Spring Concert Music Review

Author's Note: This piece was written for band. It's a review of the spring concert. We had to follow a specific format so it was harder to write everything I wanted. 

On Wednesday, March 6th, 2013 I witnessed the 7th and 8th grade Asa Clark Middle school bands performing at the Pewaukee High School from 6:30 to 7:45 PM. Waves of gorgeous music filled the brand new auditorium. Magical sounds of music danced around the walls and ceiling, ringing in my ears. Hearing all the music was truly heartwarming. The bands played spectacular music throughout the whole concert with but a few mishaps.

First was the seventh grade portion of the concert. During the first song, they seemed to play a little bit off. Eventually their game was picked up however and finished together. Most of the pieces sounded very much the same. To help that, I just wish that overall their articulations and dynamics would shine through the shard of broken glass blocking their awesome inner musician.

After the seventh grade performance, the eighth graders started their portion of the concert. The first piece really sounded like a war because of their exceptional tone and balance. During the second piece although in the middle they slowed down, their dynamics and sharp attention to theme changes helped tremendously in the making of this piece’s sculpture.

Even though the bands had a few mishaps, the bands still played spectacular music throughout the entire concert. To improve just a little next time, both the bands should continue to try to stay together and pay attention to changes in music such as tempo, attitude, articulation, and dynamics. All of these were very good, but to make a complete circle, they must smooth out some of the bumpy edges of their hardest pieces. Overall, the bands have improved to a stupendous level of music which will help them as they continue their music career.

The Wonders of Spring

Author’s Note: This poem is practice for Word Choice for Language Arts. It was kind of hard for me to choose a topic that could easily be described or even be described at all. Sure there are many instances that can be described, but I wanted to choose one that would have the most word choice possible.

The excitement of spring
Swirls all around
In every nook and cranny
The air has become warmer
So much more enjoyable
The smell of flowers
Tinges the air
Its sweet scent attracting animals
Birds singing
Their bright and cheerful song
Spread throughout the dome
Of the Earth
But cold snaps me back
Like a rubber band
Back into reality
For it’s still four more weeks
Of bitter cold winter

The Pony Express

Author's Note: This is a historical fiction piece I write for Social Studies. The numbers are the facts I used from the sources I used on which are given credit at the bottom of the page. In Social Studies we needed a minimum of 8 facts in our paper so I just numbered them to make that easier for my teacher. :)

Today is the day that I have been dreading. Sighing, I yanked on my blouse, tying it into place so it’d fit properly. The Pony Express inventor is picking up all the orphans (1) in St. Joseph, Missouri through Sacramento, California (2) today, April 3^rd, 1860 (3) to “voluntarily” deliver mail for the Pony Express. It was made to deliver mail fast. (4) Luckily I had my brother Jonathan alongside me to share the pain.

Someone came knocking on the small one room (5) cottage door. I creaked it open to reveal two men. (6) One of them was shorter and buff, wearing a fancy black coat made from sheep wool. The other was about 7 inches taller and skinny, wearing a leather button up jacket with matching jet black leather boots. Gulping silently, I motioned over to Jonathan to come to the door. He came bringing a small satchel full of our remaining  food and a few keepsakes that go wherever we do.

The two men helped us mount their horses. My horse felt warm beneath my blouse, its pelt shining brightly in the sun. One of the men let out a high pitched whistle and we were off.  Hair the color of nutmeg blurred my vision. Leaves flew all around us and landed softly in its frizzy curly waves. I brushed it out of the way, but more leaves and twigs continued to get caught in it so I gave up. After what seemed like only a few short minutes the horses halted beside a cottage. “Go on,” one of the men bellowed, practically shoving me to the ground off the horse.

I hobbled toward the house carrying the parcel that whoever is living there was sent. This continued on and off for 18 months. (7) That was the longest year and a half of my life. I hardly was able to see Jonathan at all! At least the Pony Express had to come to a halt because the telegraph was invented. (8) Not to mention that they didn’t make any money. (9) But I wouldn’t say it was a complete failure because we carried a total of 34,753 pieces of mail (10), traveled a total of 650,000 miles (11) with about 300 men on horses. (12) Although I will always remember my hair blowing in the wind and the rush I got from the horses.

Works Cited

·         Arago: Pony Express Mail. 28 February 2013. Web Site. 28 February 2013.

