Marney: Weekly Blog Post #2

Freemason Killer 

By Marney 

     One day there was a man that lived in Russia and that man who knew the Freemasons.  He had a case to work on.  The news was spreading everywhere in the newspaper it was breaking news on the weather channel.  They were all saying that a waiter found a dead body in a trash can but with a unicorn horn stabbed into his brain.  No one knows who killed this man or if he killed himself.  So everybody is trying to find out what happened.

     So then the man went out on a walk heading towards the Freemason's places.  Not one of them knew anything about a murder, they all thought that he was making it up.  But then when he got to the last one, the last one knew about the murder.  But he did not know who killed him or what happened, just like everybody else.  But he was talking in a high pitched voice and when they talk in high pitched voices they are lying.  So they talked and he did not know who killed him, but he knew what happened.     

     Then the guy thought for a few seconds, but what the Freemason said made no since because if he knew what happened then he would or should know who killed him.  Then he did some research and found out that the Freemason killed the the guy while riding a unicorn and holding 3 doves.  Then the guy got put in jail and the man was a hero.  Everyone was happy because there was no one that was getting killed for a while.

Marney: Weekly Blog Post #1

     The Freemasons are a big group of men called a fraternity.  They all get together and do things that they want to do in their lives like the stuff listed below.
1- They want to do stuff with their life in the world.
2-  They want to do stuff in their minds
But they enjoy being together with people they like and respect most of all.
     The Freemasons are the biggest fraternity in the United States of America.  The Freemasons are a famous group of people.  They continue to be an important part of how men grow up and some men do what they do to become a Freemason.   The Freemasons are a big part of men's lives because it is a good way of saying you should respect men for who they are.
     The Freemasons do not have a religion but they are all in a brotherhood.  When you start becoming a mason you figure out what to do with your life.   Then when you are done you go and talk about what you were going to do with your life with the other Freemasons.  The Freemasons mostly focus on their lives and other Freemason's lives.
     Freemasons are people who respect one another and sometimes they live with the other masons.  Every night they share their own thoughts and new things, like things they heard and what they like to do.  But each Freemason has a new thing that they like to do every week and they talk about that when they are all together.  But every two weeks the Freemasons make food and bring it with them when they are together.  

Gabe: Blog Post 2

       The Five Million Dollars

Gabe Jones

       One day there was a man named Cole, a very nice man.  He was a detective.  He wasn't like every normal detective who looks at crime scenes, he was a rough detective with a gun.  He had just gotten to his office and there have not been many problems lately.  He had just gotten a call from the charity place and he headed over.

        When Cole got there he saw that the window was broke in.  There were five shotgun shells on the ground.  He talked to the manager of the charity business, and she said "Two men came in and one said we have donated so much to you so we deserve all your money, then I said no and they pulled out their shotguns, pointed them at me and fired.  So I hid behind the counter, then they took five million dollars and ran out." 

        Cole said "Do you know who these men were?" 

      She said "The only men that have donated a lot of money where the Freemasons."
     Then two men jumped into the building to rob them again, but they ran because of the Cole.  Cole ran after the criminals.  They where running down the side of the road.  They started slowing down so Cole shot them in the legs.  He put them in handcuffs and took their masks off.  It was George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.  He arrested the men and he went home.

Gabe: Blog Post 1

     The Freemasons are a secret society of men.  Now there are 6 million Freemasons in the world.  There are 2 million in the United States.  They also have a Freemason plaque.  To gain entrance to a meeting you have to use a special hand shake or gestures.
       Benjamin  Franklin and George Washington were both Freemasons.  It started in the thirteen hundreds.   The first level is apprentice, that is right after you join.  Then when you are learning you are in Fellow Craft.  When you are a master Freemason you are a Master Mason.
     Being a Freemason is not a religion.  They let religious people be Freemasons. In Scandinavia they only let Christians be Freemasons.  They donate a lot to charity.  They all wear the same uniform.

      You have to be 18 or older to join the Freemasons.  You have to be a man to join the Freemasons.  You have to be freeborn to join the Freemasons.  They named a flower, the Forget-Me-Not flower.  No women are allowed to be Freemasons.    

Mason: Weekly Blog #2

   The Case of the Missing Nuke 

By Mason

     Hi, my name is Jon and this is my first case.  I have to find a missing nuke.   The nuke was stolen from the museum and I have to find it.  If I can not find it some one will activate it and destroy the world.  I went to the museum where the nuke was stolen and I talked to the manager to see if he knew who took it but he did not.  I looked around the whole museum and I saw "FM" carved in the wall.  I checked the files to see what "FM" meant and I found a file with "FM" on it, I looked at the files and "FM" meant Freemasons.
     The files said that they are in an old factory.   I knew where it was and got in my car and drove there.  When I got there I heard voices, it was the Freemasons and they were talking about their plans.  They planned to use the nuke to blow up the world and use their robots to build a new world.  I tried opening the door but it was locked.  I shot the lock and kicked the door opened.  The Freemasons sent their robots to kill me.  I shot all the robots, the Freemasons activated the nuke.  I have fifteen minutes to disarm it.  As it counts down I open the back and cut the blue wire and that disarms it.
     I turned around to arrest the Freemasons but they were gone.  When I left the factory, people cheered for me and celebrated.  But I dis not, because the Freemasons got away and they could do the same thing again.  To be continued...  

