Investigative Journalism

On December 7, 2016,  A citizen who was in their teens from the Berwyn township was appearing to have a heart attack. The time that the heart attack occurred was around 3:20-3:30 PM near the train tracks by Janura Park. The adolescent dropped to the ground holding his hand to his heart and couldn't move as if he was unconscious. The individual appeared to be in high school and most likely from Morton West High School. Three Police SUV arrived at the scene to support the teen with others around him with aid.

 This attack would have been caused by a buildup in one or more of your coronary arteries, causing it to be blocked. According to the American Heart Association, it states “ A heart attack occurs when the blood flow that brings oxygen to the heart muscle is severely reduced or cut off completely. This happens because coronary arteries that supply the heart muscle with blood flow can slowly become narrow from a buildup of fat, cholesterol and other substances that together are called plague.” This explains why all of a sudden the teen was facing a heart attack due to the probability of having his coronary arteries becoming clogged with plague (similar to having a clogged/blocked shower drain).

Nonfiction Responses

The nonfiction book I am currently reading is The Muscular System written by Dr. Alvin Silverstein, Virginia Silverstein, and Robert Silverstein. Currently, I am in the second section discussing about the  skeletal muscles of humans. Skeletal muscles are muscles that work with bones of the skeleton. The section is all about our (us humans) muscular and how they work. Overall, there are about 640- 850 muscles in the human body. There are three types of muscles called skeletal, visceral, and cardiac.

A passage that intrigues me would certainly have to be this, " Your entire skeleton is covered with muscles. The combined weight of your muscles is about three times as much as that of your bones. In fact, muscles weigh more than any other type of tissue in the body. Skeletal muscles allow you to move your arms, legs, hand, and other body parts. Skeletal muscles surround the mouth cavity and form most of the tongue. They surround the body cavities and separate the chest and abdomen. Skeletal muscles attached to the outer layer of the eyeball move the eyes". The reason why I choose this passage since it gives many facts about the skeletal muscles. Before reading this book, I thought that the human body only had 100 muscles that were for the most important parts of the body.

After reading this book, I've learned many important things about the muscular system. For sure I wouldn't forget about the part about the Achilles Tendon. This particular tendon is the most strongest tendon out of all of them in the human body. If it were to be torn, you couldn't run and barely walk.
This book has taught me things that I haven't even known about yet.

Tendon-  a flexible but inelastic cord of strong fibrous collagen tissue attaching a muscle to a bone.

I have commented on 

Jorge's blog

Jason's blog

Gratitude

I am grateful for my family who have given me hope throughout the hard ships. They have inspired me to complete challenges that I once thought were impossible. They showed me the ways of life and how it works. My aunt and brother showed me what potential I have and what I can do to reach it. My parents and grandparents who have given me courage and faith. They have all cared me for me and I've seen what impact I made in their lives. I am lucky to have a family like mine since they're one of a kind.

My brother, Jesus has shown me what potential I have inside of me. Through tough times and conflicts between one another, he has shown me that we're still family. Like he says, we're the opposite of one another. We have our strengths and weaknesses opposite. How we act/behave in public and how we think.

My aunt, Erica has also shown me what potential I have in store. Without her, I would've been different since she taught me how to behave correctly and think differently. She shown me how one event has potential to affect other events (The Butterfly Effect). The way of how to think properly and use it in my advantage. She shown me how to read and talk complex words when I was still little.

I have commented on Joey A's blog.

Article of the Week Impressions

Today, while walking around through our gallery walk, I've learned many new things. One of them is learning about the Ebola virus. The Ebola virus has mutated to the point where it's more effective at contracting itself on primates (humans). Scientists/researchers believe that this sudden mutation might've been a genetic that caused this. I've also learned more about planet 9. Researchers believe that Planet 9 is far beyond Pluto and could be affecting orbits of our planets in the solar system. 

While walking and reading the work of other students in the gallery. I've noticed news that I've never heard happened. One of them is about New Zealand's earthquake that killed many people. On Monday, November 14, 2016, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 triggered/erupted and caused a lot of damages in homes, businesses, as well as killing people. Most of the people that were injured, wound, or killed were hurt by the aftershocks. 

