Time. Chelsea H.

This week has left me feeling frustrated as I fall behind in some of my physical requirements due to waiting on an injured wrist to heal. I thought it would only need one week of rest but I took the splint off at the 1 week mark and did a push up. The pain that followed told me it would need more time. I'm hoping that by this Wednesday, the 2 week mark, I'll be splint free and ready to catch up.

As the weather begins to warm it feels to me that my days are speeding by, sometimes I have to stop and enjoy the beauty of moments. I saw some flowers blooming a few days ago signaling a hopefully soon return of spring, I am very ready to hang up my thick coat.

Today I found out about an organization that helps victims of domestic violence who are also homeless that are being housed along with their children in hotels. I asked what their needs were and how I can help. Starting this week I will be assisting by giving rides to people so they can do laundry, or WIC, stuff like that. I am looking forward to beginning my volunteer work with them.

My favorite act of kindness this week: inquiring about and committing to a needed cause in the community.
My favorite act of kindness received: when a friend genuinely asked how I am and listened.

A snow filled weekend (3/30)

Hey all! This is my blog for the week of 3/31 to 4/6. I hope.
Overall this week has been pretty good. I had MCAS on Wednesday and Thursday (I know, what fun!), but the good thing about MCAS is that you get no homework on the days that you have it. God, I wish every day I had no homework. Do you know how much I would get accomplished? I would cook, craft, and read during every waking hour if I could! But, sadly homework interrupts that beautiful paradise. So anyway, I had MCAS and no homework this week. Then on the weekend, I went skiing.

This is Nick and I at Adam's Solitude, a ski trail a Bolton Valley, the ski resort that I always go to. It is rarely open, but is nonetheless my favorite trail. Also, for the last two years I have been learning how to telemark. That is a ski style where your heel comes up when you make turns. For example;

Sorry for the bad quality of the video.This is me telemarking. It is a fun way to ski, and the same ski and binding also can be used when backcountry skiing. 

At the end of that long day of skiing, my family went over to the condo that our friends were staying at. The following craziness ensued:

Again, sorry for the bad quality. We (Grace, Nick and Cal) decided that jumping off the porch into the three foot deep snow would be an excellent idea. We got stuck many times, and once spent ten minutes digging out our recently fallen comrade. After that we played man of the mountain, and it wasn't surprising who won (me). All in all, it was a fulfilling weekend, with as much fun and action packed into its hours as possible.

See y'all next week!

Work time. {3/26}

I have been (sketchily) doing my push ups and sit-ups. I usually finish them, but lately I have been having trouble completing them. I am having difficulty finding time to do them. I try to do them when I get up, but it is the morning, and that just doesn't work. But mostly my problem is finding a structured time to do them. I think that if I do them at the same time every day, then I might be able the keep up thee habit better. So if anyone has any ideas as to a way to remember to do the push ups and sit ups, I would much appreciate the advice.
 On another note, Alabama is coming up fast! I know some people are all set with their fundraising, and props to them! But others are not all set, and have a bit of work to do in order to raise money. I would think that setting up a donations page would be the quickest way to go. Many people have started them, as the days are counting down. But if anyone has anything that they need help with, I would be happy to help. Sooooooo, um, yeah, that's it. Have a nice week!

Jake's Blog Post Wednesday 3/26/14

This week, I am going to talk about our leadership roles in the community outside of the dojo. As many of you know, we are taught to promote non-bullying and be the examples of well rounded individuals. I wanted to bring light to the fact that we are also the role models and examples of good people outside the dojo, in regular life to our friends, family, and others. And being these role models, we can improve our friends, family, etc just by being the examples we are taught to be. If you haven't heard the saying, "If you hang around skunks, you stink," it means if you spend time with people who have "bad" behavior, you'll rub off on some of it and reflect that behavior. From another perspective, if you do the opposite of that phrase and hang around people with good behavior, that behavior will rub off on you. To us, we are the people with good behavior and if we spend time with people who could use better behavior, they could be improved simply by spending time with us. Think about it, if I made it seem confusing I apologize, try reading it over again.

