Alex's American Studies

Participation

2009-06-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

This year in American Studies class I was not very talkative. I was sitting on the side the whole time basically and I wasn’t really talking. I liked a lot of the things we did such as the animoto war video we did in groups. But I wasn’t even that talkative in the groups either. I feel that my grade should be a C or B- at best because I was a real participant in any of the conversations and I did really comment on the blog’s. I mean I started talking a little more towards the end of the year and I was always good with writing blogs. I think that the grade I put on here should be the grade I get. P

The Times Are Changing

2009-06-01T09:15:00.000-07:00

Walter Payton was a great NFL player and also a great man. His story of becoming a rising star in football and going to the NFL is like Jay Gatsby rising from being a janitor who will go nowhere and becoming a rich popular man. The image I am using is with him and his quarterback Jim McMahon standing together, looking at the American Flag singing the National Anthem. This image emphasizes the barrier blacks and whites have crossed. The image is of black/white men, who are standing side by side ready for whatever the game and world throws at them. The image shows the sort of bond of between blacks and whites. This image I feel with be the best for my last blog post of the year because of it being a picture of my favorite player and my favorite team.

It's For Our Fallen Children

2009-05-10T17:08:00.000-07:00

When I was driving with my brother to see my cousins Stephen and Christian on the South Side. We past by this church that had a American Flag that was upside down. Me and my brother thought it was a mistake on the churches part. But then I realized that I had seen it before and I knew that it was not an accident but it was for a purpose. Later that day I asked my cousins why the church had there flag upside down and they said because there main priest was tired of the people thinking about the flag more than the dying kids. They also told me that someone took it down the first time the priest put it on the pole. He just put it back on and said that if people keep trying to take it down he'll keep putting back up there. My cousin Stephen said that the priest was angry with the public for not taking more interest in the deaths of young men and women around the Chicago area. He said that the priest was on the news talking about how the people around Chicago should start taking a better interest in the children so they aren't dying. He gave examples such as 16-year-old Ramone Morris who was shot on the West Side and the slaying of 15-year-old Alex Arellano, who was found beaten, shot and burned. The priest said the people should be less worried about the flag and more worried about the kids that are dying everyday.

Junior Theme 2

2009-04-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

Since my last Junior Theme post I've found a lot of information and I am now starting my body paragraphs. I did my intro already but now I have to do the rest of the paper which also has to be 4-6 pages. I found a book called The Last Lecture by Jeffery Zaslow; it's about Randy Pausch's last lecture to his students and colleagues. It's a great book and I have many ideas for my body paragraphs. I also have many sources from C.Q. Research and I am also interviewing an Oncologist from Northwestern University Hospital. When I started out the paper I started with telling my audience about Patrick Swazye and his battle with Pancreatic Cancer and how dealing with his life threatening illness. I think my paper will be good with all the information that I have and I hope for a good grade on it too. I feel that this topic is a great topic for me because of my insight on this sort of illness.

Thrilla in Minila

2009-04-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

Just this Saturday I saw a documentary about the third and final fight with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. It's from Joe Frazier's perspective and you see footage of there time in the Philippines and of both Joe Frazier's and Muhammad Ali's fights before they fought each other. During this whole documentary you see how Joe Frazier's a great fighter and how he got to be Heavyweight Champion of the World. You also see how the whole country liked Muhammad Ali more than Joe Frazier and we see how Ali is more successful. Throughout this whole documentary I saw the real Muhammad Ali. I saw how he criticized Joe Frazier and how he basically mad his life a living hell for him. Through all the fights I watched with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier I saw that Ali was the better fighter in the second fight. But Frazier was the better fighter in the first and third fight against Ali. During the third fight Frazier was hurt throughout the fight and was blinded by the 15th round. He wanted it more than Ali though, and even though he lost the second and third fight he was still the best fighter out of the both of them for his courage and his will to fight with a man that did nothing but criticize him. Ali said to Frazier's son at the end of the fight that he was sorry about all he has put his family through. But Frazier didn't except the apology because he thought Ali should have been a man and say it to his face.

