IST: Children's Story

It was a stormy night, but somehow, more stars could be seen in the past hundred years, but who ever said that this was in the past hundred years. It was the year 314, and hundreds of children from around Europe and Asia were there on an all-school sleep at the school night. This was the main international school of the entire Roman empire, and was respected by all for its fabulous teachers, including the amazing Ms. Kellyeth Witteraximus. One of those students was named Benimus, and he was to become on of the most important students in all of history, for he would find the famous treasure of Imphatigableixuyjartipixas. Our hero had just woken up after hearing a noise, and it was not just any noise, it sounded like show tunes being sung by a perfect voice. Benimus, being the most curious child in the school, ran to what he thought was the source, and saw his best friend Rexus with his ear to the floor. " OK........., this is kind of awkward, but what are you doing," inquired Benimus.

"I'm talking to the floor, and now it is answering a question I asked, no I am listening to the music that is blaring so loudly, what do you think," said Rexus in a sarcastic tone.

"Well if it is so loud, why are you and me the only people woken up by it?"

"Exactly my point, you're awake."

"I mean why is nobody else being woken up!"

Suddenly, they heard a rough noise from below the ground outside that sounded like a shovel. They walked out into the storm and walked about 2 feet from the source of the noise. The storm seemed to have stopped, as if waiting for a dramatic moment to strike and heighten a scary moment. Then, the scraping noise stopped abruptly, and a pounding noise began and went on for a minute, when the marble playground in front of them burst outwards(many historians who look back on the event have discussed whether or not it truly burst, as it was actually only about 2 feet squared of marble falling inwards, but in the end they decided to leave it as exploded in the history books for purposes of drama). Then, a hand leaped out of the hole and grasped the the marble worn down by many of students sandals, and at this very moment, the storm let loose the most dramatic bolt of lightning in living/dying history (However, before life even existed, all lightning bolts were twice this dramatic, although, when the first life form came to existence, the largest brightest thunder bolt did strike right behind the life form followed by the most dramatic roll of thunder. Mother Nature is known to have been the best drama actress of all time, and therefore made sure that storms were going on at the proper time and place.) The hand was then followed by a granite box skidding across the marble with the noise that had woken them up blasting through the casing. The rest of the hands body pulled itself out of the whole, and this new person walked up to them and said in a rasping Irish voice,"Wowee, it gets pretty stuffy down there wee little scunners. You best be opening that box before it wakes the entire building."

There was a ten second pause, in which Rexus and Benimus gave the man a look so dramatic that it could only be described as, a look! Rexus the broke the silence, or at least semi-silence with the box blasting its music, and asked,"Wouldn't that just make the noise louder?"

This was followed by another pause, this time caused by the man, who was distracted by a piece of dust, and realized that he was asked a question and said," Oh definitely not bigjobs(this man was raised by a group of pictsies(not to be confused with their nicer cousins, pixies) known as the Fac Mac Neegle, who  call humans bigjobs, and speak some sort of English dialect with the oddest slang, meaning mispronunciation, and seeing everything from the point of view of someone 2 inches tall), it will in fact make it quiet down, and it always picks two people to hear it, and then makes them open it, or else it makes everyone else here a more annoying version and blame it all on you two, for this is the treasure of Imphatigableixuyjartipixas!"

A final dramatic pause happened, and then Benimus asked in disappointed voice," That's it, we open it and it shuts up, and we had all of these dramatic flashes of lightning just for this? Well, may as well open it."

Benimus slowly lifted the lid with a roll of thunder building and building and then lifted it all the way open and THEN..............there was silence, as the man promised, and Rexus and Benimus were dissapointed. The man then took the box and walked away and they never saw him again. Rexus then invoked another dramatic pause not planned by Mother Nature, but it still pleased her that others had a love for drama and said to Benimus," Wanna' go back to bed"?

"Sure," And so was the adventure for the musical treasure box of Imphatigableixuyjartipixas finished, and Mother Nature as happy as Mother Nature when she had just set up an amazing dramatic scene.

