Journey To The Center Of The Earth

Professor Otto Lidenbrock  is doing some research trying to decipher a certain set of words from some old piece of paper. He gets his nephew; Axel invloed. Who was staying with him for a while and studying since just like his uncle. So why not ask him for help? Who else would be better suited for this task? Now Axel, who loved and cared for his uncle, sometimes found his uncle a little kooky. But he agreed to help decide the words on the paper.  After all, being with his uncle was much more interesting than being with anyone else. After several hours of small breaks Axel began to complain. Not out loud, but his thoughts began to wander to food. He wanted to eat so badly but his uncle told him that they wouldn’t eat until they figured out what the paper said. 

Axel began to give up hope, so to clear his head he went for a walk. Maybe he could try to figure it out again once his head was clear.  When he returned he found that his uncle was packing, because he figured it out. He was going on a trip to the center of the earth. Axel was sure that his uncle had lost it. A journey to the center of the earth? He was joking, right? He wasn’t joking, he was dead set on going to Iceland where there was an extinct volcano that was the entrance to the center of the earth. So the next day they went on a train to Iceland. 

Linderbrock told their host of his plans. The host thought that the professor was off his rocker. And maybe he was. I do question it throughout the rest of the story. So does his nephew. Their host said that he wouldn’t be joining them on their walk towards the mountains, but he did steer them in the direction of a good guide, he provided them with food, water, and 4 horses. Two for their luggage and two for them to ride. Hans, their guide, chose to simply walk. They traveled for a distance but stopped several times so that their horses could rest. Throughout their trip to the volcano they endured many hardships like terrible wind when they began to climb the mountain. 

Finally they made it to the summit of Mount Sneffels. But not without some complaints from Axel. Of course he never voiced his thoughts out loud to his uncle or Hans. Once they made it into the crater Linderbrock found that there was a hole that led into the center of the earth. It was nighttime  when they finally made it into the tunnel, the best plan of action was for them to rest then explore tomorrow. 

They were in a lava cave for a while and the whole time Axel irrationally panicking. Eventually they made it out of the lava cave and found different structures ‘built’  just like the inside of Gothic cathedrals and Roman buildings. As their long journey continued they realized that they had to ration their food and water. Which Axel wasn’t too thrilled about. He was also worried about running out of water and then dying of thirst but he knew arguing with his uncle was going to be pointless so he kept quiet. The rest of their  Journey down this tunnel led to a dead end so they decided to make a camp for the night, or at least they thought it was night, before heading back and trying a different direction. 

Their first day back to the multiple tunnels they ran out of water. Linderbrock informed his nephew that there had to be water somewhere in these tunnels, he went to go look for water but then later came back to rest with the others.  Hans decided to try and look for water. Eventually he came back and he said that he found water well, more like he heard it, but he wasn’t sure where to go from there. Together the party went off into this tunnel to search for water. They do find a spot to make a hole in the wall and they get water, since there wasn’t another way to get the water. They continued down that tunnel until they came to a steep spiral staircase and everyone decided to rest before they gave the staircase a try because their legs were sore from their long walk. They make it to the end of the staircase.  Somehow Axel gets separated from his uncle and their guide and he is lost. He panics for a long while, but they eventually find him.

Axle passed out, when he woke up he saw that his uncle had dragged him onto a strange beach where the sky had strange stars and a weird moon. They took a walk and saw huge trees that were bigger than an average tree. Some had colorson their leaves. 

Hans, Lidenbrock, and Axel make a raft to see the other side of the strange beach. While they were on the raft they caught fish for food and saw that some were blind and others had no organs and some were both blind and had no organs. 

Later on they saw a serpent creature with a turtle shell on its back and a fish lizard. The traveling party was afraid that the monsters were going to attack them. But instead the monster fought each other. The serpent monster lost and died. 

They were caught in a terrible storm and ended up on some rocks/an island. They explored until they found a dagger that belonged to someone that they thought came from the surface a long time ago. They had rebuilt their raft and were now continuing down a tunnel with water. Where they all saw these giant apes that wanted to attack them. Axel began to panic because no one else was making a move to stop the creatures. It turns out that Axel was dreaming. 

They drifted down for a while until it started to feel real hot, and Axel’s uncle said that they might be entering another volcano. Which they did and somehow they were shot out of the volcano. 

The whole way through the book Axel would panic about the worst times and right times. Because half the time I would agree with him that his uncle was completely off his rocker, and other times I personally think that maybe Axel was being melodramatic. Overall the book was very entertaining to read.       