Mason: Weekly Blog #1

     The Freemasons are an organization that people believed were behind major world disasters.  But those stories are not true.  Some of the Freemasons are Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.
     The Freemasons were the ones that started the public school system in the United States.
     There were things that the Freemasons wanted to do to in the world and in there own minds.  They worked with men that they liked and respected.
     We do not now how old Freemasons is.  Some people wanted to join the Freemasons but they could  not, they thought it was because the Freemasons did not think they were good enough to join. But the real reason was because Freemasons were forbidden to ask anyone else to join.     

Marney: Swim Team

Oh no my swim team has ended I really wish that I will have as much fun next summer as I did this summer. I am so sad I wanted it to go longer but it had to end sometime.  I got some ribbons and I learned how to swim so I did good and I think i will do good next summer.         

Connor: Weekly Blog #2

       It all started one day at work.  I had just gotten a new assignment, to find the truth about history.  I was bot number 9873, Cesar.  My boss was also my inventor and mechanic.  I was one of many robots, built to look and sound like an average human.  I was able to change the color of the rubber that was my skin at will.  We robots got payed a good deal to do jobs for humans.  The year was 7012 and we didn't know much about the past.  I started out as a detective solving mysteries for humans and bots alike.  The armored shell that resembled human clothing could be changed just by a slight computation.
      My boss called me into his office.  "Cesar I just invented a time machine.  Go back in time and find the truth about the history of humans."  The sound of excitement in his voice was overpowering.  I walked in, took a glimpse at the craft and got in.  "I will send you to the Neolithic times first, use your translating device in your computer chip to translate what the people of that time are saying.  This will allow you to communicate with them."  With that he pressed a few buttons on his high tech, but not as high tech as me, computer.  I heard the time machine's engine start and saw a flash of light.  Before long I was in the neolithic, a time long gone,  I changed my armor to a loincloth to fit in with the people.  I noticed a few of them started to plant things and after a few centuries there was civilization.
      I had recorded all that I had seen with a digital document.  I waited for a while before I got into the machine and went to Egypt.  My master must have done something because I had no control over the machine at all.  I was now wearing a cloth outfit instead of a loincloth.  I hid the machine somewhere no humans would find it.  As I walked into the city I noticed strange ships over head.  UFOs were dropping off humanoid aliens in Giza.  These beings called themselves Freemasons and had made the people build the pyramids.  Soon the aliens were gone and I met Pharaoh Ramses II.  Ramses II was an average pharaoh, meaning he ruled over his kingdom with an iron fist.  We played a few rounds of Senet, until Ramses got upset because "no one should defeat the pharaoh at senet."  That's a translation of his exact words and as such a got into the time machine before Ramses II tried to have me put to death.
             The next thing I knew my armor became a toga.  My computer chip knew of only to time periods where people mostly wore togas.  Greece or Rome was my next destination.  I assumed I was going to Rome, seeing as Egypt and Greece were at the same time.  Rome was later into Egypt's history than Greece.  When I stepped out of the machine I saw the Roman public.  Of course the machine was hidden again, but I still saw the citizens.  I looked up toward the area that would house the emperor, Julius Cesar at this time.  I looked, but couldn't see him.  Suddenly I realized that I had a wreath around my head, the type that emperors of Rome wore.  I saw the Freemasons again and this time they claimed I was the emperor.  I ruled over Rome until the time Julius was supposed to die and returned to the year 7012 the second after I had left.  I told my master "It is done.  I chronicled every event in human history exactly as it happened.  The Freemasons were behind everything!"  That's when the meat-bag chuckled and said that I was outdated and it was all a plan to get rid of me.  Taking offense at the fact that he lied to me, I shot him in the heart with an arrow.
  As my meat-bag adversary lay dying on the floor he said "Et tu Cesar?"  A Latin phrase coined by Shakespeare with the man in question being Brutus.  With that the meat-bag died and I was labeled a murderous psychotic robot and was deactivated forever.  That is how my journey ended.

Miss Fishy by Kiki

Miss Fishy

by Kiki

One day a fish named Miss Fishy wanted to go to Atlantis.  Now she is older but she still wants to go.  So she set off.  On her way she saw a little turtle that was stuck under a rock.  She helped him and said, "I am going to Atlantis.  Do you want to come?"

Then she saw an old map to Atlantis and it said that they needed to go through the rocky waters.  But they did not want to go that way so they went a different way.   But they got lost.  So they asked a scuba diver where it was but he said no one ever found it but they kept looking.  Then Miss Fishy saw a wall and it said "Atlantis", she was so happy that she never left.

the end

Avery: Weekly Blog Post #2

Freemasonry Behind it All

By Avery Jones

       One day there was a woman named Nicollette.  She was in her early 30s and was a detective.  Not the most fun type of detective though.  She had to do a lot of fighting.  She wasn't the biggest fan of hurting people, but she would do it if she had to.  She would have the hardest cases with very violent people.

