The Birdwatcher

Blogging about Writing.

2012-02-16T14:52:00.003-06:00

Today I am in class all alone...my fellow journalistic junkies we not able to attend class. So today, Me, Myself, and I have to blog about writing my stories. Well, for starters, I love to write. I write all the time. I write short stories, I write poems and my favorite thing to write are novels. I am working on one right now. I am not sure, however, that I should start talking about that because I know that I will get off topic from what it is that I should really be writing about. Well this week, we have decided that we are going to start up our writing for the towns paper. We all were told to chose 3 stories of our own choosing. My choices were about bullying, prom dresses, and I also wrote an "Ask Kelly", mailbox article. My "Ask Kelly", article is filled with questions on situations that people are having with there friends, family or just questions about what might happen. Either way, I absolutely loved writing this piece and I hope that I could do it again!

My Future:)

2012-02-09T14:59:00.005-06:00

After I graduate, I want to go to college at USD in Vermillion, South Dakota. I want to go to be a nurse anesthetist. A nurse anesthetist is an an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) who has acquired graduate-level education and board certification in anesthesia. I first have to complete a bachelor's degree in a science related field or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. I must be a licensed registered nurse. I am required to have a minimum of one year of full-time nursing experience in an acute care setting, such as medical intensive care unit or surgical intensive care unit. Following the acute care experience, I must apply to a Council on Accreditation (COA) accredited program of nurse-anesthesia. Education is offered on a masters degree or doctoral degree. The program length varies from 24 to 36 months. After that I would be done.
After I graduate from college I hope to get a decent job in Sioux Falls if I decide to stay in South Dakota. Also after graduating college, I hope to get engaged to an amazing guy and get married and start a family. I hope to wait to get married till after college but if it were to happen before I was done, I would be okay with it. I hope to have four kids. :) I already have some of my names picked out for my kids but not all of them.
Later on in like, I hope to move up to be an Anesthesiologist. I want to be an Anesthesiologist because I just think it would be really interesting even though it can be very dangerous. You have to make sure you give the patients enough anesthesia so they can't feel the surgery that they would be having and many other things that you have to be very careful for. I really feel like I could do it even though it is very testy.
That is about all for my future. :)

rudeness in people!

2012-02-09T14:59:00.004-06:00

Today I will be blogging about kids in school. When you see somebody that needs help, would you be the one to stop and help them, no matter who, or what they looked like? The world now a days has turned into such a bad place. I was waling down the street the other day and I happened to have dropped a ten dollar bill, and normally I would have stopped to pick it up but I didn't even notice and as I was walking away I reached into my pocket to grab my cash and it wasn't there so i turned around to see if it was on the ground and a gentleman , around the age of 20 to 25, picked it up, looked right at me and then stuck it into his back pocket and walked away. I understand that he did not know that it was my money, but you would think that he would have asked. Then, on top of that, I yelled to him and told him politely that it was my ten dollar bill and he stopped, did not turn around, then started walking again. I just could not believe that he would not have given it back to me. Then i figured that it was only ten dollars, and maybe he needed it more then me. I am not saying that everybody in the world is like that man, I am just saying that people need to start learning manners again, and maybe the world would become a nicer place.

True Love?

2012-02-09T14:26:00.002-06:00

There are so many feelings that a person can experience! My favorite how ever is the feeling of love. I never knew what it felt like to be in love until I found the love of my life! I know that I am only 15 and he is only 16 but I am pretty sure that god did not make a rule about whether or not you had to be a certain age when you fell in love. When I realized I was in love it was not the day that I saw him, it was not the day that he first kissed me, it was never a set day when I realized that I was in love. I think that the main thing that made me start to realize that I was in love was the fact that I do not know how I would survive without him. People fall in love everyday, and who knows, maybe they will be together forever! I am lucky enough to be blessed with an amazing person, who makes me soup when I am sick, who shows me off to his friends and he is the sweetest person I know! He keeps me in check with my faith and my family and he is just amazing. He is my godsend! I love him so much! So here is the thing about love.. is that nobody knows when it is going to strike and when it is going to leave.

Wake Up

2012-02-08T15:05:00.002-06:00

Getting up in the morning is very difficult. Especially when the night before you stayed up way to late. It just gets in your system that you need to stay up late. The next morning you then realize that it was a bad idea that you stayed up late. The whole next day you are complaining that you are tired and that you are going to go to bed earlier. We all know that you go to bed maybe five or ten minutes earlier. The next morning your alarm goes off and you decide to hit snooze. You hit snooze a couple of times and you are like I am going to get up the next time your alarm goes off. Then you decide to go that you should get up. The morning is just a drag. If we all went to bed earlier we'd be ready for the next day. We all know that it's not going to happen. Teenagers stay up late, whether it's because they are texting, doing homework, or whatever they may be doing. Our brains don't normally work until nine in the morning. If you get up before then you are going to be slow and dragging around. I think that I should make my cappuccino every morning to give me the burst of energy that I need. I also need to learn how not to hit the snooze button on my alarm. The snooze button gets to me every time. I wish that we had a Starbucks or a little coffee shop, so I could just stop there and get my java fix. It wouldn't be very cost effective though. I think that I should learn how to make my own java beverages. I really like iced vanilla latte. I should find a good website that has a very easy and good recipe. I think that if you don't go to bed on time you need to learn to get up when your alarm goes off. You also need to find something that gives you energy.

Valentine's Day

2012-02-08T15:00:00.002-06:00

Valentine's Day is just right around the corner not even a week away. If I have a boyfriend when Valentine's Day comes around, I never know what to get them. I'm in that situation right now not knowing what to get my boyfriend. I will probably just think of something really cute to make for him because I never know what else to get for a guy. I will probably find some really cute ideas on Pinterest to make him.
This year for Valentine's Day, I want jewelry and roses. I absolutely love roses. They are my favorite type of flower and always will be. I have been looking at jewelry for awhile now and showing my boyfriend and my parents what I want so I'm hoping I get what showed them. :) I picked out a really pretty ring and necklace. I don't think that they are that expensive at all. I picked them out at Riddle's and Riddle's is usually reliable with their prices on jewelry.
I would have to say that Valentine's Day is probably one of my least favorite holidays because I just never know what to get my boyfriend. I only like it because I get flowers and jewelery. I just don't really like it because it's a like a girl holiday more than a guy holiday.

Are newspapers dying?

2012-02-07T15:01:00.002-06:00

This question comes up quite often. Especially with those who are involved in the social media. I do not think that newspapers are going to die. I just think that they are going to be less frequent. I think that some of the daily newspapers will turn into a newspaper that prints every other day. They may even just print twice a week. I think that the New York Times will be around for a very, very long time. The newspapers that will stay around are also your local ones. The Clear Lake Courier will be here for a while because when you live in a small community you don't need have your own local news. To find out what is going on in the community you won't be able to turn on the TV and see that everything in the news is about the Deuel County area. You will find the news to be about the state. I also think that the newspapers will be around because not everybody has the access to technology. How are they supposed to know what is going on in the social media. I just think that newspapers will have to revamp their system. They will have to downsize their staff. They will also have to change some of their columns. The newspaper staff will have to be more versatile. They will have to be able to write more than one column. I think that the newspaper industry will survive. I do not think that the newspaper will die.

Are Newspapers Dying?

2012-02-07T14:53:00.001-06:00

I think that newspapers are dying since we have more than just newspapers to get news from. I wouldn't be mad or disappointed if they got discontinued or something because I don't read them much anyways. I either watch the news on T.V. or get it off my phone. On my phone I have a news app so I wouldn't be mad about it. Others that read the newspapers probably would say that they aren't dying because they read them constantly and they more than likely wouldn't want them to be discontinued. I don't read them much because they really don't interest me at all. For one I don't like to read so I'm not going to read the newspaper. When I read the newspaper I always read the sports section or if I see a really interesting story in there then I'll read it. Otherwise I won't have any interest in it so I wouldn't mind if the newspapers died. The only thing that I would miss about the newspaper, would be getting the ads from it. Not all of the newspapers come with ads, but most of them do like the Public Opinion and Argus Leader. I love looking at the ads from the newspaper.

News Paper.. ?dead or alive?

2012-02-07T14:39:00.002-06:00

Well today we were asked if we though that newspapers were dying. There are a lot of things that could be said about this topic. Some people could say that newspapers are not dead and they never will be. While other people say that they are already dead. A reason why people might say that newspapers are not dying is because they do not have any other way to get news, and in this day and age, I very highly doubt that a person would not have any other way to get news. Another thing that might make them say that newspaper are not dying is because they are trying to keep things the way that they are and always have been. There are may other people how ever So, what I am trying to say is that, I do, in spite of other opinions think that newspaper are dying. There are plenty of reasons why I think that newspapers are dying and some the reasons why I think that is because there are so many other ways that you can news, ways that are faster and updated hourly. I also think that it would be smart to get the news from say a website like this one, --> CLICK HERE!, and it is free! If I had to, I know that I could safely say that 100% of people would like things that are free rather then have to spend money on them!

SUPER BOWL!

2012-02-07T14:32:00.002-06:00

Well, this year I would have to say that I was not to happy with most of the commercials. I am not sure why I wasn't super happy, but I think that it is because I am so used to the commercials being absolutely blown away by them, and this year, well I just wasn't. Just because I think that most of there commercials were not very good, does not mean that I did not like all of them. There were a few commercials that I thought were pretty funny! There was one commercial that really got me. There was a brown M&M and it was at a party, and then another M&M started to dance to the song, "Im sexy and I know it" and it just seemed really funny. I did not really watch much more of the game but I was able to see a few more commercials. Another commercial that I saw was about the type of chip and there was a song that was burying a cat, and then the dog saw that the man had seen him bury the cat and he told the man to not say anything while handing the man a bag of the cheese chips. The reason why I think it was funny is because its not something that you would think of for a commercial.

Super Bowl Commercials

2012-02-06T15:06:00.002-06:00

I think that the Super Bowl commercials are very funny. I don't really watch this football game. From what I did watch I thought the commercials were pretty good. I think that a lot of thought was put into these commercials and that they really do grab the attention of people. If you want to buy a product, you'll buy it because of the visual appeal in the commercial. My favorite commercials are typically the car commercials. I like these ones the best. A reason why is because of the speed of the cars. I really like these ones because they have that feel. The car commercials just make me want to by their car. Other commercials that I like are the M&M ones. I love chocolate and when I see them on a commercial, it just makes me want to eat chocolate. The commercials are very appealing to me. Overall, I liked the commercials that I saw.

