Graphs for Typing Tracker

I feel that my typing accuracy has stayed the same. I changes when I take my time, but then I go slower. I need more practice, forcing myself to not looking at the keyboard. I should work on my accuracy.
As you can see my scores have improved tremendously. I think this program is helpful, and actually works. To make it even better you can force yourself not to look at your pictures. I have increased my typing speed by a lot. This will help me in school and in the future.

MAP scores with graphs

I like this graph. It seems to show the information in an organized way. I just don't think that people would immediately see growth. I think this would be a good graph for showing population growth.
I like this chart very much too. One thing I like about it is that it quickly demonstrates the information clearly. You don't have to study it very much, because that is the point of a graph. This chart is great for anything.
This is my favorite graph of all. I like this so much, because it clearly shows the growth in a simple way. Also seeing the growth is simple, since there is a line which goes up. Everybody knows what up means. Just in case you don't, it is that it is positively growing. This type of graphs suits all functions.

Oil Spill

This is Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico is terrible. It will be a mess to clean up and awful for the wildlife. Don't think for a minute that it is a minor oil spill, because you are wrong. This oil spill has been the biggest spill recorded yet. The company to blame here is BP. Partially, because they went the cheap way and did not do their yearly maintenance. The yearly maintenance is extremely important, because this oil drill is deep in the Gulf of Mexico. This means that there is more underwater pressure on the pipelines and the oil that is drilled out is much hotter. This oil spill is affecting many marine species, including this rare saw fish that was found dead on the water's surface. They need to get their act together before mother nature gets really mad.

Everyone wants to know how BP plans to clean up the disaster. It was said that it will take 74 million dollars to clean up the oil. Plus, BP is getting sued by Louisiana and other close by states.
One projection said that the oil spill will not be fixed until two months. This brought up other factors such as hurricanes. If a hurricane hits the oil spill area, the winds and waves will spray the oil all over the place. Some things that they are trying to do is dig re-leaf wells to release some of the pressure from the oil pocket. This way they can reduce the oil flow into the ocean and even conserve some of it. I think this might help with reducing the amount of oil that is filling the ocean and maybe in a few months seal this leak. I am afraid that this oil leak will stay in the water for a long time. It will harm many species, some of the species might become extinct. Maybe this might be a heads up for the whole world. This oil spill will light a spark in the worlds leaders and maybe after this disaster they will pay more attention to the environment. Even though this might seem bad right now it will help us in the future.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37455934/ns/us_news-environment/

http://www.businessinsider.com/gulf-of-mexico-deepwater-horizon-oil-spill-2010-4

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/oil-spill-investigation-could-lead-to-criminal-charges-against-industry-execs/19499542

MAP TESTING

These last tests that I took were very bad. I rushed through them and did not concentrate on them. They were all in the 230's. Normally my high scores are like in the 250's. My reading test was terrible. I could improve my scores by taking my time on them and actually reading the answers. Also I shouldn't click randomly on so many pictures. One idea that I would suggest to the committee of MAP test, is that they should make the test shorter, but more intense. When they are too long kids get anxious and rush through them. There is one girl in my class that finished the test in 10 minutes. I was not really motivated by the free spirit day, because it is pointless. They shouldn't have had anything for improving your scores. You should always try your best and give it 100%.http://www.nwea.org/. Although, I agree that MAP testing is very important. Kids like me should try a little bit harder on these tests.

Presentaions about the Earth-

All of them were really good. They had very complete information about their topic. The only thing I noticed was that they forgot about the citations. Some of them needed to be checked for spelling and grammar. It looks really bad if you have a nice presentation, but the spelling is poor. I noticed that some people had to much information on the slides, rather than having short bullet points and some pictures explaining your topic. My power-point is short. I like them short, because this way I can explain from what I know. It looks better if you lecture, rather read off a screen. I will add more facts for the audience so they can get and idea of what the natural resources and us humans are doing. I like power-point, because you can usefully display information. I've seen better!

Power Point FAIL

I remember back in 5th and 6th grade English class we used to have to do Book Reports. Most people did theirs on PowerPoint. I will never forget Eduardo's PowerPoint presentation, because he made it so confusing with all of the animations and bad color combination's. It was so funny because he did on purpose, but it back fired on him, because he got lost of points taken off from his grade. Everybody in the class wrote the whole summary on PowerPoint and either read it off the screen or from a piece of paper. As I look back, I even did it. As I think about it, how do people want us to use PowerPoint!! I mean you can't do anything out of order or it will be considered unprofessional. I guess all you have to do is make the presentation simple and easy to understand.
I already know how to do that!