·         Pony Express. 28 February 2013. Web Site. 28 February 2013.

·         Pony Express National Trail Back Country Byway. 28 February 2013. Web Site. 28 Febuary 2013.

The Blowing

Author's Note: I wrote this piece as an entry to my journal I have to get my juices flowing. I decided to put it here because I needed something fresh on my blog.                                               

                                                
The snow
Drifting
Sliding
Across the road
In various directions
Swirl up
And splash your face
With a sudden
Whack of cold

Marshmallow the Hamster

Author’s Note: Point of View interests me, and I’d like to compare the points of view from different perspectives. I made three different versions of the same story to show how the different people feel about it. The first version is from my brother Connor’s eyes, the second is from my mom’s eyes, and the third version is from Marshmallow’s point of view. The story is about getting Marshmallow from the pet store on September 22nd, 2011.  


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Yay, we’re getting another hamster! It was so sad that Cupcake our other hamster died, and I’m still kind of upset about that. Now our family is receiving another one. I can hardly wait to find one. Mom, Lauren and I have been driving to literally every pet store. This one I have a feeling about, though. I really hope we find a good hamster here because Mom said this was going to be the last one for the day.

My attention was immediately taken away from looking for a hamster to looking at all of the animals at the pet store. They’re all so unique and different. The birds are so colorful, the dogs are so cute, and the fish are so fast.

“Hey, we’re going to ask the worker if we can look at the hamsters,” Lauren poked my arm then whispered, “Except they don’t have any siberian/teddy bear hamsters and they’re all dwarf ones.” She probably meant that Mom doesn’t like the small ones because it’s easier for them to escape. To me that doesn’t make any sense since Cupcake never escaped.

Finally the worker arrived and pulled a cage from the shelf containing a round, gray hamster. Right away it started making pretty much the strangest sound I had ever heard- kind of like what nails on a chalkboard would sound like. This was definitely not the hamster for us. She pulled a second one from the shelf to reveal a cute hamster that looked exactly like a large marshmallow. He was by far the best one we had seen so far. Sure, he was a little skittery but Lauren will teach him to behave better.

The worker started struggling to hold him because he kept jumping from her hands. Lauren was obviously obsessing over him already. “Oh my gosh, he’s so adorable! Mom, he’s totally the one. I love him already! Except what would we name him? I had wanted to name the hamster ‘French Fry’ and then ‘Peanut Butter’, but this one can’t be named that... he’s white!”

“I think he’s good, too! We could name him... Snowy!”

“No... that’s kind of stupid. A lot of hamsters have names similar to that.”

“I know! Marshmallow!” I thought it was a pretty good name.

“That’s PERFECT! We’ll have this one.” The worker placed him in a box for us to check him out. I hope he’s okay in there and doesn’t suffocate or anything! He looks really nervous, but I know he’ll warm up to us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ugh, we’re getting another smelly hamster. No, no I shouldn’t think like that, the kids are really excited to get a new one and it will be good for Connor to learn how to take care of things.

I gripped the steering wheel harder. To me a pet store is pretty much the worst place to be other than jail or something like that.

Still, I’m not on board with the whole “lets get another hamster because the old one died” thing yet. Sure, Cupcake was nice and wasn’t too stupid, but it always scares me to have an animal in the house. Especially after that one time... okay, so there we had two small grayish-blue frogs, one for Lauren and one for Connor. Somehow, one of them escaped and we never found it. I just haven’t had the best experience with animals whatsoever. When I was five or six, at a petting zoo there were cups to feed the goats with. One of them came right for me, so I reached the ice cream cone filled with pellets over my head. That was one of the biggest mistakes I had ever made because right then the goat jumped on me, its front hooves on my shoulders. Even though it was so long ago, I still remember it so clearly- like a newly cleaned window.

The point is that I’ve had the best experience with animals, so I’m not too keen on getting this one.

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Chip has been keeping me up all night with his shrieking noise. I don’t know why he does it because none of the rest of us make that much of an annoying noise! He is such a nuisance. I curled back up in my corner, trying to sleep. Except now it was so cold that I was instinctively shivering which was obviously uncontrollable.

Deciding it would be impossible to sleep, I pressed myself against the glass of my cage, touching it with my front paws. I saw a lone light flickering. If I stared at it for too long, it hurt my eyes so much that they stung. It also smelled like rotting fish baking on a sidewalk.