Superbowl Commercials

2012-02-06T15:05:00.002-06:00

This years Superbowl Commercials were fantastic. I thought that they were definitely better than last years. My favorite commercial this year was definitely the m&m one. I thought that it was really funny because I love the song that was being played and I thought it was funny that they used m&m guys for it. My other favorite was the Doritos commercial. I thought that the Doritos commercial was really funny because I liked how the wife came home and asked the husband where the cat was and the husband had buried it. I thought that it was a good one. I also thought that the Etrade commercial this year was pretty funny. I thought that it was really funny because I thought it was silly how the baby sat up in the incubator. Superbowl commercials are always funny I think. I think that they make them the funniest for Superbowl because there are always a lot of people that watch the Superbowl so they would think that they would get more views that way.

Spot lighting

2012-01-30T15:09:00.002-06:00

So today we were given the idea for Spotlighting. I was a little bit confused about what exactly the idea for spotlighting was, so I went ahead and went on Google and looked up with there definition for it was and Google said that it was nothing more then just an interview on one certain person. There is something a little different from the regular spot light clip from the one that we are thinking about doing as a class. That one thing that is different in our spot light then the other spot lights is that we, we being our whole class, plan on doing a spot light on a whole team, not just one player or participant.
One of the things that we will need to do is select a sport. That could be a big dession, there are teams that get extra attention then other activities, and we would want to make it as fare as we could by picking all different types of activities.
I think that this will be a super fun thing to try! I am always up to trying new things!

Spotlights

2012-01-30T14:57:00.002-06:00

We made T-charts for when we did the Newscast but for the spotlight video, I think we could also do a Spotlight video for that too. I think that we could write our questions in there like we did before if we were to ask them questions. I think asking questions would be a great idea. To me, spotlighting is focusing on one person. Since we're doing gymnastics, I would say to focus on Sam Wiekamp since she's like the star of the team. I just think that it would make more sense to do a spotlight on one person rather than the whole team. But since we will be doing it on the whole team, we could just go to some of their practices and record them at practice along with pulling some of them to the side and asking them questions on camera so they could just bounce off of each other's answers. We would really have to come up with some really good questions that they could really elaborate on. I also think that we could go record them at their meets since we go to some of them already but I would say that we would have to do that soon since state is just right around the corner.

Overall, I think that this would be fun to do if not very many people know what's happening in the gymnastics world. It would be really awesome if one of your journalism classmates got to go to state and record there.

Parents to learn about bullying

2012-01-26T15:04:00.006-06:00

I read an article on Keloland and it was about how parents should learn about bullying and whether or not their children are being bullied in school or not. Bullying can happen in any grade not just a specific grade. People think that bullying doesn't happen in elementary school but really does. People think that it only happens in middle school and high school. I remember when I was in elementary school and there was bullying happening. There is still bullying in high school. It happens everyday and not everyone think that there is bullying but really there is and somehow I think that it should stop. Since Sioux Falls is planning on doing some training for parents for their elementary students is a great idea and I think that other schools should do that. Not only does bullying happen in bigger schools, it happens in small schools like mine. I really think that every student should know what bullying is and how to stop it so I think that we could create a program about it and speak out about it. Once middle school in Sioux Falls had a program about it already and it was a huge success. There has been less bullying there and I think we could do that as well. I really think that people to learn to stand up and say something to a bully instead of just letting them get by with it. Students really need to learn to do that otherwise the bullying will not stop. In order for the program to work if our school were to do it, I think that it would take more than just the students to make the program work. It would also take the parents and staff's help. With the parents knowing about bullying, they could make sure the home environment is better and such things like that. I really think everybody needs to realize how much bullying happens in schools nowadays. No one would ever think about how much bullying is going on. One day, it will get way out of control and then there really will be no way out of it. Someone has to do something about it before it gets way out of control.

Should South Dakota band texting and driving?

2012-01-26T15:04:00.004-06:00

Today, I was browsing through some news sites and found an article about a texting band in South Dakota. Should South Dakota band texting and driving? Yes, texting and driving is very dangerous. I don't think that banding texting and driving will help anything. It's hard to regulate someone if they are texting and driving. Is stopping at a stop sign and texting a bad thing? I think that it's going to be very hard for a law enforcement officer to know if someone is texting and driving. There are many apps that people can get on their phones so that they can voice text. I think that the people who text and drive won't know the consequences until they get in an accident themselves or get a ticket for careless driving. I know that texting and driving is a big topic and people are out there trying to get people to stop. Is it decreasing the number of people that text and drive? I also don't know if the number is decreasing. Some people may just think, that's never going to happen to me. With all the technology around there is always going to be an issue. Are they going to set a law for using ipods in cars? People use there ipods to listen to songs just as much as they do for texting. That's another danger. Yeah, you can keep your eyes on the road when finding a song, but sometimes you just want to find the song you want to listen to. Then you start looking through your ipod for the song, the next thing you know you are in a ditch. I think that banding texting and driving is going to be very difficult to monitor and a waste of time. I like the idea, but how are they going to know? If you were on your ipod changing a song are they going to give you a ticket for texting and driving? There could be many different cases, whether a person is texting or not. I think that the law will let people be more aware that they can get into trouble for doing it.

Tips for a great wedding kiss

2012-01-25T15:10:00.002-06:00

Today I read an article in the paper on tips for a great wedding kiss. They talked about when Prince William and Kate had got married and how when they had their first kiss, it was a really bad kiss and everybody started to chant to kiss again. Before your wedding you should really talking about the kiss. You should probably talk about what kind of kiss you're going to want to give each other so you don't end up messing up and making a fool of yourselves. The right kind of kiss should be really long not a peck. That's not so romantic. In the article it tells you that you should practice kissing before your wedding. I think that sounds so silly but they say it works and makes the kiss at your wedding more romantic. You will really want to do lots of practice if the groom will dip the bride. You would really wanna practice that because the groom wouldn't want to drop the bride because that would just be a really bad thing to do. Also in the article they talked about do something you're both comfortable with doing if you don't wanna do the whole dip the bride thing. It says that the groom feels more pressured than the bride about the kiss so you should do something that you both feel comfortable doing. Lastly, it talks about not being gross. The making out or a tongue kiss really isn't appropriate for a wedding since there lots and lots of people watching such as your grandparents and they probably don't want to see that. Overall, talk about the kiss before your big day! :)

Accidents Increase

2012-01-25T15:05:00.003-06:00

There was more law enforcement activities this past year in Codington County. The Sheriff doesn't think that it is a bad thing that there were more accidents or crimes. He was just saying that they are doing there job and have more public involvement. I think that it is a good thing they are having more arrests in the county. There were also more accidents in the year, because of the bad weather in the beginning of the year. Most of those accidents were people who slid in the ditch and were not injured. I really like that the officers are sitting in the school zones. When they are there they are watching over the children. Another thing they are doing is keeping the kids safe. They are keeping the kids safe because they catch the people that are speeding in the school zones. I think that it is a good thing catching people for doing illegal drugs. Drugs are bad. If you do something illegal you are probably bound to get caught. You shouldn't do something illegal if you don't want to get caught. I also like the fact that they have more public involvement. A reason why is because then the police officers are aware of what to watch for. The police officers also will know where to go and they know where the crimes are most likely to happen. They just want to protect the community. They don't want to do any harm. The police are just doing their job. Today's police officers probably didn't like the police very much, but they probably did know that it is a good thing to have them. If we didn't have any crimes their wouldn't be any officers. If there were no officers then the chances for there to be a crime is much greater.

Gymnastics.

2012-01-25T09:58:00.003-06:00

The gymnastics season has been going on since Halloween. The girls have been doing very well this year. They were the state champions last year. We beat Madison, Madison had won state for the past 16 years. It was time for another team to beat them and that was the Deuel Cardinals. This year we are trying to win again. I think that we have a very good chance of winning again. We just need to be on top of our game. Last night we had a meet in Milbank and it was an okay meet. We still had to count three falls on beam, which isn't that great. Counting the three falls makes our team score go down 1 1/2 points. In gymnastics that is a great amount, every tenth counts. We scored a 146.8, which is a very good score. I think that our team will do great things this year and in the near future. The girls are very fun to be with and to practice with. We have team bonding, such as sleepovers! They are always a blast. We work very hard every day in practice. We each motivate each other to achieve new skills. I always make a deal with one of the girls. It typically goes if you do that I'll do this. You always want to stick to your bets and promises. It's a very good system that we have. We also cheer each other on. We have lots of fun while working hard. We have NEC's on Monday in Britton and then that next Thursday we have regions in Sisseton. A week after that we go to state. State is in Brookings this year. I am very excited and anxious to see how the rest of the season turns out.

News article: FFA opens doors for Webster's Siglin

2012-01-24T14:54:00.002-06:00

A Webster native Olivia Siglin spent 10 days in China to start 2012. The trip helped her gain an appreciation of home and learn about different cultures and accepting diversity. Siglin joined 62 other FFA state officers from across the country. Siglin serves as the state FFA reporter. Siglin had said that the trip had two main focuses for students. She said that in a way it showed them about global agriculture. The group visited lots of different cultural and historical locations during the trip from Beijing to Shanghai. She said that one of the biggest cultural differences there was the food. She said all the food had spices added to it and there's lots of hand gestures and pointing a menus at restaurants. One similarity between South Dakota and China was that the Chinese people were very welcoming and were very happy to have them there just like the South Dakota people. She said that farms there in China were very small compared to the one's we have here in South Dakota. Overall, Siglin said that the trip to China was definitely worthwhile and she would most definitely go again. She said that she learned so much from China.

(:Verb stuff:)

2012-01-24T10:27:00.002-06:00

After hours and hours of looking i finally found a subject verb agreement error! It was in one of my google reader blogs, and it is in the blog called Eye make up ideas. I love this blog because there are so many cool ideas to try with my make up. The error that I found was the following, "..as each day begins....."and it should be "..as the days begin...". That is my subject verb agreement error.

