Freedom is a rose bush. All along the stem are thorns. Spikes represent all of the soldiers who gave their life to protect our freedom. They willingly put their own lives at stake so that we may live free. Each thorn a penalty paid for what we take for granted every day. At the top of the rose bush is the beautiful rose. The rose is symbolic of our country, its freedom, and the right to say what we want without the fear of being punished for it. The rose is hope that shines through at the darkest time.

On June 6, 1944, 160,000 allied troops landed with along a 50 mile strip of coastline to fight heavily entrenched Nazi Germans on the beaches of Normandy, France. In April and May 1944, the Allied forces lost 12,000 men and over 2,000 aircraft. This has become known as D Day. In Challenger Middle School 8^th grade alone there are about 235 people. Imagine all of the students in 8^th grade and multiply that number by 52. That’s about all of the total casualties suffered on D Day.

Today, America is fighting two wars. One in Iraq and one in Afghanistan; we continue to lose soldiers every day for our freedom and now the freedom of two other countries. It’s true that 50 years ago people died for our freedom. It’s true that 100 years ago, there were people dying for our freedom and it is true today, there are people, men and women alike, dying for our freedom.

Freedom is not just the pedals of the rose, but the thorns as well. It isn’t just the happy-smiley part of it; it’s the men and women who died protecting our country. So next time you think of freedom, think of thorns and flowers and remember the men and women who gave their own lives for you.

CHAPTER 2

I woke up to find myself in a hospital bed with a male doctor leaning over him.

“Hey, are you feeling okay?” he asked “You took a pretty bad cut to your eye.”

“What? How bad is it? Will I be okay? Where’s my family?”  I questioned.

“Um… your family is outside, and here’s a mirror. See for yourself.” he handed me the mirror.

“Hey, that looks pretty…AHHHHH!!!! What the heck is that?” I screamed as the doctor lifted up a jar of water with a cylinder inside.

“This is your eye,” the doctor said calmly “The one you have in now is just an artificial one, you don’t ever need to take it out unless you want to, but you can’t see out of it. Would you like to see your eye?”

“Um…no thanks, it looks all bloodshot. Oh and can I see my family for a while? Alone?” I asked.

“Yes, I’ll send them in.” he said then left. A few moments later, my family came in. my mother looked tear streaked, and my dad looked like he was holding in tears and Sammy was holding his teddy bear.

“Are you ok, Quinten?” Sammy asked “I’m sorry. Did you see your eye?” Then he set my eye in my lap.

“Guys? Can I have a little talk with Sammy alone” I asked. My parents nodded and left, shutting the door behind them.

Sammy and I were brothers. We were not the best of brothers, though. Sammy annoys the snot out me. I pin Sammy to the floor and make him cry. We have many things against each other. We don’t hate each other, but we don’t love each other. It is just a “buddy” kind of relationship. And this was one more thing I had against Sammy.

“Do you see what you did? You shot my left eye out! I have an artificial eye! I won’t ever be able to see out of it!” I said angrily “You are always hurting me! But this time you have gone too far! I hate you! I wish you were never born!”

At this Sammy walked out of the door miserably, pouting on the way. When he got out there, a shimmer in the air appeared, a cloaked figure jumped out, grabbed Sammy, and jumped back in. On impulse, I jumped out of bed, cords and sticky pads flying, and dove through the shimmer in the air to get my brother back, before I knew what I was doing.

I jumped through the shimmer and for a moment, everything was blue with tinges of purple. It looked just how I imagined a wormhole, but softer. But it was only for an instant. The next moment I was cast out onto rocky ground and rolled along for a second. I looked up and saw the cloaked figure holding Sammy, who was crying, teddy bear dangling limply in his arms. The cloaked man was running away. I jumped up and bounded after him. I still had on my t-shirt and jeans with my air-soft pistol in my back pocket. I kept running after Sammy until I twisted my ankle on a rock and fell down.

In a minute, I saw the doctor from the hospital. I must be hallucinating, or was I dreaming? I pinched myself and realized it hurt very badly. The doctor was shaking me now mumbling something that he couldn’t understand. In another second, I was being hoisted up and carried away. The doctor put some sort of rag on my face and that was the last thing I could remember. The nightmare was ending.

“I say we get the mean old man that lives in the green house up the street.” I said deviously. Jake and I both hated the old creep who still lived in his house up the street instead of a retirement home even though he was like, 96 years old. We ran up to his house and hit the doorbell. Adrenaline rushed through us as we sprinted away as fast as we could. The old man looked out at us and saw us and said “Get out of here you young whippersnappers!” This just made Jake and I laugh because, seriously, who says ‘whippersnappers’ anymore?

