Screaming at the Ump

“Screaming at the Ump” was an amazing book. It’s pretty much about three things: baseball, journalism, and friendship. The book is about this boy, whose name is Casey Snowden. Casey’s Dad and Grandfather run a umpire school. Believe it or not, umpire school exists. Everyone, even Casey himself, expect him to be a umpire when he gets older. Although it’s not what Casey wants to do with his life. He wants to be a reporter, and she absolutely is passionate about it. He’s trying to prove himself, and he’s trying to find a story to report on. Lucky enough for him, he finds a story that could change his writer life.

One-Fourth Of the Way Done

The first Quater has come to an end, finally. It’s been a long couple of months getting back to the school routine. It’s been tough getting a lot of homework, and waking up 3 hours earlier than I used too. Although it hasn’t been all bad, the first quarter has been kind of easy for me. My grades are pretty good which is great for the start of the year, because I had pretty much forgotten everything over the summer. I know that the first quarter set some standards for me, and it will push me to get better grades in the 2nd quarter

Making Connections Between the Outsiders and Self Concept

Self concept (by Saul McLeod) and the Outsiders have a big connection, which is the identities of each character. Each character and even groups of characters had different things that described their identities, and the characters even sometimes described themselves their own identities. “If there is a mismatch between how you see yourself (e.g. your self image) and what you’d like to be (e.g. your ideal self) then this is likely to affect how much you value yourself”(Self Concept). This relates back to the Outsiders because during the book, Ponyboy ask himself a lot about what his identity is. Especially near the end of the book, Ponyboy keeps asking himself why do people call him a hood when he doesn’t even do anything illegal.”A person's self image is affected by many factors, such as parental influences, friends, the media etc.”(Self Concept). This ties back to the Outsiders because the characters had a lot of things that made them who they were. For example, Ponyboy and most of the characters are greasers, but Ponyboy says he’s smart, not a trouble maker, and has grease in his hair. Those things all define his identity, and what he sees himself as, even if other people tell him otherwise. All together, identity is the big connection between these two texts. I really enjoy how both texts show how to identify yourself, and how to be truthful, to yourself.

The Outsiders Book to Movie Comparison

The Outsiders book and movie have many similarities and differences. Even though the book and movie are not perfectly similar, they still have a lot in common. Both the book and movie display the same main scenes, including the rumble scene, the burning church, and the Johnny and Dally death scenes. Also, the characters descriptions in the book match the movie descriptions even when Johnny and Ponyboy cut their hair and when Johnny was in the hospital. The book and the movie are not perfectly the same, but they do share the same scenes, character details, etc.

However, even though the book and movie have a lot in common, there’s also a lot that they're not common with. The book kind of explains the scenes and set the tone of the chapter, while the movie kind of rush's most scenes like the drive in scene, and the rumble scene. Also, in the scene we’re Darry is supposed to slap Ponyboy like the book says, but in the movie, Darry pushes him before Ponyboy runs away. The movie characters also didn’t really look strong and muscular as the book made them. One last thing that is different is the setting of the tone. The book gives really descriptive detail which makes it interesting, while the music in the movie makes it draw dropping. The book and movie are not the same at all, there are a lot of differences between the book and the movie.

Even though the book and the movie were not the same, I still enjoyed reading and watching the Outsiders very much. The whole book had a lot of turning points especially with Ponyboy and Johnny. The description of words in the book, and the surprising scenes and background music made the two stories jaw dropping. The different views of greaser from both the movie and novel writers was a little bit different but still mostly the same. Overall it was a great book and I’m glad we started it.

Part Time Indian

Part Time Indian is a great and unbelievable book. It is hilarious and entertaining, but also suspenseful and sometimes a little bit rushed. The main characters name is Arnold, but in the book he is mostly called Junior, and he is Indian. Growing up Junior went to schools in his reservation which weren’t the best. He knows he deserves better and wants to transfer schools, but it’s not just his knowledge that changes his mind. He does end up transferring to Reardan in Springdale which is a little far out of the reservation he lived in. Junior knew that he was going to be hated by every other Indian in the Rez, but also revive a lot of hostility from the all white Reardan School. The first couple of days for Junior weren’t so good, but things started to look up after a while. The greatest thing that helped him become popular, was dating the most gorgeous girl in school, Penelope. As soon as Junior started dating Penelope, he made new friends with the cool guys, made the basketball team, and started to become the school icon. The rest of the year, Junior does everything he can to not embarrass himself in front of everyone. Once the summer started, Junior went back to his reservation, and became himself again.

