Academic Challenge

Today, our Payson Seymour Quiz Bowl Team is participating in the Academic Challenge at Quincy University. Our whole team can't play because there are too many of us, but we are all going to watch. We are leaving at 11:15 A.M. and we are going out to lunch. After we eat we are going to QU to tape our segment of the show. We are playing QND so we are going to have to work really hard to try to beat them.

Podcasts

Emma and I are working on a podcast for Multimedia together. We still need a name, but I'm sure we will come up with one soon. We already have the segments we are going to include in our 13-15 minute production. I think it will be fun, almost like having our own radio show.

Cold Weather

Fall and Winter are here. I like Fall because it gets cooler but not too cold. I like to go to bonfires and see the leaves change. However I don't like Winter too much. The cold weather and wind just doesn't agree with me. I like to look at snow, but I don't like to drive in it. In my opinion, it should snow one day out of the year so we can all go sledding and then be warm the rest of the year.

My weekend

My weekend was pretty dull. On Friday I came home from school and did basically nothing. I watched a movie on Friday night. On Saturday I babysat my little sister because my mom had stuff to do. On Sunday I went to church and did my laundry. Boring weekend right?

How old is the sun?

How old is the sun? That was our daily question in multimedia class, and I was curious so i decided to look it up. Turns out that the sun was formed 4,500,000,000, four and a half billion years ago. When the sun is 7 billion years old, it will start to get bigger and cooler. By the time it reaches it's five billionth birthday it will have changed into a red giant and will stretch out to near where the earth is today.

Technology

Technology has definitely made our country better. It has affected my life positively because it is so much easier and faster to communicate with e-mail and cell phones. Its so much easier to find out information too. You can go on the Internet and find practically anything you would ever want to know.

My wish

If I had one wish, I would wish for the war in Iraq to be over. Its just dragging out and its just not necessary. I think we are just hurting too many people and to accomplish what? What is the purpose to this on-going war? Enough is enough, it just needs to be over.

My favorite thing

My favorite thing would have to be my pink fuzzy blanket. Its really big and very warm. I like it because its pink and really soft. I couldn't live without it, because I would freeze at night without it. I got it for my birthday when I was 13 and its been my favorite thing ever since.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama is now our President for the next four years. The significance of this is that he is the first African American ever to be president in the United States. Another significance is that more people voted than ever before. I think it will be interesting to see how all of the American people react to the newly elected president.

Another significance is that history was going to be made either way the vote ended up. Either there would be the first ever African American President or having a woman in Office. Barack Obama also got the vote of some states that were mainly republican, that is also majorly significant.

Election Day

Election Day is important to so many people in this country because it is a very big decision. If our country "goes off the deep end" then it won't be anyone's fault but our own. The presidential elections decide who will run our country for the next 4 years. Who is the most qualified and will lead us in the right direction? There's a lot of pressure on election day.

America's Dependence on Foreign Oil

America depends way too much on foreign countries for our oil. If we would just use our own natural gas we would save so much money. Counting on other countries hurts us individually and as a country. As gas prices soar, so does the prices of the other things we use everyday. High oil prices not only hurts us at the pump, but in our everyday life as well.

America spends more than $200,000 per minute on foreign oil, $13 million per hour, and our country alone goes through 15 million barrels of oil per day. And yet the demand keeps growing. If our country keeps up with this, we will depend more and more on these foreign countries and less on our own country, basically letting the other countries control us.

Our country only has 3% of the world's oil reserves, so we can't completely rely on our country to produce all its own oil. That doesn't mean that we can't cut down on imports and use more of our own. We can make more fuel alternatves, like ethanol, and produce them in our own country.

America gets a majority of our oil from OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), which involves Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Angola, Venezuela and Ecuador. Basically, we let these other countries control us. We depend on them for our oil, and if they want to raise the price of oil, we have no choice but to agree.

To fix our oil addiction problem, I think we should make more efficient vehicles. Yes, we already have hybrid cars, but more people should be using them. We can also cut down on oil usage by using alternate forms of energy. Oil is used for many other things than just cars. We should focus on cutting out imports and using more oil drilled on our own shores.

my afternoon yesterday

Yesterday, after school, I went with Lacey to do the trick-or-treat for canned goods. I wasn't going to do it this year, but you know.. I'm just really nice, so i decided to help out. So we started and like nobody set out food for the food pantry... We keep going and then all of a sudden I realize my phone isn't in my pocket. Yep, that's right, I've been all over Payson, and somewhere I lost my phone. We went and drove back past the street we just walked over, and we didn't see it. I called my mom and told her, and then we just went on and finished our route for the canned goods. We went back and parked at the street we were on right before I noticed it was gone, and I went one way, and Lacey the other, and Lacey found it. I was so relieved... It was just in the middle of a sidewalk on some road. Now, I have my phone back and don't plan on losing it again soon. =]

EMMA KENNEDY

Emma is pretty cool. I've known her for a long time, way before I came to this school. She is a ditzy blonde, and very funny to make jokes about. We make a lot of jokes about her, but shes so cool cause she doesn't care, she laughs with us! Emma has like 50 sisters (actually 3), and this big dog. She drives a little green honda and doesn't stop at stop signs!!!! She's really funny in Health class because she says EWWWW really loud. She is 16, and she can date now so everyone should get her number, I'll give it to you if you don't have it!!

Volleyball Regionals

Tonight our volleyball team is playing in the Volleyball Regionals in Liberty. We play Liberty at 6, and then we play again right after that. Everybody should come out and supposrt the school's team. I know that a lot of us JV players are going and also a lot of other people from our school. It will be a lot of fun!!

Football game

I went to the last Home Unity-Payson Football game last night. I went with my friends Lacey and Cobi, and at the game we met up with Shelbie and Megan. It was really really cold. We drank coffee and hot chocolate and did our best to stay warm. The game was pretty exciting because we actually won, 28-0. We had a lot of fun because we were cheering really loud, and because well we just always have fun!

History of Halloween

Halloween was first introduced in the ancient Celtic festival. The festival was used to celebrate the end of the harvest season. The festival was a time for the pagans to slaughter livestock for the winter. These festivals involved large bonfires, in which the bones of the slaughtered animals were burnt. The ancient Gaels believed that Halloween was the boundary between the alive and dead, in which the dead would come and stir up trouble. The whole time during the fire, masks and costumes were often worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or to scare them away. During the fire festival, souls of the dead wander the earth and are free to return to the mortal world until dawn.

A jack-o-lantern is a huge American symbol of Halloween. These carved pumpkins originated in Europe and were carved from a turnip or rutabaga. They believed the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and knowledge. The name jack-o-lantern comes from the Irish legend of Stringy Jack, in the case that the devil put a curse on the old greedy farmer.

Today, some of these traditions still exist. We may not go out and slaughter all of our livestock and burn their bones, but bonfires and dressing up in costume are a few traditions still alive today. Weather or not you believe the spirits of the dead come back is up to you. I personally view Halloween as a night for kids to dress up and go trick-or-treating for candy, and Halloween parties. Halloween and its meaning has changed a lot over time.