Week of 5/23/14

This weekend has been great. On Friday we only had to go to school for the first 2 periods then division on Friday. Most of the school was signed out for the day, because of the Baseball team, which was playing at Wrigley field. I went to futsal at 6am that morning, played until 7:30 then school started at 8. I went to my classes and later went with a group of friends, almost all from the track team to the game, but before that we all went and got something to eat. We all had a lot of fun with our front row seats. Later we all walked east to the lake and headed a little ways north to the beach. Only about 5 actually swam in the water. Then we all played capture the flag for about 2 hours. It was extremely fun, and in the end I was sunburned. Then on Saturday I bought a bike, and today I had a soccer game. Best of all, no school tomorrow!

Acceptance speech for imaginary award

Forrest Haydon

Whitney Young HS

English II H. P6

5/21/14

John Jacob Rogers Award: International Diplomacy

[if clapping]Thank you, Thank you. 

Well first off, I want to thank everyone who helped me reach this point. My wife, my mother, my sister, all my mentors, my high school teachers and college professors for always challenging me, my various friends who have supported me along the way. I would also like to thank all the individuals who I have met throughout the years, who make this job so rewarding, who really deserve this because without them I wouldn't be doing the work I am doing.

It is such an honor to receive such an award, I mean such an honor. Receiving this award for 25 years of service in international diplomacy is truly a great experience, and a huge landmark in my life. I feel as if it was not long ago that I just began this job. I honestly never knew about this award until a little while ago. I thought the experience itself is already rewarding enough.

This has always been my dream job, for as long as I remember. My father was a diplomat who worked for the U.S. Embassy relating to military security.  I was born in Abu Dhabi where he was working as a military advisor. Since a young age, I was exposed to the world. I got to live in many places, which was a great experience for a child like me. I always love moving, a new house offering unexplored hiding places, a different playground to spend the afternoons in and new friends to play with.

 When I was living in Nigeria, at 7 years old, my father passed away, while still working in the Foreign Service. Me, my mother, and my sister all moved to Chicago to begin life anew. But I couldn't leave it all behind. We lived there for close to about 10 years, which to me at the time seem like an eternity (which it still does), having only ever lived as long as 2.5 years in one place before that. I realized that I wanted to move. I preferred living only for a year or two in a place then going somewhere else to begin another new and amazing adventure.

It is thank to my dad, that I was able to get a taste of what an incredible experience this could be. Once you take a bite there is no going back, close to nothing compares to the variety of experiences one is able to gain. I will always remember this job, and this award as I embark on another new adventure. I thank the foreign service for this award, and everyone who has helped me reach this point. Thank you.

Week of 5/16/14 Review

This weekend was actually very fun. On Friday I went to a birthday party at a hotel. It was fun, I was the only freshmen from whitney there, everyone else were sophomores. We danced, and just talked to each other and it was really fun. On Saturday I got to wake up late, had breakfast then moved the lawn. It is kind of tedious, because we have a nonelectric mover which means I have to go over it multiple times, then rake and cut some of the grass by hand. I earned some money off of it, and then later that day I did some homework. That evening I went to see Godzilla which was pretty good. Then on Sunday I had to go to a soccer game in Skokie. I played extremely well, and scored the 2 goals in our 2-1 victory. Sunday's performance was a great way to end this great weekend.

Week of 5/09/14 Review

This Friday was the boys Freshmen/Sophomore city championship. Whitney Young won 3rd overall, and I ran a 57 second 400meter after completing a 4x200meter. I only had a 1 min 30 sec break, so I ended up getting second to last in that event. My PR was run the weekend before in which I got 55, which would have maybe gotten me around mid-pack, towards the front in the final if I had had several more minutes for a break. I was still happy overall, and am looking forward to next season of track.  I'm very happy that we finally have some good weather, which makes life around here much more enjoyable. People are happy, its good for sports, one can swim at the lake, and it reminds me why I enjoy summer so much.

