Place in the United States I would like to visit

There are so many places in the United States that I would love to visit. The one on the top of my list would have to be San Diego, California. I would love to visit this city because I know the weather is great all year round so you can do pretty much anything all year round. The average high temperature never dips below sixty degrees and never goes over eighty degrees, so that is perfect weather for me. The city also borders the Pacific Ocean so there are a lot of beaches to go to and I could go every day if I wanted to. San Diego is so large itself that there would be something to do every day and i would never get bored. The atmosphere of San Diego is also nice and the people there are really friendly, too. I could find any type of restaurant there and there are so many cultures in San Diego that I could learn from. The one thing that I especially like about San Diego is that there are so many sporting events that I could choose from, wether it is a San Diego Padres's game or a San Diego Charger's football game, San Diego has it all for me. San Diego has everything I wantt in a city and I could probably live there.

For my trip to San Diego, I would be staying there for one week in a luxury hotel downtown so I can get everywhere quickly. I would have to bring a lot of summer clothes like shorts and t-shirts because it is usually warm there all the time. I would also bring a lot of money for the restaurants, the hotel room, and any souvenirs I would wish to buy to remember my trip. I would then take a plane from Baltimore Washington International Airport to San Diego International Airport, which probably would take a while. Once I would arrive there, I would check in at my hotel room and see what is going on that week so I would have something to do each day. San Diego is known well for their weather conditions year round and for their tourism. Considering this, I would try to plan my activities that are located outside as much as possible, especially going to the beach. I think it would be good to visit the museums and the San Diego Convention Center, but it would feel great to be outside because the weather in Maryland is so much different then in San Diego.

My expectations when I am visiting San Diego are to go to the beach every day for a little bit so I can relax a bit but visit the other things that make San Diego such a great city. I would expect to eat great food each night but something different to try all the food in the area from different cultures. I would also expect to go to at least two Padres's games if they are home because I love to catch a couple baseball games whenever I am on a trip. I would definitely want to go to SeaWorld San Diego for a whole day because it is so big that it would take me a while to see everything and I would love to see all the marine animals that live there. I would expect to visit San Diego State University because it one of the only major colleges in the San Diego area and I might even see one of their football games. There are so many things I would expect to do in San Diego that there might not be enough time to do everything I would like to do. I would want to visit Qualcomm Stadium and get a tour of it because it would be interesting to see what is inside of it and where the players hang out. I would expect this to be the greatest vacation trip that I would ever take during my lifetime and it would be a great thing to do.

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Biography of Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer was born in Massachusetts in the year 1954 but moved to Oregon with his family shortly after hew was born. His first climb came when he was eight years old and did it with his dad and a family friend named Willi Unsoeld. This event helped Jon fall in love with climbing and the wildlife and he loved nature so much that most of the jobs he applied for were wildlife jobs. He started to write for magazines when he was twenty years old and his most famous works came in the Outside magazine where he wrote articles about his love of mountains and wilderness. He transitioned to writing books and published his first book called Eiger Dreams in 1990, which was about mountaineering. He then published his best-selling book called Into the Wild in 1996 about the struggles of young teen Chris McCandless in the wilderness of Alaska. Shortly after he published Into the Wild Jon attempted to climb Mt. Everest, but many of his friends died and he wrote a stunning article about his trip. He was nominated for a National Magazine Award for his article in Outside about Chris McCandless and his book. He has also writen other great books, including Into Thin Air and Under the Banner of Heaven. His love of nature and the mountains influenced his life a lot and guided him to his career of writing aticles and books.