       One time she had a case to find out who was building the robot presidents.  She didn't know exactly what to look for; a person, place, or thing.  She wasn't exactly sure.  But she never gives up.  She looked at the files they had about every single president.  Something was the same about them.  She knew it.  She looked at all the photos of the wires inside.  Every single robot had an M carved into the blue wires.

       She looked in the news and at more files in the M cabinet.  There was one on the M factory.  It was what she was looking for.  She found the directions and drove all the way there in her invisible car.  She found an old shut down building with a torn in half sign that said "M for FreeMasonry!"  She had heard of freemasonry and had heard of the crazy things the Masons had done.  She went inside the building and looked around.  It was a giant empty room with blue paint on the walls.  She looked around and found three doors.

       Nicollette picked the first door and opened it slowly.  It was a bathroom with a toilet, sink and a small shower.  She saw nothing and went onto the next door.  Inside was board games like Monopoly and The Game of Life.  She laughed a little and opened the last door wide opened thinking it would be a closet of card games.  It was an other room.  It was three times bigger than the first room.  And in that room were robots.  Celebrities and presidents, even the Scooby gang all turned out to be robots.  It was figured out.  The masons created all the robots!  She grabbed the head of Shaggy and started walking out.  Suddenly a giant robot gozilla came after her.  The head of the robot she carried had set of a trigger.  She ran for a minute and then tripped over a board game.  The godzilla picked her up and ate her.

       4 months later the new detective came and discovered her body ripped to shreds on the floor next to godzzilla. He took her notes and reported the dead body.

THE END

Connor: Weekly Blog #1

         The Freemasons is a secret organization that supposedly started in the 1300s around 1390 or so.  The Freemasons had spread into England at about that time and into Scotland in the sixteenth century.  They spread to America in the eighteenth century.  Long before it moved into England it seems to have been in Greece, as the oldest Masonic document mentions Euclid, the father of geometry.  Since the eighteenth century it had spread into many countries.  It was spreading much faster at that time than previously in Europe.
        Some of our founding fathers were Freemasons.  Benjamin Franklin was one of them.  George Washington, the first president, was also a Freemason.  John Hancock was also a Freemason and Just like Franklin and Washington, signed the declaration of independence.  Only 9 of the people who signed the declaration were Freemasons.  Winston Churchill, the British prime minister during WWII, was a Freemason.  Euclid could also have been a member of the Freemasons, as he is mentioned in the earliest known Masonic text.
       There are many conspiracy theories about the Freemasons.  Often made up by those who oppose the organization.  Those who oppose the organization are called Anti-masons or Anti-Masonry.  This is what the groups are called by themselves and by members of the Freemasons.  Some of the people who oppose this range from religious groups to conspiracy theorists.  The religious groups that oppose the Freemasons are some Christians and some Muslims.  They are also opposed by political groups, one being the Anti-Masonry Party.
       The Freemasons started centuries ago in Europe.  When they spread to America they gained several famous members.  Even before that they most likely had Euclid as a member.  9 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were Freemasons.  Over the years there have been many conspiracy theories about the Freemasons.  They are opposed by religious groups, political groups, and conspiracy theorists.

Avery- Weekly blog #1

       Freemasonry one of the oldest and biggest fraternity organizations.  A fraternity is a group of men who get together because there are things they want to do in the world.  There are things they want to do "inside their own minds".  They all get along and understand and respect each other.
       There are many Freemasonries all over the world.  A Masonry lodge is a public organization of masons. Masons are men who feel good about themselves and want to make a change in the world to help themselves and others.  No one knows how long Freemasonry has been around.  But we do know they were in the middle ages.  There have been old castles found that were built by the masons a long time ago.
       Freemasonry spread really fast from Britain to America.  In 1731 when Franklin joined Masonry it started spreading everywhere much faster than normal.  Many of our founding fathers have been Masons.  For example, George Washington was a Mason when he got a bit older.
       Some will ask if Masonry is an education.  It actually is.  Schools were held at some of the lodges of some of the Masons a long time ago.  You learn how to take on responsibility for your own life and actions.  And that no matter what happens, weather its good or bad, you have to keep yourself under control.  You also learn some other small and big things at their schools.

8/27/12 Blog Post No. 2

NOTE: YOU MUST DO BLOG POST NUMBER ONE FOR THIS WEEK BEFORE DOING THIS BLOG POST!

For the first blog post this week, you researched the secret society of the Freemasons.  In your research, you probably discovered that there's a lot of crazy, unbelievable conspiracies about how the Freemasons were behind everything from the American Revolution to the Great Depression.