Crowd Sourced Essay Second Draft

Jabari Brooks

Forrest Haydon

Jay Rehak

English II

4 May, 2014

Crowdsourcing: Negative Effects on Society

Crowdsourcing is just one of the offspring of accelerating means of socialization. It started with a simple website Kick-starter but it has now coalesced into a myriad of different applications. To date, there are countless websites that use it in order to gain information and so on. One classic example of this would be Yahoo Answers, or Wikipedia. Essentially crowdsourcing makes it easier for information to be collected and showcased. In addition, the speed of crowdsourcing is significantly increasing as well. In merely a few years bio printing has been engendered. However at this alarming rate the potential of crowdsourcing technology definitely proves problematic. The problems that arise can be argued how crucial they are, but there is a problem none the less.

The potential for crowdsourcing technology may have benefits, but more importantly the applications of this technology can prove to be very dangerous and outweigh the benefits.  Many of the downsides of this can be found with the potential for 3D printing of weapons, the use of social media networks and blogs aiding terrorist in communications or creation of weapons, and the leakage of secret government documents through crowdsourcing.

            To begin, there are many negative aspects to the modern day phenomenon of sharing

information called crowdsourcing. One of these major aspects is that of a modern invention called the 3-D printer. Now in essence the 3-D printer was created without incorporating crowdsourcing. In fact crowdsourcing, like 3-D printing, was not created recently (Ponsford).

A man named Charles Hull created it roughly 30 years ago. He made this invention originally from acrylic ink that would turn solid in the presence of UV lighting. Mr. Hull did all of this from a small lab in a business he was a part of during that time. After his invention others took the idea and built upon it. However, it was extremely limited by the technology accessible around the time of the late 90’s. With modern technology, in the turn of the 21st century, has allowed this technology to be adopted by various companies with limitless capabilities. (Ponsford)

            To better understand first 3-D printing and how it works, its functionality will be discussed. First off, like regular printing it starts from a 2-D realm. This entails making a model from scratch on a computer, or writing a program for the printer to follow. Then the program will splice the model into thousands of layers for the printer to recreate. Once this is done the printer will then begin to print. With a laser, or other forms of high intensity light, a beam will melt and mold a layer of material into a certain shape. After that the printer will continue layering materials upon each other until the model is created, seemingly from thin air. Different materials can be used including, plastic, metal, chocolate, nylon, and even living cells. Of course the capabilities of this machine become endless. When you add crowdsourcing to the fray interesting things begin to occur. (Fleming)

One example of how the potential for this technology to go in a bad direction with crowdsourcing is the printing of guns. At first the possibility for this technology to be used to

create a gun was deemed unlikely. However this was proven wrong when the first gun was created out of plastic. Furthermore, the plastic material meant that the gun would be undetectable in airports and other facilities. What is scary about this is that the Undetectable Firearms Act banning weapons that cannot be sensed do not apply to 3-D printing according to Steve Israel, A Congress Representative. Essentially then anyone can enter buildings and areas that can usually detect weapons, and have an edge. (Doherty)

The ramifications of that type of weaponry are very serious; just imagine what terrorist organizations could do with that. However, that is a very extreme. One immediate thing to consider is that once crowd sourced anyone with a 3-D printer can easily access the schematics for a gun. The question arises, how can someone regulate millions of people accessing this then? When that question is asked alarming ideas should arise because there are no true ways to regulate who can access them. Thus anyone can easily gain access to a gun. Does that mean that more incidents like the Sandy Hook one will come into fruition? Does it mean that gang members and murders will easily be able to bypass protocol and just download a gun? These questions demonstrate just how deadly such a simple innovation can easily become deadly.

                Now with crowdsourcing an even sinister dimension is added to this. There are a lot of sites that give countless programs for weapons including guns. These programs can easily be accessed and downloaded for printing, endangering the public as a whole.

In addition, crowdsourcing in the form of social media has recently popularity by people all around the world to broadcast their ideas and communicated with others. This has opened the door for illicit activities by extremist groups. Now, you can go on the internet and go on a social media site such as Facebook or twitter and find that terrorist organizations have accounts which

they use in order to advertise and communicate with other criminals.

