A Jokerific Picture

My bird decided to write a letter to Santa Claws-Claus!

Or rather, I did, and thought about an aggressive little chap like Monty would like...

NEWSFLASH

In case you missed the results of the election...

OBAMA WON!!!!

Congratulations to Obama and Biden, and their families!



Obama  
303 Electoral Votes

Romney
206 Electoral Votes

Presidential Campaign 2012

Early this morning my parents woke my brother and I from a sound sleep so that we could go with them to vote.  We got dressed and my mother drove us to our polling place, a church nearby.  There were signs for both presidential candidates and other party nominees outside the church stuck in the grass. At the polling place,   there were what my mother called voting officials, who appeared to be senior citizens.

It only took mom and dad a few minutes each to vote because there weren't any long lines.  Mom said she felt sad that she didn't see many people out voting, but one of the voting officials said that over 100 people had already voted that morning so she was hopeful.  Mom still thought that was a low turn out.

I made the mistake of telling my parents that individual votes don't really matter, but that state votes matter. However, when the candidates are neck and neck individual votes will matter. My father said that individual votes mattered very much and that everyone needed to vote in this election because it was so important for everyone. He also said that you don't know ahead of time which candidate is going to win the state, so if it's a swing state it's really important that everyone votes.

My parents both voted for President Barack Obama. I remember when President Barack Obama came to our city four years ago at the very end of his campaign to speak, and to thank the people who supported him. My parents had worked for his campaign back then. We went to see him speak, and I wasn't feeling well, but my mom and dad thought that I needed to be there because regardless of what happened in that election outcome, history was in the making.

So as I write this, I wonder who will be the winner of the 2012 Presidential Campaign. Either President Obama or Governor Mitt Romney...

UPDATE: View results here AT THIS LINK!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/state-election-results-2012_n_2038603.html

The Candymakers

Title: The Candymakers

Author: Wendy Mass

Published: October 5th, 2010

Pages: 453

Plot

In Spring Haven, four children have been chosen to compete in a National Candy-Making Contest.

Characters

Logan: The Candymaker's son who lives at the "Life Is Sweet" candy factory. Logan is kind and helpful, and has a special gift for detecting every ingredient in a food just from tasting it. However, he is very poor at measurement, and other math and school skills that would be required to make candy. Logan also has numerous pink scars running down his face and arms that attract a lot of attention from others, although he seems oblivious to it.

Miles: Miles a strange bookworm of a child who is what you would call... scarred for life. After witnessing an accident, Miles claims that he's allergic to rowboats and the color pink. But there has to be some explanation as to why he's acting this way, unless he's crazy.

Daisy: A happy and cheerful girl that has bright blond hair and the strength of two bodybuilders. She is constantly carrying and reading a book that is called "Love's Last Dance,". Daisy appears to have an unclear background, and seems to resent Philip's presence.

Philip: Philip is a stern and orderly boy who seems to find no happiness or absolute joy in life, and is quite cruel to his fellow contestants. However, it's possible that Philip's shallow and sarcastic behavior is just a wall, and he's hiding something...

Conclusion

This book was LONG, around 450 pages, and VERY exciting. There were twists, turns, and parts that really got you thinking about the person standing next to you at the bus stop.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone loves adventure/mystery, or really long books. It's a good book for kids, although some parts may be a little confusing.

The only complaint I'd have for this book is that sometimes the book was a little repetitive, and you'll understand what I'm talking about once you've read the book, or at least part of it.

This book has earned 4 1/2 out of 5 stars from CRK!

Monty's Ring

Monty is my pet bird. He is about 4 or 5 months old, and highly aggressive. He destroys things and if he doesn't get to come out of his cage early enough, he bites you. He has adjusted to me mostly, although he still doesn't allow us to touch him unless he's really tired, but he lets me kiss him...
Male Indian Ringnecks get a dark ring around their neck. Females get a slight, light blue ring, like Monty's. Monty will get a ring in 1 to 3 years.

From the information I just gave you, can you tell which parrot is a girl and which is a boy?

Also, the females are known as much nicer and loyal pets than the males, but, hey, I LOVE Monty, and my parents tell me I should be patient with him and continue to train him.

Indian Ringnecks are very good talkers, and Monty has already started trying to say some words, like, "Leave," when I get in his face to kiss him.