This is a long one, just a heads up.

Every author’s writing style is different. When you like to read and write as much as I do you tend to pick up on things like that. Two great examples of this are Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter. While they both are different genres which plays a big role in the writing styles another big role is that when the Sherlock Holmes series was written there was no TV. That’s why everything in this book is put into great detail. The author is trying to paint a very vivid picture for the reader. While the author of Harry Potter did provide lots of very good detail, she didn’t have to add as much. Because at that time there were more modern items that almost everybody knew what they were and how to use them. So explaining everything in great amounts of detail wasn’t needed. 

My writing style is very light. Meaning I could probably write comedy’s and fantasy more than I could write anything that was dark. My friend who also writes with me has a darker writing style. She would probably be a murder mystery and horror story writer rather than comedy. 

Novels are books that stand by themselves. There’s no series to it, just that one book. Sherlock Holmes is a set of novels that share the same two characters. Holmes and Watson. A perfect example of a series of books is the Percy Jackson series. It’s a three part series but each one can be read as a stand alone. It does make more sense if you read each series in order.  Novellas are short novels, but they are longer than most short stories. An example of a Novella that I have is Crank Palace. It’s from The Maze Runner series. I really enjoyed it, however there were still a few questions of what happened to a few people in the series that were never answered. 

There are five parts to a work of fiction. 1:Characters, 2:Setting, 3:Plot, 4: Conflict, 5: Resolution. First let’s talk about characters, I’m sure that anyone who reads has their favorite characters. Author’s writing style can not only pull you into the story and make you wish you were living in that fantasy world but they can make you attached to the character. Make you relate to them in some way, and even cry when that character dies. I’m going to talk about four different books for each part of the five works of fiction. The first character that I’m drawn to is Emily, from the series Pegasus by Kate O’Hearn. It’s a six part series that’s very good. I’ll talk more on what it’s about when I move onto talking about the plot of each book. I’ve found that I have a special connection with Emily. I relate to her a lot. She has a strong love for Pegasus. They have many adventures together along with their friends. I have a horse named Joker that I have a special connection with. Kinda like Emily and Pegasus. Another thing that me and this character had in common was that we both kinda have a temper. But I think she controls it a lot better than I do.

Moving onto another great set of characters that I really love is Percy and Annabeth from the amazing series Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan.   I know I talk about this series a lot but I’m a big fan. What can I say?  Percy is the son of Poseidon, he has such witty humor that never fails to make me laugh, sometimes I feel bad for Annebeth who had to put up with his dorky side all the time. Percy is just a fun character to read about, he stands out even when he doesn’t mean to in school. He might be kinda an outcast because he’s different but that’s what makes him special. Annabeth is the daughter of Athena, she’s a really cool character that I look up to. Even if she is a book character she’s a great role model.

Another great funny, witty, sarcastic character is Nick Gautier, from the Chronicles of Nick series by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Nick reminds me a lot of Percy, but there are definitely some differences. I highly believe that fans of Percy Jackson might fall in love with this series. Like Percy, Nick has a very good sense of humor, he stands out and has a special talent as he likes to call it, that makes teachers mad. He sometimes wishes for a normal life and makes comments on how he wishes that creatures would stop putting him on their menu. He annoys the crap outta Caleb, he’s protector and best friend. Any time these two are together, I’m wowed by their fighting skills or laughing at Nick bugging Caleb. This is a duo that I absolutely love.

Last but not least is Gilly from another great series Fairy Tale Reform School By Jen Calonita. Gilly is a shoemaker’s daughter, she’s a pretty good thief too. Until she isn’t, when she gets caught she goes to FTRS, where she meets two other people like her. Gilly and her friend never fail to make my smile with their sass at the teachers. It’s been a while since I’ve read that series but I can tell you that Gilly and one of her good friends Kayla. Those two are a fun pair. 

Moving onto Setting.The setting is the destination where all of the events in the story are taking place.  First on our list is Pegasus while they go several places throughout the series a majority of it is Olynpus  and New York. Once they travel to Las Vegas, and some other places as well but I can’t really remember it’s been a long time since I’ve read the series.

Percy Jackson, just like Pegasus it’s set in New York, then some of it in Olympus, although the rest of it is in Camp Half-Blood. 

In Chronicles of Nick is set in New Orleans. It’s very interesting to learn things about different places from books. When I graduate college, I plan on traveling to New Orleans for a bit with a friend of mine.

