I am changing blogs because of increasing trouble with homeschoolblogger. Here is the link http://journeythroughthenba.blogspot.com/

    I am so happy because we are planning to put me in Boy Scouts. It is going to happen on the 16^thof this month (being the next meeting) and I'm sooo excited. I will be joining troop 855 and going into the patrol with all the new scouts including one of my best friends. Currently I'm earning some money so I can start early.
    Dad originally said that if I earned $75 he would let me start before the fall, say after vacation (two weeks of may). But then we went to a meeting yesterday to see what it was like and heard about the Malakoff Diggings campout that is happening the 20-22 of this month and dad decided that if I earned half of the 75 he would let me start next meeting. I'm really excited about it and I hope that I can do well in it.

  It happened about 8:30 on Saturaday, the 10. We reserved our tickets to Disneyland. We are going on our yearly trip to Newport and we are going to Disneyland during that time. As it turns out we are going to arrive on May 22nd. Look around the area and stay the night at the California Grand hotel. The next day we are going to go into Disneyland. We will stay at the same hotel again then go to Disneyland the next day as well. Once again we will stay at the same hotel. We go home the third day though and that will end it.
    The cool thing is that the 2 day passes are 2 day hopper passes. This means that we can use them to go to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure park during those two days.

We sure are going to have lots of fun.

    Anyone read my blog from August 2, 2005? The one about Good books to read? I've read a few books since then and I am making a Volume 2.

Fantasy lover? Do You also like adventure, wonder and excitement You'll love the inheritance trilogy by Christopher Paolini. It stars with Eragon (AIR-u-gon). In which a 15 year-old boy finds a stone while hunting that turns out to be a dragon egg. He is trained as a Rider by another rider (although he doesn't know it). When the other Rider dies, he proceeds to go t the Varden, a group of people against the empire and especially King Galbatorix. Now before you discard this book because you think of dragons as dumb animals, think again. The dragons in this book are as intelligent as a human if not smarter. They can also talk to you in your language. (Not physically, but mentally) If you want book two it's name is Eldest

If sci-fi is what you want then I suggest Artemis Fowl; a child prodigy. He kidnaps a fairy named Holly Short, and sets the ransom at hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold. Before you say, "Now way!!! Fairies are for little kids!" Remember this, the back of the book says these words, "These aren't the fairies from bedtime stories, these fairies are dangerous."

For comics I still recommend Garfield, by Jim Davis, and Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Waterson.

All these books, especially Eragon, are very good. Try them out!

    So is this unorthodox? If so stop me now. You see I am going to write about the NBA during NCAA March madness. Right now, I don't care about the Eastern Conference. I just care about the Wester Conference. Here I am going to list out the top eleven teams of the Western Conference. Then You can decide who you think is going and who is not.

Well lets start at the top. In the NBA standings the Dallas Mavericks are first place in the Western Conference at 51-9 they are also guaranteed a playoff spot. (I'm sure you can see why)

Phoenix is in second at 47-14. They are getting into the playoffs for sure but I'm pretty sure they will be.

And in third place, the San Antonio Spurs at 44-18. My friends father is probably really happy. He really likes the Spurs, they used to live in Texas.

Moving down we find Utah in fourth place at a respectable 42-19 just a few games behind the Spurs. Although this is amazing, the fourth place team is 9.5 games behind the Mavericks.

In Fifth place, the Houston Rockets! At 37-24 they have a good chance of getting into the playoffs and possibly the finals.

And in sixth place, the LA Lakers. Now it is unorthodox from my standard to right about them. The are the Kings rivals. They have a record of 33-29 which is a percentage of 0.532 and they are 19 games behind the first-place Mavs.

In seventh place, the Denver Nuggets. This is the first team I have written about that has a record under 500 (50 percent or more of the seasons wins.) They are at 29-30 and are right there in the playoff hunt.

In eight place is the L.A. Clippers. A 29-32 record the have a big chance of not getting into the playoffs but they have a good chance of making them.

How about ninth place, the Sacramento Kings! My favorite team. They have a record of 28-33 they just started winning consistently. I do hope they make the playoffs and I also hope the get far.

Tenth place is the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets. They don't make the playoffs alot so they want to this year. Their record is 29-35,  a percentage of 0.453.

