go find help. But I like the way the book ended.

Author, Context and Trivia:

Gary Paulsen writes a lot of survival books. I have read one about a soldier in the revolutionary war and another about a boy lost from his family on the Oregon trail. Both of these stories were really good. This book is similar but very different. Yet they were all very good. I would definitely read this author again.