True Identity

True Identity is something that no one has to know about you. No one has to know your race, your roles you play in life, or even the Jobs that you do. What's important is that you know your true identity and that your proud of it. Everyone has a identity or things that some people may or may not know. I'm Catholic, and Mexican, which means I'm part of more than one group of people. I also play for sports teams and even a teenager. All these groups that I'm a part of shape who I am and what my identity is. Another part of your identity is the roles you play in life. I'm a brother, a dog owner, friend, son. Those roles also describe my identity because I'll always be playing these roles. One last thing that could really be a part of your identity are the Jobs you do. You don't to be old and have a college degree to have jobs (at least one that doesn't involve you mowing the lawn for $5). Of course a big job that every child plays until at least there mid 20's, is being a student. We might not get paid money to learn, but we get paid in knowledge that eventually will get you money. These are things are a big part of my identity because I do these jobs or play these roles everyday. Everyone has something about them that makes up there true identity, and they should. It is important to always know your true identity.

My Dream Future

We're do I see myself in 10 years from now? I can't really predict my future, but I'm always gonna try to live up to my dreams. I know that I'll still be in college, but close to graduating. I'm hoping that I can play for a professional sports team, mainly basketball because that's the sport I'm best at. If that doesn't work out, I want to be a executive for one of the Chicago sports teams, mainly for the Chicago Cubs. I'm just hoping to live in a good size house or apartment in a major city, and own a nice car that I paid for. I don't think I'll be ready for marriage, especially since I'm too young. Although I hope to travel to different countries, and be adventurous. I know some of my other dreams like having an expensive car, or living in a penthouse in New York, but I'm just hoping in 10 years, I have a good head start to my future, and sort of figure out the rest of my life.

12 States - 2 Weeks

As we entered the plane, I rose with excitement. A long exciting trip was ahead. Traveling is something that brings me joy. I always love to go to new places, and explore historic landmarks. Although if there's nothing really to see, I mostly enjoy the outdoor scenery like mountains, forests, waterfalls. I knew from the start that the trip was going to be long and tiring. Our plan was to go to New Hampshire for my brothers High School Graduation. Then we would drive to New York and spend a night there. After that we would drive to Washington D.C. And spend about 5-6 days near the city. I knew it was going to be exhausting since we were gonna be out all day everyday. I have never been to New York or Washington before. It was going to be exciting.

"Congratulations, class of 2017". The crowd roared with cheer and high spirits as there sons and daughters just graduated High School. It took me and my family a while, but we were able to find my brother. He had a diploma in one hand, his phone in the other, and a lit cigar in his mouth. It was tradition for graduates. He was so excited and so were his fellow classmates. They were happy, but I couldn't stop thinking about our road trip to Washington and New York. Unfortunately, I still had to wait a few days. My brother had some parties, and my parents didn't want to deny him. Wednesday morning finally came, and we were all pretty tired. None of us wanted to get out of bed, but unless we wanted to drive late at night, then we had to leave early. We loaded the car with our luggage, and started our long drive to New York. It wasn't that bad though, considering it was only four hours. I've survived worse. We only spent one night in New York, but we were able to see a lot. We ended up going to Times Square for about 5-6 hours. It was different from the pictures I saw. We had dinner, saw some street performers, and unexpectedly didn't do any shopping. It was one of the best nights of my life.

Last stop on the map, Washington D.C. Even though we only stopped in New York and Washington, we still passed by different states, including Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, New Jersey, and West Virginia. It was another grueling four hour drive to D.C. Since this was the city we wanted to see the most, we stayed for almost a week. We pretty much saw every historic landmark and artifact that Washington owned. The best building we saw was the White House. It was weird because it didn't even look that big from the outside. We saw some other artifacts such as the constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. Overall it was a great trip. I learned and saw a lot of places and artifacts that have been around for centuries. I will never forget those two long, painful, but great weeks.