Main Character Description

My main character is named Amanda Watson. She is a 19 year old girl that is currently studying veterinary medicine at Cornell University. She comes from a wealthy family and is a bit of a snob, she was always top of class, had a lot of friends and her life seemed perfect. Amanda is tall; she has really long legs, brown hair, green eyes and a great bone structure, as her mother used to say. She is your typical pretty girl. Or was, one rainy afternoon Amanda decided to go out with some friends, surprisingly quickly, the weather changed from drizzle to a horrible storm. Amanda and her friends decided to go inside, they got to safe spot when she realized she had left her new Prada jacket behind, of course she went to get it, sadly she never got to it. Amanda woke up the next day on the Cayuga Medical Center, she was informed she had been struck by lightning. Now she had what she considered a really ugly scar all across her right shoulder all the way down to her fingertips. She later discover lighting hadn't only left a nasty scar, but also the ability to produce lightning bolts herself. 

Stand Up Comedy Link

I'm not really into comedy, but this youtube channel had a lot of cool and clean stuff. Plus, this guy made me laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi997gvsgm8

Character Description

I consider myself a bookworm, and choosing just one character is a very hard task for me. After a long time thinking, I finally had my final 3. Auri, a girl from the books The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s fear by Patrick Rothfuss, Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter. I had to choose Harry. Those books marked a huge stage of my life and to my eyes Harry is perfect. Harry Potter is this skinny boy, long messy hair, white skin. You probably wouldn’t notice him in a crowd, he doesn’t stand out. The only noticeable thing is his lightning-shaped scar and his beautiful green eyes. What makes him so special though, isn’t the outside. The way he always acts with bravery and puts his heart into everything he believes in makes you admire him, just like a true Gryffindor. 

2 Questions

Technological Advance:

I chose the internet as my technological advance. I think we really are so much better because of this technology; it helps us communicate with our loved ones that live far away, be able to get information that otherwise we couldn’t have access to before, a lot of new entertainment forms, etc. Of course it has some downsides; anyone can access the internet and put in there any kind of information that may be false or inaccurate.  Also in a lot of blogs and stuff like that you can write hurtful comments as an anonymous person and because of that get away with it. Everything can be good or bad and I think it’s really up to you how you use it.

Community Service:

On my previous school, 300 hours of community service were obligatory if you wanted to graduate. The first year of high school you didn’t get to choose what kind of community service you would be doing, but your second and third year you could if it had something to with what you want to study in college. I think community service is good because you get to help people, but like anything they obligate you to do sometimes you don’t like it. That’s why if they give you some options on how you can help maybe we would do it more eagerly.  I think that we could really help if we gave some classes to kinds that don’t have access to education, or maybe some conservational stuff. 

Community

If I could live in any community it would have to be New York. I have only been there once (and it was a long time ago) but I fell in love with the city since then. I know they say people aren't quite affable there, the high crime rate stuff and the fact that it's a very expensive place but I really don't care. Also, I think people always see the bad part about things, and places and people before seeing the good parts. Like, what about the nightlife of New York? The cultural places? The diversity of the people? Those are the reasons for which I would love to live in New York, well, the important ones. Other significant factors are the weather, for example. I think it's perfect because you get to wear really cute dresses in the summer and elegant coats on winter!

Parts of Speech

1. Affable - Affability
I think his affability is a strength of his, not a weakness.

2.Morose - Morosely
He has been looking morosely at those photos for hours. They must remind him of something really sad.

3. Quirk - Quirky
It's very annoying to be around her because she's a really quirky person.

4. Terse - Tersely
I delivered them the bad news tersely because I was in a terrible mood, now I feel worse because of it.

5. Pontificate - Pontificate
Pontificate as a verb means to speak in a pompous manner, and as a noun it refers to the roman catholic church.

Community Photos

These are a few pictures that represent my community, the first one is a picture I took in "La Quinta." I think that place is a really iconic of Playa because everyone goes there on the weekend or when they have free time. It's also a very touristic part and what I don't like is that I'm starting to see a lot of stores from foreign countries and I would prefer to see more national stuff.

The las two are of the place I live in "Selvamar." I spend most of my time there and I love/hate the fact that it's in the middle of the jungle. I like that there are a lot of animals, but there's also a lot of bugs. There are millions of mosquitoes, and they really annoy me. Anyways, that's my community!

Idiom Assignment "It's raining cats and dogs!"

I chose the idiom “it´s raining cats and dogs” because that’s what’s been going on the past days.  The non-literal meaning refers to when it’s raining really intensely or heavily.

People are not sure of the origin of this one, but many agree that it might have to do with mythology. The other possible source that at least three internet sites shares, was that it comes from versions of different words, like the French word “catadoupe” meaning waterfall or from a Greek expression “cata doxa.”

Dialogue:

-Hello?

-Hi Sam, it’s me Eve, do you think we can rehearse the play today?

-I don’t think so Eve, have you looked outside? It’s raining cats and dogs!

-Oh well, but we can find an indoors place to do it don´t you think?