25 things I hate and love about Facebook

Love
1. Poker
2. pictures
3. comments
4 .chat
5. communication
6. fan
7. soccer game
8. youtube posts
9. mindjolt
10. xbox posts
11. contacting friends
12. like
13. unlike
14. gift in games
15. notifications
16. funny pages
17. reminders
18. seeing what people are up to
19. sports
20. footytube
21. teris
22. always sometinh new
23. entertaining
24. joke pages
25. you can see who is a fan

Hate:
1. everyone does it
2. become addicted
3. interview
4. stalkers.
5. farmville
6. happy aquarium
7. 11:11
8. twitter type posts
9. top friends posts
10. weird people.
11. cheap writing
12. friend requests
13. more than 500+ friends
14. friends request of people you don't even know
15. food gifts
16. what you are thinking of right now
17. waste of time
18. poke
19. birthday reminders
20. events
21. profile
22. fake famous people
23. poeple you don't know commenting your pics
24. made up people
25. you show up on google!

My Earth Day video

I think we did a good job, considering that we had to sing Micheal Jackson. Everyone knows that he is the King of Pop. There were some parts that were challenging. The singing had to be it. Our video turned out pretty good. I have to admit that Taku did a great job putting the video together. I took all the pictures and he arranged them correctly. I also think that we had good team work. Taku wanted to do the video, so I let him do that. I picked out the song and did all of the other stuff that went into the video. The most interesting thing about it, is that we got the job done in less than two days. This means that we understud the project very well. It was very easy. The only thing i would change is our singing. We had a bad first draft and only re did it once. Plus we recorded the song in the classroom, which was very loud. If we had done it during lunch or sometime where it would be less crowded it would have turned out better. We might do it again if the teacher lets us. I liked our project very much. The good thing is that there is always room for improvement.

Enviromental Problems

There are many factors that are disturbing the environment. The most serious right now, is the fact that we are running out of energy materials. This is terrible and can eventually conquer our planet with devastation. If we don't do something about it quick, than we will be caught by surprise. As I said earlier, there are many factors that affect the environment. This one though, is going to catch us by surprise.

The fact that we are running out of energy sources is terrifying. Imagine in the future we will have no more gasoline to power our cars. There will just be a bunch of cars lying around on the street. Already we have experienced huge increases in gas prices. In Mexico, the government is raising the price every month. I can say that the Earth is running out of oil. It is only a matter of time until car manufacturers come out with a new car concept. Only when the gas runs out, will they start to react to the challenge. People today have to think of the problems before they happen. Throughout history people don't react until something bad happens. We better get our act together or else we are going to have trouble.

I think cars have to get more advanced to use less fuel. Car companies should really focus on making their cars more fuel efficient. There should be more cars like the Prius, Insight, and TDI vehicles. These cars are a very good start, since they both get really good mileage. http://cars.about.com/od/helpforcarbuyers/tp/top10_fuel.htm
It is hard for people to start buying these cars, because no one will buy one since not very many people own one. Once the gas prices go up, they will start looking for cars like these. With everyone on the road driving today had the cars on the web page I listed, than an incredible amount of gasoline would be saved. People have to start realizing that we can't make a difference today.

Now more than ever, more and more electricity is being used. This is not good, because this energy has to come from somewhere right? Nuclear and coal plants are the ones that produce this energy. These plants pollute the environment. It is important to conserve as much electricity as possible. If you are walking out of a room you should know to turn off the lights. Also, it is good in the winter in cold regions to cut down on the heat a bite. One alternative for cutting down on the heat is to get insulated doors and windows. This helps keep the warm air in and prevents from the cold air to come in. Another good thing to do is every week or so, to organize a shut off. This is when you turn off every electric device in your house. So basically you are not relying on electricity. This can be done for however long you want it to. Keep the world clean and limit your use. Most over uses of energy are very silly and can be solved easily.