Monty attacking his least favorite toy...

I learned that Monty is going through a phase of moodiness, much like a teenager. He wants to test his limits, like fake biting, real biting, and angry squawks.

Question And Answer

A fan wrote me an email, and asked me to answer these question on my blog:

Q: Why are male Indian Ringnecks more colorful?

A: They use their colors to appeal to the females, much like with humans.

Q: When should baby Indian Ringnecks finish their weaning?

A: I believe that at about 8 weeks.

Let's Read

My little brother is in Kindergarten, and will be starting first grade next year. He has been reading since he was about four.

Recently my mom ordered the first 16 Magic Tree House books from the bookstore.



My brother has been reading them, and so far he has gotten through 1 book, Dinosaurs Before Dark. According to Naren, the book is about two siblings named Jack and Annie.

My mother first found out about them when she saw a "Fact Tracker" at his school's book fair. She wanted to find the fictional novel that went with the Fact Tracker. It tells you on the cover.



When I was small, I read a few of the books too, but my favorite series was Beverly Cleary's fictional novels, such as the ones about Ramona.



My teachers are always encouraging students in my class to READ! So grab a good book, a place to sit, and read!

The Emergency Room

Yesterday me and my little brother were playing outside in the water. My mother was watching us and Monty was in his cage next to her. Suddenly, she noticed that he had a yellow plastic slinky wrapped around his neck. We all rushed to get scissors and gloves. Monty was going CRAZY, and since he doesn't like to be touched, we had a hard time cutting the slinky off of him. I managed to cut most of it off, but a piece was still wrapped around him. We ran inside, changed into some clothes, and drove to the vet. I left my phone by accident, so I don't have any pictures, but I do have a picture of the culprit:

This was the slinky before it was cut off his neck.

Me and my brother are both allergic to cats and dogs, so we had to wait in the lobby while my mom took poor Monty into the vet's exam room. While we were waiting we talked to a nice lady who had a cat named Henry. Henry was in a cat sack, and was there for his checkup. Henry was scared. he hid his head under her arm. Here are some things I noted.

• Henry is her only pet.
• She used to have two dogs.
• Henry runs whenever she gets out the cat sack.
• Henry is quite large.
• Henry is black and white.
• Henry has green eyes.

Soon, the lady and Henry went into another vet's office, so me and my brother played I Spy. Then my mom came out. She took us outside and told us that the vet said the slinky was impaling one of Monty's air pockets, and he could die. I was really sad. We waited outside for a few minutes, then my mother brought us back inside and she went back into the vet's exam room. 

We waited.

And waited.

And waited.

While waiting, we met a big, friendly poodle also named Monty! He tried to jump on us, and he also tried to lick us.

After a while, the exam room door opened, and my mom emerged with...

MONTY!

He was okay. He was quiet inside of his cage, traumatized, probably, but he was alive.

You see, the vet was wrong. The slinky had never impaled him. In fact, the thing just fell right off.

It was God. I prayed to him after my mom brought Monty back out.

Thank you, God, for letting Monty the Bird live. He is only 2 months old, he should live a full life.

And I'm sure all of you Christian Radio Kids fans are thankful too.

Visit Monty's Facebook page for some more info. Just sign into Facebook and type in: "Montgomery Bird". 

A picture of Monty eating nuts.

An Old Mars Landing

About 36 years ago, JPL was doing the "Viking program". They had sent a pair of space probes entitled "Viking 1", and "Viking 2". The two crafts were supposed to take pictures of Mars' atmosphere and soil, and eventually land on Mars itself to explore the planet closely. Each craft had an orbiter for farther examination of the whole planet, and a lander, for studying the planet up close.

On July 20th, 1976, Viking 1 successfully landed on Mars. Viking 2 landed that same year on September 3rd. They arrived six weeks of each other.

The Viking 2 landing was 31 seconds late.

The crafts were about 10 feet wide and 7 feet tall, and about 1270 with no fuel.

Eventually, the mission ended, as both crafts completely failed.

On November 3rd, 1982, Viking 1 lander failed of human error. The antenna went town, causing communication to fail.

On August 17th, 1980, Viking 1 orbiter after a loss of altitude control fuel. Yikes.

On April 11th, 1980, Viking 2 lander 's battery failed.