We did that for a while, until our parents called us home. We had to get ready for bed and school the next day.

I walked into school the next day just as it started. I had to rush to my locker and get all of my things for geometry. As I was running to class, Ms. Gritworth, the office lady, stopped me.

“Quinten Murray, is that you?” She asked. “And was that you running in the hallway?”

“Yes, Ms. Gritworth.” I responded.

“Well, here is a detention slip for running in the hall. I’m disappointed, I expected better, Mr. Murray. Now, go to class. I swear she hates me; she is always looking for a reason to give me detention. And the slip she gave me already had my name on it! I walked out of her sight and started to run again. When I got to class, the teacher told me I was tardy and demanded I sit down.

“Now that Quinten has finally arrived, we can have our pop quiz,” Mr. Tavitch told us. “Please get out a scratch piece of paper and here are the quizzes.”

“Quinten! Hey Quinten!” Jake whispered “Have you been paying attention? Because I sure haven’t!”

“No talking!” Mr. Tavitch scolded us. I stared blankly as my test because, like Jake, I had no idea what was going on either. “Let’s see,” I thought “the question: Solve the following equation using the substitution method. Show all work. 2y+ x=3 and 4y-3x=1. Substitution method? Did we even learn about that? And what’s all this about system of equations? Well, multiple choice, if I fill in a random answer, I have a 25 percent chance of getting it right. That’s how I filled out most of my quiz. When we graded it, I got a sixteen percent. That’s going to bring down my grade to about an F-.

“No homework tonight.” The teacher said, dismissing us. I met up with Jake outside.

“That was brutal!” Jake said “A 56 percent is going to bring down my grade quite a bit.

“You think you got it bad?” I said. “I got a sixteen!” Suddenly, Sherri, my girlfriend, came up to me, and slapped me.

“Quinten, it’s over.” She said.

“Why? What did I do?” I asked, rubbing my check.

“I heard from Trent who heard from Joe who heard from Greg that you pushed over Teresia, the head cheerleader and also my best friend at the football game.”

“No, that’s not true, well, maybe a little, but” I stuttered. But it was too late, Sherri was gone.

“Oh, I am going to kill Trent, Joe, and Greg!” I said angrily.

I finished the day and had Jake come home with me again.

When we got home, we decided to watch a movie. It was called ‘The Love of my Life.’ This wasn’t my idea, but my mom made me watch it. It was some story where these people fell in love and all that junk. Afterword, we went outside with our air-soft guns again to start another war until…

“Wait for me guys! I wanna play,” My (annoying) brother interjected. “I can be responsible. Just give me a little gun and I won’t cry I promise.” I looked at Jake and he looked at me, and we both winked.

“Ok,” I agreed. I grabbed the guns off the table and gave Sammy a pistol. We loaded up and went outside. “Ok, ready, set, go!” We all ran off in different directions, but I saw Sammy the whole time. After about ten minutes, I raised my sniper and shot Sammy again. He jumped up and down grabbing his butt while screaming. Jake and I snickered secretly. Now the war was really on, we fired and reloaded and fired some more. I finally sniped Jake and he fell over in melodramatic irony.

“Oh, oh! The pain!” he wailed. “Ahhhh!” In a final attempt to win, he fired the whole 100 round clip at me. Since I was hiding behind the tree, he missed most of them. After he finished, I stepped out and Sammy fired ten shots at me. I thought he had went to the house. But all of a sudden, my vision went back and I landed on my back.

CHAPTER 1

“Get-out-of-my-room!” I yelled. Sammy was my six year old brother with dirty brown hair and blue eyes, same as me. He loved to wear sweat pants and t-shirts. The cute little devil was playing with my air-soft guns again. This time, it was different because I finally had enough. I was usually patient, but Sammy had been doing this pretty often in the last week.

“I said get out!” I yelled again. Sammy set down the toys and looked at him with those beaten puppy-dog eyes, but I was merciless.

“Out.”

With that single word, Sammy burst into tears and ran out yelling for his mommy. With Sammy out, I looked at the time and saw it was about 11:00, Jake was pulling up in the driveway now. I ran down the stairs and out the door, momentarily forgetting my shoes. Jake got out of the back of the car and tossed me his newest air-soft gun.

“Hey Quinten!” Jake said “What’s up? Do you like the new gun? I got it from this guy who, well, knows a guy who knows a guy and so on.

“Seriously?” Quinten asked.

“No not seriously, I got it for $150 off of EBay; it’s the CougarM49! 400 FPS- it really packs a punch! Try it out!” Jake said.