    The basketball season started, quite a while ago in fact. And I haven't written about it, HAA. Well as far as I know we have lost all our games. I was absent last week so I don't know what happened. There was another embarrassing loss to another team. At halftime we where winning 14-5 and the we only scored 3 points in the second half and they scored 17! We are kind of, I mean REALLY upset about it all. I just wish we would win one game. Well I try my best. I scored 12 points in the first game.  I am averaging 8.75 points a game. Not to bad but I wanted better.

    Well I know I haven't written lately but here it goes. You see we did Odyssey of the Mind again this year. (See Om State Competition  and Om state Competition results. We took sixth place out of eleven. I was kind of disappointed but what can you say? Well got to go. My dad needs this. 

    You may not have heard of him. Or maybe you have, he died in 42'. George W. Carver, man's slave to God's scientist. It all started when George was about six. He was as slave then.
    He was doing some of his morning duties when he noticed "death in the tree." Apparently some bugs had started to infest one of the tree branches. He tried to tell the master, Mr.Carver, about the death in the tree but he wouldn't listen. He tried Mrs.Carver, but guess what? She didn't listen either. So he grabbed a saw and started to cut off the branch. Mr and Mrs.Carver noticed that and ran out to stop him but he wouldn't stop. CRACK!! woooo bang it landed on the ground. Mr. Carver was angry  but then Mrs.Carver noticed something, "The boy sees things we don't. If he had not done what he did then the death would spread to the rest of the tree and then to the orchard," she said.  And so George (he did not have his last two names yet) made his first scientific discovery. So when all the slaves where freed, George decided to go to school.  But before he left, the Carvers gave him a name. George was his first name already so they gave him a second and third name Washingon and Carver. George Washington Carver.
     When he first got to Neosho, George could not find a place to sleep so he slept in a barn. And so for the first couple days he slept in a barn and went to school. But then he was found. He was willing to do work in order to earn his keep which he did. 
    ... that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that, government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth. George sat down proudly has he finished reciting the last part of the Gettysburg Address. He was so happy that he was finally was beginning to stop stuttering.
    George needed a way to stay alive. So he would go around and ask all the rich people if he could do work for them. He was surprised that people seemed willing to pay him in food rather than money.  Once again George had to sleep in a barn. He had been sent a shawl by Mrs.Carver and used that and a torn blanket he found inside the door of the barn. Using those things, and hay, George was able to keep warm enough to stay alive during the winter months. But he was once again found out. He then lived with the Martins in return for work.
    One day the Martins woke up to deliciouses smells coming from the kitchen. The rushed downstairs to see what was happening in there. They found George.
    It was time for George to go to High school. So he applied for a school in Fort Scot, Kansas. When he got there he worked for the fanciest hotel in town. He would heat up the stove each morning and wash dishes in order to earn his meals. One day, when he was in nature class, George absently picked up a piece of paper and started drawing.
    "George, what are you doing?" His teachers voice broke through his thoughts.
    "I've just been drawing."
    "Bring your artwork to me."
    And that is how George became part of the art class.

    One day George noticed an add. The government was giving away free land. Any one rich of poor could come and file a claim (if they agreed to live on it that is). So George went with a wagon train to the west and filed a claim for 160 acres. He spent all his money making a cabin for his land.

I must now move on to the Wright brothers. And learn how they figured out the wright (pun) way to make and airplane.

    As I sit here listening to one of my moms favorite rock band's (U2) most interesting songs (But I Still haven't found what I'm looking for) I think, have I found what I'm looking for? You know I have a family and everything I could want but am I happy? Ask yourself that question to yourself when you go to bed tonight. Are you happy, if yes good! If not... "Whats wrong with my life?"

Lights! Camera! Action!! Well I am a movie maker .  Here is a link to my video archives. I will update it when I make new ones.

Wow this is really different from what I remember. This is my first time logging in since the website was changed. And would you look at that, there is only 20Something smiles now. I wish that there was more. Well anyway no time to mourn. I hope that everyone is going to have a good Christmas, In my case Christmas and birthday. Yep my birthday is on the 17nth just five days from now. I'm turning eleven how nice is that. Well I'm really excited.

I hope that all of you home schoolers out there are going to have a good Christmas (I'm talking to you guys that are in public school, I was in public school myself for two years) and also Happy new year.