Zen in the Martial Arts

So I started reading Zen in the Martial Arts and it is amazing. I am planning on building it a shrine where I will worship it. Not really. But it's great. I really like how Joe Hyams, the author, tells of his learning the given Zen principle in the martial arts and then how he took it "out of the dojo and into the world". I have not had much chance to use the things that I learned from this book, but last night I was given the opportunity to break a board. My Youth Group is doing a segment called "Breaking Free from Depression" which is supposed to help teenagers be happier, I guess, and to physically "break free" we wrote one thing that makes us feel unfulfilled on the board and then broke it. Ironically, some of the breaks actually missed the words all together, but whatever. It was a metaphor. When it was my turn to go up, there was a lot of pressure because I was "that girl who does karate. It'll be a piece of cake for her." I had no problems breaking the board, but I like to think it was helped by the techniques I learned in the book: to clear my mind, visualize my hand hard as a rock going straight through the board. 

Anniversary! Chelsea H.

This week I celebrated my wedding anniversary (march 20th). During celebration I reflected upon the beginning of my relationship with my husband...but it also made me think about the 2 years ago I began training at RMF. I began February 15th 2012.  How exciting it was to be in a dojo again..also how I could barely walk due to soreness that first week! Haahaa! How it took nearly all my strength to even do a pushup on my knees and how weird it was to be yet again wearing a white belt. Over these past 2 years I have grown in ways I never expected. I am stronger, I have more endurance. I have learned the great value of patience and calmness. I feel I am truly discovering the zen of the martial arts. The best part are all the wonderful people I train with. I care deeply about them all, each one holding a place in my heart, each interaction helping me to become a better martial artist and person.

Goal progression! Each goal is progressing just as I planned and I feel it is unlikely that they will not be completed. My novel is at 28,000 words (40,000 goal), I hit practice session 75 this week on guitar (100 goal), and now that the warmer weather may be approaching I can stay out longer with my dog to jog/walk in prep for a 5k. I have been getting emails this past month about upcoming 5k's but have yet to choose one.

My favorite act of kindness this week: supporting a thrift store's cause by shopping there for a skirt instead of a department store.
My favorite received act of kindness: a much needed hug ( I LOVE HUGS!)

Chelsea H.

Jason Mai 3/23/14

Jason Mai

3/23/14    

     Okay...so this blog post is going to be weird, but for some reason I've gotten weirdly obsessed with Disney movies this weekend, I'm not sure why...I feel like a little child, and I'm 16 years old. Okay so I watched like 3 different Disney movies this weekend and I realized why I like them, because of how they make me feel. Hold on hold on, before you think I'm super immature and childish, they are some very good feel good movies that leave good messages as well. They are light hearted and generally spread good vibes. Now before you put this off, go watch some Disney movies or think of the old ones you have watched before.

     One reason why I like them is probably because secretly, I wish my life could just be a Disney movie, now I understand that sounds naive and "Oh Jason, you're 16, you should know the realities of life" yes yes I get it okay, whatever. But get this, how awesome would it be to have Disney life. Literally you go have some struggles in your life, but its okay because you meet really cool people, then you meet someone you love and live happily ever after.

     Buuuuut this also makes me hate Disney movies, because when I watch them, I feel happy, but then I look at our world, and become sad. We have war, famine, death, disease, and a lot of people don't have happy endings. I understand these movies also have death and stuff but it always ends in happily. It's just sad to make the comparison between all movies and life.

     Life is probably pretty cool, but right now its pretty boring haha, maybe that's why I want it to be a clean cut storyline....

     When I make movies for a living, I want to create that feel good feeling for the audience. Or at least feel some kind of emotion, that's the beauty of theater and any expression of art.