“Ok,” I replied. I aimed it between his legs and he flipped out! He sprang towards me and grabbed his gun back and aimed it at me. Luckily, I was prepared, so I pulled my pistol out of my pocket and shot him three times in the chest. This obviously signaled the start of the war. He ran back behind a few trees and jumped into my mini-ditch. Then he opened fire with about fifty of his shots, which was half his clip. I put the pistol back in the holster and ran inside and got my sniper and some shoes. I then went out of the back door and ran up my hill.

“One shot out!” I heard Jake yell off in the distance. I was walking around when I saw Sammy following me. “Get out of here!” I thought

“Sammy! Get out of here!” I whispered. “You’re gonna blow my cover!

“But I want to play too!” Sammy complained. “Please!”

“Ok” I said “Go down the hill and find Jake”

Sammy agreed and ran down the hill, which was just my plan. As Sammy ran down the hill, I raised my sniper and shot him in the back. 300 FPS of sheer power was enough to maybe give him a welt but not enough to knock him over, so I knew he was being dramatic. After he got up, he ran inside screaming, so I knew he was out of our game for a while.

Unfortunately, my gas powered sniper was really loud, so Jake probably knew right where I was. I needed to move. I ran up the hill and as I did so, I saw Jake about 40 feet away. I raised my sniper and had him in my scope, but before I did, I thought “Do I really want to do this? Oh yeah!” I just about pulled the trigger when I thought that if I missed, he would find me and light me up like a Christmas tree. Instead, I put the sniper away and pulled out my pistol and shot my whole 12 round clip at him. I didn’t hear Jake yell so I knew I hadn’t hit him. I pressed the release with my thumb and the clip fell out. I slid in a new magazine and went prone. “Great,” I whispered “Now he knows where I am.”

Suddenly, a spray of pellets shot above me. I pulled out my scoped gun and aimed it at him. He was reloading so I took a quick breath and shot. I heard Jake shout and fall over.

“Gosh dang it!” Jake said “I have a red dot in the middle of my forehead; I look like one of those Indian people!”

“Ha! You sort of do.” I said “Do you want to play another game or go inside?” Jakes head hurt so we decided to go inside. When we were inside, I saw Sammy eating Mac & Cheese at the table with a band-aid on his butt. I told Jake what happened, which Sammy overheard. This brought on a whole new round of waterworks.

“Why did you shoot me, brother?” Sammy asked, tears streaming down his face. “That really h-h-hurt!”

Then my dad came in.

“Quinten, what have I told you about shooting Sammy?” Dad demanded.

“Sorry, dad,” I lied “I was trying to hit Jake.”

“Ok, well, don’t let it happen again.” he turned to Sammy and said, “Come here and let me give you your insulin shot.

“No!” Sammy protested “I hate shots!”

“I’m sorry, I hate it as much as you, but you were born with type 1 diabetes, which means you need shots.” Dad poked Sammy, and afterword, Sammy started to cry so Jake and I left.

After we got outside, Jake picked up a box he brought and gave it to me.

“What is it?” I asked, “Oh wait, this is the zip line kit! You finally brought it!” Jake proceeded to open the box for me and take out all of its contents.

“Here,” Jake said “You take this end and tie it to that tree down there and I will tie it to the one up there.” We both tied our ends and tried it out, Jake, went down with his CougarM49, shooting it like some sort of terrorist. I went down with my pistol and didn’t shoot it at all, except one which hit Jake in the head, again. It was getting dark, so we decided to ding-dong-ditch people around the neighborhood.

“Through successful campaigns to conquer and dominate, he led his vast armies. He united and ruled an empire of wealth, opulence, and depravity. As a man, he proclaimed himself god. A brother betrayer felled him at the end of a dagger alongside fellow conspirators. O, Beware the Ides of March!”

I have had a request or two to extend the contest end day, but I have to say no. The contest has been going on for a month and my dad was the only one who took the time to enter a submission. Don’t be sad, you can try again soon!

Be ready for more contests coming up soon in the future!

A man took his shoes to a cobbler. Next day he was arrested and sent to prison for robbery. Twenty years later he was released, found the cobbler’s ticket and, just in case, took it to the cobbler’s shop. Examining it closely, the old man said, “Come back next week”

From http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-stories-mini-sagas.htm

That is a mini-saga. The contest starts Thurs. Mar 5, and ends on Mon. April 5th. Whoever writes the best mini-saga wins! If you need more information, leave me a comment. (The prize for winning is a ten dollar starbucks gift-card)

Leave your mini-saga as a comment!