All too recently I had been pulled away from my warm mother to this dark and gloomy place. I don’t even know what my name is because I was taken from her too quickly. Is this all what life has to offer? This is what I have been thinking until a certain human being came here. Well three of them, actually.

Humans have always come and gone, but this family today took me somewhere in a bumpy box. A voice almost like a dove cooed in my ear, and I knew everything would be alright. Except on the outside I was trembling so much that I didn’t know what to do with myself. Luckily it stopped before too long. A bunch of colors flashed into my eyes. I was suddenly put in a new cage, but one without glass. This one had bars.

Are those... SUNFLOWER SEEDS?! I’m living a hamster’s dream now! This is definitely my kind of family with my kind of life. I knew life had much more to offer!
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My Dreams Have Returned!

Author's Note: I remember on December 28th how I got my new fish. This is how I felt when I finally had her.

That day I had felt

Sick and awful inside

Yes of course I was sick

But now I can't tell anymore

At the table eating dinner

There was a real surprise for me

In the middle of the meal

Out of nowhere my dad told me

"We have decided to let you get a fish"

My dreams have returned

The happiness I felt

Can't really be placed into words

So instead I'll say what next

I'll have to tell you that my heart

Seemed to have skipped a few beats

Then and even now I still

Believe it's some sort of dream

But yes it's true I have a fish

She's quite a beauty

Her name?

Swimmy/Lea Bartholomew Shacorington

Yes I think it's long

Yes I think it's strange

Yes I might be crazy

But she's mine

And I love her <3

The Rising Sun

Author’s Note: This is my theme essay for the book Long Shadows. I tried to work on Introduction to bump up the grade on that.  

Sunshine glows throughout the forest and bounces slightly off the leaves, almost producing a sparkle. Day is clear; not even a fluffy cloud lays far away. Suddenly everything started becoming darker. You look up. The sun is disappearing! Frantically, you bound up a hill and into the bushes, trying to take cover, for you have never seen anything like this happen before. It’s an eclipse. Darkness seemed to take away everything as if a black hole had escaped from outer space. Would it ever come back? Of course it did, but that’s not what the cats in Long Shadows by Erin Hunter had thought. The author demonstrates that curiosity is essential for humans in order for us to understand the world around us.

Curiosity is like coffee- it’s the thing that keeps us running. If there nobody was curious, no one would wonder about anything and life would just be... weird. I mean, could you even picture life without curiosity? Not really. Everything just wouldn’t be right without anyone being curious. It’s essential because otherwise no one would ever know anything. That certainly wouldn't be good. How does Erin Hunter show this? She shows this by shaping the cats into adventurous, curious animals. If she didn't, the book wouldn't seem so read and it would be much harder to understand the book and picture it in your mind.

Other than just curiosity being an important factor, it is used all the time. Jayfeather wants to know about the past. The ancient cat leader sent him to the now abandoned camp of the old cats. He sees that these cats are actually the ancestors of the cats who now live in the mountains. People who are curious a lot find out more things and end up being more exciting to be around. Don’t you want people to want to be around you? That’s exactly why we need curiosity. Also, it makes you more of a well-rounded person because you want to figure things out. If you don’t want to figure things out, that just makes you like a blob of fluff collecting in a corner because no one wants to be around a boring person. Curiosity brings out your personality.

In addition to curiosity making you a well rounded person, the books Long Shadows and The Hunger Games have the same theme. All three of the main characters Jayfeather, Hollyleaf, and Lionblaze are wanting to figure out who their real parents are after Squirrelflight admitted not being their real mother in a pit that blazed with fire, consuming the forest like a worm consumes an apple. This is a similar theme in The Hunger Games by the fact that Katniss was a little curious on what exactly was going to go on during the games and if she was going to survive or not. These books are connected because each have main characters are wondering about things. That in particular is curiosity.

In order to understand the world around us, we need curiosity. Erin Hunter portrays this in Long Shadows. Humans having curiosity is a horrible thought. No one would ever wonder about things, but above all nobody could just be themselves! Even if you don’t agree, curiosity is a necessity. I know that so far today, you have wondered about something. No matter what it is, it’s still a form of curiosity. Curiosity is used daily, therefore is essential. What have you wondered about today?