And here is my second personal goal post. 3/8-15

            So now I have decided to talk about my second personal goal. I have decided that I wish to compete in a tournament with my fan form. For those of you that don’t know, Sensei very nicely taught me a fan form last year. I spent quite a while working on it and learning it, and I thought that a tournament would be the perfect place to display my new talent. Then I thought that maybe I could make it one of my personal goals to compete with it in a tournament, because I had been learning it mostly while the Mastery program had been going on. I have done tournaments in the past, and I usually compete in the weapon forms category, the forms category, and the sparring category. Those are the categories that I have the most experience in, the most knowledge about, and that I feel the most confident in. Previously, I had successfully used my kama form to compete. So I was nervous about using this new form to compete—there is a part where you flip the fan at the end, and I was sketchy at best with that part. When I do something, I really like to be prepared. I don’t like to take any chance that I might mess something up.  But when I went to talk to Sensei about it, he began to talk about me not just competing in those three categories, but all the other ones as well. I don’t really want to do this, because I feel that it is too much, and really my goal was only to compete with the fan form, not compete in all these other categories that I don’t really have experience in. But Sensei was adamant about it. He thinks that it would be good to push myself outside of my comfort zone. Though I know that he is right, it doesn’t make me feel any more certain about it. And if I had to step outside my comfort zone, I would prefer to do it by myself, or with people I know. In other words, I would rather be with people I’m comfortable with when I step outside my comfort zone. And people I’m comfortable with do not include random people all around the tournament. If anyone has ideas of how I could do that without competing in other categories, could you please comment  them or tell me?

More tardy blogposts-- Owen Mahoney 9th--15th(still late)

Sorry I’m late again, I REALLY need to work on following through by pushing the publish button.

So this is my blog for the week of the 9th to the 15th.

This past week has been a hard one, with a lot of work to do and no time to do it. My three main projects are the buildvention fundraising, the speech I am doing for alabama, and the vocabulary cards (I’ll blog more about those if I have time). I made a list of things that I need to do to get these done...it’s three and a half pages long, single spaced. And on top of that, Every night this week I have gotten slammed with Home work. And when I say slammed I mean slammed. Like, slammed full on, bouncing off the ropes, climb up the cage walls, "people's-elbow" slammed. I walk in to the classroom and the teacher is like,

“WELCOME TO THE THUNDERDOOOOOOOME!!!!”

But seriously, a lot of work.

sometimes this just happens, there’s a lot of work, and no time to do it, and It feels like you’re drowning in a stressful slog. I just need to access the time management part of my brain, buckle down, and get it done.

Other than that, not much to report. Everything is going fine, I’m thinking that I will start work on documenting my mending of a broken relationship and profiling of living heroes later on after the build vention and things die down a bit. Favorite act of kindness: Helping a teacher take the computer cart to the fourth floor while the elevator was broken(not an easy thing to do).

One more thing before I post, I think that though sometimes blogging can be a pain, I think it has really brought the team together, and I have loved hearing from you all.

--Owen

Alabama(Again)-Owen Mahoney 3/2--3/8(really late)

I'm sorry I keep posting these late, but what I do is type them up in pages documents so they get saved and then forget to post them because I just Finish, and stop. Then, three or four days later I can't find my post and I realize what I did. Again.

    Anyway, This is my blog post for the week of March 2nd through the 8th.

    Olivia recently asked me what Alabama is like, and though I wrote a speech on it, I don't think that there is really enough information on what it's really like when you get there. The speech was more of a story, but if you wanted info theres not alot. So here goes my description of GreensBoro Alabama and the work you do there.

    The buildvention, the people, the the jobs you do there, and place is, in a word, wonderful.

  This is a fairly abstract word so allow me to elaborate.

     The main street is mostly a the fronts of ancient buildings which are dusty, cracked and peeling.  There are few cars parked along the street, but no way that you need to look both ways before crossing. There are no people in the vacant, faded ghost town. The majority of the buildings have been empty for years, but not all of them. The few exceptions are the buildings that have been restored by HERO housebuilding, and these buildings stand at a stark contrast to the rest of the street. They have been painted with light and dark colors, they are comprised of glass and chalkboards, and of bright shining wood and sealed bricks. With there glass and metal and fresh paint, they stand at contradiction to the musty pastel stores of the rest of the street, and are bright with modernness and fresh ideas. As you start to look around, you start to meet people.

      Usually at night there will be a meeting, in which everyone will be asked to share something about a topic, projects you have done, what your school does lots of things like that, and also in which you stay up really late because after each person talks, Tom Callos adds his two cents, (which is more like two hundred cents because Tom is a big talker).