Most of the Fairy Tale Reform school series is set in the school itself, it’s rare that the kids get to go into the town.

Now to the plot. A plot is a series of events that make up a story.  The Pegasus books follow Emily, her friend Paelen, Joel, and of course Pegasus as they fight to save Olmpus from different threats. One of those threats is the people known as the CRU, a government agency who is constantly trailing them anytime they go down to earth. 

The first book in the first series of Percy Jackson is all about how Percy learns that he is a demigod, he goes to camp half blood learns all about being a demigod then the next thing he knows he’s going on a quest.  

Chronicles of Nick follows Nick Gautier as he learns that he is the son of a powerful demon. Normally he would’ve already learned how to control his powers and how to take his father and become the next powerful Malachai. That’s how it would’ve gone if his mother was a demon just like his dad. However his mom is human. The series follows Nick and his friends as they battle the other demons after his powers. All while trying to keep this a secret from his mother and try not to be like his father. 

FTRS  follows Gilly and her friend at Fairy tale reform school. Together they cause chaos and on several Occasions they save the school. 

There’s always conflict in a story, the conflict is while the task for the main character might sound easy but there’s always challenges along the way that make the task harder for the character. The resolution is a series of events that ties up any other questions that were not answered throughout the book and maybe even adds a few other questions to the list.   

The conflict in Pegasus’ first book of the series Emily and Joel struggle to help pegasus back home to Olympus as the police, the news, and other threats along the way. The resolution is that eventually they get Pegasus home but there’s still a few questions that haven’t been answered until the second book. 

The conflict in Percy Jackson that Zues’s lighting bolt has gone missing, it’s up to Percy and his friends to find the lightning bolt and bring it back without letting the hands of evil take it. The resolution is Percy finally gets it back to Zeus but he’s newest problem is worrying about his new life adjusting to being a demigod. 

The conflict of Chronicles of Nick is in the first book Nick learns about his newfound powers and he has to learn how to use them while being attacked by his zombie classmates. The resolution is Nick is finally learning how to use his powers, his friends and him finally figured out who was turning his classmates into zombies and how to change them back but there’s still a long way ahead before he can finally learn how to master all of his powers. 

The conflict in Fairy Tale Reform School is that two villains Gottie and Alva are still out there no one knows where they are and no one knows if they’re even alive but they’re still the biggest threat to the kingdom. Gottie is  Mother Gothel and Alva is the evil fairy who tried to curse princess rose. Avla was The biggest threat for a while in the series but then Rumpelstiltskin stepped in and was an even bigger threat. The resolution is when Gilly is able to face these villains. I don’t even really remember what happened in the series since it’s been so long since I’ve read it. So this part may not be entirely correct. 

Genres play a very important part in books and movies. They are different categories of books and movies. Some examples of genres for books are western, fantasy, romance, dystopian. Some for movies which include a few similar genres with books are, chick flick, action adventure, fantasy (again), horror. 

An author’s style is unique, like Alice and Wonderland the author wrote a book with a bunch of random silly things. It’s a children’s book, it’s a strange book, but it was still pretty interesting. The author can always drag you into the story, even if you’re not a big fan of its exact genre. For example when I read Twilight I’m not a big fan of Romance, but it’s a romance and a fantasy. I said I’d read it so at least I can say I’ve read it. While I have no care for the romantic part of it whatsoever, Stephenie Meyer does a great job with the feud with the werewolf and vampires. Each member of the Cullen Family has an interesting backstory as to what happened before they were turned. I find it all very interesting and it pulls me into that world.    

Genres are different styles of books, movies or TV shows. For example Action, adventure, comedy, horror,  fantasy, drama, western, chick flick, mystery, and romance. Are all different genres. A few of my favorite books and movies are Harry Potter, Percy Jackson Eragon, The Hobbit, and The Lord Of The Rings, all fantasy book series, pulse movies, minus Eragon and Percy Jackson that I really enjoy reading and watching. Percy Jackson is more of a Greek fantasy/adventure but it’s still one of my favorites.  

Some examples of dystopian novel series that I love  are Hunger Games, Maze Runner, and recently I’ve started reading Divergent. Although I’m not a big fan of Romance, I suppose I could mention  a fantasy romance book that I haven’t read but I’ve had the chance to watch. Twilight.  Yes Twilight, while the movies are quite dramatic and really I should’ve stuck with the rule to read the books before watching the movies. I have  twelve books I’m currently reading, and most are a 3 part series, or four parts series, in some cases eight, and it wouldn’t be smart to add that to my reading list.    