And then a new metaphor was invented, as happy as a dog with the bone, as everyone thought the Mother Nature metaphor was too long and was used horribly in that situation.

THE END!!!!!!

(The story was supposed to be funny).

Art: The Taj Mahal

Awe, insignificance, pure amazement; these are all feelings that people feel when they see the great Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is an Indian mausoleum, and one of the current seven wonders of the world. It was ordered to be built by Mughal Emperor Shan Jahan in the memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, hence the Mahal in the name of the building.


This structure has many magnificent and famous aspects to it. One of these, is the towering pure marble dome at the top, which in my opinion, makes you realize how fantastic these empires must have been to build such immense pieces of art. Another one of the famous aspects is the four minarets that surround the tower; these towers are constructed in such a way so that it makes them much less likely to fall over. Also, each of the towers emphasizes the building in between them and causes the building in the middle to completely grab your attention.


There are many reasons that overly prove that this deserves to be a piece of art and one of the seven wonders of the world. To begin, all of what I mentioned above proves this alone, but the inside also has stunning features, of which most prominent is the marble screen that goes throughout the structure. It is made up of eight marble panels, each of which is decorated intricately and has precious stones in it.

The world is absolutely overflowing with wonderful pieces of art belonging to completely different populations and constructed in completely different time periods. But how is it possible that even things that are so different to each other are put in the same category? You just have to Think about two very famous works of art, the Empire State Building and the mask of Tutankhamen. The answer to this question is human sense. A thing that is present in every human and that makes him decide what is amazing and what disgusts him, whichever object it be. Three wonderful works of art are the dome of Milan, the Moai of Easter Island and a disgusting painting I made. These three things are completely different but they are all works of art. The dome of Milan has a stratospheric engineering, it is so majestic you can't describe it in words. It is a work of art because it was made a lot of time ago when it was very hard to do it and it is wonderful. The Moai are not the most beautiful sculptures existing but the fact the people who made it used sticks and stone hammers makes them a work of art that many people go and see every year. The last one is a typical example of the thing that differs in every human being, opinion. My drawing is a work of art because I personally like it a lot and if that wouldn't be enough I also worked on it at Art class, so it is a work of art or at least a work at art.

A work of art can be as big as the Taj Mahal or as small as the English crown, old like the pyramids or new like the golden bridge, it can came from Africa or from China but all of them have one thing in common, people like them. But not anyone, a work of art is what it is only to the person looking at it. When people look at something and say it is horrible and a second says no it is a work of art the second is wrong because it is a work of art only if the person likes it. But in my opinion everything is a work of art because everything is liked by a person.

ben's

Space Oddysey 2009-2012 a.k.a. THE HIGH SCHOOL DECISION, DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN

The high school decision, though not as big as a decision as the college decision, is an important decision that requires much time to think about, as it can determine a great many things and alll the schools will have some sort of thing you really like usually. An example of such is that if you go to a musical high school, than you may be more likely to succeed in music and you may be really happy because you love music, but less likely to succeed in intellectual ways; while at an academic high school, you may excel in areas that allow you to be a scientist, an engineer, a businessman, and many other jobs.

I made this decision but two weeks ago, and it was the most difficult decision I have made so far. I had made it into three awesome high schools, Kehillah, the high school that was not so intellectual but hugely musical. Crystal is the immensely intellectual based and close to home one, and finally, Lick-Wilmerding is the intellectual and hands on one with the great writing system but is far from my home.

This was impossible for me to decide at first, as all the schools had one topic/program that I wanted, but I knew that if I just went through the schools in my mind, I wouldn't get anywhere in my decision. Then to solve this high school mystery, I started thinking about ways to help me with the decision, when I thought of the idea of writing down pros and cons. There was one problem though, I couldn't write a proper Venn diagram between these schools, because some things were worth more to me than others, and that was when my dad came in with the wonderful idea of making a matrix on Microsoft excel.