      In case you don't know who Tom Callos is Tom is the founder of the ultimate black belt test, the program which the mastery program is based off of. He is also the  founder and leader of The One Hundred. And in case you don't know what The One Hundred is, basically, it is a group of 100 martial artists/school owners who are committed to running their schools and businesses as honestly and ethically as possible, and also to take their dojo's out of the dojo and into the world by doing work for charities and acts of kindness. These are the people who you meet as you walk around the streets of hale county. It’s amazing to see so many people who are all possessed of the respectful kindness and the courtesy that comes with being a person committed to the martial arts.

Anyway, back to Tom

Tom has been in the martial arts for over 40 years, and you look at him and see how he radiates wisdom and experience. He is an excellent martial artist, and he has so much knowledge of running and training and living the martial arts dream for long enough to be considered a master. About 10,000,000 times per second, Tom has an idea. He is well informed, and a constant activist and advocate for dietary self defense, philanthropy, community engagement, leadership training bully prevention and countless other issues that are all what martial arts is all about. And about three times a week he’ll write the type of facebook post that has you quietly nodding and thinking, “Can I get an Amen!” on one of these topics. He isn’t just smart, he’s bright, full of ideas and passion. He has an amazing ability to inspire people to do incredible things. He has the ability to give you fuel and make you hunger for the chance to do good.

There is a lot of work to do, but the whole place is fueled by a drive of pure happiness that gives you the energy to wake up early, sleep late, and work hard all day.

Hopefully that gives you a better idea, if you have any more questions, post them in the comments

Owen Mahoney

Jason Mai 3/17/14

Jason Mai

3/17/14

     I don't really know what to write about today, to be honest. For one, I guess I am slightly worried about the mastery program, I am doing well on all the requirements except one....I need to still raise $150 - (I got $50 from brad's Halloween party) and there is only 3 weeks or so left! So I really need to get on that, I know when I'm focused and I organize things together I can definitely raise $150 easy. I will try to get it done this weekend.

     In other news...movie is in the last stages of shooting, after that there will just be editing and polishing it up, making a website, trailer, advertisement. So exciting. I'm really excited to put this movie together and show everyone, can't wait for my parents to see it, they'll be so proud. All I've wanted to do is make my parents proud, show them I can do something, show them I can succeed in this field of work.

     Today I had my first day of sophomore seminar where we basically talk about school stuff at school and...today we were talking about junior year, sats, and colleges, this makes me nervous but also excited. I can't wait for college...but I will also be sad to leave all my friends and family. I am planning to go to a L.A college, which is really really far from home, and we probably won't be able to afford me coming home...which is fine. I can become independent and will develop my character.

     This Friday I will be taking my permit test, so that will be cool. Once I pass I can start driving with a parent in the car. I never really cared about driving that much, I always though, it's not necessary for me, but every since I tried it....its got me hooked. There is something so empowering in driving and makes you feel like an adult. Also it's super convenient...not like i'll get a car soon but still. Cannot wait.

     Honestly didn't have too much to talk about this week, maybe it will be more exciting next week.

Jake Blog Post Monday 3/17/14

This week I'd like to show all of you one of the videos I made for my crew/team's Facebook page, like I said before we are a group of flow artists which basically means we either spin glowsticks like in the video I am showing you, or another form of light art that flows together to the beat of a song. Pardon the pajamas, it was shot during the weekend. Enjoy! (By the way, the video doesn't start at the beginning because it was too big to send the whole video from my ipad, if you want to see the whole video you can watch it at my crew's Facebook page, facebook.com/kcrewpoi)

Zen in the martial arts. Chelsea H.

I finally sat myself down and read one of our required texts, Zen in the Martial Arts. Wow, what a great book! Each chapter I found myself relating to the topic, I feel I learned much. Parts of the book spoke to me more than others and one of those was the chapter about compensating for your weaknesses. As most of you know I have asthma, I was diagnosed with it when I was 5 years old and even though I take daily maintenance medication for it and bring my inhaler to class sometimes it frustrates me greatly that I get of breath so easily. Over the past 2 years of training at RMF I have learned how to fight smarter so I dont breathe so hard and how to control my breathing better maximizing the efficiency of each breath. Another chapter that I found really interesting was called Effortless Effort. It spoke about the true power of being relaxed when you fight or train. That you tend to strike faster , harder and more accurately when relaxed. This is something I would like to apply and possibly master.