Jack Dorsey founded twitter in 2006. He originally came up with the idea, as smart phones were just starting to gain popularity. He wanted a way to be able to send short messages, almost like a text, to a group of friends (about.com). Thus Twitter was created, and is now one of the biggest sites to find crowd sourced data.  Now in age every organization, group or institution has a social media account. This includes many terrorist groups, who have set up accounts. One of the most recent examples of this is the militant group from Somalia, Al-Shabaab who attacked a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.  They used twitter right before the attack and during their attack to broadcast their goals. Twitter learned of this and proceeded to terminate the account. A few hours later when Al-Shabaab entered the mall and began shooting people and causing mayhem, they created another twitter account where they had a live feed running to give real-time updates of what was going on while they were conducting this attack (Prasant).

Moreover, there are various other activities on twitter by infamous groups. Al-Qaeda was also on twitter using the pseudonym Shamukh al-Islam, in which they “tweeted” about religious proclamations and other things such as death tolls due to their attacks. This twitter page had close to 2,000 followers before it was suspended (Naidu). These suspensions rely on someone to report the accounts, because we don’t have the technology to identify who real threats are, especially if groups are using false identities. According to Dan rivers, a Senior International Correspondent for CNN, the main problem is that although these accounts are reported, there are many private chat-rooms where terrorist leaders from around the world exchange information and tactics. Hence, crowd sourced sites may not be completely safe if they are diffusing

extremist ideology (Rivers).

In addition, crowdsourcing can help give false information through social media sites, when an important event occurs. According to Roland Paris, Former Director of Research at the Conference Board of Canada, there have always been false rumors spread, but now in age it is much more difficult to find the truth because when one person shares it, it is quoted by people everywhere even though it might be false. In July there was a terrorist attack in Norway, and at first there was no information about the perpetrator of the attack. Originally experts said that the terrorist was an Islamist Militant from a Jihadist organization, but after the attack the identity of the attacker was a Caucasian anti-Muslim reactionary. Many experts were then put under fire for their false and seemingly bias claims, but in reality it is not entirely to blame (Paris).

Right after the attack, people turned to social media and began sharing information with nothing to back it up. News reporters are increasingly pressure to be the first sources of information, and to use social media to interact with people when a newsworthy event happens.  Many reporters went on to social media, and due to a lack of patience, and began claiming the attacker identity and affiliations to certain organizations. Having no information to report on, they used made up intelligence created by civilians who are sharing their opinion and theories on the matter, thus creating mass confusion due to false intelligence shared by crowd sourcing (Paris).

In spite of all of the information given there are still some those who believe that the benefits for the crowdsourcing technology potential outweigh the negatives. In terms of the 3-D printed guns there are many who believe them to be harmless, many thought it would only be used to print simple things such as toys or other ordinary everyday items. In fact before the first

printed gun was made most people did not think it could even be possible. Most people have only created small semi functional guns that break upon the first couple of shots, due to the ballistic strength of the bullet would destroy low integrity of plastic 3-D makeup of the gun. Therefore, it was projected that it would take years for a fully functional gun to be printed. (Bilton)

Then to add to that, as Richard D’Aveni, a business professor at Dartmouth basically said that 3-D printing would lead to the drastic decrease in cost of production for various objects (D’Aveni). On another note with the terrorist extremist groups police and law enforcement are not too alarmed. Most believe that their information can be easily tracked since it is own crowd sourced internet technology. At the same time governments have also been using crowdsourced technology to search for and apprehend large scale criminals as well. Thus all of the benefits in terms of crowdsourcing for most people overshadow the bad truths lurking in the shadows. However as stressed throughout this paper, these truths should not just be ignored for they tell of the grim future that lies in store if these issues are not addressed now.

In Conclusion, crowdsourcing has had, and will continue to have a negative impact on society. There are guns that undetectable and outside the reach of the law due to 3-D printing technology. Social media has aided terrorist and other extremists to gain support and followers on a large scale due to the World Wide Web. There continues to be many negative aspects including sharing of intelligence in blogs, that could potentially cause damage to the public. For god’s sake, even secret government document have been leaked that endanger the lives of millions.

                                                                        Works Cited

Bellis, Mary. "What is Twitter and Who Invented It?." About.com Inventors. About.com, 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/Twitter.htm>.

Bilton, Nick. "How 3-D Printers Are Now Making Weapons." Bits How 3D Printers Are Now Making Weapons Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/click-print-gun-how-3-d-printer-are-now-making-weapons/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0>.