A matrix is a chart in which you put how much each topic is worth to you and give each high school a score, for example, if you put College Preparation as your number one choice, you label it #2 and then give each school a score, one for the best, two for the second, and three for third. Then, you multiply the topic weight by the school's ranking in the topic, and once you do this for multiple topics, each one weighted, the one with the least points loses.

After I made the matrix, it boiled down to come between Crystal and Kehillah, who tied, while Lick was left behind by six points. Then, I created a new matrix, just between Crystal and Kehillah, and they still tied. I had no idea what to do when my mom thought of how to make my decision, and she told that if I was stuck in between them when thinking about my schools, to think about where my friends were going and how far away the two schools were away from our house. Crystal had more of my friends going to the school, which was a plus for me, and in the end, I chose Crystal for those exact reasons mentioned but five seconds ago.

Then, I made it my job to see how other people made there decision in my grade and people in older grades who had already made this hugely important showdown between schools, and according to many of my friends in later grades, and in my current grade, that it also all boiled down to friends and how far away it was was also a factor in many of there choices as well. This made me think about how at the end of this mind-raking process, the decision isn't that hard after you have two dead even schools, as then you can just go to the one that has more of your friends going to it, and is easier to access from home.

Free Writing: Book Review for Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett. And to all those who hate it when I say yay( that means you zanini brothers.) YAY YAY

Last month, I read a terrific book called GOING POSTAL, by Terry Pratchett. I personally loved this book and the author's style of writing, which somewhat random, but very intelligent and witty. This book is about an ex-criminal, Moist von Lipwig, who is taken to his execution and is "hung"by a master executor who makes it look to the crowd like he was hung, and make it feel like he was hung.

After waking up and finding out he is not dead, he is taken to Lord Veterinari's office, where he is given an offer, to get the postal service of the city working again, which sounds much easier than it actually is. In order to get this service truly working again, he must beat the clacks: a series of towers in which messages can be sent to other cities fast, it is prone to constant maintenance and is very expensive. After getting the Post Office started back up, he meets a girl who works at the Golem Trust Fund, Adora Dearheart. During one of his dates with Adora, he suddenly gets this feeling that the Post Office is burning, and rushes off to find the Post Office burnt down. Moist soon "finds some money by the will of the gods", and uses it to rebuild the Post Office, and to say that they are back, Moist challenges the clacks to a race, an impossible stunt, but what the owner of the clack company doesn't know, is that there is a dark secret about the clacks, that could lead to their own demise. Will he get the girl, will he beat the clacks, and will a secret society of postmen accept Moist as their new Postmaster General, read the book and find out!

I would reccomend this book to any one over the age 11, as it does get somewhat complicated, and someone who likes to read a book that will keep you laughing over and over again. I personally loved this book and all other books I have read by this author, including Making Money, the sequel to this book, because of his stories that have not much to do with the other, but all on the same fantasy world of Discworld, and his constant cast of characters, including Rincewind, Commander Vimes, and Death him/herself. If you have a chance, I suggest picking this book up at your local book store or library, because you will be going postal about learning the end if you don't!

Survey!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! वेट अ सेक वहत? Wait a sec what?

On Monday, in LA class, we took to quizzes on what kind of thinker we were are, and how moral we are. The quiz on what kind of thinker you are was given as a quiz in which it gave you an example of an activity, and say if you would not like to do it, wouldn't mind to do it, would like to do it, would really like to do it, or would it be exactly like you to do that. The moral quiz would ask you a question and it would give you answers, of which one you should select, and the answers ranged from the extremes moral, and immoral.

On the thinking quiz, my result came to be a musical thinker, and the moral quiz, I was supposedly 77% moral. I think these results fit me very much, because I am a very musical person, as I play four instruments, and because though I am not completely moral, I am more than half moral. This will help me to study better now, as I will now know that I learn better with music, for example, making a song out of what I have learned. Also, knowing that I am not completely moral, I will try to be even moral.

Finally, we took a memory quiz, in which I learned that I am better at remembering long term things, though, I have trouble with remembering short term things, even if I had just been told about it a few minutes ago. This will help me knowing this, as now I know I have to work on my short term memory even more. I really enjoyed these quizzes, and I wish there was more of these for me to take.