Topic: Choose two devices, tools, or gadgets that you would like to have with you if you were shipwrecked like Robinson Crusoe.

Remember that the devices must be transportable by ship, and that they are supposed to help you survive while on the island, not aid in your escape from it.

For this assignment, I’m going to assume my teacher doesn’t mean a modern day ship crashed. And we’ll just say a 1700 century ship, wrecked. 

For my two tools that I would bring with me would be an ax and a rifle. The ax so I could cut down trees makes a temporary place to sleep for the night. Then in the morning I’d take my rifle and try to find something to hunt, cook, then eat. After that I’d find a way to make something to bring me back to the ship, which we’ll just say it crashed into some rock and is stuck there. If there is a deck with livestock, I’d probably build pens to hold them while I work on a better safer place to put them and a better place for me to live in and sleep. I’d bring the animals back on my raft and put them in the pens. 

Little by little I’d bring things back from the ship, until I had all the cargo loaded off it, and anything else that I’d need. I’d have a house and pens for my animals. A place to purify and drink water. Hopefully there’ll be seeds or something to plant vegetables and other things.   

If I was ushered into someone else’s world, I chose two worlds to talk about. The first is one of my own world’s that I created for a book of mine. I don’t have all of it thought out yet because it’s still in the working process. I was re-imagining Wonderland. The trees are a wild variety of colors, some have pink leaves and their bark is purple. Others have red bark and blue leaves, and so on. There’s a village full of the people from Wonderland. Some you may want to stay away from others are pretty friendly. I know there is not much to it, that’s only because I haven’t figured out the whole thing yet.   

The second world would be if I were to go to Anne’s world from Anne of Green Gables,  and be dressed in my normal and everyday clothes, like blue jeans and a t-shirt and maybe a hoodie and explore and see what it’s like in that world.  And see how people would react to my clothes.

My favorite book is one that I just read recently. It’s a whole series, and I had only bought the first two just to see if I liked it. Turns out I did and I got the other three books this Christmas. This book comes high up on my recommendation list as well as the Percy Jackson series and the Harry Potter series. This series is called The Maze Runner, and if you haven’t read it then I suggest you do. I’ll be summing up the first book in the series. 

It begins with Thomas in this elevator thing and he can’t remember anything but his name. He doesn’t remember  his family,  his friends, or even where he lived. Then the elevator or the box as it’s called by the Gladers, (which you’ll meet in a minute,)  the box stops moving and the top is opened up only to reveal all these boys in their teens staring at Thomas.  The leader shows him around and Thomas notices that they have their own slang. 

Thomas is very smart but he does dumb things. He’s already on one of the Keepers’ bad sides. Then he wants to be a runner, runners go into the gairt maze and try to find a way out of the glade. Then one day the leader of the Gladers and the Keeper of the Runners goes out into the maze to amazon a dead Grievers, (Grievers are scary monsters that live in the maze, but they only come out at night when the doors of the maze are closed) But it wasn’t dead. When the doors are about to close Thomas runs to help the Keeper of the Runners carry the leader of the glade because he got stung by the ‘dead’ Griever. And he gets stuck in the maze. 

He survives the maze and the next day the box comes up again, but it isn’t supposed to. It was too early for needing more supplies and they already had a Greenie (Thomas, that’s what they call newbies). In the box was a girl and a note that said that she was the last one to come up from the box. 

After the girl shows up things start to fall apart. Long story short, almost all of the Gladers end up going in the maze, and they think that once they’re out of the maze that they’re free, but they’re not. 

And that’s the end of book one.       

So I forgot about my Research Report I had to do so here it is and now for real I’m done with English.

My English Research Report

Apache Indaians 

So before I get into the  Apache Indians. I was originally gonna do native indians tribes in New Mexico because that’s where I live but then I decided to just focus more on the Apaches.

There are 23 Indian tribes in New Mexico but I’m only gonna talk about one Apache. Historically the Apaches were very powerful. They  constantly fought the invading Spaniards and Mexicans for centuries. The U.S. Army found them to be fierce warriors and skillful strategies. 

Hunting and Gathering 

The women were known for their ability to find and prepare food from many different plant sources. They did most of the gathering unless there were heavier plants involved.   