It is important to conserve our resources. It is what we rely on. Make sure you set aside some money, so you can help the environment. Hey, someone has to make a sacrifice! If we mistreat them, they will punish us. Next time you buy a car, think about it gas efficiency. Next time you leave your room, remember to turn all of the lights off. Next time it gets hot or cold, try to limit the use of the AC or heaters. Little by little we can change. Join millions who do this as a habit and help your planet. We have to conserve our needs carefully and they will make sure we get what we want.

Earth Day video

This project, we had to make a video on the Earth. We had a little bit of trouble choosing our song. First we picked one song, but then the teacher said that it had nothing to do with the Earth. Then we chose a song from the KING of POP called Earth Day Song. It is very easy to sing. Although there are some high pitch notes that are hard for boys to sing. We had a little confusion on what pictures to put on the video. Taku took some of the local Zoo and I took some pictures of the beach on it's wildlife. I took a pictures of some little faces, but they were sick. I also took some pictures on some really cool birds. I did most of the research and stuff and Taku reproduced the video. It was probably one of the easiest assignments of the year. Well I guess, we have more experience.

Spring Break

The first week I had a national golf tournament in Celaya. It was a team tournament and the teams were the regions in Mexico. We had the best team going into the tournament. It was really cool, because we did everything like a team. We ate together, we practice together, and we slept in the same room ( nothing bad, gay happened). The first day we beat the second place by seven strokes. I shot a 77 which was the worst score of the five of us. All of the team gave me crap for shooting that high. Actually a 77 is not really that bad. The second I shot my lowest score of 67. My other team member shot a 66. As a team we were beating second place by 30 strokes. In other words, we were crushing them. The third day we could all do terrible and still win by a lot. At the end of the third day, I think we won by 23 strokes. That my friends is how you win! http://cnij.net/

When I got back from the golf tournament I was surprised to see my cousin from Scotland in Pvo. Vallarta. His name is Marco and he goes to school in Scotland but he is from Mexico. The night we got back, we went out to dinner and just chilled. Marco and I played Modern Warfare until 2 am that night. The next morning we went surfing and the waves were awesome. The only bad thing is that my cousin is used to slower breaking waves. Veneros is one of the faster breaks around here. He struggled a bit, but he enjoyed it. Later that day we chilled out and watched some TV. The next we went to El Anclote and surfed. The waves were not that big at all. So we took a boat to La Lancha and the waves were enormous. I would say that the biggest wave was 12-13 feet. I caught a wave of probably 10 ft. Marco got some pretty good ones too. We spent the whole day surfing. It was really tiring, but very fun. We got to my house and played XBOX 360.

The next day me and my cousin met some friends of my other cousin from MN. They were staying at the hotel next door. We hung out with them for a while and then in the afternoon we went surfing again. It was now Monday and my cousin Marco last day. I am not quite sure what we did. My other cousin from MN, Daniel was arriving that day. So beore he arrived we went out on the cayaks. Once he arrived we went surfing again. The waves were pretty good. At night we played Modern Warfare online. The next day my cousin was leaving at 3 pm so we still had the morning to do stuff. We went surfing early in the morining and the water was really crystal clear. We saw a sea turtle and to top it off the waves were small but great. It was 2:45 pm and Marco had to go back to Scotland. He is a really fun dude and I hope we see each other again some time soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N0v_VVMGMU&feature=related



This vacation has been very fun. Probably one of the most fun I have ever had. Surfing was great and we won the golf tournament. That seems pretty good to me. My cousins I think had a killer time as well. It was hard to back to school. This break was well taken. I needed it badly. Now it's just one last quarter and I am off to the UK. It's sad, but I'll be back for vacations and do the same things. Very cool vacation, I couldn't imagine what it would be like if I had no school. I would surf and golf all day. One of the best to weeks of my life!

Prompt 71

When I went to Bora Bora with my family I had the best holiday of my life. I have this one memory, which was the first morning there was a little car that sprayed insect repellent. I remember the little truck leaving this huge thick cloud of smoke that was supposed to be the insect repellent. I was with my sister when I saw the truck. We both had the weirdest look on our faces. First of all, Bora Bora is on the Equator. Second of all, we had never seen such a vehicle in our lives. I thought for a second that they were spraying toxic gas and we were all going to die. So me and my sister ran into our bedroom for cover. After we saw some people walking on the road were they sprayed, we walked to the restaurant for some breakfast.