Agreements

2012-01-23T20:28:00.002-06:00

Today we talked about subject-verb agreements and our assignment was to try and find somewhere either on the internet or newspaper an error of a subject-verb agreement. I found an error on one of my blogs. I found a subject-verb agreement on one of my cupcake blogs. I seen that they had used "The cupcake bakers works late hours." It should be "The cupcake bakers work late hours." It should be work because if you change the cupcake bakers to they it would make much more sense by using work then works.

Agreement

2012-01-23T15:28:00.003-06:00

Today we talked about subject-agreement. When you have a singular subject, you need to have a plural verb. Here's an example, the dog jumps over the fence. You wouldn't say, the dog jump over the fence. You can just tell that the last sentence didn't make much sense. I was searching through my blogs on Google Reader to find a mistake. It took quite some time to find a mistake, but I found one. It was in a cupcake blog. If you would like to check it out, just click on cupcake blog and it will take you right to the website. They should've used they have instead of they had. A place where it is difficult to find a mistake would be in the newspaper. The newspaper is hard to find one because people edit it and read through it to find any mistakes. A novel is a place where you find few errors as well.

RSS Feed

2012-01-19T14:59:00.002-06:00

Well I checked my blog today and the thing that I found some very interesting things! I went to the blog called Modest Clothing. To me it is just amazing how many new things that I learn off of these blogs.

There are so many ways that you can dress without having it seem like you need to show off so much skin. All of the

teenagers now a days seem to think that in order to look good or nice you need to show off as much skin as

possible! I know that I do it sometimes! I am learning slowly but surly about the fact that more is sometimes

more, and less is rarely more. You don't have to were the least amount of clothing to get noticed. That is

another thing that I think girl and guy a like need to work on. In my opinion, I think girls look prettier if they

look modest.

About Our Blogs

2012-01-19T14:58:00.002-06:00

Today I checked in with my Blogs that I have subscribed and I had seen that a couple of them had some updates while some didn't. One of the blogs that had an update was my Photography blog. My photography blog had updates on how to take photos. It also had information on there on how to make pictures look better on the computer or if you have a really high quality camera. On that blog there are a bunch of pictures on there and they are actually really cool. On the blog, they would recommend to use Nikon brand camera's. They recommend Nikon because they have really high qualities for their cameras.
Another blog that had an update was again my cupcake blog. They have some really cool ideas. Another cool idea they have is a caramel popcorn crunch cupcakes. They sound so good. I know I would definitely make those. I think on the cupcake blog, the main theme today was popcorn because they have so many ideas on there about popcorn cupcakes or popcorn cookies. They really have some cool ideas on what to do with them. Another type of cupcakes they have on there are workout cupcakes. They look really cool.

linking

2012-01-19T14:51:00.002-06:00

The thing that I will be blogging on today are miss me jeans. They are name brand jeans and I am totally head over heals for them! They fit me so well and they are such good quality. I own only 2 pairs but my mother owns over a dozen. Here are some reviews if you want to check them out! On a scale form 1-10 i agree with most of the people on the site to the extent of about a 8.5, and that is only some of the people on that website. I think that when people post there opinions or reviews on line they are really honest. I love love love my miss me jeans! They are absolutely the greatest pair of jeans that I own! The reviews that people put out there are brutally honest but that is what needs to be said!

Under Armour Clothing

2012-01-18T15:07:00.002-06:00

Under Armour Clothing review. For those of you who don't wear under armour clothing I suggest you check out the under armour clothing website. Under armour clothing is so comfortable. I own a sweatshirt and sweatpants made by under armour. I really think that they are way more comfortable than Nike brand clothing. Even though under armour is expensive, I think its way worth it. Their sweatshirts usually range from $50-80. I got my sweatshirt for $60 and I love it. I wear it a lot and I don't regret getting it. Another type of clothing that I like made by under armour is their athletic shoes. I would have to say that their athletic shoes are pretty reliable too. I don't own a pair but I know people who have them and they say that they are really comfortable and work while you are playing sports.
Here is a review on Under Armour apparel. The people on this review say that Under Armour is kinda expensive but they can't find any other apparel that will do them any good like Under Armour. There were a few other people who had blogged on it said that they were really expensive also. I really don't think they are that expensive. I can understand how some families don't have that much money to buy Under Armour apparel so they would think that they are expensive but on the other hand, the families that can afford it, shouldn't really think it's that expensive. I think they are pretty reasonable with their prices for the kind of apparel they have. Their apparel is awesome.
If you would like to know some background information on Under Armour you can visit the wiki.

OPI Nail Polish Review

2012-01-18T15:06:00.004-06:00

I am going to be doing a review on OPI Nail Polish. The website that I linked you to is the official OPI site. There on the website you can find out how they started and all about their polishes. I personally really like OPI. One of my favorite series was the Muppets. This series is a very good series. They have some cool sparkly polish. I really like sparkly nails. The nail polish stays on very well or at least I think it does. One thing that I don't like doing is waiting for the polish to dry. Some of the reviews that I was reading said that they were expensive. I think you get what you pay for. If you get the cheap $1 nail polishes they chip as soon as they drive.I have tried the OPI Chip Skip and I did not like that at all. I agree with the reviews that didn't like this nail polish. Here is a review from Colby on Chip Skip. After reading Colby's blog I realized that I have been using the polish wrong. I will have to go back and try it out. I have tried the OPI Chip Skip and I did not like that at all. I agree with the reviews that didn't like this nail polish. Overall OPI is a very good nail polish. The colors are fun and there is a lot of variety. I like how the polish runs on smoothly and lasts longer than some other nail polishes. Yes, the price may seem more expensive, but it is worth it. Anyone that likes to paint their own nails should get this product. They will like it from the start. They will not regret getting a bottle of this nail polish. I hope this review has helped anyone out that wants to try OPI!

news article

2012-01-18T10:28:00.003-06:00

The news article that chose to write about is on the singer, actress,songwriter, girl names, Katy Perry. The reason why I want to do my blog on this is because you don't normally see those type of big names in your newspaper that is for Clear Lake, South Dakota. The article is about how she won the most awards at the people's choice awards. She did seem to be extremely surprised when her name was called for more then a dozen awards and more then 2 dozen nominations. She is one of the worlds greatest pop stars and she is talented and extremely well rounded. There is nothing, and I mean nothing that she thinks that she can't do. There are so many things that she has accomplished. I hope that she stays on the path she is now and who knows, maybe she will go down in history for years to come.

Realtors Targeted

2012-01-18T10:22:00.002-06:00

Realtors are target in Northeast South Dakota. They are targeted because of a phone scam. The phone scam begins with an individual calling real estate brokers claiming to be from China, planning to move to the area and having interest in a property listed by the agency. The caller asks the broker to hold the property for him and sends a check for $15,000 to the agency. After a few days had passed, the agency received the check, the scam artist calls the agent and claims to have a personal issue that will prevent him from moving and requests a refund on his $15,000 deposit.
In my opinion, I don't think that the scam person from China should get his money back it was his own fault for calling them and telling them that he was interested in a property listed by the agency. I think it's a bunch of bull if they do decide to give him his money back. I think that he was just playing them and just trying to get his way into something that could be very dangerous to the agency. He does not deserve his money back at all. It was all his fault for doing that.

Titanic

2012-01-17T15:20:00.002-06:00

Note: I am writing this blog in the perspective of the company, White Star Line, the makers of the ship, Titanic.
For those of you that do not know what this newsletter is going to be about, it is about what event happened on April 15th. The ship, called the Titanic, stuck an ice burg. They were able to avoid a head on collision but as the caption was turning, he hit the ice burg with the side of the boat. The boat was made to with stand blows of this proportion by having 4 out of the 8 bottom tanks be able to fill up with water. The only thing is, is that they hit the ice burg with such tremendous force that, not only did ithe 4 tanks fill up, so did the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh. The ship couldn't stay a float. Its sank killing thousands of people. The first thing that I would like to say that I give my deepest thoughts and regards for any families or loved ones that were related to or loved somebody that was lost in the tragic, accident that was, and till is affecting everybody today. The second thing that I would like to say is that we as a company, know that many of you blame us for the, the company, for what happened when that is note true. We took every pro cation that we could to keep the great beauty, Titanic, safe, and floating. There are just things that happen in life and those things aren't always good things or even relatively close to good things. We apologize once again for the lost loved ones and we are sending you, who ever you may be, and your family our deepest regards. There are things in this particular situation that were completely out of our control. Many of you know of the Titanic sister ship. Well the caption of that ship was names Smith. The reason why I'm bringing it up is because when he was driving that ship he crashed it also, just like he did with the titanic. I am not trying to blame anybody what the dreadful event that happened. Many of you thing that we are the reason, and we are the reason, to a point, but nobody could have predicted what was to come on that faithful night April 15th, at around 2:00am. We, as a company would like to say sorry once again for your loses.

:Titanic:

2012-01-17T15:15:00.009-06:00

Note:I am writing this story in the perspective of the Titanic Captain Edward Smith. He wrote a note before he was killed in this disastrous event and it was uncovered. (not really what happened but this is my point of view)

Dear Whoever may be reading this,

I am Captain Smith that was the driver of the ship. I did the best that I could and am very well known to be a great captain. Which, I truly am. It was not all me why the Titanic is now currently sinking.

The builders of this ship could have done a better job and not have gone with the iron bolts for the bow of the ship, making the bow a little bit more weaker than the rest of the ship. They should've tried to make a luxurious ship that could withstand running into something, that would've made the ship completely unsinkable. The builders also should've left all of the life boats on and not think that it ruined the appearance of the ship. The boats did not make the ship look cluttered, it made the ship look like that it could save everyone and not just a few.

I also would like to put some of the blame on the ship inspectors. What kind of company lets an outdated inspection happen? I know for one thing that they should've had updated regulations. If the regulations were updated there would be enough life boats on the ship to save everyone that is on the ship. The British inspectors should have kept up to date information on the safety. People shouldn't of thought that this ship was unsinkable. The ship obviously isn't 100% unsinkable. If it wasn't for that mentality there would also be more life boats on this ship right now, and I wouldn't be writing this letter. I would become a survivor.

I do take pride in being able to sail a ship like the Titanic. I am not very happy with the fact that I will not be a survivor because there isn't enough life boats. I don't want people to think that I was the reason for this ship to sink. Just now I found out that my radio operator knew about the ice bergs. He thought that it was way more important to pass along the first class people stories. He didn't give me the ice berg news until it was too late. I did my best. How was I suppose to know that there were ice bergs in the are when I never got the message?