We all know those stories aren't true, but for today's blog post, I want you to assume that THEY ARE!  I want you to write an adventure story about someone trying to solve a great mystery, and during their investigation, they discover that the Freemasons are behind it!  Maybe they find out that it was the Freemasons who originally enslaved Egyptians to build the pyramids as a way to communicate with their alien masters.  Or maybe that they have rigged every presidential election for the past fifty years so that their robot candidates win (that's right-- Obama's a ROBOT!).  The point is to come up with something ridiculous  that can potentially effect the whole world (weather control, anyone?) and then make the Freemasons be the force behind it.  Have fun with it and go crazy.

8/27/12 Weekly Blog Post No. 1

Who are the Freemasons?  There's a lot of crazy conspiracy theories out there about how the Freemasons are behind every major world disaster that has ever occurred.  Of course, those stories are ridiculous, but it makes you wonder-- who are these people in this secret organization that have inspired such crazy stories?

For today's blog post, I want you to research who the Freemasons really are.  You can start with this article at wikipedia as a jumping off point:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasonry

Then write a four paragraph report about the organization, what it is, and who some of the famous members of it were.

Gabe: Blog of the Day 1

     Before the tragedy, Nagasaki, Japan was just a normal big city.  The population was 240,000.  It is always at a nice temperature. It was a BIG city. It was like this at least until this.

     The USA did it in World War 2. It was a Nuclear bomb.  There where really two bombs. One was named Fat Man (he was the biggest). The other was named Little Boy ( He was the smallest).  They were both dropped in the beginning of August in 1945. 

     Fat Man was a plutonium bomb.  It weighed 11,000 pounds.  Little Boy was a Uranium bomb. It weighed 10,000 pounds.  These bombs put off a lot of radiation.

     The bomb really affected the area. The water is still unusable because of radiation in the water. The parts of the land that have radiation on them can not have things planted on them for a long time. After the radiation particles go away plants will grow there again! The  radiation killed a bunch of animals. 

     90,000 thousand people got killed during this.  It distroyed a bunch of buildings. There are lots that were sick. There are over a million people in Nagasaki today. Nagasaki some day will become a nice place again.

Mason: Weekly Blog #1

     What happened at Nagasaki was there was an atomic bomb, it exploded and killed 40,000 people and 70,000 people died after the bomb.  It destroyed a lot of  houses and buildings.  The US were the ones that dropped the bomb.  They did it because they were at war, it was in World War II. They gave Japan a chance to surrender but they refused to surrender.

     After the bomb they rebuilt Nagasaki and made a museum.  They also made sculptures and parks as monuments.  Nagasaki  is now a busy city with almost 500,000 people.

     The total death count was 73,884 people.  Some of the deaths were from radiation sickness and from the bomb.

     Some people are still sick because of the radiation from the bomb.  Some of the effects are some loss of white blood  cells, nausea, vomiting, headache, hair loss, and damage to nerve cells.  

Gabe: Blog Post 2

     There are a lot of cars in New York City.  Yellow, blue, green and even purple ones.  The cars come in all sizes, there are small ones and big ones.  They are also all different shapes.  They are all going fast.  The street loves the cars.

      There are a bunch of shoes in New York City.  The shoes are in all colors.  The shoes are in all shapes and sizes.  There are boots, wonderful boots.  There are cool converse.  New York has cool shoes.

      There are lots of shops.  There are shops that sell toys.  There are shops that sell bikes.  There are even shops that sell cars.  Shops can have so many different things.

Mason: Weekly Blog #2

     There are millions of people walking up and down the street.  They are all wearing different colors of clothes. Some of the clothes are red, some are blue, some are black.  They are all going to lots of stores.

     There are many stores on this street.  There is a shoe store, a sport store and a hat store. All of the stores have all different kinds of ads on the buildings.  You can see all the products they have through the windows.

     There is a hot dog stand on the street.  It sells hot dogs for one dollar and ten cents.  They can put ketchup and mustard on the hot dogs.  Millions of people like to get hot dogs there.

Kiki: Blog of the Week 2

The plants are purple green.  They are hanging from poles and people can walk under them.  They are right next to the street, they are big, big, big plants.

There are so many people.  They are different people, they all look different.  There are more then fifty people there.  A lot  of people are carrying things. 

There are so many cars.  There is a bus and little cars and big cars.  They are all different colors and shapes.  They are all going different places.  

Marney: Weekly Blog Post 1

    In August 1945 during the World War 2 the U.S. dropped two giant bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan.  When that happened it made World War 2 end because they surrendered.  When that happened Nagasaki and Hiroshima had some problems.
     The city of Nagasaki was destroyed and 40,000 people died,  74,909 people were injured and tons of people got diseased during the bombing.  People who did not die when there was the bombing slowly began getting sick and died at least 1 month afterward.  They could not live in the city after that for a while and they had no where to go.
     The whole town got destroyed and tons of people died.  People had trouble finding new houses and did find them but they were bad houses.  Tons of people went to hospitals and some people were shipped away because they thought Japan was not safe.  People donated to the people who were sick and were needing help.
     Now it is a town that is not all fancy and stuff, it has houses and offices and food places. Now there are 1 million people living in Nagasaki and it is a very famous town because there was a bombing.  They get money from people.  There is a bunch of radiation from the bombing and when people did not die they stayed alive but got very sick.
     The bomb that was dropped was called the Fat Man.  They called it the Fat Man because they needed code names for them.  Also the two bombs were both very fat so I think that was a good idea.  They dropped the bomb 500 meters off the ground.  Fat Man is a very big bomb, it was the biggest bomb in World War 2.  