D'Aveni, Richard. "3-D Printing Will Change the World." Harvard Business Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://hbr.org/2013/03/3-d-printing-will-change-the-world/ar/1>.

Fleming, Mark. "What is 3D Printing? An Overview. | 3D Printer3D Printer." 3D Printer. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. <http://www.3dprinter.net/reference/what-is-3d-printing>.

Naidu, Prasant . "Increased Presence of Terrorist Organizations on Social Media: Challenges For Social Networks." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.  <http://socialmediatoday.com/prasant-naidu/1786511/terrorist-organizations-social-media-challenges-social-networks>.

Paris, Roland. "Crowd-sourcing Terror in Norway." Canadian International Council Canadas hub   for international affairs Crowdsourcing Terror in Norway Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://opencanada.org/features/crowd-sourcing-terror-in-norway/>.

Ponsford, Matthew. "'The night I invented 3D printing'." CNN. Cable News Network, 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/tech/innovation/the-night-i-invented-3d-printing-chuck-hall/>.

Rivers, Dan. "How terror can breed through social media." CNN. Cable News Network, 1 Jan. 1970. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/27/world/rivers-social-media-terror/>.

Week of 5/3/14 Review

This week has been kind of stressful. I have had a lot of work from all my classes, as we near the end of the year. To add on to that, it was my moms birthday, which added to the chaos. I have gone to bed late everyday, and then have had to wake up early to finish work, go to school and soccer. I am glad this week is over even though this weekend will be far from relaxing. Today I ran CPS City Championships, and qualified for the open 400 meter, with a personal PR of 55.6 sec. Next week is the finals and I am super excited to run, because I will be up against runners in the 53-57 second range which means I will have a lot of competition, and hopefully PR again.

Citations for paper

Bellis, Mary. "What is Twitter and Who Invented It?." About.com Inventors. About.com, 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/Twitter.htm>.

Bilton , Nick . "How 3-D Printers Are Now Making Weapons." Bits How 3D Printers Are Now Making Weapons Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/click-print-gun-how-3-d-printer-are-now-making-weapons/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0>.

D'Aveni, Richard. "3-D Printing Will Change the World." Harvard Business Review. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://hbr.org/2013/03/3-d-printing-will-change-the-world/ar/1>.

Fleming, Mark . "What is 3D Printing? An Overview. | 3D Printer3D Printer." 3D Printer. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. <http://www.3dprinter.net/reference/what-is-3d-printing>.

Naidu, Prasant . "Increased Presence of Terrorist Organizations on Social Media: Challenges For     Social Networks." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://socialmediatoday.com/prasant-naidu/1786511/terrorist-organizations-social-media-challenges-social-networks>.

Paris, Roland. "Crowd-sourcing Terror in Norway." Canadian International Council Canadas hub  for international affairs Crowdsourcing Terror in Norway Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://opencanada.org/features/crowd-sourcing-terror-in-norway/>.

Ponsford, Matthew. "'The night I invented 3D printing'." CNN. Cable News Network, 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/tech/innovation/the-night-i-invented-3d-printing-chuck-hall/>.

Rivers, Dan. "How terror can breed through social media." CNN. Cable News Network, 1 Jan. 1970. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/27/world/rivers-social-media-terror/>.

First draft for Crowd sourcing Essay

Jabari Brooks, Forrest Haydon

Crowdsourcing: Negative Effects on Society

Crowdsourcing is just one of the offspring of accelerating means of socialization. It started with a simple website Kickstarter but it has now coalesced into a myriad of different applications. To date, there are countless websites that use it in order to gain information and so on. One classic example of this would be Yahoo Answers, or Wikipedia. Essentially crowdsourcing makes it easier for information to be collected and showcased. In addition, the speed of crowdsourcing is significantly increasing as well. In merely a few years bio printing has been engendered. However at this alarming rate the potential of crowdsourcing technology definitely proves problematic. The problems that arise can be argued how crucial they are though, but there is a problem none the less.