So... What's  everyone doing for thanksgiving? Ready for turkey 

  mmm. Yah looks good can't wait. But what about the other stuff. Mashed potatoes (which I don't really like) Apple Pie, Raspberry pie and best of all rhubarb mmm mmm. Well anyhow did you know that the pilgrims ate there dessert with there main course? It's true.

    Hey kids. Parents look away now, kids maybe you can persuade your mom and dad to let you eat the pie while you are eating the turkey not after when you have no room. That way you can stuff yourself with pie and then you won't be able to stuff any of the turkey down. Right? Right, Ok Parents I hope you weren't listening, ahem, reading in. If you were well oh well. But if you did read please to the other parents.

   Any way that's that. Now we are going to our Nana and Papa's house for thanksgiving. Well I have to go now. Blog to you late

P.W.

Have any of you heard of Helen Keller? No? Well I guess I will just have to write about her.
    Helen Keller was a girl who, when she was very young, lost her sight because of a strange fever. Later Helen also became deaf though I don't know how. If you were deaf and blind how would you learn to communicate? It wouldn't be easy, would it? Huh?. Well Helen was smart and she eventually learned to talk. But that was not for years and years.
     It all started one day when a strange person named Annie Sullivan (of course Helen didn't know that) came to the house. Here is how it happened.
    Helen met this person in a rather unusual way. Her mother had left in the morning to goodness knows where (according to Helen). When she came back Helen felt people coming inside. She ran to who she thought was mother but it wasn't mother it was someone else. This was the start of Helen Keller's education.
    Teacher taught Helen how to communicate using a series of hand signals meant to represent words. Basically it was kind of like morse code. Teacher would have Helen touch something and then tap the word into her hand.
    At first Helen had no idea shat these taps mean. She thought it was just a game. But then one day. She learned the word water and then it clicked for her. She was learning to communicate.
     Helen learned new words every day . She wanted to go to college. And she did. Teacher spelled everything that the professors said into her hand. And this way she got through college. She got a diploma.
    Then one day she said she wanted to learn to speak. She eventually did.
    News of her spread across the globe. She would give lectures. She told people to savor there senses. She said to listen as if tomorrow you would  go deaf. Use your senses like it was your last day to have them.
    Then WW II broke out. People where wounded and didn't want to live anymore. But Helen went around to hospitals and told people to cheer up
    "Of course you will have bitter moments., I do too. Of course there will be days when you will fell restless and lonely and cheated. All I can tell you is, live as much like other people as you can. Keep your life full of books and work and friends. I do-and look how well it has worked for me." This is what she said to the men.
     Helen Keller lived a long healthy working life. But on June first, 1968 Helen Keller died.
    Helen Keller was dead. But her spirit lives on. As she said so many times, "The best and most beautiful things in the world can not be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.

     Mom said I had to write something about history, lit, or bible and I decided history. I am getting into the "technologically advanced" America. The phonograph has been invented, sewing machine, cars are revving their motors and Edison has just finished work on the electric light bulb and video camera. The civil war is over and President Lincoln has been shot. Did you know that the southerners were sad  that Lincoln was killed? It's true, the south lost the only friend from the north that they really had. The only sympathetic friend. Lincoln still liked the southerners, I mean he still wanted them back in the union. I thought that was amazing that it was like that. Also the Negros had just been given rights and that was a real step forward.      

    I am so sorry that I have not been writing about the basketball season. I have been so preoccupied. Well lets begin.
    Yesterday Orlando beat the Celtics 92 to 89. Orlando's Dwight Howard had fifteen rebounds, imagine that! Jameer Nelson also had 24 points in the win.
    Seattle also beat the Nets 119-113. Four of the five starters for Seattle finished in double figures in points.  Combined, the five starters combined for 107 points. Vince Carter of the Nets had 38 points but it wasn't good enough.
    Last but not least, Cleavland beat the Knicks 102-96. For Cleavland both LeBron James and Damon Jones had 29 points and Drew Gooden had 11 rebounds. Probably the plus side for the Knicks was the seven assists from Stephon Marbury.
    For today, Milwaukee is playing at Atlanta at 7:00, Denver is playing at Miami at 7:30. The Bobcats are playing the Hornets and Portland is playing Minnesota at eight.     There are more games but I don't have time to write more. For more info go to NBA.com. Later, bye.   

    P.S. All times are ET.

    This is a blog about Old Yeller. One of the best school books I've read.
   