Marney: Weekly Blog Post 2

     The people are all nice, some of them do not get along but most of the time they all do.  They are all rushing to get the last makeup sample in the store Say Ahh.  It is all a mistake, people are mad at each other because they think that they will not get it.  They all have different clothes on and the guys want to go to the sport stores and the girls want to go to the clothes store.
     The weather is in a bad mood and wants to rain.  It is cloudy and it is thundering.  It just finished rainning and it is all foggy.  It is 80 degrees out and it is about to storm. There is a pretty rainbow up in the sky.  It is terrible weather and the clouds do not like it.
     The road is crowded and there are no red lights.  It was just repaved and the fog is blocking the way for the cars to see.  The road smells weird and there are tons of coke tops on it.  The road makes a plus sign and it has tons of taxis on it.  People are walking everywhere and cars are driving everywhere.  

Connor: Weekly Blog #2

There are people of every race.  People are walking to and from the various stores and shops.  Lots of men and women all walking to some place or another.  Thousands upon thousands of people wearing bright flashy colors as if in a modern Da Vinci painting.  The crowd is full of adventurous people going off to try something new or returning from trying something new.
    There are big bright yellow taxis driving toward their destination.  Hundreds of vehicles of one brand or another.  There are Fords, Old fashioned automobiles, Mustangs, convertibles and any other car or brand of car that come to mind.  The cars range in colors from blues to reds to fabulous purples and every other color of the rainbow.  There are American built cars, European cars, Japanese cars all in one place.  There are old out of date cars and new hybrid cars.
     There are stray dogs and feral cats running about.  Positively perfect poodles being walked by their pompous "parents."  There are kitties and puppies in purses being carried about by their owners.  There are deer attempting to cross the road.  There are bulldogs and tomcats barking and hissing at each other.  There are gators escaping from the sewers and hungry for food.  There are rats and other little rodents rampaging about.

Connor: Weekly Blog #1

      Nagasaki was hit by an atomic bomb on the ninth of August 1945.  The bomb was dropped by the United States.  The bomb was supposed to do more damage than the bomb that hit Hiroshima.  Fat Man, the bomb used on Nagasaki, was a plutonium bomb.  The second plutonium bomb to be used, as a matter of fact.  The first was tested in New Mexico.  This bomb, being a plutonium bomb, was meant to cause a lot of damage and had other negative effects on Nagasaki.
   The atomic bomb had caused a lot of damage to the city.  It also killed several thousand people when it blew up and after it had blown up.  The total death count was about 73,884 and the number of people injured was 74,909.  Several thousand people died afterward of radiation caused illnesses and diseases.  Buildings were destroyed and it left the city in a bad state.  It was an example of the problems with nuclear powered warfare.
     The government of Japan had protested the bombing on the tenth.  They had to rebuild the town and added new buildings to the original.  They built an atomic bomb museum and left the gate at the entrance to Ground Zero as it was.  Some of the torii, traditional gates, were destroyed and a few were left on one leg.  As stated before some of the people died from radiation.  The town was left in shambles and was rebuilt.
         The town has many monuments in memory of those who the bomb killed.  The city is now famous as an example of what nuclear warfare is capable of.  The town is still a port city, as it was before it was nuked.  Many towns in the same district became part of Nagasaki.  The city has partially recovered from the disaster, as far as building damage.  As for the people, some citizens still have radiation related illnesses caused by the bomb.
         Fat man's detonation caused a lot of damage to the city.  Since and because of the city's destruction and the deaths of so many innocent citizens, nuclear warfare is now outlawed by the Geneva Conventions.  After the detonation of these atomic bombs there has not been any attacks on other cities involving atomic bombs or other nuclear weapons of mass destruction.  There are now atomic bomb museums in Japan and documentaries on the cities and the lab in which the bombs were created.  The Japanese government has repaired most of the city.  Nagasaki has thus become one of the most famous cities in the world.

Avery: Weekly Blog Post #1

       In the end of December 1945 something terrible happened.  There was an atomic bomb that went off in the the city of Nagasaki, Japan.  It killed and injured many, many people, destroyed thousands of houses, Destroyed a lot of land, and gave diseases  to people.  It still leaves a mark on the town and the people today.

       Before the A-bomb the population of Nagasaki was 240,000 people.  After it 73,884 were killed and 74,909 were terribly inured.  It also damaged and destroyed 18,409 houses.  That means it destroyed 36 percent of the houses there.  Another thing the atomic bomb did was give many people a sickness that they called "Atomic Bomb Disease".  They got it from the heat rays and radiation.