The ships disaster wasn't all me. I wasn't the one who took the life boats off the boat. I wasn't the one who said that the boat was unsinkable. I also wasn't the person who knew that the ice bergs were near and that we were in their path. If I would've known that there were ice bergs around I would've slowed down and I would've went a different path. Notice I have said would've quite a bit,if I would've known about all of this stuff I certainly wouldn't be writing this letter right now. I just want you to know that it was not me that it was not me that caused the Titanic to sink.

I was just the one who read the messages and the one who steered the ship. I didn't know about the ice bergs and when I was aware of the ice berg it was too late. I tried to steer away from the ship causing the Titanic to be hit from the side.

I love my family and friends. I want them to remember me as a very good person. I wasn't the cause for the Titanic to sink. I did my job to fullest and the best that I knew how. The regulations should've been updated. I should've got the messages about the bergs earlier. I truly did my best.

Sincerely,

Captain Edward Smith

Titantic

2012-01-17T15:15:00.006-06:00

Note: This is an article on a survivor who survived the Titanic. (All in my perspective.)
I, Sarah Anderson, a survivor from the Titanic had a horrid trip on the ship to New York. It was the worst time of my life and I can't believe I survived. It was so scary. When the ship hit the iceberg, I didn't know what was happening at first. All of us people that were riding on the ship were all confused since it was around 2:00 a.m in the morning when it was happening. All of a sudden, water started to come through doors, break through walls, break through everything and the ship started to fall apart immediately. Everything that was on the ship was ruined and it was all floating. Such as the pictures on the walls and whatever else was on the walls. People were in their rooms sleeping and had woken up to a scary site. Everyone was screaming and running all over the place and I just didn't know what to do at all. As the ship was was breaking, I started to run everywhere. I didn't know where to go at all. As I watched people fall to the water, I knew I was gonna be next to go. I started to fall and I had fell into the water. I had fallen onto a piece of the ship. It was a somewhat small but not so big piece of wood. I laid on top of that and I started to float towards towards shore. Once I got to shore, I couldn't believe that I had survived it. I was one of the very few people that had survived it. In my opinion, I was kinda mad that, that this had to happen because it ruined my trip to New York but then again I'm not because I'm so glad that I made through it. If I didn't have grabbed onto that piece of wood, I don't think I would have survived. I am so lucky I seen it.
I do actually blame the captain for all of this. I blame the captain more than the White Star Line(the makers of the ship) because I feel like that the captain should have been paying more attention. I don't think it's the White Star Line's fault at all just because they built the ship. That has nothing to do with the ship crashing into an iceberg and the ship started to fall apart and sink. The captain should have known that the iceberg was there. On the other hand, it can be the White Star Line's fault because the ship shouldn't have fallen apart. They could have made the ship much better. If they would've made it better with different supplies, the ship wouldn't have broken apart or sank. In my opinion, I blame the captain.

:Cell Phones:

2012-01-16T15:20:00.004-06:00

Today, I read an article in the newspaper about young kids having cell phones. There are many parents getting their kids cell phones, but what age is the perfect age to get them a phone? Some parents get phones for their kids when they are six years old. I think that is way to young. My parents didn't get me a phone until I was in seventh grade and it was towards the end of the year. I think that getting kids a phone when they are in elementary is way to young. Back when they didn't have cell phones, the kids were still safe. What was so different back then? Nothing, was really all that different. Parents now a days are just thinking this is a safe way to get ahold of my kids. It was safe then for their children to come home safely, so now it is still safe for your children to come home. I think when your children start getting into middle school or even waiting until they are in seventh grade is a good time to get them a phone. That's when most of their friends have a phone and it is when kids start sports. When kids start sports they stay after school instead of coming home like they used to when they were in elementary school. I think that's a great time to get kids a phone. I don't think that a kid that is in first or even second grade need a phone. Kids need to have fun and not worry about their technology, they will have plenty of time use technology when they get older. I remember when I was younger I had the best times at recess and daycare without a phone. I was just playing with my friends and I had lots of fun. I loved my daycare ages, because no one cared what kind of phone you had, they just cared about having a good time and enjoying themselves. I think that parents should just hold off and wait until their kids are in sports to get a phone. Let the kids have fun without the phones, they don't need them. Your kids will be safe, just like they were 20 years ago. The next generation doesn't just need to know how to use technology, but they also need to know how to interact with others. There are benefits of having cell phones for kids as well. One time my family was on a trip and we were at a festival and a little girl was lost, my mom asked the girl her mom's number, so she could be able to get ahold of her mom and find her. My mom's phone helped that girl find her mom. That is a time when a phone was useful. There are people all around that are willing to help a child. Some benefits of having a phone is that you can keep in touch with your friends without having to be with them, you can set up plans for the weekend much easier. It is better to text about making plans than calls. This is just my opinion you may have your own opinion, maybe when I get older my mind will change, but for now my mind is set.

Beauty Department

2012-01-12T15:06:00.002-06:00

http://thebeautydepartment.com/makeup/

Today I read the beauty department blog. I read many things on this site. Some things that are on here is hairstyles, makeup, and just simply things about beauty. I read about making small eyes looking bigger. This blog is very interesting to me because I am always looking for new hairstyles. I have yet to try one of the hairstyles, but they do look very simple and easy to follow. I want to do one of their updos. I really enjoy trying new hairstyles, it takes practice though, which sometimes I don't have the patience for. Another thing that this blog shows is about makeup. I love makeup and doing my makeup. I am always looking for simple and subtle ways to do makeup. I also like having my own style in doing my makeup. Another thing that I like about this blog is that it shows you the price of the products that they used and that they show what products were used. It is good to know exactly what they used because sometimes I have what they used. One of the makeup post I looked at had to do with glitter. I love having a little bit of shimmer on my eyes. I looked at the obsessions as well. On the obsessions it showed how to keep your to do a basic manicure. I love painting my nails and having any color that I wished to put on my nails. I really like that OPI nail polish was shown because I use that kind of nail polish all the time. I was really excited when the Muppet series came out. They had some really awesome colors that came out. They had lots of glittery polishes with that series as well.This blog site overall shows very good tips and techniques. I would recommend anyone who likes beauty to look at this blog.

Anythinggg. :)

2012-01-12T14:56:00.004-06:00

Today we were told to blog about our Reader's blog. I checked it today and the only blog that really had any new updates was my cupcake blog. I absolutely love that blog. Today that so many new ideas on what kind of cupcakes you can make. The main one was Justin Bieber cupcakes. I love Justin Bieber so I absolutely love them. They have many toppers for them or you can just actually draw him out on top of the cupcake with different colors of frosting. Another kind that they had on there was bride and groom cupcakes. I thought they had some really cool ideas for those. They have toppers for those also or otherwise you could just draw them out on top of the cupcake too. Another idea they had was a peanut butter and jelly cupcake. I really don't think I would ever make those because I just don't think that they would be that great. I would most definitely try them if someone else made them but I wouldn't make them myself. They also had some fruit ones on there that I would try. They had a banana kind and I would most definitely try that kind because I love almost every flavored banana stuff. They also had these cup things. They had like pudding or frosting in the them with like either oreo's or whatever you wanted to put in them. The one that I seen that looked really good to me was the cookies and oreo's one. That looks so good. I would definitely make that sometime.

I was gone :)

2012-01-12T10:24:00.001-06:00

Well everybody, I was gone for class, and I am sure that they all missed me very much ha ha!:) The rest of my class had to read the blogs that they picked out, but since I was gone, I got a different thing to right on. The thing that I am supposed to write on is my experience of going to Watertown South Dakota to get my drivers permit. It was the first time that I had ever taken the test and I am not going to lie, it was super scary! I was so nerves! The first thing that started our trip to Watertown was that I got out of school early, which is always a blessing in itself, and I headed home to pick up a few things that I would need to show the gentleman or lady that would be at the drivers ed. place. After we left my house we headed off to Watertown. All of the way to Watertown I had my nose in the drivers ed. Manual. Then I looked up and opened up the mirror that was in the visor in our truck, and I asked my mom if I should smile with, or without, my teeth. Then I realized something, I should probably worry about passing the test first. After we got into Watertown, it was time to go into the drivers place and by then my heart was pounding. We got into the building and I filled out a piece of paper that was on the table, it just asked things like my name and my gender, pretty simple stuff. They called out my number, which was 69, and then we walked up to the man at the counter and he said that the test was not to hard and if I didn't pass it I shouldn't stress out about it. I went into the room and the computer was all touch screen. After I took the test, I waited for my results and I was pretty disappointed to read that I didn't pass by 1 point! I will be headed back there tomorrow, so that I can retake the test and hopefully pass this time.

Typical Day

2012-01-11T15:06:00.005-06:00

Today was just a typical day at school. You go to your classes, you learn, and you visit with friends. Every day is about the same. Some days something interesting happens and some days the day is just dull. Wednesday is usually everyone's "lazy day". It is the day that everyone is most tired and they just want the week to be over with. I enjoy Thursday's the best because I am excited to see what the day brings and people are in a more cheerful mood then they were on Wednesday. People today were excited and were dreading the snow. We have some pretty big snowmobiling fans and they were excited. People such as myself were not very pleased seeing the soon on the ground. I don't mind the snow when it isn't blowing around and when it is just below freezing to make ice on the lakes. I need to get my ice fishing in for the year! Early in the morning I went to Algebra II and we worked with quadratic formulas. Next, was biology, that was pretty fun today! I enjoyed learning about the different things that we learned about today. My favorite part of today was when I looked at the lunch menu in my study hall, which is third hour, and saw that french toast was for lunch. In Spanish we are doing a couple of projects, which aren't too difficult, they are pretty fun! In Comp. Speech my class went through their puppet scripts they wrote. They were all very interesting. The school days go by pretty quick or at least that's what I think. Before we know it the school year will be over and we will be Juniors. When school gets out I am looking forward to summer. Summer is always a good time. There are so many things that happen.

What happened in school today?

