My Parent/Teacher Conferene

1. When you (Martha and Greg) meet with my parents during conferences I think that you guys will say I am doing well this year in school and with friends. Also, I think that you might mention I am doing a better job of not talking in class.

2. I would like you to mention that I am working really hard to get all of my work in and that I think it is paying off. Also, I would like you to mention that I am not sucking up to people this year and I am talking more in class.

3. There is nothing that you can't tell my parents during the conference, because I don't have anything to hide.

The Chilean Miners' Doomed Pact of Silence

"The Chilean Miners' Doomed Pact of Silence - The Week." The Week Magazine - News Reviews and Opinion, Arts, Entertainment & Political Cartoons. Web. 19 Oct. 2010. .

Only a few days after the Chilean Miners were rescued from the mine one of them already broke their very unique pact. The pact was that none of them would sign a TV deal or a book deal without the rest of the group. The man who broke it was nicknamed "Super Mario." He claims he broke it because "there are certain things that need to be told."

Does Christine O'Donnell Not Know the First Amendment?

"Does Christine O'Donnell Not Know the First Amendment? - The Week." The Week Magazine - News Reviews and Opinion, Arts, Entertainment & Political Cartoons. Web. 19 Oct. 2010. .

This morning in a debate about teaching creationism in schools, the Delaware Republican State Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell made a comment that shocked the audience. Christine O'Donnell stated that the first amendment prevented making laws that established religion.

Europe terror warning: Time to cancel your travel plans?

U.S government officials have been warning travelers about their trips to Europe, because of recent evidence from Al Qaeda that they may be planning some Mumbai-style attacks. State department officials are trying really hard to convince Americans to be very cautious as this may be a bad time to travel to Europe. Some believe that the warnings are so vague that perhaps they should not have been issued. Officials have not specifically what countries to avoid or what threats have been made. They have only said that tourists should avoid public transportation and popular tourist destinations. This makes it very hard for travelers to know what to avoid. Others believe that this warning is not strong enough to make people cancel their plans but should give people a reason to be careful and practical.

The Week

Celeste and I picked The Week Magazine as our source.

The Week Magazine was founded in the United Kingdom in 1995. It became an American magazine 6 years later in April of 2001. Then 7 years later Australia adopted the magazine in October of 2008. The Week Magazine has a liberal slant, but does a fairly good job of keeping it fair and balanced. The interesting thing about this magazine is that they write hardly any of the articles in it. They get their articles from other magazines and sources which are: Yahoo News, The Financial Times, AOL News, Politics Daily, Global Post, Real Clear Politics, Newser, and Salon.com

The Week gets/writes articles about a lot of things such as: The U.S at a Glance, The world at a glance, famous people in the world, Talking points for books and current events, Health and science, Reviews of books and films, and business. The Week is a pretty thorough Magazine and we hope it helps us learn about new things.

Twist

Twist is an americanized play of Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. The main character in the play, Twist, is a biracial kid who is an orphan in Prohibition Era in New Orleans. Twist is an archetype orphan who will do absolutely anything for love. I think his character represents all orphans and mixed racial people who don't think they belong to a specific group like white, black, etc. Twist is also called a mulatto, which makes him feel even more like he doesn't belong to a group. In the orphanage Twist gets teased by all the kids, and they tell him to ask for meat on his birthday so he does. When he does he gets sold to a funeral to dance at all the funerals. Twist hates it there so he runs away to the Jewel Box Theatre and lives there with Boston and the boys. Boston used to be Twist's dad's dance partner back when they were younger. While living with Boston he discovers that Della Boston's girlfriend birthed him. Della wants the best for Twist but Boston only wants money. So Della is trying to give him to Mr. Pruhdomme who is a big time lawyer and show bizz fan, but Boston is trying to sell him to his uncle for $1000. Twists uncle is white and a very mean man.

Twist's mother is white, and her brother Lucius is white as well. Twist's mother died during childbirth and his father died just before he was before. Twist was born an orphn. Lucius, Twist's uncle in the story, paid the orphanage 200 dollars to keep since Twist's mother had died in child birth. Nine years later, though, Lucius decides he wants Twist so that he can use him to do illegal things for him, even if this may result in Twist's death. Lucius character represents the typical villain in this story. There are many different villain archetypes that are portrayed throughout literature. In this play, there is a bit of irony with the villain because all of the main characters are black yet the villain is white. Often in literature and plays, the villain would be stereotypically black or some other minority. Villains can be schemers, lunatics, backstabbers tyrants and many other nasty characters. In Twist, Lucius seems to be "The Bastard" because he can't have what he wants (to be wealthy) so he lashes out and hurts those around him. Throughout the play, Lucius chases Twist in an effort to kidnap him, but Twist is able to avoid him and remain on the run. Ultimately, Lucius gets what the viewer thinks he deserves and dies.

The thing that worked really about the production was that everyone could sing and dance really well. Also the beginning scene was fantastic. One part that needed to be improved in particular was the scene in the orphanage when he is singing a sad song and everyone behind him is doing something funny. If I was being hired to get the production ready for broadway I wouldn't change much. The only scene I would change is the one in the orphanage when he is singing, but other than that the play was great.