The potential for crowdsourcing technology may have benefits, but more importantly the applications of this technology can prove to be very dangerous and outweigh the benefits.  Many of the downsides of this can be found with the potential for 3D printing of weapons, the use of social media networks aiding terrorist communications, human-based computations through blogs that distribute information on how to make homemade weapons, and the leakage of secret government documents through crowdsourcing.

                To begin, there are many negative aspects to the modern day phenomenon of sharing information called crowdsourcing. One of these major aspects is that of a modern invention called the 3-D printer. Now in essence the 3-D printer was created without incorporating crowdsourcing. In fact crowdsourcing, like 3-D printing, was not created recently (Ponsford).

                A man named Charles Hull created it roughly 30 years ago. He made this invention originally from acrylic ink that would turn solid in the presence of UV lighting. Mr. Hull did all of this from a small lab in a business he was apart of during that time. After his invention others took the idea and built upon it. However, it was extremely limited by the technology accessible around the time of the late 90’s. With modern technology, in the turn of the 21st century, has allowed this technology to be adopted by various companies with limitless capabilities. (Ponsford)

        To better understand first 3-D printing and how it works, its functionality will be discussed. First off, like regular printing it starts from a 2-D realm. This entails making a model from scratch on a computer, or writing a program for the printer to follow. Then the program will splice the model into thousands of layers for the printer to recreate. Once this is done the printer will then begin to print. With a laser, or other forms of high intensity light, a beam will melt and mold a layer of material into a certain shape. After that the printer will continue layering materials upon each other until the model is created, seemingly from thin air. Different materials can be used including, plastic, metal, chocolate, nylon, and even living cells. Of course the capabilities of this machine become endless. When you add crowdsourcing to the fray interesting things begin to occur. (Fleming)

One example of how the potential for this technology to go in a bad direction with crowdsourcing is the printing of guns. At first the possibility for this technology to be used to create a gun was deemed unlikely. However this was proven wrong when the first gun was created out of plastic. Furthermore, the plastic material meant that the gun would be undetectable in airports and other facilities. What is scary about this is that the Undetectable Firearms Act banning weapons that cannot be sensed do not apply to 3-D printing according to Steve Israel, A Congress Representative. Essentially then anyone can enter buildings and areas that can usually detect weapons, and have an edge. (Doherty)

The ramifications of that type of weaponry are very serious; just imagine what terrorist organizations could do with that. However, that is a very extreme. One immediate thing to consider is that once crowd sourced anyone with a 3-D printer can easily access the schematics for a gun. The question arises, how can someone regulate millions of people accessing this then? When that question is asked alarming ideas should arise because there are no true ways to regulate who can access them. Thus anyone can easily gain access to a gun. Does that mean that more incidents like the Sandy Hook one will come into fruition? Does it mean that gang members and murders will easily be able to bypass protocol and just download a gun? These questions demonstrate just how deadly such a simple innovation can easily become deadly.

Now with crowdsourcing an even sinister dimension is added to this. There are a lot of sites that give countless programs for weapons including guns. These programs can easily be accessed and downloaded for printing, endangering the public as a whole.

In addition, crowdsourcing in the form of social media has recently popularity by people all around the world to broadcast their ideas and communicated with others. This has opened the door for illicit activities by extremist groups. Now, you can go on the internet and go on a social media site such as Facebook or twitter and find that terrorist organizations have accounts which they use in order to advertise and communicate with other criminals.

Jack Dorsey founded twitter in 2006. He originally came up with the idea, as smart phones were just starting to gain popularity. He wanted a way to be able to send short messages, almost like a text, to a group of friends (about.com). Thus Twitter was created, and is now one of the biggest sites to find crowd sourced data.  Now in age every organization, group or institution has a social media account. This includes many terrorist groups, who have set up accounts. One of the most recent examples of this is the militant group from Somalia, Al-Shabaab who attacked a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya.  They used twitter right before the attack and during their attack to broadcast their goals. Twitter learned of this and proceeded to terminate the account. A few hours later when Al-Shabaab entered the mall and began shooting people and causing mayhem, they created another twitter account where they had a live feed running to give real-time updates of what was going on while they were conducting this attack (Prasant).