I still haven't heard back from the letter I sent my old roommate. I'm not sure if I will. Could be an inaccurate address as well.

My favorite act of kindness this week was  giving my husband a massage to help him relax. My favorite act of kindness done to me was being helped by two ladies to find my new doctor's office inside the building.

Alabama Funding

Alabama is just around the corner! Unfortunately, I will not be going :'(. But I can still help out my teammates and do some funding! I've been thinking for a while about how to get my funding done. I thought a lot about how everyone has those two or three things that they're really good at. So my idea: have kids come in and teach them. I thought we could model it on a karate seminar, except not karate. Kids can pick what activities/crafts they want to learn, and we could have a bunch going at once. The date is tentatively set for April 6th and should last about 2 hours. I plan on splitting the proceeds with Mastery Team members who help out, so if still need to do some funding for Alabama, come teach! So far I have only a few people able to help out, and a few maybes. Anybody can come and teach something. Please let me know if you can help. Thanks!

Perseverance. Chelsea H.

Every week as I click on my blogger app it makes me smile to see the awaiting posts to be read written by my team mates. Keep it up yall!

This week I had my fitness/ physical requirement assessment done by sensei. I was nervous beforehand as I felt my performance would not reflect my hard work but as the assessment progressed and sensei read out my results I was surprised at just how much I was able to do! I smiled as i recalled my fitness at the beginning of the mastery program and how much progress I had actually made. I feel accomplished and motivated. Perseverance does pay off!

My favorite act of kindness performed this week was printing out information to give to a friend. My favorite act of kindness presented to me was a friend from Texas took time to do a favor for me.
I look forward to seeing all of you this week
Chelsea Hughes

Jason Mai 3/9/14

Jason Mai
3/9/14

     I feel really bad today, a friend let me use something of his, and I scraped it up. Something that he held very close to him and had a lot of value. I tried to fix it, but I don't know how he feels about us and our relationship. Hopefully he isn't too angry at me because I want to still be friend's with him. I know we will be but in his mind...he will always hold it against me. Today was a very depressing day today.

     I tried to plan a weekend shoot, get the actors together and get a few scenes done...man was it disappointing. Nothing worked out, everything went wrong. People were arguing with me, arguing with each other and I couldn't get anything done...Eventually we had to leave early because one of our actresses was too sick to act. Everything I planned, everything I did was for nothing. I wasted all my time and don't know what I'm doing. I thought I was doing what I was suppose to, I thought that it would be easy, because of how hard I worked, but sometimes no matter how hard you work...things will still be difficult, impossible, unlucky. When that happens, you just need to learn from it and move on, you can't just dwell on it, which is just so hard. Either from scrapping a friend's possessions or having a bad shoot, you just need to move on.

     I want to profile another living hero today, one person who popped into my mind because of what we are doing in English class. We are reading a book called "Night" about a holocaust survivor and he has an amazing story. His name is Elie Wiesel, he went through so much and still tells his story. The book is a bunch of venietes of a few years of his life. I remember reading how when they arrived at Auschwitz and he smelled the burning of flesh, and how terrified he was, how he had to run to the sleeping quarters, or how they had to stripe down, or showered down or shaved. I can't imagine how horrible it was for them, and how they survived though it, is just amazing. These men and women able to live through living hell and come back and tell the story, that is courage. That is inspirational. That is a living hero.

I need to step my game up, I thought I was doing amazing on my film, I was ahead on my schedule, my editing was spot on, but I realized there's more to it than that, and I still have a lot to go. I had no control of my actors today, I didn't lead them the way I should of. Failures like this will make me a better person and improve my skills. It is never good to assume you are good at anything, because you're not. Someone is always better, there will always be a challenge, you will never be good. But you need to fight for it, you can't let your guard down and just believe you already are good, that you don't need to improve. You always can improve, you always need to fight for that extra inch of whatever you are doing, you need to do that extra set of push ups because then you will be that much better, you need to spend that extra hour from your Saturday to plan you're shoots so that the actors will respect you and follow you. I need to stop slacking, I need to go back at 120%

Today was a depressing day, but hopefully from today, I can learn and make the rest of my days less depressing, if so. Than today was worth it.

