Joyas Voladoras

     The meaning I take from Brian Doyle's Joyas Voladoras is that all hearts are different physically, but emotionally we all have weaknesses that can break our hearts.  I think it is discouraging and pessimistic because it says "You can brick up your heart as stout and tight and hard and cold and impregnable as you possibly can and down it comes in an instant..." and "All hearts finally are bruised and scarred, scored and torn..."This means that no matter what we do to protect ourselves from heartbreak, we will always be hurt in the end.  One of my favorite lines is "...the memory of your father's voice early in the morning echoing from the kitchen where he is making pancakes for his children..."  I like this like because I can relate to it.  Every Sunday morning my dad wakes up early and makes pancakes for me and my sisters before church.  It is something we look forward to, and has become kind of a tradition.

Quotes

These are some of my favorite quotes.

     "Take your victories, whatever they may be, cherish them, use them, but don't settle for them."-Mia Hamm

     "Winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is."-Vince Lombardi

     "We often regret the things we didn't do more than the things we did do."-Unknown

     "I am thankful for all of those who said no to me.  It is because of them I'm doing it myself."-Albert Einstein

     "Challenges are what makes life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."-Ralph Waldo Emerson

     "Some people want it to happen, some people wish for it to happen, others make it happen."-Michael Jordan

     "You cna't just beat a team, you have to leave an impression in their mind so they never want to see you again."-Mia Hamm

     "Never let success get to your head; never let failure get to your heart."-Unknown

    

    

What is Worth Knowing?

     "They don't teach you how to love somebody.  They don't teach you to be famous.  They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor.  They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer.  They don't teach you how to know what else is going on in someone else's mind.  They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying.  They don't teach you anything worth knowing."  This quote by Neil Giaman tells us that in school, they don't teach us anything that will help us get through inportant situations in life.  The things we learn in school make it easier for us to get into college, get a job, and be successful.  However, they don't teach us how to take care of the things that make life more than just a job.  They don't teach us how to be good to people.  They don't teach us how to have a happy family.  We need to know how to read and write, but we don't need to spend ten years of our lives on it.  We need to take time and learn the other things, too.  They are they things worth knowing.

Photo Essay - Okinawa

This is a Japanese temple. When I lived there, this was where my friends from school would go to church.
Posted by-Akira ASAKURA

This is a little extreme, but most of the buildings on Okinawa were made of concrete and looked something like this.
Posted by-Akira ASAKURA

This is a part of Okinawa outside of the cities.
Posted by-Teruhide Tamori 

This is the aquarium, which was one of my favorite places to go there.  They had hundreds of different fish.
Posted by-Stephanie Cornell



Posted by-ippei & janine naoi



This is the mall in Okinawa.  The view from the top of the ferris wheel is amazing.  
Posted by-Akira ASAKURA



This is an Okinawan mythical creature that is a combination of a lion and a dog.  Okinawans always had one outside of their house to protect them from evil spirits.
Posted by-nana.leder



This is an Okinawan sunset.  The sunsets there were amazing because it is so close to the equator.
Posted by-Akira ASUKARA

Recently in ROGATE we watched the documentary Wasteland.  It was about the biggest landfill in the world located in Rio, Brazil.  It is called Jardim Gramacho.  The documentary focused on the people who work there to collect recycled material from all the garbage.  These people are called pickers.  The story told is about Vik Muniz, an artist who goes to the landfill and takes pictures of the pickers.  He takes the pictures back to the studio and puts recycled materials in the lines and shadows instead of paint.  The final result is an image of the people made out of what they work with.
     The most memorable part of the movie for me was the part where one picker's picture is sold at an auction for 50,000 dollars.  His reaction was complete amazement and gratefulness.  He had never been so cared for or blessed in his life, and all of a sudden a stranger had come in and made 50,000 dollars for him.  He cried tears of happiness and thanks.
     From the movie Wasteland, I learned that you cannot judge people by what they do and where they come from.  Just because you are not rich and don't work as a lawyer of a doctor, doesn't mean you are less than everyone else.
     For the people who had their daily lives turned into something big and famous, it was exciting and terrifying at the same time.  They was finally recognized and cared for, but at the same time they had their lives advertised for everyone to see.  They were probably scared of what might come out of it in the end.
     If I were the subject, I would be happy, excited, thankful, and scared at the same time.  Part of me would be thinking how amazing and lucky I am, and part of me would be scared of the outcome and having my life shown to the world.
     Finally, I cannot really picture a part of my life turned into art, and I don't think that any part of my life is big enough for that.  To the pickers, the garbage was a part of them.  They worked there.  If the garbage was not there for them to make money from, they wouldn't be able to live.

Boston.com Photo Essays

I found this picture in a photo essay on Hurricane Sandy recovery.  I chose it because I think it shows hope in a time of trouble.  These volunteer workers are hanging up a symbol of hope among wreckage.   3 volunteer workers are pictured here.  Something that might be missed at first glance is the expression of happiness on the workers' faces.  They are working in the wreckage of people's homes, but they look happy to be helping out.  The story this photo tells is that even after a horrible disaster, hope can be found.  This picture tells a story of three people who decided to make a difference.  This picture means that there is always hope because there are people out there willing to help.  

Source:boston.com/bigpicture  Photo taken by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

20% Project

     In ROGATE, we are working on a 20% project.  This means that we will spend 20% of our class time a week working on a project we are passionate about.  I am working with Jessie and we are doing a music video for Drops of Jupiter by Train.  One roadblock we will face is getting a piano to practice with.  She is singing and I am playing the piano, so we really need one.  Another roadblock we will face is being able to film in the classroom.  Space is limited and we don't have a piano.  It is also not very quiet in there Friday 9th period.  We really hope this project will work and that it will turn out great.