At breakfast we saw all of the family and they were completely normal. We asked about the little truck that sprayed the gas. The waiter said that if they didn't sprayed for insects they would infest the whole island. I thought of what that would do and I got frightened. Then I thought of the little truck again. The feeling was shocking, only because I was a little boy. Later that day when the sun went down I saw the little truck again. I still had the same reaction, because the amount of smoke that came out was like a Diesel truck. I will never forget that memory. The good thing was that I got over it quickly, so I did enjoy my vacation.

This was one great trip. The memory is a weird one, but it will always stay with me. More than anything, I think it grabbed my attention. I would have to ask my older sister if she remembers the insect truck. She is older, so I don't think it was that shocking for her to see. That island was something special, I don't think we'll ever have the whole family like together again.

Problems with RotoBall

This has been a stressful project, because my mentality was negative. I thought that I could have never done the project. I guess once I go started with the project I got the hang of it. It was also difficult, because we had only worked with Flash one other time. So we did not have much practice. I had to get the hang of working with the blank frame insert and the normal frame insert. I got lots of help from my friends, which were Jorge, Taku and Eduardo. Although, at the end of my project I was better at doing this. The teacher was also a great help. Since my video at he beginning I did not film my video the correct way. The teacher helped my fix it up and make it a bit longer. Like everything in life, there is always a first ime for everything. The most important thing in life is to never give up, no mater what you feel like.

8th Grade RotoBall

8th Grade RotoBall from mistermark on Vimeo.

Rotoball Video edits

I really liked how our videos came out. I only made a change to my background, which was I added a different scenery to the last part of the video. As my teacher said, my other classmates need to cut their videos so that they are not so long. We just need a little editing and we have a perfect RotoBall video. Most of all we overcame our doubts about the video. I am happy about how it turned out and hope we can do another video like this soon. A total success!!!

Rotoball Video

I have to say this project was very challenging. I had many struggles throughout this project. My friends have helped me a lot with my difficulties. I also looked at tutorials and video on youtube to help me overcome my problems. It was a a rush for me, because I missed a lot of days since I travel for golf. My video would be better if I had spent more time on it. I would have put a better and more creative background. I would have also made a better video to start with. If I really wanted to do this video correctly, it would be in real life. Like maybe my partner could film me surfing on an actual wave. This would be more creative and would make the overall project turn out much better. Another idea that I have is doing another subject. I bet a ball sport would be better. I would either do a soccer, golf, or basketball video. I would love to do another one of these videos. This time it will turn out to be a success.

Rotoball Video

I am thinking of doing my video of surfing. I will start of catching a wave and then out of the air would come a ball. This ball will turn into a ........... I haven't figured out what this ball will transform into. It will have to do with something else in the video. Since I am doing it with Pedro Pablo and we both surf, maybe I can be on a surfboard on a wave when I catch the ball and then the ball turns into a boggieboard and then he gets on the boggieboard and gets on the same wave. It will be difficult to film, but it should turn out really sick.

Awesome New Technology

In the video the creator of this new device was showing its purposes and new features for people to use it. While I was watching this video I was thinking to myself, this must be some exclusive technology that won't ever be cheap enough for the average person to buy. At the same time I was thinking of how useful it would be to have your own guide that does everything for you. I personally would not like to have one of these, because I am not really the high-tech guy. Of course I like technology, but I just like the simple stuff. Besides, you could attract a lot of attention to yourself. Especially if you lived in a big city, it would be the worst gadget to have.

I can't believe the things you can do with this new gadget. I mean, it's like having all of your gadgets, such as camera, phone, navigation and computer in one. This new tool is great, because you don't have to carry all of your belongings with you. It would be great for traveling. You could access the internet for email, take photos of historic icons, read the news, and so many other things. The greatest limitation of this device is not being able to use your brain for your actions. I mean this device is so smart that it almost controls your actions.

An open source is a free down loadable software. An open source means that it is open to everyone on the internet. This is good, because this way people will be able to download this software for FREE. The bad thing about having this software out in the public is there might be people that will make copies of this software. The producer of this product will have to make sure that people buy the right software and not something else. This software will turn heads on the street and set a new bar for communication devices.

Online Relationships -- Healthy or Unhealthy?