Heroes

One of the requirements for this test is to profile 3 living heroes. I spent a while thinking about who I could profile. I was watching Ellen one day with my mom, helping her fold laundry, when I thought: of course, Ellen! I have always looked up to Ellen DeGeneres, because she is so funny and so strong. She's been through a lot to get to where she is now, including tons of hate for her sexuality. Her talk show is one of the most watched in the country. And who else would have the guts to order pizza for everyone at the Oscars? She does crazy stuff like that all the time- even on her show. She's famous for being really generous to the people who come see her, and/or people who need it, so much that she's often jokingly referred to as "Ellen DeGenerous". She didn't always have that amount of money to throw around; her parents were divorced and she worked as a waitress, vacuum seller, painter, and legal secretary. She took pride in her jokes, and she got her big break on the Tonight Show. Since then, she starred in the TV series "Ellen" and now hosts a talk show, "the Ellen DeGeneres Show". What I like about her show is that she doesn't just interview celebrities and famous people, but she also takes time for people who are waiting for their big break, just like she was. She was also Dory in Finding Nemo, who is one of my favorite characters of all time. Ellen is a hero to me because she stood tall through the rough times and made it to the top, but she still genuinely helps out the people on the bottom. 

Actions can have very big effects (3/7 ) This is my blog for this week. The last blog was for last week. It was a bit late.

 An act of kindness that I did this week that had a big impact was that I made my brother Nick a birthday tribute on Instagram. A birthday tribute is where you post a photo or video of the person whose birthday it is, along with a caption declaring how happy you are for them on their special day. I created for my brother a flip-o-gram (a video made up of lots of pictures). I must have spent at least twenty minutes on the music to accompany it alone. You see, my brother has proclaimed that he doesn't like music. Now this made it very difficult to pick a song to go with the tribute. I have heard him singing a few movie songs, but those were not available. So I ended up picking Pompeii, by Bastille, of which I had a vague recollection of him humming. Well I posted the tribute to Instagram, and forgot about it. But when I got home, Nick came straight up to me ad gave me a big hug, and thanked me profusely for the tribute. He had tears in his eyes, and said that he really had not expected that from me on his birthday.

   It surprised me that this action that I had thought so trivial had affected him that much. It made me think about how I treat him, and how I should treat him. I realized that I can be very dismissive and rude to him at times, and that can make him believe that I don't care about him, or that I don't want him around. Because of that I have made the decision to make my brother my broken relationship. I have resolved to be nicer to him, and treat him as an equal. And I hope by the time next year rolls around, he won't be quite so surprised that I have made him another birthday tribute.

   But this reaction Nick had also made me think about how far an action goes. One little thing that you do, such as posting a birthday tribute, can make all the difference in a persons life. And you might not even know it. I recently read an article, it was a true story, about two guys. Lets call them Matt and Steve, and how they became friends.

One day Matt was walking home, when he noticed other kids bullying Steve. Steve was a loner kid who didn't really have many friends. Matt had never met Steve, but jogged on over and told the bullies to get lost any way. Steve was bringing all his books home, and when Matt noticed that he decided to help him out. Well the two become great friends, and Steve became very popular among the student body. When graduation rolled around, Steve had prepared a speech. In his speech he said that the weekend that Matt met him, Matt had saved his life. He was bringing home his books because he was going to commit suicide, and he didn't want his mom to have to clean out his locker. When Matt ran over, stood up for him and offered to help him carry his stuff home, that became friends. And Steve realized that life might be worth living after all. All this time Matt knew none of this. And, yet, he had still managed to save Steve. This is how our little actions can have very big effects, and sometimes even change peoples lives.

Olivia: Gym class (3/7)

Hey all!
This is the blog for last week (I left writing it until the last minute, then I didn't have any time).