The Apache got food from four different sources. Hunting wild animals, gathering wild plants, trading with neighboring tribes for livestock and agricultural products or raiding the neighboring tribes. Their hunting was done usually by men, however sometimes exceptions were made depending on animal and culture. The most common weapon  that was used to hunt with was the bow and arrow. 

Clothes

They wore animal hides decorated with seed beads. They made buckskin shirts, ponchos, skirts, and moccasins. They decorated them with colorful beadwork.  

Housing

They Apache live in three different houses. Teepees which were common in the plains, Wickiups common in the highlands, if a family member died it was burned. Apache of the deserts of northern Mexico live in a Hogant.

An Extra Thing

Skinwalker Legend 

Ok, so my dad told be about this and now I have an obsession with the Skinwalker Legend and now the Wendigo but I’m gonna focus on the Skinwalker legend, it’s not an Apache legend but the Apcahe’s destan cousins, the Navajo!

So Skinwalkers are usually someone who was abosstated in witchcraft and the most common form they took when they changed was the coyote but they can be other animals too. I’m not gonna go into much detail about it but that’s basically it. But I suggest you look up more if you want to. There’s not a lot on Wikipedia about the legend but it’s still very interesting. 

Resources

Wikipedia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache#List_of_names

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin-walker

First I wanted to say, I meant to post this sooner but I went to Arizona National for a public speaking contest. And we spend New Year’s at my mom’s cousin’s house. Also it’s now 2022! Not Gonna lie I’m not ready…so there was this thing that my mo saw and she shared it with us and we said Jumanji. Instead of happy new year and here’s why.

OH! One more thing before we get to my essay. This is my lat one, and I don’t know when I’ll be starting English 7.

Writing is important to me because I love to write. This Class has helped me write speeches that I use for Prepared Speaking contests. It helps me with the books I’ve started to write, and the short stories that I write that sometimes I post on my school blog. 

Writing is important to my family because without writers we wouldn’t have all of the good books we share with each other and read together. Writing helps with the essays I’ll have in the future. Overall writing in is super important to me and my family. 

Also I saw this and had to post it cause it was funny

This year I learned a lot and it has helped me with writing my stories. My two favorite books were The Railway Children by E. Nesbit,  The Cat of Bubastes by G. A. Henty, A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne. All of those books were old timey and something different than what I usually like to read so I’m glad I had the opportunity to read them. This whole course was fun and I learned a lot. 

Just a heads up, this might be not the best essay, because I was a little rushed when writing it.

Polio Vaccine 

Jonas Salk was born in New York City in 1914. He became a medical researcher. He learned about viruses under other doctors. There were grants that funded polio research. Salk created the polio vaccine in 1955. Polio vaccine prevents you from getting polio. Made using inactivated or weakened (But live) Virus. The oral form is cheaper. Saves people from needless crippling. People cried when the vaccine was announced. Salk became world famous. A million doses were pre-ordered. Mass production was handled by British scientists. It was eliminated in most of the world by 2003. 

Intermodal Containers

Malcolm Mclean was born in North Carolina in 1913. He wanted to ship trucks by boat. Designed a container instead. He used a bank loan to buy WW2 tanks. Launched intermodal container ship in 1956. “Intermodal” is easily transportable. It drastically reduces labor cost. Simpilifles shipping process. They were stackable. Can haul all kinds of materials. The cost of shipping fell. Unions were unhappy. McLean expanded his patent to this International. Organization for standardization. 

Integrated Circuit

Several people were involved in the invention of the integrated circuit. Several large companies wanting to miniaturize transistors Shockly turned Santa Clara into “silicon Valley” Shockley’s “traitors” founded Fairchild semiconductors. Noyce and Kilsy invented the integrated circuit in 1959. Integrated circuits are flat chips packed full of transistors. High performance, low cost. “Photo Masking” is like silicon blueprinting. Placed over silicon wafers and exposed to light. One transistor has about 10 manufacturers. Us Air Force and Wavy used it as tech. NANA’s Apollo guidance computer. Allows astronauts to control the spaceship. Government demand drives down prices. Led to industrial and commercial uses.

Lasers  

Charles Townes was born in South Carolina in 1915. He invented the master in 1953. Could coined the term “LASER” in 1957. Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Laser light is coherent. Electrons give up energy to move closer to the nucleus. “Lasint” forces them to do this. Beam contains high, focused energy. Other companies built their own lasers. Semiconductor lasers appeared in 1962. Then the barcode scanner appeared in 1974.