       Basically it destroyed most of Nagasaki, Japan.  Many people had to be rushed to many hospitals and lots of poor people had to fin new places to live.  Lot's of the hospitals were destroyed so there were people  being taken to medical colleges and schools to be fixed up.

       Today People still suffer from the "Atomic Bomb Disease".  The town made a little exhibit about it.  With old pictures from the explosion, lot's of information about it, and people that will tell you all they know about what happened.

Gabe: My Blog

Please go check out my blog.

Gabe and Nature

Powerhouse: Air Conditioner

Today in our Powerhouse science lesson we learned about something very important here in Texas...

air conditioning!

We are learning all about how to use the heat of evaporation for cooling and how to install an air conditioner and refrigerator in our Powerhouse.  All air-conditioning systems need some sort of fan so we built one from our kit and tested it out.

After making observations about how the fan works it was time to install our AC and fridge in the Powerhouse.  The kids installed the fan first.  Next they installed a wooden skewer across the room with a wet paper towel hanging from it in front of the fan.  On to the refrigerator, a simple glass baby food jar pushed through a hole in the side of the house into the AC room.

Here is a photo of the complete system with labels.

On Thursday we will be building a hygrometer to measure the level of humidity in our Powerhouse.

Avery: Weekly Blog Post #2

        The people are all different in their own way. Some of them enjoy shopping in clothing stores, sports stores, grocery stores.  And some enjoy impressing others with talents of singing and dancing.  The people in the picture all act nice, and some of them are actually nice.  But for some of the people, if you get on their bad side... you'll regret it instantly.  They have a type of glare that frightens almost everyone.  As long as you're nice to them they will be happy and nice to you.  Every person there has their own style too.  Most of them wear colorful clothes.  Everyone has something colorful item on their outfit. When I say colorful I mean oranges, yellows, mints, and reds.

        The road was new and fresh.  The lines separating the lanes were not just any yellow, they were paint color Yellow #72.  It's a rare color, but they decided to make that road special because so many people can see the beautiful shade of yellow that lays on their smooth road.  The asphalt was flattened perfectly so that people can walk across the street barefoot without damaging the bottoms of their feet.

         The weather is strange there.  It's hard to tell how humid and hot it is sometimes because of the large amount of pollution in the air.  Every day the temperature is somewhere in the 70s.  The air is a little bit humid in the mornings, but that goes away around lunch.  The worst time of the day is 2:00 pm, when It gets really hot and dry in the air.

8/13/12 Weekly Blog Post No. 2

For today's blog post, I want you to write a descriptive scene.  See the picture above?  I want you to write three paragraphs about that picture.  Each paragraph, however, needs to be a detailed description of some part of the scene in the picture.  One paragraph can be about the types of people.  Another can be a description of the road, sidewalk, buildings.  Another can be about the weather.  You can even describe things you'd expect in the scene, but aren't actually in the picture-- like wildlife.  You pick what you want to describe in each paragraph.  But remember, it's not a story your telling-- you're going to be describing things in each paragraph.

8/13/12 Weekly Blog Post No. 1

The town of Nagasaki, Japan is famous for a great tragedy that occurred there.  For today's blog post, I want you to research it (using any of your online sources) and then write a five paragraph report on Nagasaki.  In your report you need to discuss the following things: (1) what tragedy occurred at Nagasaki; (2) what effect did that tragedy have on the town; (3) what happened in the aftermath of the tragedy; and (4) how is the town still affected by it today?

Connor: Elven Chronicles: Volume 1: To Slay A Murderer: Our Heroes Embark

After we left we traveled for five hours.  By that point everyone wanted to relax and prepare camp.  Not long after we set up for the rest of the day, a pale man in noble garb walked up to us.  He said "Hello there.  I am Harold from an empire in the distance."  He grinned at us and I saw some very sharp incisors, most likely used to puncture humanoid flesh.  I noticed that Harold wasn't protecting himself from sunlight, but he wasn't completely embracing it either.
  I said "Well Harold we are looking for a dwarf, about yea high.  Maybe you could tell us if you've seen him or you could give us some physical assistance."  He smiled and I thought to myself this guy probably wants something in return for this deal.  He simply nodded to me and I asked "How many people here can read my mind.  I want some privacy in my own head sometimes!"
   Harold only said "I can help you in both ways, but it requires a form of payment.  I can tell all of you are rather rich.  Especially you, Elf, in what I desire.  All I want is a bit of blood, or an entire soul, from a partner of your choice."  Harold looked as though he had done this several times and was looking rather thirsty.  The vampire said "Make your choice already or I will kill you all!"  Frightened by this threat we gave him the one who needed their blood least.  Harold drank Heinrich's blood and then complained about the god awful taste.
  Suddenly he told us to take a nice long trip toward the west.  When we tried to thank him he told us to go away and said his last name was Alucard.  We stayed camped out all night long and each of us took shifts to keep vile beings at bay.  While I was on shift Amy had been sitting by the fire, she couldn't fall asleep, and we discussed the meaning of life.  Which was ironic, considering I had already died.  After Amy fell back to sleep Harold came back and said "You idiots! Prepare to lose all your blood, except for the extremely stupid one."
  Harold had an entire army of vampires with him.  We had a bunch of stakes and garlic and crosses.  Amy had cast a spell that slew the undead.  I stabbed Harold through the chest with a stake, but missed the heart entirely.  Heinrich was asleep and was slain by vampires, unfortunately.  Leo, on the other hand kicked vampire butt.  After the vampires were dead we mourned the loss of one hero, although Leo was the only one who liked having him around.
      Eventually we came to a town that had been overrun with vampires, until last night.  The townspeople thanked us by letting us stay at the local inn.  There we recruited our sixth party member known as Danny.  Danny was a local half-elf who wanted to save the world.  She had heard of our exploits and decided we were better than most adventurers.  I could tell from the way she acted that she had a crush on me, but I was more interested in Princess Amy.  We now had our normal number of party members and this time no idiots.