2012-01-11T15:04:00.002-06:00

Today during school was an alright day. I wouldn't say anything happened today that was really interesting. To me, Wednesday's are just like a slack day to me. We didn't really do to much. All that really happened today was that in our Comp/Speech class we presented our scripts for plays. I thought was pretty cool. Some of them were pretty good. In my other classes, we didn't really do to much. We just pretty much kinda slacked and went on our computers. I would say that today was not the best day of all. Lots of drama going around and drama is just overrated. I would have to say that Biology was the best class today. I would have to say that was the best class because we didn't do really anything. Mrs. Lundberg was just showing us stuff on her computer which was kinda unusual since we usually do labs or some sort. We really didn't do to much. The only thing I did in that class was draw a picture of a frog blood cell.
I also checked my blogs today and I seen that all of them had some new updates. The new updates were decent. The cupcake blog is still my favorite because they have some really new cool ideas every day. I wanna try making them all. They are just so cool. I absolutely love cupcakes. They're the best. I also have a blog that gives me updates from Pinterest and Pinterest is the best site ever. Pinterest has some really awesome ideas for anything. I find so many cool ideas on there. Other than that, I didn't really like any of the other updates on the blogs.

Knitting

2012-01-10T15:16:00.002-06:00

Today I read the one of my blogs. The blog that I read today was on knitting. There were some cool ideas. Did you know that you can knit using your fingers? Well now I do. That is one of my goals this year, is to knit. I particularly want to knit a scarf. This blog is going to be very helpful when it comes to wanting to learn how to knit and to find some cool scarfs. I know that it will take a lot of practice, but I know that I can do it. If you put your mind on something you can do achieve it. I have another blog for easy knitting. This blog will be also very helpful when it comes to knitting. The first thing that I need to do is to get yarn and my needles to knit. Maybe I'll get purple! I want to knit a pink and purple scarf and I want it to be a chunky one and to be very stylish. I have until next winter to get this done, since it hasn't gotten very cold out this year. It will be useful when I go ice fishing too!I'm getting excited, I better get to town soon so I can get my knitting stuff!

About the Blogs.

2012-01-10T15:00:00.006-06:00

My favorite blog is the Cupcake blogs because they have some new cool ideas on there. I found some Trix, Cocoa Puffs, and Lucky Charm cupcakes. I would love to try them all. They sound so good. On my other blogs that I have, some of them have updated not all of them though.
My favorite blog that I have is the Cupcake blogs. I think they are a great blog because they give some great ideas. They have some really odd ideas. They have like snickers and many different kinds of candy ideas. They have some really cool Christmas ideas also. They have an up down santa clause and many other different ideas. I just like how they have some really odd ideas.

blogging about our blogs :)

2012-01-10T15:00:00.005-06:00

Today we are blogging about the blogs that we picked out yesterday. One of the blogs that I picked out was about make up. Today they had a type of make up that was called vintage. just by reading this I learn so many ways that i could try new looks for my make up! I am so happy that I looked into these blogs today. I am going to go home and try all the fabulous looks that I saw today. My opinion on this make up blog is that not everybody can pull off the vintage look. There are certain types of faces that can not pull of that type of make up. So I think that you should always no your face shape before you try new types of makeup.

Blogs

2012-01-09T15:36:00.001-06:00

Today we added blogs to google.com. I found some blogs that I really liked. The ones that I liked the most have to do with beauty. I really liked the make up tips. I like being able to look at these blogs, because they are related to what I like doing and or learning about. It's interesting to find out how many blogs are out there about topics that you also enjoy. I do like the blog on google.

blogs

2012-01-09T15:19:00.002-06:00

Do i think that i will use my blog thing on google...... um, well it all depends on what i am doing at the moment. If i'm really busy with something that might seem more important at the moment then no, i more then likely will not ever use it. On the other hand if i'm bored it could always be a thing that i could go to, so that i could learn how to make things that i didn't know how to make before. I think it is very smart for people to have blogs about all these things.

Blogss

2012-01-09T15:06:00.002-06:00

I definitely think I will use my blogs on google. I think I will use them so I can just read about them everyday. They're a good idea because its really simple to work. It's not complicated at all. Some of the things that I subscribed were clothes, nail ideas, prom dresses, cupcakes, eye makeup, and hairstyles. I subscribed most of these to get some new ideas on how to do my hair, nails, etc. They have some really sweet ideas. I really love the cupcake blogs that I subscribed. I like those the best because they have some really cool ideas on there on how to make different kinds of cupcakes.

USA Today

2012-01-05T15:11:00.002-06:00

Today I explored the USA Today's online newspaper. There are many things I like about this feature and there are some things I don't really like. When I read an actual newspaper I like reading the stories in the columns, so I don't get lost while I am reading. The online version I don't like that you can't read the whole story in the columns without making the story bigger. I really do like that you can read the newspaper online. Online newspapers like the USA Today is going green by having this online paper. If all major newspaper went green it would be good for the environment. You do need to have regular papers for the elderly people who do not understand how to use the technology that we use today. I do like going online because I enjoy finding new things on the internet. I am a fan of this online version of the USA Today.

USA Today

2012-01-05T14:59:00.002-06:00

I really think that this whole newspaper thing on the internet is a really good idea. I think its a really good idea because if some people can't actually get the actual paper, they can just go on the internet and look at it and read the articles. If they couldn't actually send the paper out, I would most definitely use the internet to read the paper. Since they actually can send it out, I think I would much rather read it off the internet anyways. If I actually had more time to read it, I think I would actually read it other than just then in class time. You an also do so much more stuff on the site. I think its really interesting actually. All you really have to do is click on the story that you wanna read and it comes up and you can read it. I think it's really easy. I would have thought it would be really complicated to run it but it's really not actually.

USA Today

2012-01-05T14:58:00.003-06:00

I really think that the whole newspaper on the internet is a very good idea. It could have some flaws but in the end i think it will have great turn out. One of the reason that i think this is a good idea is because it gives more of an opportunity for other people to read the news. They have a ton of cool things that you can do on the USA Today on line. Now don't get me wrong Just because just i think that it is a smart idea to have internet newspaper does not mean that i think that they should get rid of printed newspaper at all! The reason why i think that they should keep the old print newspaper also is because old people probably do not know how to make the internet work so then they would nothing to do in there free time and that would just the upsetting to them.

Newspaper

2012-01-04T15:12:00.003-06:00

The first article that I read was, Drought gave CSS farms a boost. It was about a potato farm who's cooperate offices is in Watertown, SD. They sell their potatoes to Frito-Lay. They accidentally started business with them, because the area where Frito-Lay got there potatoes for chips was in a drought. That's when CSS took this opportunity and started business with them. It is in the paper because it is important for people in our area to know that Watertown, is doing business with national companies, such as Frito-Lay.

The second story I read was, PD investigates dog stolen from humane society. It's very important for people in our surrounding area to know about this dog that was stolen. Many people around here have a dog or even dogs, they need to know that they should keep an eye on their dog to make sure it doesn't get stolen. It is also letting people know to look for this dog that has been stolen from the Humane Society.

Newspaper Articles

2012-01-04T14:54:00.003-06:00

One article I chose from the Newspaper, was the Michigan wins Sugar Bowl in OT. I think that story is in the newspaper because it was a really intense game and they had to go into overtime for it. I watched some of the game and it was a really good game. I really think it was a good idea to put that story in the newspaper so people could see it who didn't actually get to watch it like I did.

I also read another story and the story was about an ATM stolen with a skid loader from a Sioux Falls bank. I think its in the paper because it's important to know about I think. This happened on New Year's Day. The theft that was going through the drive-thru at the bank had stole a skid loader from a nearby business and had taken the cash machine in minutes. I just think this story is absolutely ridiculous. I just think it's ridiculous that someone would do something like that.

newspaper

2012-01-04T14:53:00.002-06:00

We were told to read to stories out of the newspaper and they have to be the two most important stories to us. One of the stories that I chose was a story that was called North Dakota man arraigned in Grant County. The reason that i though this story was important was because it filled us, the people, in on a lot of information about most of us, did not know about. Another thing that made this article important to me was the fact that we are now warned of the fact that there was a man out there that went by the name of Dennis Burton that was in custody for grand theft.
A different article that I read was Appeals Court: Family can sue over misdiagnosis. The reason why i think that this story is important is because it is informative. Some of this information is helpful because if you or a loved one was diagnosed with something that they ended up not having, you know now that you can sue them for any amount of money. I know that if I was to get misdiagnosed I would not be the happiest person in the world. I think that its important cause now you could know that there was something that you could do instead of just have to live with it.

bargains, sports, obsessions

2012-01-03T14:57:00.003-06:00

http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/article-113824-11728-3-5-deals-to-look-forward-to-in-2012?ywaad=ad0035&nc

Some prices are dropping in 2012, they may benefit you or have nothing to do with you. It is a good sign that European travel is cheaper, since I would love to travel there someday. I would spend the money on a traveling to go to Europe, because of the Euro to US currency change. You are still saving yourself money. It's a good sign to see that prices are dropping. When prices drop that means that the economy is slowly getting better. I don't expect everything to be boughten at a dollar store though. Every dollar that drops is very helpful to saving a dollar. I myself am a saver. Putting random cash in your piggy bank is a great way to save!I chose this article to write about is because I am always looking for a deal and am a bargain shopper.

For the next month here I am going to be focused on gymnastics. We have the state meet in a little more than a month, but it is going to be quickly approaching us. Our team has been working hard each and every day at practice. Each and every day we try to improve a little more. The team is like family to me during this time of year. We are all very close and all get along very well, we care about each other. They are very good friends and teammates to have.

Some obsessions I have now a days is cheetah print, painted fingernails, and sparkles. I am absolutely in love with cheetah print, to me it is very pretty. I even have a purple cheetah print phone cover. Painting my nails is always fun, you can choose any color you would like. The color you choose can tell a lot about your personality.I like to stick with my pinks and purples. I also like anything sparkly. I would love to own a pair of purple sparkly heels, if of course I had a reason to get them and wear them.