We called him Old Yeller. The name was sort of a double meaning. One part meant that his short hair was a dingy yellow, a color that we called "yeller" in those days. The other meant that when he opened his head, the sound that he let out came closer to being a yell then a bark.
    I remember like yesterday how he strayed out of nowhere to our log cabin on Birdsong Creek. He made so mad at first that I wanted to kill him. The, later, when I had to kill him, it was like having to shoot one of my own folks. That's how much I'd come to think of the big yeller dog.
    These are the first two paragraphs of Old Yeller.
The story is about a boy, named Travis, probably around 14 years of age. His father leaves with some of his friends to sell cattle and it is Travis's job to take care of the house while he is gone.
   
    Here is how Travis found the dog.
   
    It was the next morning that the big yeller dog came.
    I found him at daylight when Mama told me to step out to the dog run and cut down a side of middling meat hanging to the pole rafters.
    The minute I opened the door and looked up, I saw that the meat was gone. It had been tied to the rafters with bear-grass blades braided together for string. Now nothing was left hanging to the pole but the frazzled ends of the snapped blades.
    I looked down then. At that same instant, a dog rose from where he'd been curled up on the ground besides the barrel that held our cornmeal.
    The book tells about how Travis begins to like Old Yeller. He and Old Yeller do many things together. Old Yeller also saves Little Arliss (Travis's Brother)" from a bear.
    One of the things that Travis and Old yeller to together is going hog hunting. In those days if you marked a hog with you mark, he's rightfully yours. Travis climbs in a tree, finds a good branch, and stays there. Old Yeller draws the hogs out to the tree and they chase him around it. Then one by one Travis uses a noose to catch the hogs and mark them. Up in the tree of course. Unfortunately Travis gets a hog cut.
    There is a case of hydrophobia going around and Travis's family's sow catches it. The have to shoot it and then burn it. Travis is still hurting to much to carry wood but he does do the shooting. So Mama and another girl do the wood carrying. When they don't come back by night fall Travis is scared that something happened to them.    It turns out they encounter a mad (like hydrophobia mad) wolf. Old Yeller and the wolf fight but the wolf bites Old Yeller before Travis can shoot it. So he has to shoot Old Yeller so he won't get hydrophobia and endanger them all. It is very hard for Travis but it has to be done
    And that is the end of Old Yeller.
In the end Travis's dad comes home with a horse for Travis. And Travis gets over Old Yeller being dead.
    But Old Yeller leaves something behind. And that is a pup brought to Travis while he was sick with the hog bite. A girl breeds Old Yeller and her dog and gets a litter of pups. She offers Travis the best pup of the litter he refuses it and it went to Little Arliss instead. But in the end of the book. Travis, the pup and Little Arliss go squirrel hunting. 

    I read a book on Thomas Edison this week and it was very interesting. First off, Edison had a bad accident when he was 12 years old. Thomas was selling papers and food on a train. One day he was late and the train was leaving he tried to jump on the back of the train. A man saw him and helped him up. But Edison felt something snap in his head and he went deaf. Well almost deaf. He could hear someone yelling close to his ear but other than that he couldn't hear a thing. Thomas said once, "I haven't heard a bird chirp since I was twelve. "
    Also Edison also created the Video camera, phonograph (which he eventually improved by putting a "horn on it), and of course the electric light bulb. Edison's first wife died and he married a second time. He also had children.
    Thomas Alva Edison died October 19, 1931. I was surprised. I didn't realize he was that recent. I figured out that my grandpa was already two years old when Edison died. And he's still alive.
    P.S. I am sorry that I have not been writing about the basketball season. I have a new website. Here is the link.     

    Well every team has played at least one game in the regular season. The last teams to play a game played yesterday. San Antonio beat Dallas 91-97 despite Nowitzki scoring 21 points and grabbing 11 rebounds and the LA Clippers barely beat the Nuggets 95-96. Sam Cassel had 35 points and six assists in the win. I will write more later but for now I have to go.  

    The regular season has started! It started last night.
    Chicago blew out Miami 108-66, and the Lakers surprisingly without Kobe Bryant beat 106-114. Lets see what happens today.

    I have decided to start writing about basketball during the basketball season and other stuff during the off-season. I hope the link for the NBA standings is on my blog. If not here is the link.
    Well the preseason is poof. A thing of the past. All games are over and the first regular season game is on the 30th.
I shall try to start writing more.