On July 25th, 1978, Viking 2 orbiter propulsion system sprung a leak, causing the craft to shut down.

Many people spent hours a day making sure the launching and landing of these crafts launched and landed correctly. They were probably really stressed out.

The Old Man And The Sea Book Review

Title: The Old Man And The Sea

Author: Ernest Hemingway

Published: 1952

Genre: Fiction

Plot

Santiago, an old and experienced Cuban fisherman hasn't caught a fish in eighty-four days. He is such a failure, that even his his little apprentice, Manolin, has been forbidden from fishing with him by his parents.

But Santiago wants to catch a marlin. A HUGE marlin. So he sets out alone to fulfill his goal to catch the marlin. He sets lines and waits for something to take the bait. Eventually, a fish Santiago is sure is a marlin catches the line. But Santiago is unable to pull the fish because the fish is so big. Instead, the fish is pulling Santiago! But Santiago is determined to catch this fish. So he held on to the line. He sits there for two days and two nights. While at sea, Santiago becomes bored, often talking to the fish, the other fish in the sea, and even little birds. and resentful of Manolin not being able to come along. But he feels Manolin inside his heart, telling him to keep going, and to never give up on the fish.Then, Santiago gets hurt while pulling the fish, and gives the fish respect, referring to him as "brother", and saying that no one is worthy of eating the fish because of the fish's determination to live.

On the third day, the marlin circles the boat, and with all his strength, Santiago manages to turn the fish over and impale it with a harpoon. Santiago straps the fish to his boat and paddles away, but soon sharks are attracted to the blood of the fish, and try to eat it. Santiago succeeds in killing the first few sharks, but soon the sharks keep coming, and eventually the whole marlin is gone! When Santiago finally reaches shore, all that's left is an 18 foot marlin carcass. He slumps to bed, and falls asleep.

Let's Talk About It

What was this story really about? Was this really about an old man going out and catching a fish? Because I think this books is pretty unrealistic. This is what I think. The book describes life. Here is a translation.

Santiago - A normal person

Manolin - A friend or GOD. A person who has faith in Santiago

The Sea - The world

The 84 days/Fish - A challenge

The Sharks - Obstacles

See? This is MUCH more realistic.

Conclusion

From what I've learned about Literature and Classics is that it is often necessary to read in between the lines for the real meaning in the story.  It's like an iceberg, 95% of what going on is not seen.

At first I thought that this book was boring as repetitive. But then I thought about it more and I liked it a little more. But definitely not a book I'd read again. Most of the kids I know would not like this book, and I'd say the same for some of the older kids. Not all of them, but some. There are some kids who would rather not have all the answers right there in the book. They want to be a detective and find the real meaning under all the words. Others just wouldn't be interested.

I'll give this book a three out of five stars.

Come Here, Rover

Yesterday, a Mars Curiosity rover landed safely on Mars. Everybody who participated in making sure that the rover landed safely was overjoyed; some even were crying.  I watched it at 1:30 AM with my father, it was live at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html.

Do you know what a rover is? It kind of looks like WALL•E, if you wanted me to describe one. It takes pictures in space and sends them back to earth, were scientists can study them and make important discoveries.

After the rover landed, it sent back pictures(small thumbnails). The first one was blurry, the second one was almost the same, and the rest were clear. This was the first image that the rover sent from MARS!

CLICK HERE to see the picture itself!

Did you know that a message sent from earth to Mars would take seven minutes to reach it? The same if a message was sent from Mars. It would take seven minutes to reach us.

If you want to see the suspense of the landing yourself, CLICK HERE to watch the video on their site.

Did you know that some of the stars in the sky you see do not exist anymore? They could have vanished years ago, but we still see them! This is because they were emitting light toward us. The light has not reached earth yet.



Actually, Xbox Live Arcade has a game called Mars Rover Landing that NASA has released. (It's free). Basically, you land the rover with your body and win little awards. I'd like to try it on my Xbox.



Want to learn more about this? Go to these links!

More about the rover: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nasa-mission-to-mars-rover-curiosity-touches-down/2012/08/06/e10e7bf2-df89-11e1-8fc5-a7dcf1fc161d_story.html

Watch their streaming videos: http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv

Disclaimer: I'm just providing links. I do not own any pictures.