Moreover, there are various other activities on twitter by infamous groups. Al-Qaeda was also on twitter using the pseudonym Shamukh al-Islam, in which they “tweeted”  about religious proclamations and other things such as death tolls due to their attacks. This twitter page had close to 2,000 followers before it was suspended. These suspensions rely on someone to report the accounts, because we don’t have the technology to identify who real threats are, especially if groups are using false identities. According to Dan rivers, a Senior International Correspondent for CNN, the main problem is that although these accounts are reported, there are many private chat-rooms where terrorist leaders from around the world exchange information and tactics. Hence, crowd sourced sites may not be completely safe if they are diffusioning extremist ideology(Rivers).

In addition, crowdsourcing can help give false information through social media sites. Many times, when a important event happens. According to Roland Paris, Former Director of Research at the Conference Board of Canada, there have always been false rumors spread, but now in age it is much more difficult to find the truth because when one person shares it, it is quoted by people everywhere even though it might be false. In July there was a terrorist attack in Norway, and at first there was no information about the perpetrator of the attack. Originally experts said that the terrorist was an Islamist Militant from a Jihadist organization, but after the attack the identity of the attacker was an caucasian anti-Muslim reactionary. Many experts were then put under fire for their false and seemingly bias claims, but in reality it is not entirely to blame (Paris).

Right after the attack, people turned to social media and began sharing information with nothing to back it up. News reporters are increasingly pressure to be the first sources of information, and to use social media to interact with people when a newsworthy event happens.  Many reporters went on to social media, and due to a lack of patience, and began claiming the attacker identity and affiliations to certain organizations. Having no information to report on, they used made up intelligence created by civilians who are sharing their opinion and theories on the matter, thus creating mass confusion due to false intelligence shared by crowd sourcing (Paris).

In spite of all of the information given there are still some those who believe that the benefits for the crowdsourcing technology potential outweigh the negatives. In terms of the the 3-D printed guns there are many who believe them to be harmless, many thought it would only be used to print simple things such as toys or other ordinary everyday items. In fact before the first printed gun was made most people did not think it could  even be possible. Most people have only created small semi functional guns that break upon the first couple of shots, due to the ballistic strength of the bullet would destroy low integrity of plastic 3-D makeup of the gun. Therefore, it was projected that it would take years for a fully functional gun to be printed . (Bilton)

Then to add to that, as Richard D’Aveni, a business professor at Dartmouth, basically said that 3-D printing would lead to the drastic decrease in cost of production for various objects (D’Aveni). On another note with the terrorist extremist groups police and law enforcement are not too alarmed. Most believe that their information can be easily tracked since it is own crowd sourced internet technology. At the same time governments have also been using crowdsource technology to search for and apprehend large scale criminals as well. Thus all of the benefits in terms of crowdsourcing for most people overshadow the bad truths lurking in the shadows. However as stressed all throughout this paper these truths should not just be ignored for the tell of the grim futures that lie in store if these issues are not addressed now.

In Conclusion, crowdsourcing has had, and will continue to have a negative impact on society. There are guns that undetectable and outside the reach of the law due to 3-D printing technology. Social media has aided terrorist and other extremists to gain support and followers on a large scale due to the world wide web. There continues to be many negative aspects including sharing of intelligence in blogs, that could potentially cause damage to the public. For gods sake, even secret government document have been leaked that endanger the lives of millions.

Week of 4/25/14 Review

This week went by fairly quickly. We got back from Spring Break, had school Monday and Tuesday before being off again for two days because of the ACT. I had to go to track on both Wednesday and Thursday. This wednesday is my Moms birthday so I have been thinking about some present ideas. In track, Varsity had a city qualifiers meet and it went very well, with several people having PRs. Next week I will go watch and on Saturday I have to go and compete. I am really excited about the track meets, and have grown to love running a lot. Thats all for this week.

Week of 4/11/14 Review

This was the last week of school. I was disappointed, because almost all of my teachers have assigned a ton of work, especially my world studies teacher who gave us a 30 page double sided packet t read and write a review. In french we have multiple WB pages, in english and essay, in chem we have to build a rocket, and trig we have a WS. I am excited for the break, but I have a ton of things such as soccer, track, and a lot of MUN research that I need to do. I need to also get some new cleats, organize closet and get rid of small summer clothes. This spring break is going to be packed.
Today the french exchange students left. I had a great time with them and it was so much fun to be with them, but it is also good to be able to relax more and not have to show them the city and keep them entertained.