Source- Microsoft Student 2009 with Encarta

Into The Wild Summary

Into the Wild is a non-fiction book written by Jon Krakauer. The book starts out when the main character Chris McCandless is found in an abandoned bus somewhere in Alaska. He then talks about the past that led to why he is in Alaska and he talks about his family and his famous journey. He survived in the Alaska wilderness for 119 days eating any roots and berries that he could find. He also hunted a lot so he could get some meat into his diet and he also kept a journal to detail his expereinces each day. During the summer, he actually tries to leave, but his route is blocked by a melted river, which was bad because there was a streetcar or trolley car upstream. He then started to eat the roots of a specific plant that was known as a wild potato but since it was too tough to eat during the summer, he ate the seeds instead. The seeds actually contained deadly toxins that could cause starvation and McCandless could not fight off the toxins so he died. Krakauer later said that the mold in the seeds caused McCandless's death because the potatoes were taken to a lab and toxins were not found.

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My Dream

Andrew B.

Mrs. Zurkowski

Honors English 9- Yellows

25 January 2011

My Dream

            I once had a dream where I woke up one night and saw zombies surrounding me everywhere in my room. I had no weapons with me except my bare hands and I decided my fists were the only way I could get out of my room. I punched and kicked my way out of my room, leaving puddles and puddles of blood in my room and a lot of dead corpses. I realized that my family was trapped in the basement and they were all going to die if I did not rescue them. I changed into some “work” clothes and I was ready to be the hero of the night. When I went into the kitchen, I saw twice as many zombies than in my room and I gathered the weapons that were available- knifes, pots, and pans. I managed to smash and slash my way through the crowd and I wondered how I would clean this mess up after this was over. They were all dead and I went to the basement to find out where my family was. The first thing I noticed was that there were a group of zombies playing my Xbox so that got me really annoyed and I saw my family trapped in the corner ready to die. I went in running and I killed the zombies near my Xbox and then I threw my Xbox at the zombies ready to kill my family as hard as I could and it killed all of them except one. The one zombie got a hold of me and threw me against the wall, which severely hurt me. I shook it off and kicked him right in the head, and he died. I helped my family get up and they gave me so much love that I felt like I was the hero. Then, I really woke up because I had to go to the bathroom.

New Semester, New Start

Welcome readers to my blog for semester two and quarter three. I am almost done reading A Misummer Night's Dream because I am currently in Act 5 but I know I will finish the book very soon. It has been a great book to read and I have enjoyed it a lot, but I am ready to start reading something different. The next book I will be reading is Into the Wild and I think this might be my favorite book I will read this year! I have learned that John Carroll is not only a school, but a whole community where everyone is respected. I have learned a lot about myself since the beginning of school, but one of the most important is that I have the ability to speak up whenever possible and I have to defend myself since there are always going to be unfriendly people in the world. For the second half of my freshmen year, I am going to be more sociable and try to be more friendly to people when they say something to me. I have changed a lot from September because I have made a lot more friends and met new people and I know what is expected in my classes depending on the teacher. This is how much I changed, and here is one of my favorite videos. Enjoy!

Character Sketch Essay

Beard 1

Andrew B.

Mrs. Zurkowski

Honors English 9- Yellows

11 January 2011

The Success of a World Series Team

            Many Americans today love the game of baseball and like to follow their favorite teams throughout the season. It is no wonder that baseball is America’s pastime. A major league baseball team can have its ups and downs during but a season but all that matters is doing their best at the end of the season to make the playoffs. Major struggles and slumps can occur for a team throughout the season but they must learn to put their problems behind them and move on. These elements for a team make them a World Series caliber team. In the book Oriole Magic, by Thom Loverro, the Baltimore Orioles have the talent to become one of baseball’s best teams and when they encounter major obstacles during the 1983 season, they learn to persevere and move on, which makes them a World Series champion.