Storytime with Benjamin Haugen! Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

"Okay guys, one more time from the top", yelled out band leader, Jake," a one, a two, a one two three four!"

Just as he finished speaking these words, Jake Karp, our singer, Rex Shannon, our bassist, Garrett Schubiner, our guitarist, and I, the drummer began to put together a compilation of notes, drum beats, and a voice, to create a symphony of sound that we wrote and called,"Fiction". When we arrived at the transition to the second verse, Jake's mom burst in and screamed over the song at us,"Will you knock off that noise! Some of us are trying to read and do things that require piece and quiet upstairs, so I suggest that you start looking for a new garage to practice, because you are no longer allowed to practice in this one!"

Jake replied pleadingly,"Mom, please give us on more chance, I promise we will turn it down!"

"Of course you are going to turn it down, just like you were the last seventeen times I came down here, stop practicing now, or else you lose all privileges for the rest of the week," Mrs. Karp retorted angrily.

After a bit of grumbling and apologies, the the band and I left Jake at his house getting a lecture from his mom on how to use a volume know on an amp. The next day, we quickly set out to find a new garage to practice in at school, most of our friends said there mom would not like it, until we met the nerdiest kid in school, Max Rauenbueler, who said we could use his garage as long as he could be in the band as the drummer. We were reluctant at first because hanging out with him would have our popularity level go from the top to the bottom, but we were desperate, and as I was better at guitar than drums, so we agreed to let him in to get me back on my first instrument as well as to get a new garage to practice in.

That afternoon, we started to play at his house with me as lead guitarist, Garrett as rhythm guitarist, Max as drummer, and everyone else at their regular positions. Soon after we taught him our main song, we found out that Max was actually a drummer with mad skills, who was quickly able to learn all our songs with ease, and over the next week or so, our band started to sound better than it ever had.

Then, the magic moment, happened, we saw the poster for the Teenager's Battle of the Bands, and we knew at that moment that we had to compete. To make ready for this competition, we soon started making time for extra band and by inviting friends to come see us play at this event.

The day before the event, we were all growing increasingly nervous for this event, and as we started the final practice before the event, Max gave us some tragic news; he was leaving the band. Jake quickly asked why and Max told him that he thought that the band was just using him as a tool for a place to practice, and not as a member of the band or a friend, despite the fact that that was how we began by feeling, but by now, had completely changed. Before we could say that the feeling had changed since the beginning, he left.

The next day at the performance, we, all confused and nervous because of Max's leaving, convinced ourselves that we didn't need him in the band to win. That was when we saw the other bands start to practice, and we realised, there was no longer anymore point in kidding ourselves, because without Max, they were the kings, and we were the servants.

We sent Rex, the most persuasive in the band, to go get Max to come back to the band. Max, who happened to be an easy forgiver, came back to the band fifteen minutes before curtain, where we explained the current situation of how good the bands are. Even with this news, he remained calm, for some reason known, yet unknown to us at the time. After we finished telling him this, we were told that we were on in one minute, and we started preparing.

Walking onto the stage with our hyperactive nerves, we stared out at the crowd; tons of our friends were there, and they were all staring at us strangely because of Max being in our band. But their expressions changed soon enough when we delivered a stunning performance, especially by Max, who had been made so happy when Rex persuaded him to come back, that he knew that he would do amazingly well.

After that, we all congratulated each other on doing such a good job, and waited for the winners to be announced. In the end, we did not get first place, but second, which many people would say is the best of all; and I personally think that first place is to braggy, but second place says to me, to quote Julius Caeser,"Venimus, Vidimus, Vicimus, or in English, we came, we saw, we conquered."

When we went to school the next day, we were glad to see that instead of sitting by himself eating lunch, Max was sitting with tons of new-found friends. As a walked past him to sit with some of my other friends, Max gave me a quick, but very grateful smile, which told me that he would never be sad in this school again.