News Article

2012-01-03T14:53:00.004-06:00

http://rivals.yahoo.com/highschool/blog/prep_rally/post/High-school-hockey-player-paralyzed-after-hit-in?urn=highschool-wp10640

Well I'm back and I read an article on the internet about a high school hockey player paralyzed after hitting boards. This story was super sad. Not even a period into the game, Jack Jablonski scored their first goal and then a player had accidentally checked him from behind into the end boards. The 16- year old sophomore collapsed motionless on the ice was taken off the ice by a cart and was taken to a nearby hospital. He has not been able to move his legs and only some movement in his hands and fingers but not much. Later this week he will be having surgery. The doctors are going to repair his broken vertebrae.
To me, this story is so sad. He really was a great athlete and the "stud" of the team. He loved playing hockey and tennis but mostly hockey. While Jack lays in the hospital, all of his teammates come in and visit him, only three at a time. The whole hockey team stands out in the hallway waiting for their turn. His family is so overwhelmed and shocked that this has happened to him. They ask for your prayers and thoughts and Jack overcomes his very heartbreaking story.
This story just tells people to think about others and not just yourself. Other people need you there for them also. Not that I know Jack or anything, but I would definitely pray for a speedy recovery for him.
A little more about me? Well, I am a very outgoing person. I'm not no stuck up person at all. I'm super outgoing. I will usually do whatever. I'm also a very soft, kind hearted girl. I'm always worrying about other people and making sure they are okay. I never stop believing. I believe everything happens for a reason whether its good or bad. Everything will always turn out to be okay.
Always think positive. <3

What does your hair say about you?

2012-01-03T14:51:00.002-06:00

http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/758/what-your-hairstyle-says-about-you-according-to-guys

Well according to this news article, you hair style says things about you that you might have or might now have tried for. When i read this article, i felt like i could see a little bit deeper into the mans mind. There are so many things that i never even thought of that this article. For instance I thought that all guys thought that long hair was sexy or pretty but more then 50% of men think that to long of hair is intimidating. I think that hair should never be to long other wise it looks gross and it would get tangled to easy. Another thing that i learned is that guys like the more natural look rather then the big, teased, or bumped up hair. I think that i learned a lot about this article.
Well now that you know about the article i am going to write more about me, and my loved ones. I do not know were i would be if I didn't have the friends or family that I have now. I am so blessed and I know that I take it all for granted. I love my parents very much. They give me everything that I could ever want and more. Sometimes I ask for more then I deserve and I know that they will try there absolute hardest to get me what I need. I am not sure why but god has given me more then i deserve and I am so unbelievably thankful for it all. I have a great family and an amazing boyfriend! I love them all to death!

Starting Fresh

2012-01-02T14:57:00.004-06:00

Hello, this is Karina here. The new year has quickly arrived on us faster than I thought. This past Christmas break was very good. On Christmas Eve every year my grandpa and grandma come over after our Christmas Eve service. We usually have oyster stew, but this year we had pork loin instead. It was a very good pork loin. We celebrate my grandpa's birthday since he was born on Christmas Day. A funny thing this year was that he was telling people the wrong age. Our family quote was, "You know you're getting old when you have to use a calculator to figure out how old you are." My family has this wonderful tradition that we have done ever since I can remember. The tradition is to have king crab legs. I am in heaven! I absolutely love seafood and especially crab. We also have prime rib which is also very tasty. At another family Christmas I see family that I don't see very often. Family Christmas's can either be your favorite or they can just be plain awkward. I enjoy my family Christmas's, but they do become awkward at times, since there is no one around my age on one side of the family. It doesn't seem like Christmas has already happened, since there was no snow this year. Over break every year I do inventory, which is a good way to earn a little bit of cash. New Year snuck up on me to this year. Before I knew it I was with friends and the ball dropped. Hello 2012, a year for celebration. My brother is graduating this year which is exciting! I also have a resolution that I need to come up with. I have one in mind, but I am not sure what it is. One that I have in mind is to keep my room very clean, which seems to be my goal every year but it never lasts. I am thinking this year I need to come up with something good. Mhmm, this is tough to think of one. I will let you know later, when I figure my resolution out!

About me

2012-01-02T14:55:00.003-06:00

Hello,
I'm Delaney Stroschein, a sophomore at Deuel School. I am 16 years old and I have blonde hair and blue eyes. I have 8 classes in school. My classes are Geometry, Biology, Studyhall, Chorus, Lunch, Spanish II, Comp/Speech, Personal Finance, and Journalism. My favorite thing to do in my free time is to hang out with my friends and family. I love them to death. I would be so lost without them. I'm not a big fan of playing sports but I absolutely love watching them. I love going to volleyball, basketball, gymnastics, wrestling and football. I love watching NFl football on T.V. especially watching the Denver Broncos since they're my favorite team. I also love watching NBA basketball on T.V. especially watching the Miami Heat. My favorite color is pink. I have lots and lots of pink stuff. My favorite food is chicken. I'm not a big fan of meat but I absolutely love chicken. I don't like steak or seafood at all. I am kinda picky when it comes to food but then I'm not that picky compared to some other people. I LOVE Mountain Dew. It's my favorite kind of pop by far. My favorite song is I don't want this night to end by Luke Bryan. He is my absolute favorite singer. I like lots of different kinds of music but country is definitely my favorite.
This past week we had Christmas Vacation so obviously I got to open up presents and spend time with my family. I didn't travel really much at all. I went over to my aunt Misty's house right here in my home town, Clear Lake. We did something a little different this year. We had different foods. We usually have ham, mashed potatoes, corn, lots of salads, and many desserts. This year we had different kinds of soups, a few salads and of course oyster stew. We had broccoli cheese, potato, chicken noodle, vegetable beef, and then oyster stew. I had broccoli cheese soup just because that's my absolute favorite kind of soup. Once we got done eating, it was time to open up presents. I got lots of money from my relatives. Before we went to aunt's house, we opened up our presents at my house and I got lots of different things. I didn't ask for much this year so I just left it up to my parents. They got me lots of clothes especially. I also got a new iPod, a blanket, Marilyn Monroe stuff, phone covers, food, a coat, perfume, Wii games, gift cards, boots, and many other things.
Over my vacation I didn't really didn't do to much. I just hung out with my family. I played Just Dance just about every day because I got four different dance games for Christmas. I watched a few movies with my brother that he got for Christmas and I cleaned my house for my mom. I also hung out with my friends and went to the boys and girls basketball games at the Swiftel Center in Brookings. That's about all I did over my Christmas break.
Well that about wraps it up about me. I'm so thankful for everything that I have in my life. <3

new semester! new year! new start!

2012-01-02T14:55:00.002-06:00

Hey this is me! My name is Kelly, middle name Colleen, last name Vande Brake! I am 15 years old and i have not to short, not to long, blonde hair! My teeth aren't very straight, my smile is a little crooked and my laugh is a little bit to loud but its the way that god made me! God has blessed me with a nice large family! I have 2 sisters, and 3 brothers! I also have the most amazing boyfriend that any girl could ever ask for! His name is Braydn Alvin Pomrenke. He is 16 years old, and goes to Deuebrook school. My parents names are Troy and Rachel.

This year for christmas my family and I went up to a cabin that we own that is in Northern Minnesota. I was surprised to find out that my amazing boyfriend Braydn, would be joining us there! I got to spend all 6 days with him. There was no snow at all at my cabin until the two days before we left, but we still tried to make the most out of it. Since it was news years week, my parents were not home very much and it was most my boyfriend and my little brother that hung out with me. I have recently discovered that i am very good at the X-Box games, Call of Duty and MW3. After we left the cabin it was a five and a half an hour drive back home to South Dakota were my boyfriend surprised me yet again, by giving me a shirt he bought me and told me to get ready because I was going to his house for his family christmas party. It was a good time and I tried be happy and nice so that they would like me.

So that is how my Christmas vacation went. I could not ask for anything more! I am so blessed by god!

Transition from JW to ECW.

2011-10-12T15:05:00.002-05:00

To me the hardest thing about changing from journalistic writing and english class writing would have to be trying to keep them seperate from each other while I am writing. When I am in English class writing a story I am afraid that I will start to write my english class stories in inverted pyramid form. Another thing that I find hard with the transition between JW and ECW writing is that I might forget how to do one or the other.

2011-10-12T15:04:00.002-05:00

The most difficult thing about journalism writing to English writing would probably be doing the inverted pyramid in journalism. I have a difficulty trying not to do the inverted pyramid in English Class. Another one would be In English Class you don't have to worry about anything getting cut off and also having to do it in that type of form.

Most difficult

2011-10-12T15:03:00.010-05:00

The most difficult part of changing from English writing to Journalistic writing is keeping the story short and not too lengthy and making sure the story still makes sense. I find myself writing stories in the way I have always been taught. When I write a story and it is only a few paragraphs and only takes up half the paper I look at it and think that it is too short. I have quite a bit of troubles writing the fact paragraph because I think that it is suppose to be long just like the paragraphs are in English papers. I now have a better understanding of how to write the stories. It will become easier with the more stories I write.

Most Difficult...

2011-10-12T15:03:00.009-05:00

The most difficult thing for writing an essay in English class to writing a story in Journalism would have to be having to write in the inverted pyramid form in Journalism. I think the inverted pyramid is the most difficult because in English class you don't have to write in that kind of form so I'm used to just writing my introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs. In Journalism, I have to write my most important information first and then the least information is towards the bottom so it can be chopped off.

From English Class to Journalism Class...

2011-10-12T15:03:00.007-05:00

I think the most difficult thing about switching from English Class writing to Journalistic writing is got to be going from introduction to body to conclusion to the inverted pyramid style. It's really hard to remember to write in the inverted pyramid style when I've gotten it drilled into my head since about third grade that when your writing it goes in chronological order not from most important to least important.

what is the most difficult about effective interviews

2011-09-20T14:58:00.002-05:00

What I think is most difficult about an effective interview making up the questions. Cause it takes so long to come up some questions. Another reason would be listening because I have a short intention span .

What is the most difficult about effective interviews?

2011-09-20T14:56:00.002-05:00

To me the most difficult thing about effective interviews would be having to make up the ten questions. Also, I think its pretty hard to ask the people questions because you don't know what their response will be. All their response could be is Yes, No, or i don't know and I never know what to say back to that so you have to keep the interview flowing.

Hardest Part on make an Effective Interview

2011-09-20T14:54:00.009-05:00

To me the hardest part on doing an effective interview is coming up with the ten questions to ask the interviewee. I also think that coming up with a time and place to do the interview is hard because sometimes the person that you want to interview is busy, or they don't have any free time during school, or they just plain don't want to do the interview at all. Another thing that I think is hard to make an effective interview is asking the interviewee the questions because sometimes the questions that you have came up with, you don't get a long answer.

Intense Interviews!