Powerhouse: Natural Food Preservation

We learned how to make fresh water last week, so this week in our Powerhouse science studies we talked about natural food preservation.

We found out that there are LOTS of ways to preserve foods by natural processes: freezing, canning, packing in oil, packing in salt brine, fermentation, smoking, salting, pickling, drying and sugaring.  In our class today we used two of these processes.  First we used the Powerhouse greenhouse to turn an apple into a chewy treat.  All we had to do was slice an apple into thin pieces, stick them on a wooden skewer and place them in the greenhouse.  Then we set them out in the hot (104 degrees)Texas sun for a while.

.... 8 hours later we had homemade fruit snacks, from the sun!

Okay, they didn't taste too good- but we could still eat them if we had too.

Next we tried out a little fermentation- making sauerkraut.

All we needed was some cabbage, some salt and a glass jar.  We put layers of shredded cabbage and salt into the jar, tightly packing them down after each layer.

A liquid started to collect on the top (that's the brine).

After a few hours the fermentation process started and we could observe small bubbles rising to the surface.

Now we have to wait 10 to 14 days for the fermentation process to stop (when the bubbles disappear) and then put it in the refrigerator for a month.  We'll try to remember to update on how it turns out!  

Next week in our Powerhouse class we will learn about heat absorbers and how to cool our house.

Mason: Weekly Blog Post

We are all gathered here to say good bye to Jone, he was a good friend to me and to all of you.  When we were kids we played out on his back yard, we played hide and seek and tag.  When he grew up he worked as an artist and painted paintings for all of us.   How he died was his house was set on fire.  We will all miss him.

Avery: Weekly Blog

Bertram was a great guy.  He always loved to make people laugh and have lots fun.  He came up with the funnest ideas all the time.  His imagination never stopped for even the slightest second.  I remember when Bertram decided he didn't like his name.  So he changed it, he changed it to Voldemort. What still confuses today me is he never liked Harry Potter.  Didn't see the movies, read the books, he didn't even let anyone talk to him about it.  But he chose that name.  It made everyone laugh very hard when someone called him Voldemort.  We found it to be the funniest thing, but we still went with it.  He was a great man and he will always be in my heart.

Connor: Weekly Blog #2

     He was a funny guy, always making goofy faces when his picture was taken.  He got a job as a clown, which was the one occupation everyone had recommended for him.  He passed away doing what he loved, making people laugh.  Gregory F. Bone had brought laughter to the town of Humorless.  It's unfortunate that we will never hear his laugh.  We will never again see his most hilarious pranks.  We will never again hear his jokes.  His legacy of hilarious antics and wonderful comedy have died with him.  I'm sure he is still playing pranks in heaven.

Kiki: Weekly Blog Post

We are here today to say goodbye to our friend, Dove.  Dove had such a great job, he had the job of a wood cutter.  We used to go play games up in his tree house when we were younger.  Sometimes when we went up there we would play so long that we fell asleep in the tree house.  When we once went to the park to go watch birds we saw one bird that was eating a squirrel.  We caught a bird and I gave it to Dove for his birthday.  When Dove become a wood cutter he decided that he wanted to make a wooden chair first.  He made his wooden chair and carved him name into it and kept it forever.  When he made that he made another chair for me.  I tried making a chair once, but it didn't work because I didn't know how to make one.  It was so sad how he died, he died because he was on a train that crashed into a tree.  I will miss Dove.

8/6/2012 Weekly Blog Post

For today's blog post, I want you to write a eulogy to read at the funeral of the person in the picture above.  A eulogy is a speech that someone gives at a funeral that talks about the dead person's life and the things they liked and admired about the person.  So for this post, pretend that you were the best friend of the person in the picture and write out your eulogy.

Marney: weekly blog post 2

     The Three Gods 

By Marney

     One day there were three girls, their names were Jane, Jack and Charlie.  They all wanted to become famous and they were all thinking of ideas.   

     Jane said, "We could tightrope-walk over a giant cliff and try not to fall." 