Junior Theme

2009-04-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

This year has been a wild one so far and now with this Junior Theme paper, it's going to make it a little harder. In our AIS class we've been doing a lot papers and none of them have compared to the hype that this paper has. Some of the seniors I know have been telling me how hard it was for them and how it was very long. Some said there's were about 20 pages. I think thats ridiculous but I have to do it. My topic though is Pancreatic Cancer and quality of life which I feel is a hard topic and is going to take a lot of research. All I know is that this paper will be one of the toughest in everyones high school career and hopefully everyone does well.

Surprise, Surprise

2009-03-17T17:20:00.000-07:00

The 2008 NFL season has been over for a couple months now and teams are now getting ready for the 2009 season. There are many trades and free agents that are surprising the NFL and the fans of the NFL. One of the not most shocking trades was the trading of T.O. from Dallas to the Buffalo Bills. I mean, of course everyone new that they needed to get rid of one of the best offensive players on your teams because of issues in the locker room. You can't run a good offense if one of you're best players is not getting along with his quarterback. But one of the biggest shockers of them all was the Indianapolis Colts getting rid of Marvin Harrison. He has been with Peyton Manning since 1999 and was one of his most favorite targets out of all his receivers. Getting rid of him I think was a mistake because they need leadership. Marvin Harrison was and still is one of the best receivers in the history of the NFL and to get rid of that leadership was a bad idea on the Colts part. One of the things that I didn't see coming though was Jay Cutler (quarterback for the Denver Broncos) wants to be traded out of Denver. He's but, he just made to the Pro Bowl and is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. My top five quarterbacks are Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Kurt Warner, Ben Roethlisberger, and I'm still debating on Philip Rivers or Jay Cutler. Thats how good he is and if he does get traded to any other team then the Broncos will have a bad season next season because of the loss of there star player.

False Messages

2009-03-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

In class we talked about the art work we see in new trier when we walk down the hall ways. When I was walking around to my classes during the rest of the of the week I noticed how there are many flags of different countries in our lunch room. There are also many pictures of the word hello in the P stairwell. Then there are different posters of different clubs all either saying to join or for people to go to one of there fundraisers. I think all these are ways for New Trier to show how there "diverse." I think those things are not very good ways of making our school diverse. I think there are many other ways where our school can be diverse. We don't promote going to places such as Costa Rica, and other foreign countries where the students could get a taste of how other countries live. They can learn how different the school system is and they can see how different it is for others school's to be diverse. I just think that doing things such as this would help the students get a better idea of what else the world has to offer them and how there are different people who are just like them.

And the winner is...

2009-02-23T18:06:00.000-08:00

Last night was the 81st Annual Academy Awards. I thought there were many surprises and many upsets that I. One thing that didn't surprise me was Heath Ledger getting the Best Supporting Actor award for his role as The Joker in the Dark Knight. I feel that he deserved that Oscar even if he was not dead because of his performance and for great deal of hard work put into the role. What surprised me was the 8 Oscars including Best Director and Picture for Slumdog Millionaire. The movie was a huge success at the box office and was a magnificent achievement for the cast members. One of the things I didn't want to happen was for the Curious Case of Benjamin Button didn't leave with as many Oscars as it was nominated for. It was nominated for 13 Oscars but got only 4. I thought that the Curious Case of Benjamin Button could have done much better at the Oscars but you can't win them all. The award for Best Actor went to Sean Penn in his work in Milk as a gay rights activist. The movie didn't win many Oscars but did do well enough to get a Best Actor Oscar for Sean Penn.