2011-09-20T14:54:00.008-05:00

The most difficult part about an effective interview is thinking of questions to as the interviewee. Questions are, to me, the most important key to an interview. They are a necessity to an effective interview and if you don't have good questions or enough then the interview will go down hill from there. At least ten questions have to be asked to the person you are interviewing and they should be open ended questions. No question should be a yes or no question with out an explanation.

what is the most difficult about effective interviews.

2011-09-20T14:54:00.007-05:00

What I think is most difficult about effective interviews for me is the listening part. I have always struggled with listening. I think that another hard thing for me would be the body language. I have never had the best posture and I know that it could come off wrong in an interview.

Hard Work

2011-09-20T14:52:00.006-05:00

I think that the hardest part about interviews is meeting with the people. People are so busy and when they are free you are busy. Once you meet with the person sometimes asking questions can be the hardest. When you write your questions some questions go with others. When you ask that questions and the interviewee answers differently then you think your next four questions don't work now. Then you have come up with new questions on the spot. The other part that hard is when you forget to ask something and you have to get together with them again or just not have it in your story.

Interviews

2011-09-20T14:52:00.005-05:00

The hardest part about interviewing is keeping the conversation going. Another difficult part is deciphering what to write down as quotes. Being able to figure out what to put in the story is another hard part of giving an effective interview. It is hard to stay on topic and keep a conversation going with some people. If you gave an interview to someone you somewhat know then it is much more simple. If you gave an interview with someone you barely know it is much more difficult to give an effective interview.

What is the most difficult about effective interviews?

2011-09-20T14:51:00.003-05:00

The most difficult thing is probably trying to think of all the questions you're going to ask. It takes forever to come up with the questions and sometimes if you don't know anything about the subject it's even harder. The next most difficult thing would have to be keeping the conversation going after you start it.

With or Without a Paper?

2011-08-29T08:11:00.002-05:00

I think that having newspapers in the government. I think this because it keeps everyone in the loop of what is happening in the government. If there wasn't a newspaper no one would know what was going on in the state, world, or nation. There is a lot of people in the United States that are political junkies and like to know whats going on in that part of the news. If there wasn't a part in the paper for the government people might go insane because they don't know whats going on in the government world.

Government Newspaper

2011-08-28T21:55:00.003-05:00

I think our government should have newspapers. I think the news paper give out good info. tells whats going on in the town or state.If we didn't have newspapers then the country would be boring to anything that would be going on with the government. That is what I think.

Government Newspaper

2011-08-28T15:53:00.002-05:00

To me, I think that there should be a newspaper. I think that way because how else is everybody suppose to keep up with all the news thats happening. Without a newspaper, you wouldn't be able to keep up with any of that. Especially the people that like the politic stuff. They will need to read the newspaper to keep up with all that stuff about the government and what's happening in the white house, etc. Not only is there politics in there. There's a whole bunch of other stuff in there to read about such as, your school, sports, TV shows, and many other things. I just think that there would be a lot of unhappy people if there was no newspaper at all. Newspapers are such a good thing to have to keep updated on what's going on.

Newspapers a Must

2011-08-25T15:32:00.007-05:00

Today we have to write out opinion about with of Thomas Jefferson's quotes we agree with. The two quotes are "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without government, I should hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." That was before he was president after he was president he said, "Even the least informed of the people have learnt that nothing in a newspaper is to be believed."

I think that I agree with the first one more. I think that it is important for people the know what is going on in the world and the newspaper and other news media is the best way to get that information. I understand that some news places can be bias and lean more one way then the other. That is because people have their own opinion about things and it is hard to keep that out when you are reporting on the news. Im not sure how people could hear about things that happen all over the world with out newspapers and other media. I think that newspaper and other media are great way to learn about what is going on in the world.

i think that our government should have news papers

2011-08-25T15:32:00.003-05:00

Hello.

I think that our government should have newspapers. I think that we should have newspapers because they are a very good way to get information out to the pubic while still having it monitored. If we didn't have newspapers then the country would be completely oblivious to anything that would be going on with the government. That is what I think.

Government with Newspaper

2011-08-25T15:31:00.003-05:00

The government should have newspaper. I feel this way because if we didn't have newspapers our society wouldn't know what was going on with our government. Our government is supposed to be open and little things left private. If we didn't have newspaper the government would be left a secret and people interested in politics would be left out on what is going on. They may not know if the government is doing good or evil. Newspapers are made to be politically correct.

2011-08-22T15:38:00.003-05:00

Heyy

! I have 6 brothers and sisters! My parents names are Troy and Rachel. My brothers names are John, Devon, and Morgan! My sisters names are Dannika, and Shearea. My best friends name is Katelyn Marie Lovre! i love to hang out with her and go cruising! :)I have a dog names Gus. I have a fish named francine. I also have a cat names Jazzy! I am a sophomore. I go to deuel school. I can not wait to get out of here!(no offense to any teachers) I love to go shopping with friends. I have every single class with Delaney! My favorite class in school would have to be Bio. My least favorite class is most defiantly math!

well I am going to go now byeeee!!! :)

Cassie

2011-08-22T15:31:00.002-05:00

Hello, I am Cassie. I am a senior at Deuel high school. At Deuel I am a football manager. I'm 17 years old and I was born March 24th. I have 3 sibling, all of them sisters. Two of them are already graduated and moved out of the house. My younger one is just getting into high school this year. This school year I am excited about seeing all my friends again and having it be my senior year. I will probably write about whatever random topic I chose at the moment.

Delaney

2011-08-22T15:21:00.033-05:00

Hello,

My name is Delaney Stroschein and I am a sophomore at Deuel School. This year i am anticipating to do well in this class. I like to do many things. Some of the things that I like to do would be to hang out with friends. Also, I like to go tubing, boating, shopping, and go to the pool. I have one sibling, a brother named Josh. He is 23 years old and currently has his own landscaping business. My parents names are Marty and Karna. I have many pets and animals. Thats pretty much it about me.

Kelly Colleen and me:)

Love,

Delaney:)

Karina

2011-08-22T15:21:00.032-05:00

Hello, my name is Karina. I am currently a sophomore at Deuel High School. In the fall I am active in oral interpretation, volleyball and football cheerleading. This is my first year cheerleading. In the winter I am involved in gymnastics. I was on our state championship team last year. In the spring I do the play and am planning on being in track this year. As you can tell I am very active in my school. I like to read in the spare time that I have. If I'm not at home with my family, I am hanging out with friends. I think that this class will be fun and I will become a better writer. I would like to write about a variety of things.On the left is a picture of me and on the right is my friend Shantel.

Lexi

2011-08-22T15:21:00.031-05:00

Hello my name is Lexi. I am a senior at Deuel and this is my 3rd year in Journalism. I am very excited about my senior year. I have been a boys basketball cheerleader for 4 years and Im very excited for this season. I am also a member of the Key Club. I think that Journalism is going to be fun! I have always had fun in this class, it might be because of all of the treats that we brought. Im kind of bummed that we aren't going to have the Birdwatcher in the paper anymore. I think that the new changes will be fun and a good change from what I have done before. Im really looking forward to the senior videos. I think that that is because Im a senior now so I will get to have my own video. I hope this is a exciting year.

In the picture on the left is my cousin Briana, my friend Karli, and myself. We are in Fort Jackson South Carolina at Basic Training.

Katelyn

2011-08-22T15:21:00.029-05:00

Hello, my name is Katelyn. Im turned 16 in May. Im a sophomore whose gunna have lots of fun! Im really fun to hangout with. I love to shop. I have three good friends thats i can really trust, Kelly , Delaney and Kellie T. My favorite color is pink. I have two brothers, Jordan and Naethan. I also have two sisters, Holly and Britney. My parents are Kari and Pat. they are really cool parents. Im really excited for this year.. I hope theres no drama at all. I hope to go to all the games this year. My favorite class this year would probly be Personal Fiance. Well thats about it! byee!!

Jenna

2011-08-22T15:21:00.023-05:00

Hello people reading The Birdwatcher Blog. My name is Jenna and I am currently a Junior at Deuel High School. This year I am anticipating to get one year closer to graduating in one year. I also would like to set my mind to one thing on what I want to do after I graduate from High School. During my junior year I am going to try to get good grades this year. A little bit about myself would be I like to do things outdoors with a lot of people such as friends and family. Things I like to do outdoors is hunting, fishing, and camping in the summer time.

The picture above is myself (L) and my friend Carrie (R).

Becca(=

2011-08-22T15:21:00.022-05:00

Hey there everybody! My name is Becca and I'm a sophomore. I'm in oral interp. and that's about it. I am super excited for this year. I can't wait to write more and learn lots! I love to read and write fictional stories with unicorns, princess, and princes or anything random and fun! I mostly like to write stories and they are pretty much about everything and anything.

Journalism Critique

2011-05-24T21:42:00.002-05:00

The summer is almost here, but unfortunately that means the next school year is fast approaching. I won't be in Journalism next year at press time, but I will miss it a lot. I'm not just talking about all the delicious food we get to eat either. I don't think the class should make a lot of changes other than the fact we won't be making a newspaper anymore. I think the blogging is interesting. I think making a news broadcast on the televisions would be a good idea. It might shake things up a bit and push the class into the future. Podcasts were kind of cool, but they weren't a favorite of mine. There was never a lot of homework in that class too. I wouldn't change that. I liked being able to get a huge chunk of everything done in class.

State Golf!!

2011-05-24T21:21:00.003-05:00

The season is now wrapped up and ended with a pretty good outcome. These past three days have been a blast but at the same time it was really stressful. State B golf for girls was held in Sioux Falls at Elmwood. The Boys state was in Hartford at that course. On sunday both the boys' and girls' headed to the courses to get a practice round in, while their we got about 12 holes done because it started down pooring on us and we decided to be done because we were not getting anything out of it. Then after we got done we went back to the hotel and hung out and got ready to go out to eat, all of us went out to eat as a group and had a delicious meal. While eating out I ordered some "hot" wings, but I did not mean to order them, so I tried them and my nose an eyes started watering so I could not finish them and Jayda and the guys were making fun of me. Then we went back to the hotel and got ready for the big day coming up!