Election Reflection

I was quite surprised that Donald Trump won the election instead of Hillary Clinton. Clinton won the popular vote with the American people however Trump won with the electoral vote. But then again, both nominees have a lot of hate towards them with their opinions like Trump's opinion on what to do with the immigration problem and Clinton's email scandals that were "deleted".  In my own opinion, I felt that we needed a different nominee for both parties (Democratic and Republican) since this year's nominees for president weren't really good.

Currently, I'm becoming more interested in the subject of politics since I would want to know how the system works to use it later on in a different election.  Honestly, I still remember as if 2012 was just a month ago easily and now 2016 is coming to end. In my opinion,  learning politics would be good to do since you would understand the political system better and learn how our government works.

Voting in an election is also something that's been in my mind for awhile. The idea of voting for someone to lead/govern us is fascinating already enough, making the idea wander in my mind. Since I won't be voting for a new president in 2020 (I'd be 17 by 2020), I'd probably prepare myself after the election of 2020. What I don't understand is that muilple parties are now involved in the presidential election. It'd be better to decide on voting between two parties instead of muilple since a lot of American citizens don't even know about them.

Veterans Day Poem

Our dearest veterans who have
fought with bravery
With the feeling of courage
From not being knocked down with discouraged

On this day we honor
The courageous and brave,
Those who have sworn their lives
For this breathtaking and extraordinary country

News Story

As there were flashing lights in the sky, was the day the Chicago Cubs advanced to the World Series. On October 22, 2016, When the Chicago Cubs won against the Los Angeles Dodgers, fireworks were going off in towns and cities celebrating the glorious victory.

On Saturday, October 22, Chicago Cubs fans were celebrating due to the Cubs advancing because it had been about 71 years since their last appearance in the World Series, making it very important to their fans. According to WGNtv.com, it states "Overjoyed fans streamed out of Wrigley Field on Saturday night after the Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series to earn their first trip to the World Series since 1945. Many people were wearing Cubbie blue and holding “W” flags." This tells us the excitement of the stadium's crowd exiting the stadium.

1907 and 1908 were the only years that the Cubs won the World Series which is about 108-109 years ago. This would explain why thousands of people were roaring with contentment. The Cubs' next opponent are the Cleveland Indians and will face on October 25. If the Cubs were to win in 2016, many cities and towns (that are fans of the Chicago Cubs) would surely be celebrating that moment for months. 

1st Quarter Reflection

So far into the end of the quarter, I have been reading a couple of books for the 10 Book Challenge. The 10 Book Challenge doesn't end until the last day of the school year. Some of the books I've read were Papertowns, The Harlem Globetrotters, etc. In total, I would've read about four books and a half (halfway done with a book). These books were actually good since I thought they'd be overrated but some of them were underrated.

    My blogging experience has improved since we're writing more blogs than all my past years combined. The TIQA (Topic Sentence, Introduce Quote/Example, Quote/Example, Analyze) strategy/format helps a lot with writing blogs since it tells you what you need for a paragraph. Almost all of my blogs were made from following the format.

     My writing has progressed/improved  since I could now stop myself from creating run-on sentences every so often. Most of my previous blogs had a least a couple run-on sentences but so far, I've been lowering the amount of these sentences in my blogs. The author’s tone has helped my writing for book blogging since it helps develops a story/writing.

Overall, this 1st quarter had both progressed and improved my writing.

The Giver Compare/Contrast

The scene in the book about Jonas escaping and the scene in the movie where Jonas escapes is very different from other. In the book, Jonas just takes his dad's bicycle and Gabriel with food and water and escape easily without anyone noticing until the next day. "First, he had left the dwelling at night...   Second, he had robbed the community of food.. Third, he had stolen his father's bicycle... And he had taken Gabriel, too.  This quote shows how easily Jonas had stolen from the community since he was able to do this before everyone noticed until the next day. However in the movie, it doesn't go like this. In the movie, Jonas had a difficult time trying to escape from the community since he faced many obstacles. Jonas had to knock out Asher in order for him not to tell security that Jonas is escaping, He had to get Gabriel out of the nurturing center, and Jonas had to escape/lose security with  a motorcycle while the security force had planes  as well as motorcycles. This is far different from the book since the movie is way more difficult for Jonas to escape while in the book, No one even noticed Jonas escaping the community until the next day.