      Jack and Charlie thought Jane was crazy so they both said  "No way."  They all went on a walk together and thought of a perfect idea.  

     Jane said, "We can do gymnastics and become famous for it."  Jack and Charlie both thought if they can become famous from doing gymnastics and they thought for a very long time.  Then the ghost like thing came down from the sky. 

     The ghost said "I am not a ghost, I am a goddess and I am a goddess of gymnastics."  The girls were all surprised that there was a god right in  front of them.  They all ran away until they got home and they ran to their beds.  Then another god showed up in the middle of their room. 

     She said, "I need to get you guys out of here fast, run out of your room now."
     Then the three girls ran out of their house and went to their friend's house until they were safe.  Then they practiced their gymnastics over and over again until they got it right.  Then they went out in the street to show it off.  Then they got it right and got over 1000 dollars and got on America's Got Talent and went to Hollywood, they were all very happy.  They got all the money they could ever win.  Then they went to Hollywood and started to show off wherever they want to.  They were so happy.

Marney:Weekly Blog Post 1

     The tallest building in London is the Shard, also known as the London Bridge Tower.  The Shard is 309.6 meters tall.  It became the tallest building on March 30, 2012.  The Shard opened a month ago and had a laser show for the opening.  It is the tallest building and is right next to the London Bridge.
     The London Bridge has been standing for 2000 years.  The London Bridge is about a sixth of a mile long.  A bunch of movies are made on the London Bridge.  Ever year they celebrate when it is the day of the London Bridge's birthday.  About 40000 people go over the London Bridge daily.
       British Museum has a free entrance and has a bunch of things from prehistoric times in it.  The whole roof is a sky light.  There are a bunch of mummies in the building.  The mummies have had 5.8 million visitors in this year so far.  It is open daily and it opens at 10 o'clock.
     The Big Ben is the big bell in London.  They ring the bell sometimes but not much.  The big bell is not very famous, what is is the tower the big bell is in.  The tower is very old and it is pretty.  At night they have big lights in the tower that light up.  

Gabe: Blog Post 1

     The London Eye is a ferris wheel in London.  It took seven years to build.  When you are at the top you can see 25 miles around.  3.5 million people ride it a year.  It can carry 800 people at once.
     The London Bridge is in London.  It took seven years to build.  It crosses river Thames.  It is 882 feet long.  It has five lanes on it.
     The Queen of England is 86.  She always goes out with a hat on.  Her name is Elizabeth.  Her husband's name is Prince Philip.  Her dad was George the 6th.
     The Olympics are in London this year!  The basketball arena is completely recyclable.  My favorite sport in the Olympics is soccer.   London has a lot of wonderful things.   

Gabe: Blog Post 2

The Goddess of Control

By Gabe

     Thousands of years ago a pebble fell into sand and a grain of sand stuck to it and that fell in a pond and created the Goddess of Control.  The Goddess of Control was happy she had the the whole world.  She could control anything.  Anything but one thing, time was the one thing that she could not control.  She had 3 out of the 4 crystals.  She had the Earth one, the water one and the air one.  But she did not have the time crystal.
     You have to be the best, most truthful god in the world to get the time crystal.  So she started creating men, some were nice and some were mean until she got to Thrash.  Thrash was very nice but also very strong.  Everyone was happy.
     Everyone started building and having fun.  She created some animals.  She also made a castle.  They made a nice town.  Thrash just left to go get the crystal.
     Everything was very good until this happened.  Everyone started rebeling because they wanted her powers.  Everyone just pulled out knives, ready to stab her.  Right before a man stabbed her, Thrash threw the crystal and she caught it and stopped time.  She changed the gods into people and put them on earth. She and Thrash stayed gods.

Connor: Weekly Blog #1

    London is the name of two cities in England.  The first of these two cities was founded by the Romans.  The second on the other hand was once called Westminster.  The city of London is located within London currently and has a longer history than London.  The city of London is surrounded by a wall or the remains of a wall.
   Because the monarchy and the city of London couldn't exactly trust each other, the castles from that time period, and practically ever since, were made to protect the monarch from the people of the city of London. The city of London is considered its own county and houses some pre-Anglo-Saxon monuments.  The wall that surrounds the city is of Roman origin.  The city of London is also run similarly to how it was back before Rome fell.
  London has more of the famous monuments however.  Big Ben is just one of the many monuments that are found in London.  Over time Westminster grew to incorporate smaller cities and the name changed to London.  While London has its mayor and its laws the City of London is different.  They select separate mayors and have different traditions.  The City of London even has a different flag from London.
   The city of London has been around for many centuries.  The motto of the city was most likely adopted in the 1600s and the coat of arms can be seen in several places throughout both cities.  The city of London has a crest that features a dragon's wing bearing the cross of Saint George.  Both cities hold monuments and can be considered part of the same city, while also being separate cities at the same time.  Because both cities hold lots of smaller monuments and the wall itself is a monument.  Coupled with the fact that the city of London is within London.  Thus London has a lot of monuments all throughout itself.