Week of 4/4/14 Review

This week went by very quickly. I have been very busy with a lot of school work that various teachers have been assigning. I have been sick for about 2 weeks. On Friday we went to a clinic an they blamed my chest congestion and coughing on allergies. We weren't convinced so we went to our primary doctor and turns out I have acute Bronchitis. I have been taking medication and am now feeling a little better. So I missed Friday and most of Tuesday so I have had a lot of projects which I needed to catch up on. I have still gone to my track practices in which I helped the team with timing and other things. This Friday I went to see the play Noises Off by the WY company and it was really good. Today Saturday I went to a best buddies walk which most of the track team went to. Tomorrow I will be going to a Cubs game with Carmela's exchange student, Kate Bailey and her student as well. I know another girl Grace is also going, but we haven't planned with her. I also have to research for my next MUN conference which is really important. So this weekend is packed with things I have to do.

Week of 3/28/14

This week ended terribly. I have been sick with a cough all week and it got worse on Wednesday and Thursday so I couldn't go to a track meet on Friday in which I was scheduled to run three different events, the 400meters in a medley, 4x800meter relay and the 4x400meter relay.  I was hoping to break my PR in the 800 and possibly in one of the 400meter races. It has been extremely frustrating that I have missed the last 3 meets, two because I was sick and one because of soccer. I know that my times would be so much faster had I run at least two of these.
Anyway, in English we are finishing our story, which I feel I should have worked more on. We are also starting a research project on crowdsourcing which I am very excited about.

Week of 3/21/14 Review

This week has been ok. Yesterday on thursday I woke up a little sick, with a sore throat. Today i'm not in school, which is why I am doing my review so early. I can't wait till spring break, as private schools such as the Lab school are already out. I would really like a break right now. Also, I have 3rd quarter grades next week, and I need to talk to some of my teachers.
The champions league is going on now, and I hope that Barcelona beats Athletico Madrid, and make it to the final 4.

Week of 3/15/14 Review

This week was my birthday. I spent the day relaxing after school and then we went out for dinner at a restaurant. I also had a model UN conference at the University of Illinois. It went ok, I didn't win anything, but considering the winners were upper class men I'm fine with that. It  took place friday evening, all of saturday and half the day sunday. I am glad to be back as it was a very tiring experience, but I've been doing HW since I've arrived.

Week of 3/8/14 Review

This week went ok. We had a pep rally for the girls basketball which went well for the most part. In world studies we got to see a music presentation from the middle east which was interesting. I also had a meet this weekend in which I did extremely well in. In english, the story is doing well, and the class is getting along well with it. I am looking forward to see what the story will be like, and how other classes will do it. My birthday is next week, which I am very happy about.

Week of 3/1/14 Review

This week went ok. I had a sub in Ms. Chhabra's class for two days which I was happy about. In english we have been writing our stories, and I finally completed most of it. Originally I had written about another seminal event, but it took place in the course of a week which was much too long for this.  I ended up switching, but never really got around to writing more than half a page, but now i have a fairly solid three. I had soccer this weekend which went well, and a lot of track as usual. I think thats it for this week.

Week of 2/21/14 Review

This week I had another track meet in which I made my PR for the mile, 5:19. Considering I have only run 2 races, thats not bad. This week I have had soccer and track which both went well. I had a trig quiz which I feel I did badly on because it was extremely difficult. I will be going to a MUN meeting in March at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I need to start researching if I have any hopes of doing well. I will represent Spain in the GA II which is the economic and Financial Committee. I am excited about that and that it is two days after my birthday. Also in English class we are each writing a chapter for our novel that is going to be published.