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank is a touching story about a Jewish girl who writes in her diary everyday and her family during the Holocaust. This book and play is supposed to show what it was like to live in World War Two Europe and to be a Jew at the same time.

The story begins with the Frank's living as a normal family; the dad owns an office building, and the mother stays at home along with the children when they don't have school. Quickly after the play begins, tragedy strikes, and the Holocaust begins, and the family is forced into hiding in the annex of her father's office building. The family is tended to by some close friends of the father who work at the office building. Soon, another Jewish family joins them, the van Pels, and a Jewish dentist, Fritz Pfeffer, which causes this small hiding area to become packed with people. Then, they are discovered by the Nazis, who send them to concentration camps. During this time, Anne Frank dies of typhus, but the father lives. I myself do not remember if anyone else lives, but after the father is released, he goes back to work at his office building, and when he goes back into the annex, just to remember this time, he finds Anne's diary still there.

This play shows the hardships that Jews endured during this terrible time, and the story of a family who had to go through it. The Diary of Anne Frank is recognized around the world as a reminder of how terrible this time truly was, and as the most famous written account of a person's experience of the Holocaust in Europe.

In my opinion, this is a terrific play that is written very well, and could not have been put on any better; the actors showed true emotion, and you could with ease tell what Anne's reaction was to the day that had just happened just by the listening tone of her voice. If I could rate this show between 1 and 10, I would give it a 9.25, as nothing can ever be perfect, but this was truly fantastic, and made you feel as if you were no longer in a theater, but in the annex, hiding from the Nazis with the Franks. In conclusion, I suggest if the chance arrives, to watch this tale of the Franks, Van Pels, and Mr. Pfeffer.

San Juan Islands: Center Island

Center Island is a place of fishing, having fun,.........and fog. This amazing one mile by one mile island off the coast of Washington state is the place to go. From running around to relaxing, this is the place I would go, if I could go anywhere next week.

The first thing I would enjoy there would be the wondrous nature activity, and the first activity I would do with nature if I could do anything would be to go on hike on the gravel roads of the island, and the wilderness part itself, as the only animals are deer and two raccoons. Then, I would go fishing with my dad on our boat, "Runamuck", and catch tons of dogfish and one dirty red colored rock fish. That is what I would do with nature on this isle of magnificence.

Now lets move on to something not having to do with nature, in fact the exact opposite, playing at the club house and our island friends' houses. First, I would go to our friends, the Brians, house there, and we would play there for a while inside, playing Monopoly, Legos, and ect. Next, we would move on with the Brians to the club house, where there is a multi-use court meant for basketball, volleyball, and tennis. Also, there is a big field in the are of the club house that is surrounded by trailered boats, which we would use as a field for the games that you can play that all of the caretakers leave in the most gigantic plastic box. Then, we would move onto our final thing, the most amazing of all.

The last activity that we would do there would be to, instead of roasting chestnuts over an open fire, would be roasting marshmellows of a bright red bonfire. We would all be sitting on the ground with our marshmellow roasting sticks in the part of the fire that is not on fire, but surrounded by hot embers. We would crack jokes and tell stories with the Brians, and if we were lucky, our cousins Daniel and Dena. If I could, this is how I would spend my week off of school.

Lastly, we would repeat this many parts of this process multiple times, and according to me and i am sure that many others who have been to Center island would agree, "This has been and is currently, and will continue to be the best vacation ever!" I am trying to simply end without words, but with a feeling, the pure awesomeness factor of this perfect island, Center Island of the San Juan Islands.

Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg: n. an overwhelming all-out attack with infantry, artillery, and air force, especially by surprise against an unprepared enemy.(Merriam-Webster) This German word was invented in the 1930's to describe Hitler's new tactic, lightning war.

Though Hitler did not actually invent this tactic himself, it was, in fact, invented by Heinz Guderian. Heinz was an army man, he served in a most of WWII, and he happens to be the Panzer leader who split the Allies troops in half in Germany. Heinz also wrote two books, Achtung-Panzer, and Panzer Leader, which was about what he changed when he was in charge of the Panzer's.