            One of the major themes of the book is to persevere and move on. The beginning of the 1983 season did not go so well for the Orioles, who were expected to do great things that year and win the AL East by far. Their pitching was also shaky because one of their starters, Dennis Martinez, seemed like he was losing every game with a record of 1-5. There were also numerous injuries to the pitching staff during the season, especially Jim Palmer early on because of back spasms. According to Loverro, “Baltimore was now 13-10 and about to suffer another pitching breakdown, this one a devastating one” (Loverro 54). The Orioles had to call up at least three pitchers during the season due to injuries to star pitchers like Mike Flanagan and Tippy Martinez, especially Mike Boddicker, who always stepped up when the Orioles were struggling and had his greatest season in his rookie season in 1983. According to Laverro, “But the Orioles’ savior for the season still had some salvation left in his arm” (151). This says just how much Mike Boddicker meant to the Orioles during their championship season. Many times during the season the Orioles would go into losing streaks of at least four games but Joe Altobelli, the head coach would encourage his team to do better and the Orioles would respond with great pitching and great hitting to get the win. If the Orioles ever dropped in the standings, they would not let it get to them and they would start winning again to get them to the top of the division. This theme of persevering and never giving up really helped the Orioles during the 1983 season.

Another major theme of the book is to use the talent to the best of a team’s ability. It is no question that the 1983 Orioles were stacked up and down the lineup with talent, especially with up and coming star Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray. The Orioles had so much talent that they had bench players who could come into a game and produce to lead the Orioles to a crucial win. Two players who especially used their talent from the bench are Gary Roenicke and John Lowenstein. These two players would come off the bench depending on what type of pitcher was being used. For example, Roenicke would be called as a pinch hitter to face a left handed pitcher since he was a right handed hitter and Lowenstein would face a right handed pitcher since he was a left handed hitter. This pinch hitting combo would work out very well for the Orioles and the two players were praised by everyone, especially Joe Altobelli. Joe Altobelli once said during the season, “Lowenstein and Roenicke was a terrific platoon combination” (84). They played so often that they hit over thirty home runs combined. They also tried to use their great pitchers often to put themselves in a position to win every game. Their minor league system also had numerous prospects that had the most talent in the majors and the Orioles could rely on calling up players from Triple A Rochester to come in and do their best to help the team. There was always someone who could step up for the Orioles that season and that is what helped them to their championship run.

Another final theme in the book was to finish strong and forget about the past. One of the most important goals for a major league team was to finish the season on a strong note and get into the playoffs with a good seed. The Orioles did just that in the 1983 season because they had a great finish to the season and would not let the infamous 1982 season haunt them. In 1982, the Orioles lost the division in the last game to the Brewers and did not make the playoffs. The Orioles did not let this happen in 1983 as they won the division by at least five games and were AL East champs. One event that sparked their stretch run was when Tippy Martinez picked off three runners in one inning in a game against Toronto. Laverro says, “Since Tippy Martinez had picked off those three Toronto runners, Baltimore had gone 27-7” (135). Once in the playoffs, the Orioles won the ALCS against the White Sox three games to one with great pitching and timely hitting. They got into the World Series and were faced by the Philadelphia Phillies, led by the slugger Mike Schmidt. Once the Orioles got up 3-1 in the series, they refused to think about past World Series, especially in 1979 where they lost the World Series to the Pirates after leading 3-1. In Game 5, Scott McGregor would pitch a great game and Eddie Murray would hit two home runs to lead the Orioles to their third World Series title. The Orioles capped off a remarkable run by not remembering their past experiences in the World Series and playing to the best of their abilities.

The 1983 Orioles baseball team proved that anything can be done by not giving up and using the talent to the fullest of a team’s ability. The Orioles were not even expected to come close to the World Series during spring training but all the players stepped up their game and many players became vocal leaders on the field and in the clubhouse. All of these elements came together during the season and led the Orioles to major success that ultimately ended with a World Series championship. The 1983 Orioles are a great example of how a baseball team should bounce back from a previous of despair to a season of success and victory. After thirteen years of winning their last World Series, the 1983 Orioles were considered winners and champions of baseball. In Thom Laverro’s book Oriole Magic, the 1983 Orioles knew that they had a lot of talent and they decided to use all of it, which got them through major losing streaks and slumps and resulted in a World Series title.