    So this week I've decided to talk about Gym class. Personally, I hate Gym class. I don't like doing anything that involves coordination in front of a random assortment of kids that I only see for an hour. Although I am generally acceptably coordinated, in gym class I feel as though I'm being watched all the time, and as a result become radically less coordinated. But that is a story for later. Today I've come to talk to you guys about Gym class and how it does absolutely nothing to improve your health. 
    One of the main points of Gym is to get kids fit and more active. But I feel that it does very little to meet that goal. Gym only meets 2-3 times a week (for my school at least), but that doesn't help kids get fit. If you want kids to get healthy, or stay healthy, than you have to be there every day, even weekends, encouraging them. Or make them practice certain exercises at home. Many kids already have this with organized sports, and don't really have a need for gym.
       Another way that gym doesn't meet its purpose is that the activities don't give you a workout. In my school we have these games that we play that are at least 5 different variations of the same game. And every single one of them is easy, and you will not be breathing hard by the end of the class.We also have ping pong. PING PONG IS NOT A WORKOUT. It sort of teaches coordination, but I find if you cant hit a small moving target in the first place, you're not going to be able to at the end of an hour either. A last sport we have is fitness walk. That is where you walk around the town in a giant clump, and get yelled at by a teacher when you walk in groups larger than three.The idea is good, "oh, yes, lets make kids walk around town! Walking is good cardio, and we will make them keep up a quick pace." But in reality all kids do is shuffle around gossiping with their friends.  It is very nice if you want to keep up with the goings on around the school, but not so nice if Gym doesn't meet its goal, which is to GET KIDS ACTIVE AND WORKING OUT! Again Ping-pong and trudging around town do not accomplish that.


 

Jake's Blog Post Wednesday 3/5/14

Hello everyone, sorry for writing this a few days late. It will not happen again. I am planning on posting every Wednesday from now on.

This week I wanted to write about a few of my good deeds from the past week that stood out among the others. The first one I wanted to talk about involves my brother. Last Wednesday, my brother had what seemed like endless amounts of homework to do, and it was already around 8 o'clock. On top of his homework, he also had to collect the garbage from the trash bins around the house and put them in the garbage can in our garage. So, knowing that he most likely would've had to stay up past his bed time to collect the garbage, I decided to do it for him, so he could get his work done without having to stress over doing his chore and sacrifice some sleep.

The other good turn I did involved my injured friend at school. She had broken her ankle, and is still on crutches. However, she is making a steady recovery. Last Thursday, she had a substantial amount of books and her backpack to carry, and at the end of class no one was offering to help her carry it to her next class. I had noticed that she would not be able to get to her next class on time if someone didn't help her, so I asked her if I could carry them for her. Her classroom was on the opposite side of the school, and although it was a drag carrying the books and extra backpack, it was worth the good feeling inside of helping someone when they need it.

On another note, I'm investing my time in learning how to use HTML to design a website! Once I get the site up I'll post the link on here and you can check it out and let me know what you think!

Jason Mai 3/3/14

Jason Mai
3/3/14

     Today I think I will profile one of my living heroes, Eric Thomas. Eric Thomas is a motivational speaker who lived an interesting life. He dropped out of school and took 12 years to get his GED, he was homeless for a part of his life and now he dedicates his life to inspiring and motivating people to be the best they can be.
     There was a phase in my life this year where I found myself very unmotivated and didn't care about anything, I didn't feel like I was doing anything with my life, and not making the best of my time. So randomly I was on YouTube because that's what I do when I procrastinate, its horrible. I feel bad about not doing anything so instead of doing something I just go on YouTube and look up things to make me forget. So one day I stumble across a man named ET the hip hop preacher. I watched a few videos and I was hooked, I felt like my eyes were opened and I really did some searching with my life.

     Mr. Thomas talked about things that I always knew about but I needed reminding, he's a great speaker and enthusiastic about what he speaks about. He is vocal and gets his point across. Every time I watch one of his videos I take life on with a sense of purpose and that is something that is amazing. I don't know why, I am so young and probably don't understand real struggle but these videos hit me hard...maybe that is why they do...because I haven't had to struggle like some people have, yet I still feel stressed out, maybe I'm guilty that I feel this way, because I know their are people out their who have it worst yet I am still complaining. Whatever it is, Eric Thomas at the end of the day makes me take life in a more optimistic light, and reminds me of who I really am.