Blitzkrieg was first put into action in 1939 against Poland, and its effect was devastating. The main weapon in the arsenal of Germany in this tactic was the Panzer. The Panzer is the basis for many modern tanks, and as the tank had just been invented in WWI, it was deadly in battle with its recent upgrades from the original tank. Another element of Blitzkrieg was the German airforce. Germany was the first country to think of dropping a bomb from a plane, and this was why this tactic worked so well, because they could destroy tons of ground troops with just one bomb. Infantry was also needed in order for this plan to work, as they were many people in the Nazi army. In the end, all of these divisions of an army worked together to create this horrible tactic. First, a small group of infantry was sent in to disorganize the enemy troops, then, the bombers came in a destroyed much more of the enemy army, and finally, after the enemy army has been completely immersed in chaos, the main army comes in with tons of infantry and artillery.

My final thoughts on the Blitzkrieg is that it is a brilliant, but horrible tactic that will depress the citizens of that country horribly, as there army has just been destroyed quickly and efficientely. I also made a connection during my research between a Marvel superhero and the Blitzkrieg. The superhero's name was Blitzkrieger, and was invented at about the same time as WWII was going on, and the superhero's birthplace was actually in Germany. This character was probably invented to give people something to cheer them up from the Blitzkrieg. I do believe, despite the fact that this tactic depressed hundreds of thousands of people, that this is the most ingenius tactic used in WWII.

Current Events: Wikipedia

Wikipedia, to many people this is their number one resource for righting a paper,but is that really the right place to get your information. It is in fact not, and anyone can change this giant "encyclopedia" on the web. Wikipedia also has its good uses too, though Wikipedia was finally proved to be a very unreliable resource with a much larger piece of evidence than ever before.

The day that President Obama was inaugurated, an outbreak occurred of false or not completely true changes on very largely known websites.The first thing that happened, happened at 12:01 PM ET, when the newly appointed webmaster of the White House website said that President Obama had been inaugurated four minutes earlier than he actually had. Then, four minutes later, when President Obama had been inaugurated, something new occurred as a person went on to Wikipedia and changed the page on Ted Kennedy. What he changed about the page was that he said that Ted Kennedy was dead.

This page, though it was quickly edited by the president of Wikipedia, shows that Wikipedia is not a resource that a person should rely apon when writing a research paper. Sometimes though, Wikipedia is correct, but as you will never know if it is correct, you should never go there for a first source, unless you are just trying to get the jist of a certain topic. If one decides to use this as a resource, that person should check there information with other sources, and those sources that are best for checking Wikipedia are websites that end with .edu.

As one can see, Wikipedia is not a reliable resource to be used for a paper, unless one is trying to know only what the topic is about, but it also has uses that are good. In conclusion, my opinion is a mixed one, I believe that Wikipedia is a great source for topics such as President Lincoln, as people can tell if the facts that they can see are true or false, but I also know that if one is researching a topic that is widely known, it can be a very unreliable resource as not many people can tell what is not true because not too many individuals know what it is.

Tourism!

People in Hawaiian t-shirts with cameras, an exotic place with a new culture, those are but a few of the things that bring to my mind the word tourism. It is something that everyone enjoys to do, and it is one of the greatest things for the cultural world, and one of the worst for the enviroment.

Tourism is good for this world for quite a few reasons. For one, it helps to destroy stereotypes, as tourists get to see what a race/ethnicity is really like. It also helps the global economy because of the money tourists bring to other countries for souvenirs/travel expenses. It also helps to show people that other places have rich cultural backgrounds, and helps to educate them in those other cultures.

Tourism also does to this planet things that are very bad, it destroys the environment. It does this in both a direct and indirect way. An example of an indirect affect on the environment is that new resorts that are being made to put up tourists are destroying habitats in order to build them. A direct way is that tourists tend to get close into an animals space, and for example, if a kid seal is touched by a human or land mammal, like a tourist petting one, the mother often abandons it. My opinion on tourism is mixed, as i believe that people should learn that lots of stereotypes are untrue, and i also am very passionate about the environment.