-That´s not the problem, you know I the only way to move around for me is on my bike, and I cant go out when it’s raining like this.

-How about I pick you up?

-Then sure!

Community Recommendation

I recently moved to Playa like 5 weeks ago, so I don’t know many places or interesting locations to recommend. The thing that comes to mind is a place called “Bisquets Obregón.” This is a place located somewhere in or near “la Quinta” (not really sure were, though). I have known this place since I was little, because there are more of these restaurants throughout Mexico. The food is great, but their strongest asset is their bread. Maybe I like it because it reminds me of the city I used to live in, but I’ve heard that other people like it so I think it’s safe to send you there.  

10 SAT words in other sources

1. Word: Decoy. Source: Song "Decoy" by Paramore

2. Word: Quandary. Source: "We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community." Quote by: Barbara Jordan.

3. Word: Perdition Source: Poem "The road to perdition" by Capitan Cur

4. Word: Affable Source: "I wasn't good at being affable. You get beyond that and realise the attraction in any human being has more to do with what they give to someone rather than just being face candy." Quote by: Alison Moyet.

5. Word: Languish Source: Song "Languishing" by Mariah Carey

6. Word: Placebo Source: Article "Is the placebo powerless? Update of a systematic review
with 52 new randomized trials comparing placebo with no treatment"

7. Word: Quirk Source: "Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks." Quote by: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

8. Word: Stevedore Source: Poem "The Stevedores" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

9.Word: Atheist Source: News article "More atheists shout it from the rooftop" 

10. Word: Morose Source: “So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays." Quote by: N.H. Kleinbaum

Challenge Homework

Last year, for my first year of high school, I decided to go live with my grandmother in Queretaro. I left my siblings and my parents behind not knowing what to expect and having no idea of how to do things by myself. I didn’t know how to cook, do the laundry, that sort of things. For the first few weeks I was feeling morose. I always had my parents backup, and now I didn’t.

Also, my grandma has a lot of quirks, which made it a little hard to live “in peace” with her. She had no car, and neither did I, so I had to take a cab to get to my school (which was quite far) every single day. My parents send me a little amount of money every month, and that was my lunch money, emergency money, and weekend money. I had to organize myself and sacrifice a lot of things that, if I were living with my parents, I wouldn’t have to.

Due to some family issues, my parents gave me the option to come back, so now I found myself in a quandary. I absolutely love the city, but with no car, no income of my own, and at the age of 16 life was a little hard.  So I decided to come back. I don’t regret my decision, even though I miss Queretaro a lot. I also don’t think it was a wasted year, I learned a lot and most importantly, I became a lot more independent. 

Recommendation

Why did humans invent music?

Article by Marc Silver (National geographic)

I liked this article because despite what the tittle makes you think, which is that they are actually going to tell you why humans invented music, they don’t, and it’s the first thing they point out.

Instead, they give theories of why it is that humans listen to music. The part where they say that music was invented to belong to a certain group I find completely true. Like the example they mentioned, when you go to a concert of your favorite band, you find the people that go there friendly, affable, you immediately like them just because they like the same music and that creates a certain feel of belonging.

I recommend this article because it’s informative, but also not very long and it’s not written in a pontificate way, but a simple way.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/130824-invention-music-phish-stevie-wonder-blurred-lines-robin-thicke/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ng%2FNews%2FNews_Main+%28National+Geographic+News+-+Main%29

20 Sentences (SAT words)

1.       My friend Michael is a very religious person, he is against every atheist person in the world.

2.       Lucy don’t quaff, drink slowly please.

3.       Eve was Adam’s perdition the moment she decided to eat the apple.

4.       I got a job for summer working as a stevedore.

5.       I find myself in a quandary, I don’t know if I should take a gap year or go straight to college.

6.       A little gambol is okay once in a while.

7.       You seem so stoic all the time, sometimes it’s good to feel something, you know?

8.       I’m still balking if I should go out with him.

9.       Josh has a lot of quirks; sometimes I think he’s an alien.

10.    Don’t look so morose Amanda, I promise you things will get better.

11.   Please guys make your presentation as terse as possible, we don’t have a lot of time.

12.   Don’t languish just yet Tom! Just a few more miles and the race is over!

13.   Nathan is always trying to thwart my plans with Emily, but this time I won’t let him.

14.   When she speaks in that pontificate way of hers it makes her sound smarter than she is.

15.   I set a little decoy to scare Sarah, revenge time!

16.   Jim never laughs uncontrollably like everyone else but he’s always tittering.

17.   The new girl seems so affable; I think she’ll fit right in.

18.   When she started with her chemistry classes the teacher whetted her curiosity and she started researching on her own.

19.   My best friend is a whimsical person, she likes things to be done in her very own and weird way.

20.   On a medical trail some patients get placebo and other get the actual medicine. 

Success Quote

"Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor."
-Truman Capote.

For me this quote means that if you don't fail a couple of times before finally being able to triumph you won't really know how hard and how much it costs to acheive what you want.