     Went back to classes today, crazy stuff. I might not of expressed it as much as I should have, but I really really really missed all of you guys. I was so happy to see you guys, I didn't know how to react. I wasn't sure if you guys all secretly hated me because I left for so long and ditched you guys and the mastery team. I missed the kids....seeing their faces light up, lights up my day.
     I'm going to try to go to class as much as I can but right now what is really on my mind is my movie. I finally found something I am good at and I'm really passionate about. I haven't found something like this in so long, this almost connects back to my first few paragraphs. I finally found what I love doing and I want to do it for the rest of my life. I know I am naive and still have 2 years of high school but as of right now I truly believe I could make my living off film and be in the film business. The thought of that drives me, pushes me harder each day, to edit more, to shoot more, everything. I don't want people to think I am getting soft, that I'm not coming to classes as often because I'm a slacker but I know what I am doing is right and makes me happy.

     That's another thing, I really need to stop worrying about what people think about me. For some reason I base a lot of my happiness of what people think of me, and it's unhealthy. Just as I am typing this out I am realizing. I don't need others invisible social permission. I need to make the best of myself without worrying about what people think of me, and how much they like me. I just need to be me, and the right people will like me for who I am, not some facade I put up just to hang with the "cool" kids. It's kinda weird, because sometimes when I'm with people who I'm not really friends with I feel more lonely than I would by myself...there is so much I need to discover about myself...maybe I should just take a weekend or something to meditate it out, I don't know. Shower thoughts.

     Wow journalism is strong...to sit down and really put your thoughts and experiences on paper just shows you how much you have grown as a person, how you think and I also write so much even if I try not to.

Impact of kindness. Chelsea H.

Tonight I find myself in deep thought and somber mood. Before I began writing this post I read and reflected upon my team mate Owen's post regarding last years Alabama buildvention. He spoke about being grateful of the riches of having access to basic needs,I could not agree more. It reminded me of some aid I assisted with in the 'ward' areas of Houston, hungry people, dilapidated houses all while fearing getting shot from the heavy gang activity. So much turmoil and strife, starvation, violence, illness in our communities, our nation and the world. People have been volunteering and aiding others for many years, there are thousands of charities and organisations seeking to improve our world in their own way but still people continue to struggle. Does this mean our good works are in vain? That no matter how hard we try we will never put a dent in the suffering of mankind? My opinion is no, and heres why. Even one drop of water will dilute the paint, every single act of kindness WILL make an impact maybe to the person receiving it, a person seeing it or you! Sometimes you may never know just how much even something that seemed small can be huge to that person. Perseverance my friends and may your kindness be like ripples in a pond.

On to progress of goals. I finally completed the letter to send out to my old college roommate to attempt a mend of our relationship. I am really nervous about what will happen but maybe slipping that letter in the post will be instant catharsis for years of guilt,the attempt at a new start.

My favorite act of kindness this week was being there for a friend who needed advice and a listening ear. My favorite act of kindness done to me was my husband surprising me when he came home with a rose and a small cactus.

Thanks for your time.
Chelsea Hughes

Space Project

I've had a crazy week! On Thursday, the culmination of months of work: our space project. At my school, Christa McAuliffe Regional Charter Public School (Talk about a mouthful. Try writing that on MCAS), your space project (AKA The Christa McAuliffe Remembrance Gala) is the biggest project of your three years at the school. My partners and I worked for months on our project, perfecting it, discussing it with experts from NASA, writing our presentations, and practicing. A lot. For me, it was a real experience in mastery. While giving our presentation, I marveled at how far my partners and I had come in our knowledge of the topic: Determining the Risks of Meteorites and Asteroids on Spacecraft and Earth (pretty sure my school has a thing for long names). For example, during our presentation somebody asked me if I knew anything about the Tunguska Meteorite Collision. For a second I was like "whaaaat?" but then I realized I did know- a lot- about the Tunguska Meteorite Collision. I was able to tell him about the damage caused by the collision, when the site was discovered, its effects worldwide, and the theory scientists have as to what actually hit the ground. I was really proud of myself and my partners- we mastered this topic. Of course, there are many more things to learn about it, but in the eyes of the most of the people who came to listen, we were experts. That felt really good.