As I said earlier, I didn’t quite understand it at first, so I discussed it with some of my peers. I had the question- if the teacher can play the learner and the learner can play the teacher, can the student interchange with both of those or none at all?

I was answered with no and yes. No being that my peers thought the student couldn’t be a teacher because the student couldn’t teach–he was just the student. Also, they said a student “stays a student” until he wants to learn–then he becomes a “learner.” On the other hand, they said a student could be a teacher because he could tell others about what he knows. He can be a learner the moment he decides to learn.   I made this mental cycle in my mind.

Notice that the arrows start from teacher, go to student, and then learner, and it repeats. I examined this video for a while longer, and came to the conclusion that a student becomes a learner and learns things. When he is full of knowledge, he becomes a teacher (This doesn’t have to be a job, maybe one person talking to another person) and then the teacher becomes a student again and the cycle repeats. After I thought about this for a while, I realized you go from any one role to another, not exactly in the order I had. Its more like this:

Notice now the arrows go in both directions. So I conclude that you can go any direction in the cycle and you can always change. Remember to be like the girl on the right in the video and always be ready to learn and change!

1) If you don’t succeed the first time, your not Chuck Norris.

2) Chuck Norris doesn’t breathe, he holds air hostage in his lungs.

3) Chuck Norris beat the sun in a staring contest.

4) Chuck Norris’s computer has no control key, Chuck Norris is always in control.

5) Chuck Norris puts the ‘terror’ in ‘terrorist’

IF YOU DON’T COME BACK, CHUCK NORRIS WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND HURT YOU REAL BAD!

Karl Van Ness had this to say about the project, “I didn’t really like the project because I feel like I’m not very good at blogging and since I’m not good at blogging, i got a B+, which ruined my all A streak. I think the project could have been better if he (Mister McIntosh) graded a little bit less strictly because it may have been some people’s first time using a blog and he may have graded a little bit more harshly because he has frequently used a blog before. I think he could grade easier on the amount of blogging required and the quality- it may be someone’s first time and they didn’t do very well because of it.”

I personally liked the whole aspect of blogging but maybe I say this because I have used one before. I think I have to agree with Karl in the matter of Mister McIntosh’s grading. Mister McIntosh has a large amount of posts and a fair amount of experience. I think this qualifies him as a senior blogger which may mean he has higher expectations of himself which possibly, without knowing it, means he may grade a little harsher because he has higher expectations of others. I do think you gave enough time on the interview and enough pre-warning for people to complete theirs so there is no reason for people not to finish on time. I think that this is a very smart idea for Mister McIntosh to give students a chance to experiment with blogs and blogging. Good job to Mister McIntosh!

By: Turbo Tanski

1. Hello. You are talking to a machine. I am capable of receiving messages. My owners do not need siding, windows, or a hot tub, and their carpets are clean. They give to charity every so often and don’t need their picture taken. If you’re still with me, leave your name and number and they will get back to you.

2. Hi. I’m probably home, I’m just avoiding someone I don’t like. Leave me a message, and if I don’t call back, it’s you.

3.  Hi, I’m a burglar and I was just about to steal Troy’s answering machine. If you give me your name and number I’ll… Uh, I’ll post it on the fridge where he’ll see it. Uh… By the way, where did you say you live?

That’s all! We’ll  see you all next time on ‘Humor is Good!’

Click the link to get started Dungeon adventure

Example: I am at a bank at 1:45 pm. A gunman comes in and shoots three people. By the time is is all over is is 2:13 pm. Then I am given the option to ‘redo’ that and (hopefully) I say yes. The time, once again, is 1:45 pm and I never remember the other reality that happened. Just a thought…

Sgt. Tessier followed in his father’s footsteps to become a policeman when he was young. He served our country as a policeman for 22 years, then, decided to retire. Next, he became a fireman for 17 years. Sgt. Tessier says, “They are two very satisfying careers, (Policeman and fireman) I think anybody who choose to pursue them would be very proud of their choice.” Says Sgt. Tessier. After a full career of being a policeman, he wanted to be a fireman. When Sgt. Tessier was a fireman, one of the worst fires he ever had was when an elderly lady was packing, she set a box on the stove and later the husband accidentally turned it on. Fortunately, there were no injuries but most everything in the apartment was lost. He became a manager at fire prevention, served as a fireman for 17 years, then retired again.