ON monday morning we got up and went downstairs to have continental breakfast. It did not sit well with me at all at the meet. We golfed for the next 6-7 hours and met new people and had a blast making new friends. At the end of the day we were in first place by 2 strokes, which we were just excited to be at state, but being in first was fun! :) After we got done golfing we went to Scheels, my favorite store in the world! All of us girl and Mr. Zinter went there and got some new shorts. Then we ventured back to the hotel to go out to eat again at Johnny Carinos. After eating a delicious meal we went to the hotel to hang out with different teams at the hotel. We then decided we should eat again, even though we were not hungry, we went to Coldstones and got ice cream. We were waiting for Frizky to get back so we could go to the movie theature to play games, that was the best, we played some war games and just dance. After that we were all tired so we headed to bed. But there was just one problem Stacey and I got so sunburnt I slept with a cold towel on my head for awhile and Stacey slept on a chair with her face right next to the air conditioner.

The final day had came and we ate breakfast and headed to golf, I was the first one off this morning and I was really nervous. Today I did not golf very good but the team did pretty dang good and we ended up loosing by a few strokes and getting second. I think second is still amazing, and our guys got 3rd which is good to! All of us golfers had family there watching and it was a good weekend and we all had a blast.

Time to Make a Change!

2011-05-24T20:07:00.002-05:00

I like what we do in the class but I think there are things we could do more of. I think using and focusing more on technology will really get the school and students more interested in what we are doing. All of the students are always on their computers e-mailing away and I think we could possibly do something with email. Students would be more tapped into what we do if we sent out a newspaper email to them like just the birdwatcher page to the high school and staff. There are many ways to improve our class using many ideas from students. We could even get a survey on what students what to hear about so we know they are interested in everything we are filming, creating, or writing about.

What to change?

2011-05-24T15:07:00.002-05:00

Journalism is an interesting class, you get to know a lot that is going on in your school and even outside of school. I wouldn't change a lot if anything about this class. I really enjoyed doing senior videos, but next year that would be hard to change anything with, since their are not many seniors. It would be fun to do more video with others I would think. One other thing that I knew we all kind of got tired with were the chapters that we did out of the book, we would do them, but they did not enthuse really anyone and no one wanted to do them. Writing stories was fun, but in the future it would maybe make stories better when they don't have to blog along with it. They could focus more on their story and put more time into them. The class doesn't have much to be changed.

Change or Not?

2011-05-24T15:02:00.002-05:00

I thought this was a fun class. I don't think there should be that much change for next year. I do think though that when we blog I like it when we did the blog for a week on one subject I thought that was fun. I thought doing the senior videos was really fun. I think we should do more with the video cameras with different students in the high school. I did like doing the stories but I think it was really hard to come up with stories for each week back to back. Like I said at the beginning I don't think the class has to be changed much.

Journalism critique

2011-05-24T15:01:00.001-05:00

I wouldn't change a lot about Journalism. The class is really fun, but there is one thing that I would of really would of liked. I feel like we didn't use the cameras enough. We used the camcorders on the senior videos, but nothing really with Photo Journalism. Over all the class was fun, and I'm going to miss it when I move, but hopefully I will get to take Journalism at my new school.

And it's all over

2011-05-24T14:56:00.002-05:00

It's now the end of journalism and its been a fun ride. There isn't a whole lot that I would change but I suppose there are a couple of things. I think I would change podcasting. The reason for this would be because I don't think our casts were perfect, nothing is right at the beginning. I think we should have done it more and figured out how to make the voice clearer and easier to hear. I think we should have let more people hear, or told more people to go listen to it to give us their feedback. Another thing I may have changed was how we graded our rough drafts. We should grade them and make sure that everyone read all the stories. I realize that would take a lot of time, but this way you would get a wide range of opinions and you could make the stories even better. Even though I know this class probably won't be writing in the paper anymore, it would be a suggestion if you were. Another thing that I might change is how jobs are distributed. I think that everyone should have written a story and blogged. That way everyone was doing the same jobs throughout the year. Overall this class was really fun, and I can't think of anything else I would want to change.

Changes

2011-05-24T14:50:00.002-05:00

I don't think that there is much that I would change about journalism. I do think that we should eat a little more, just kidding. :) Overall I don't have very many complaints about the class. I wish we could have done a few more things using videos like in the program iMovie. I really liked doing the senior videos because it was fun coming up with the questions that made the seniors think. I also think that we should have blogged about some different topics. I have no idea about other topic ideas, but I think we need some more variety. It seems like we always are blogging about news stories, or what we are doing for the week. Some topics that I think would be fun would be blogging more about sports and how each game turned out. There are so many other topics that you could include in a blog.

Boy Dies in Rapid Creek

2011-05-23T22:02:00.003-05:00

On Saturday afternoon Trevor Whitehead and his step-brother went out to play by the Rapid Creek in Rapid City, SD. Trevor's step-brother left for a few minutes and when he got back Trevor was gone. Around 3:30 the step-brother found an adult and called into 9-1-1 right away. On Sunday Rapid City crews found the 10-year-old's body. Around 6 or 7 Sunday morning the water dropped two feet making it easier for crews to find Whithead's body. The Thursday before the city of Rapid City warned parents to watch their kids because of the high waters at the creek due to heavy rains. Whitehead was found 50 feet away from where he was seen playing. Parents please watch your children carefully. All kid want to play in water, so just keep an eye on them.

Pastor Stealing an Identity?

2011-05-23T18:58:00.002-05:00

That is right, a pastor from Spearfish, SD, Tony Camargo, is now facing up to two years in prison due to identity theft. This is not anything anyone would expect, but yes it did happen. Not only will he be spending sometime locked up but he will also be having to pay a $4,000 fine. Camargo wasn't hesitant or shy about what he had done, he came clean and admitted he had done wrong and I give him credit for that but that does not make it right to steal someone's identity.

This issue was not to long ago that he had stole this person's identity. It was just last October when it happened and in April he pleaded guilty. Camargo will be sentenced on Tuesday.

Busting People for making drugs.

2011-05-23T15:27:00.002-05:00

I read on the Keloland news website about how the Sioux Falls police is wanting people to be on the look out for a new way people are making meth. It stated this is what you should be looking for, police say this manufacturing process involves a pop bottle or 32-ounce bottle. Sometimes two kinds of liquid are used in the same bottle but are separated out with one on top of the other. You may also see pellets in the bottom of the bottle or notice tubes coming out of it. Police say smell isn't as big of an indicator with the newer process.
I think that this is a good idea and a bad idea that the police are wanting people to look out for this way to make meth. Its a good way because it helps get those people off the street that make it. Its also bad though because if people figure out how to make it they probably won't tell the police and just start making it themselves.

The Zip Trip!

2011-05-23T15:22:00.003-05:00

A convenience store in Brookings, SD has been robbed. At 12:30 a.m this morning the Zip Trip convenience store got robbed by two men. The clerk was held up by a knife by one man. The men left with money and that amount can not be determined. The left the store on foot and still have not been caught.
I think that if a person needs the money so bad that they resort to robbing a store then I think they must be really poor or just not very smart. They could solve the problem of needing money by getting a job and earning the money them selves. Eventually the two men will get caught and have to serve some time in jail. Stealing money from a store for your own reason is not worth having to spend a certain amount of time in jail and having to leave a family behind if they have one.

Children taking unneeded medication?

2011-05-23T15:22:00.000-05:00

I read on the CNN site about how kids are taking more and more drugs, and that ADHD has become a popular diagnoses. In the article it says in the more mild case of ADHD medication is not needed. Then the article went on to say how parents try to get medication so they don't have to deal with their children. CNN talked about a little boy who has to take 17 pills a day, because he has hallucinations and other behavioral and mental disorders. His parents went on to say how hard it was to decide whether medicating him or not was a good idea. Then they went on to say how it was a good idea that his life quality has increase, and that he feels much better and is happier.
I don't like how people will try to get medication and then don't use it for the right uses. For example I am ADHD but I don't take Adderall because I don't need the drug. It just seems that people are becoming more and more depend it on drugs when therapy can help just as well, even more so. I think that is the first step, and if that doesn't work then go to the drugs, but don't choose the drugs first.

Budget Cuts

2011-05-23T15:17:00.003-05:00

Each school is dealing with the budget cuts differently. One school in South Dakota is moving to a four day week and has to take money from an opt out fund. They are going to have to take a lot of money from the fund to make ends meet, with the budget cuts in place. Some school are even having to cut their staff down. They hoped to have some of them retire and and even have to resign. Not only does the budget cut affect the teachers it also affects the students. Schools are having to take out different classes because they can't afford to support them any longer. One of the classes being taken out are foreign languages. Along with all of that class sizes may have to get bigger. Since teachers are being cut, classes that might be split into sections, may now have to come together as a whole class. Granted, in bigger schools that won't work, but in smaller schools, that's what it may come to. Instead of going straight to cutting classes they looked to reducing the amount of staff first. People didn't want to lessen their childrens' chances of getting a good education. All in all most people aren't worried a whole lot about the cuts being made. People are going to deal with them in their own ways and everything will come just peachy.

Robbery close to home

2011-05-23T15:15:00.003-05:00

On Monday morning at 12:30a.m. a Brookings convenience store was robbed. Two people went into the convenience store with knives. One suspect threatened the clerk at the store and wanted money. Their is not a lot of information as of right now about this robbery, since it is so recent, but they are still looking for the suspects.

I think that this recent news is a little eye-opening sort of speak. Things like this happen frequently, but the thing that catches my attention the most is that it is quite close to our town. It could be quite odd for some people to think they were at one point in this convenience store or even those who were just in there right before this occurred. People think nothing about these things until it hits occurs in their town or even nearby.

It is in a way scary that these types of things happen on a daily occurrence in several places. Our town is much smaller than Brookings, but yet again, we are not too far from Brookings in distance.

Tornado Tragedy

2011-05-23T15:14:00.006-05:00

There's even more bad news in the South after nearly a hundred people have died in Joplin, Kansas. On Sunday evening, a tornado ripped through the town of 50,500. It was the fourth deadliest tornado since 1950 when the National Weather Service began keeping track. There are more than 1,500 police officers and firefighters from four states on the scene going through the wreckage today. The town was described as complete devastation by weather spotters. The mission is still considered a search and rescue rather but the mission could get tricky because severe weather has been forecasted for today and Tuesday in the area. Two hospitals in the area received a large amount of damage and gurneys were found many miles away.

I think this tragic event is very devastating, and should remind all of us how lucky we are. I can't even imagine going through a tornado and knowing people that died. Starting your life over would be a really hard thing to do, especially during this economic time.