Breaking the Huddle

2009-02-22T16:38:00.000-08:00

I just finished watching Breaking the Huddle a documentary about integrated football in the southern conferences of college football in the 60's during the civil rights movement. The documentary deals with teams such as Auburn, Alabama, Maryland, Ole Miss, and many other southern schools. Darrell Hill was the first player to play for a southern school in Maryland in 1963 after being recruited to play football for them. There were no black people in the stands which didn't make him too happy and he said that he would do something about it. His first game played was against Clemson a school that was non integrated school. His first game was a game for the record books he caught 10 balls for a ACC single pass catch record. This was amazing for civil rights movement because of his contribution to the Maryland football team. Another player that was great was Jerry LeVias who played for SMU in Dallas, Texas. He was the first black player in the southern western conference on a scholarship. His first practice was not one of his best ones and was spat on and he kicked in the ribs. He dealt with this adversity by starting his junior and catching a 65 yard pass during a game where he was a threatened by a sniper rifle but he didn't quit. That was until one game where he got tackled and the player rolled over him and spat on his face. He got to the sideline and told his coach that he could not take it anymore, and his coach asked him if he was going to let a guy like that beat him. So Levais went back on the field and told his coach before that he was going to run back a punt for a touchdown. He went back on the field and ran a 89 yard punt for a touchdown but he didn't do out of the love of the game but out of anger and hatred for the white man. He said it was the worst touchdown of his college career. There were other players but I thought these two stood out for there courageous efforts for the rights of the African American race.

NFL and Gun Control

2009-02-18T17:48:00.000-08:00

Real Sport's with Bryant Gumbel is a show about all kinds of sport story's that deal with real world problems such as gun control. The last episode I saw a story of an Ex NFL player who now owns his own gun store. The reporter that talked to him asked him if he ever sell any guns to any of his friends in the NFL and he said yes. When the reporter asked him the ex NFL player said it as if it was a normal to sell guns to NFL players. Then the reporter ask why would any NFL player want or even need a gun. The player said that it was just instinct because of where people came from. another reason was because of what happened to Washington Redskins Sean Taylor last year. He was asleep in his home and someone broke in, then he had a machete and the other guy had a gun and he killed him. Even before that, there were two players killed from the Denver Broncos in drive by's. The Ex NFL player said those were mostly the reasons why a lot of players wanted to by guns for themselves. When I watched this I thought to myself and I said to my brother that I could see why they would get one but I still had a bad feeling that something like what happened to Plaxico Burress could happened to anyone. I also thought that something that what happened to Sean Taylor could happen to anyone. So I understand why players would get a gun instead of having a machete or nothing at all.

Making Conversation

2009-02-18T17:22:00.000-08:00

In American Studies last week Mr. O'Connor asked use to try and see how people start conversations with other people and how topics came up. When he asked us to do this I thought to myself and I pictured me at my lunch table listening to other people's conversations and just looking like the creep in the corner trying to be in the conversation. But when I got to lunch I trying to think of different topics to talk about with my guy friends because the girls are always having there own little side conversations. I thought that i could talk about how me and my brother were play fighting with each other but then I said to myself who would want to here that. Then just when i thought of something cool to talk about my friend Nick started telling me how he's going on vacation. He just did that to rub it in my face but luckily I lost my train of thought. Then I just started thinking of something new. But when I was thinking of different ideas I noticed that all my friends were all different and I was to busy seeing what I could think of instead of listening to how others were starting there conversations. Which helped me see how people have great conversations

Mike Vick. Really?

2009-02-18T16:43:00.001-08:00

NFL players these days think they can do anything. They think that nothing bad can happen to them and that they can get away with anything. Micheal Vick was sentenced to 23 months to jails for having illegal dog fights in his house. Really? Honestly did he really think that nothing was going to happen to him. Did he really think he could get a way with it? I don't about anyone else but I think that YOUNG NFL players are taking there fame a little tom lightly. I say young players because they are the only players that do stupid things such as having dog fights, shooting themselves in the leg( Plaxico Burress), and even getting DUI's on boats(Cedric Benson). These guys all thought that nothing could really happen to them. Look at them now one of them is in jail and another one might be jail. And I don't see how someone like who gets so much money makes bets while dogs kill each other. Then while Mike Vick was in jail he had a rookie take hiCreates place and who also took his team to the playoffs. That poses a little problem for him though. If the NFL even lets him play again, he will have to find a new team to go to and he'll need to get his groove back on the football field. I on the other hand think that he'll get back in the NFL but will be watched heavily and I think that he'll get picked up by a team that need backup quarterback. I don't think that he'll be a starter anywhere unless that team really needs a quarterback. Now my guess it'll be either the Cleavland Browns or hopefully the Chicago Bears. I think that the Bears should get him because he'll be a helpful hand to Kyle Orton and maybe even there starting quarterback. If not I know he'll be a asset to other teams if he doesn't get picked up by the Bears.