Tessier says, “I think you really need to enjoy your profession, whatever it is. It’s very rewarding to come home and know you have helped people.” When Sgt. Tessier was a policeman, he was in a group called ‘The Club Check Task Force.’ It consisted of one Sergeant (Mr. Tessier) and eight officers, their job was to go to local bars and make sure they were not serving drinks to drunks or minors and that there were no weapons. He had lots of fights and arrests. The one thing to remember, he says, is to always be aware.  “It’s a hard job, but it is worth it.” Tessier quoted. Also, after recalling a missing investigation, he says “When you’re the first there, you do what’s necessary first and worry later.” FUN FACT: When he was a policeman he also flew helicopters. He did this for only six and a half years, but during this time, he patrolled Houston by air and flew escorts for President Ronald Reagen.

Some of his happiest memories were his family, the kids, and his grandkids, But mostly, having the experience of watching them grow up. “Going through the maturity of our kids and grandkids, watching them grow up.” Tessier says, “As you get older, it means a lot more to you.” He is currently a security officer at Liberty High School.  Sgt. Tessier now resides in Colorado Springs with his wife, three children, and three grandchildren. He has two faithful beagles, Pepper, who is six years in dog years and Fdny (Fid-Ney) which stands for Fire Department, New York, who is thirteen years old.

This time, the topic is: You might be a redneck if…

1) You have ever used your fishing license as your drivers license.

2) The main course at your potluck dinners are roadkill. (Don’t tell the guests that!)

3)  Your dog and wallet are both on chains.

4) You remember that you ‘conveniently’ forgot your wallet when the bill comes.

5) You burn your lawn rather than mow it.

Y’all come back now, ya hear?

This week, the jokes were from http://www.countryhumor.com/redneck/mightbe.htm

This week, the topic is: Things you don’t want to hear during an operation.

1: Oops, I seemed to have lost a contact!

2: Oh darn! Has anyone ever survived 500ml of this stuff before?

3: There go the lights again, I guess we will have to do it in the dark.

4: What do you mean he wasn’t in for an organ donation?

5: Accept this sacrifice, Lord of the Night!

These jokes have came from

http://www.amusingfacts.com/humour/humour.php?PostID=20567

Stay Tuned for more next week!

Problem 1
Two fathers and two sons went fishing one day. They were there the whole day and only caught 3 fish. One father said, that is enough for all of us, we will have one each. How can this be possible?

Problem 2

Eight years ago, Sam was eight times the age of his son, Sam Jr. Today, if you add their ages together, they add up to 52. How old are Sam and his son?

http://brainteasers.org/

Dungeons & Dragons is a board game where you take on the role of a character you create. In the D&D world, you can do virtually anything, from stealing a dragon’s loot to swimming up a waterfall. These actions and others include the use of dice and skills.

Firstly, at the start you chose a race, then a class for your character. The options for your race can be from a Dragonborn to a Tiefling. Your class can range from savage Barbarian to a spell-casting wizard. These are the building blocks of your character. Later, comes alignment. Alignment is if your character is good or evil. It is important to understand that when you play your character, you’re not playing as you, your playing as your character. So for example, if in a situation, you might return the bag of money you found, your character, assuming his alignment is evil, might ‘borrow’ it instead. So remember to play as your character and not you.

Also very important are skills. Skills are, well basically abilities that your character possesses. These range from Acrobatics to Thievery. At the beginning of the game, when you start your character, you have a certain amount of points to spend on skills. One of the most important things of your character are his ability scores. These are Strength (Str.) Dexterity (Dex.) Intelligence (Int.) Wisdom (Wis.) and Charisma (Cha.) These attributes determine what your character is like, is he (or she) the strong buff dude, or the sly charismatic rouge?

For a more detailed description of Dungeons & Dragons, visit Wikipedia.

What do you think would happen if water suddenly ran short? How would we get our water?  Just a thought…

Picture URL:

www.impawards.com/2009/blue_gold.html

For more information, go to Wikipedia for a summary of the movie, Blue Gold.

November 15, 2009

The Recon has 3 main parts. The barrel, the body , and the butt of the gun. (The 3 B’s!) It also has 3 sub parts, the laser sight, the sighting scope, and the clip. The recon is special because all of these parts can be placed on the gun and taken off the gun. The firing range is about 15-20 feet. You can replace the barrel of the recon with the barrel of the Nerf Longshot. (Although it looks better with the barrel of the recon on the longshot.) Also you can change the butt of the Nerf raider with this one and its 35 clip round drum. So there’s your review, if you want to rate this gun, in your personal opinion, leave a comment and put how many stars you would give it over all out of five. Here would be an example comment of a rating (Mine actually):

I give the Recon a four and a half out of five stars.

from -your name-

Picture URL: dicemonkey.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/

November 12, 2009