I have never heard of online relationships. They seem very weird and probably not very healthy for you. Number one, you can't meet the person in real. Online people act much different and have different qualities. Online someone can be a cool kid, while in real life they are a nerd. It might help kids who are bullied at school, but for normal people it is not OK. I just can't explain why it is OK to date online. You just can't meet the person in real life. I don't know of anyone who has dated online. I don't know how popular it is either. It is also unhealthy, because when you break up you feel bad. Maybe in actual life you would see what a loser the other person is. It is like having a girlfriend as a wall. Don't date online kids!

Parenting, Privacy and Control

It might be a good solution, but kids are going to find a way around it. They only way parents are going to be able to control the internet problem is by taking away their computer. I mean, you would have to block facebook.com and other visited sites. The only way you could contact your friends is by phone. Now there are people who want to contact with their friends online, but don't want other strangers to look at there profile. Unfortunately, on facebook it is hard to do that. There is always a way for people to access your pictures and profile. Kidnapping is getting more and more serious online. People are looking for normally girls to stalk. Someone needs to invent a program that can block stalkers and prevetn kids from being online all day long.

Social Networking -- Keeping in Touch

I think keeping in touch with your friends for teenagers is extremely important. If a teenager would not keep in touch with his/her friends they would be left out. It is the way that kids do this networking that is getting out of hand. Every and all afternoon kids are on chat or facebook contacting their friends. This is making them not be able to do the exercise the kids need. That's why kids are getting fatter. Although, kids don't care about their chores. The only thing they care about is talking with their friends, which is by cell phone and computer. It's just the way it is these days.

Spark Notes. Good or bad?

I like the old school style. You should read every book you can. You become a better writer if you read and understand books. Cheat reading is not good for your future. It is even worse if you cheat in school. Spark Notes will only be helpful if you are gathering ideas for a summary from many websites. I think the boy in the video should feel guilty, because he is using Spark Notes to get his work easier. He should also feel guilty because he turned in a fake assignment. Cheat programs like that should be prohibited in schools. If he feels guilty than he should stop doing it.

Computer at Home

I have my own computer, which is a laptop. The computer in my house are used for communicating. I use the computer for homework, surf forecast, sports news, and fun. My parents use the computer for news and email. I really don't use the computer a lot. I am very active and like to do stuff outside. My both parents use the computer as well as I do. My dad is probably the one who uses it the most. It is different from from radios and TVs, because it has all of those things online. It is like all devices but in one.

Christmas Vacation

cite from: http://wtcampaigns.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/golfcourse.jpg
cite from: http://www.nextgameday.com/foro/attachments/f264/9722d1255803670-baneo-permanente-por-jugar-forza-3-antes-de-tiempo-forza3ban.jpg
Cite from: http://www.lineup.com.au/aus/profiles/mattangelis/images/matt%20surf%203.jpg



I was so ready for a vacation. I could not bare school work anymore. The first couple of days I was a couch potato. A few days later I sent my XBOX 360 to get repaired. I was thinking that it would take a couple of weeks to get repaired, but I was wrong about the service. Microsoft sent me back a whole new console in under a week. I was so amazed about that.
After I got my XBOX 360 back, I played video games for two days straight. I got bored quickly because I had already passed all of the games that I had. My sister was coming down Jan. 1, 2010! So I asked her to bring two games down for me. I asked her for Forza 3 and Call of Duty 4.
During that time wating for the games I surfed. I went surfing 8 days in a row. There was this one swell that was amazing. I caught some of the best waves in my life. The waves were about 8-10 ft high (little scary). There is this one guy that is really cool. He is called Steve. He goes every morning to surf on my beach. I try to go with him, but he just get there too early. He arrives at the beach at 7:30 am. My grandparents arrived from GDL on a Monday. The next day I went with them to look for a condo in Bucerias and Nuevo Vallarta. They are looking to spend one year here. I took my grandpa golfing one day. We played 9 holes, since he can only putt. It is really cool to be around him. I learn so much from him. Finally my sister (Rachel) came with her fiance (Nate). Nate is a cool guy. He likes to snowboard and skate. I got to play my games that day and WOW were they sweet. I played until 2 am that day. I took Nate surfing the next day to La Lancha. He was just learning how to surf, so he tried out the long board. It was really too bad because there wasn't any waves and it was crouded as hell. This was a vacation well spent.