In the film, the director made The Giver community way different from what readers had expected from the book. In the movie, the community is far advanced to the point to where they live on floating islands and their technology as well is advanced. I think the director did this action to accelerate the flow of the plot since the movie did start off with Jonas being at the 12s ceremony very early. It changes the story since the plot events are different from the book. Doing this might've confused people since they might've read the book and noticed many changes. I think it was a good idea to do these changes since movies have limited film time due to funding/budgets.

Out of either the book or movie that gave me the most impacting understand is the book. The novel "The Giver" gave me better understanding of the story since it gives more details unlike the movie. One major difference from the movie is that the novel gives a better understanding of the characters. The director (Phillip Noyce) made the movie so that those who haven't read the book would have a better understanding. The book however gives a backstory to most of the characters and what they  do. This is why the book gives me a better understanding of the story rather than the movie.

The Giver Theme Paragraph

Jonas is a dynamic character since throughout the story he starts to change. After Jonas receives memories for a year now, he says “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliest of it” (154). This quote shows/tells us about how Jonas changed from the beginning towards the end. Jonas had never experienced pain but was curious. After Jonas kept on receiving the memories, he changed how he acted towards other like his friends and family. The memories made him feel alone since he's the only one besides The Giver who have the memories. Since he felt alone, he kept on trying to make his friends understand the feelings in memories but never could make them understand. He stops caring for himself and now cares for others (only cared for himself in the beginning). However, Jonas becoming a dynamic character has to show how he is one. In the beginning of the book, Jonas only cared about himself only, like so. “Jonas was careful about language. Not like his friend, Asher, who talked too fast and mixed things up, scrambling words and phrases until they were barely recognizable and often very funny” (3). This quote tells us that in the beginning of the book, Jonas was only caring for himself. His friend Asher had problems speaking and Jonas seen it as a way of being funny.

 The theme “Importance of Memories” relates to the story since it’s shown in the characters and setting. After The Giver gives Jonas the memory of a rainbow, Jonas begins to wonder. "But now that I can see colors… I was thinking: what if we could hold up things that were bright red, or bright yellow, and he could choose? Instead of the Sameness” (98). This quote tells us that the theme “Importance of Memories” is taking place since Jonas is beginning to wonder that what if their society could make choices instead of being everything the same.  This changes how Jonas thinks later on throughout the book. Second of all, Jonas is shown using “Importance of Memories”  This quote could fall into both character and theme paragraph since after The Giver told him that the community making choices for them were safe, Jonas was mad that he couldn't do something. "He found that he was often angry, now: irrationally angry at his groupmates, that they were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. and he was angry at himself, that he could not change that for them” (99). This could show the theme “Importance of Memories” since Jonas sees colors and could make choices instead of choosing the same thing all over again. However, he was mad that his groupmates from school couldn't experience what he sees now and is mad at himself too for not able to help support change.

The Giver Chapter 1-4

While reading The Giver, there have been a few more words that show up throughout the book, however one word that seems the most important is December. Throughout chapters 1-3, Jonas keeps on worrying about December, a word that keeps on appearing in and in in the story like so... It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to to be frightened. (Pg.1) He had waited a long time for this December. (Pg.4) This word "December" seems/ might be important since it keeps popping up in the book/story. December might be important since everyone in Jonas' family as well as his friends talk about it. It is then later revealed that December is important since it is about the ceremonies of thoses who are one through 12. Afterwards, there have been several memories shared by the main character, Jonas where one memory is when Lily comes into the family's life. In Chapter 2, Jonas is  talking with his father in a conversation about his father's December which then leads them to talk about Lily's December when... "He remembers when his family received Lily, The day she was named, 'I enjoy the naming', Jonas said.' His mother agreed, smiling. This memory might be important because it shows that Jonas remember when his family received Lily. Jonas recalls this memory since it shows the importance of Lily going into their lives. Lily was important since Jonas and his parents as well were excited and happy.

Introduction

Hello there, my name is Enrique and welcome to my first blog! Out of all 9 of my family members, I am the youngest of among them.

Some of my favorite things to do in my spare time is playing Basketball, Baseball, and Football. My favorite type of food would have to be chicken. 

My goal is to go to all 50 states (currently at 10 states, have gone to Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, California, Kentucky and Minnesota).