Race

2009-02-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

When i was talking to my brother about this subject his idea of race was that you judge different races by the color of there skin. When i heard that i agrees with him. When we grew up thats how we could tell the difference between us and our friends. Even our friends would call us brown because we are Mexican. we called our African American friends black, and our white friends. My brother told me though that it makes him mad when people say that it's wrong for people to say the colors of there skin was terrible. They said to him that he was wrong for saying those things even though they didn't even know him. I believe that people can define race however they want because there is no right way. There are just different ways of defining it

Here We Come

2008-10-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

Here we come Glenbrook South. This Friday the New Trier Trevians are playing Glenbrook South for there last game of the regular season before the playoffs. GBS is 7-1 and the only team they lost to was Maine South as did the New Trier Trevians did last weekend in Park Ridge (55-24). But the Trevians this week is a good week for the Trevians because they started off the week good. The team knows what they have to do here at home on Friday for Senior Night at New Trier. If the Trevians win this Friday then they go into the playoffs with a good hope of a win in the first round of the playoffs.

What to Expect?

2008-10-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

What to people expect when they go to collage? What does collage expect you to expect? What I'm saying is that sometimes people at our see the collages in the meetings during the day and they get a tiny perspective of a school. When people go to see school's they go to see what the school's about and to see if it's for them. But what most kids don't say is that they really go to see if it's a great place to have fun with there friends. People always say that they go just to check out the school but they really go to see where the "cool kids" hang out and to see what they don't have to do.

What Happened?

2008-10-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

This past week the New Trier Football team played the #1 team in the state Maine South at Maine South's stadium in Park Ridge. The Trevians came to there stadium with a 5-2 record and Maine South was at home with an undefeated record (8-0). The Trevians came in to the game with high hopes of beating the #1 team in the state. Throughout the game the Trevians were doing a great job against the #1 team in the state and came out of the second half with confidence with a 23-17 deficit. When there was 5:18 left in the 3rd quarter the Trevians regained the lead and made the 24-23 and the game was battle until the Trevians got 4 turnovers and the Hawks scored 3 more touchdowns to take the lead in the 4th quarter. It was great team effort throughout the game but the Trevians just ran out of gas in the 4th quarter. They play Glenbrook South next week and then to the playoffs where they have not won in quite a while so it with be interesting to see the Trevians in the playoffs.

The Blow Out

2008-10-05T15:25:00.000-07:00

Today the Bears played the 0-3 Lions today and it was a must win for the Bears after there win against the Eagles. The Bears won on 2 TD passes by Kyle Orton and a rushing TD by rookie Matt Forte. The Bears Charles "Peanut" Tillman also scored a TD on a interception return of 26 yards. The reason this game was a must win is because it was there first NFC Division game against a rival team.

Is That a Fact?

2008-10-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

As the election heats up between Barack Obama and John McCain, so do the negative attack ads. Plus, the increasing number of emails that are received from family members and friends ramps up emotions and starts rifts. How many of us have received an email that claims Barack Obama is a Muslim or that Sarah Palin has a list of banned books? What does this mean for the campaigns of these senators? Do these negative of these candidates show how politics can hurt the lives of these candidates by giving each other more on there plate than just a presidential election. Some may conclude that the negative ads should stop during this time so maybe we can play closer attention to the next president instead watching these to candidates for something they do wrong.

A Good Year

2008-09-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

The Chicago Bears are my personal favorite football teams in the NFL. The city of Chicago is behind there team whether they're winning or losing. The Bears have many great players such as Brian Urlacher, Lance Briggs, Tommie Harris, and new rookie running back Matt Forte from Tulane University. This can be a better year than last year if the Bears concentrate on something that they need to do. And that's to get Kyle Orton in the game and to get Matt Forte some good carries with the ball. If the Bears can pull off 11 wins this year they will have a good chance in the playoffs against other teams and maybe make an appearance at Super Bowl XL III