Week of 2/14/14 Review

This week wasn't so great. I got sick last weekend, so on Monday I went to school for the first 3 periods.  Then on Tuesday I went to school for the second half of the day. On wednesday I was still sick, and there was no school, but I had to go to Track practice in the afternoon. We ran outside for more than an hour at with most of it being at race pace. During the run, 2 kids vomited, and afterward a few others did due to the intensity of the workout. After practice I felt really weak and had to go to the bathroom multiple times, because of diarrhea and when I got home I also vomited twice. I didn't end up going to school on Thursday, and stayed home sick. I finally went back to school on Friday and was feeling much better. By Saturday I was feeling almost fully recovered so I decided to go to the meet with the team. I arrived on saturday, we had a light practice and then all ate together and went to the meet. At the meet I was amazed at the speed of some of the people running. Toward the end I ran the mile in 5min 32sec. Finally at the last event, I replaced another kid for the 4x400meter race. I began running at a full sprint and soon realized that I was going to get tired but continued running anyway. At about 300meters I was in second and the only person in front of me was none other than Kolani Cole. We had his friendly rivalry going all of 7th and 8th grade and he was faster at any of the shorter distances. With about 100 meters left, I let out a grunt, funneling all my energy into passing him. I just barely managed to pass him and had about 75 meters left which I ran like I have never run before. I reached the finish line first and passed the baton to Anthony.  From there he ran and passed it to Brandon, who finally passed it to Keduse for the final leg. Keduse grabbed the baton and was second and about 5ft behind the other kid from Kenwood. The other kid had terrible form and after 200meters Keduse was leading by a little bit, and he kept going at it and Whitney won the race. All of us running were freshmen, and had managed to beat other freshmen, sophomore, juniors and seniors. It was amazing and we were all extremely happy. Whitney got 2nd at the meet overall, with St. Ignatius winning first.

Week of 2/7/14 Review

This week was pretty much like most other weeks except for the fact that I joined track. I am going to be doing Track long distance, but I'm still not sure in what events I will be competing in. I will be practicing everyday but Wednesday because I have Model UN. On Mondays I will be doing both Track and Soccer, with an hour break in between. I was very tired after Monday and Tuesday, but I feel that this will help me become extremely fit come soccer season and summer. In English, we began to read 30 Days to Empathy By: the 31. I like it so far, and it seems cool that we are going to write a book like this in class.

Week of 1/31/14 Review

This week was a short week due to cold weather that had school closed on both Monday and Tuesday.  I was surprised at the amount of work I received for the first day of the semester on Wednesday. I am not very excited about this short poetry unit that we are about to begin because I have never been a huge fan of poetry. I do like the idea of the Story In someones Shoes, even though I'm not entirely sure what I will do yet.
I have decided to join track and field for the long distance competitions. I will do it 4/5 days of the week. Only thing is I haven't told my mom yet and I don't think she will like it because she thinks I already exercise enough with Soccer.

Week of 1/23/14 Review

This week was finals week. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I didn't have school on Monday which was extremely helpful for studying, as I spent a long time studying for math.  On tuesday I had my math and French final, then I got to go home early. It was probably the worst of the finals day because I had math and as always, 3/4 of the class wasn't finished when the bell rang, so i had to randomly fill out multiple problems. French was ok. On wednesday I got to arrive to school 90 minutes late because I would have had lunch first. I had to P.E. after that and got level one fitness in Pushups, sit-ups, 12minute run, and Vsit. I also got 100% on the written portion of the test. Later I had english and that went alright. On Thursday I had Chemistry and World studies and both were surprisingly easy.

Week of 1/17/13 Review

Hey blog! This week has been really stressful because it is the week before finals. I have been talking to teachers trying to make sure my grades are as good as possible. I have had a test or Project due in every class but P.E. It has been very stressful studying for all these test and quizzes when I should be focusing on finals. I had a french presentation in french class which went really well. In English, talked about parallelism in speech and writing. This weekend I have soccer everyday including Sunday, as i have been invited to practice with the NPL Team(national premier league). I will have zero time for friends this weekend and will just study, play soccer, and study some more.

Week of 1/10/14 Review

This week was short due to two different snow days. They were Monday and Tuesday, due to extreme temperatures. On Monday it was -30 degrees!!! with a wind chill of -40degrees!!! Tuesday wasent as bad as Monday, but it was still below zero degrees. This week was also tiring, because my sleep schedule was completely off after getting used to waking up at 12 almost everyday. I will have soccer on Saturday and I hope it goes well. I enjoyed reading Black Boy over winter break.