Over Coming Odds #15

Recently I read an article on overcoming odds. This specific article was on how The Arizona Diamondbacks beat possibly the greatest dynasty in the world with some of the greatest baseball players in the game at that time, some who are future hall of famers. This article was published on October 2nd 2006 during the playoffs to recall the events of the World Series that happened in 2001. This story is about that year, 2001 the New York Yankees vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks. This year was special because not only did 9/11 occur the year of this world series but also the man who won the game for the Diamondbacks two different times in the playoffs had overcome an obstacle of his own. Tony Womack of the Arizona Diamondbacks had lost his father early in the season and then had been benched for poor play, but during the playoffs he got his chance. Womack got a clutch hit to send the Diamondbacks to the world series, where they were not favored, they were expected to get crushed in the World Series. The series went all the way to game 7, and thats where it happened. Mariano Rivera perhaps one of the greatest closers of all time was on the mound with a one-run lead. Womack came up to bat with a man on and he smacked a double in the gap on Riveras cut-fastball. The Diamondbacks had tied the game. Later Luis Gonzalez had followed up with a single that knocked in Womack giving the Diamondbacks the World Series. Womacks cluth double is arguably one of the greatest clutch hits of all time. Overall this article made me think about all the people overcoming sports odds as well as people overcoming personal difficulties, exactly what Tony Womack had done.

Walker , Sam. "Baseball's greatest hits: A study in 'clutchness'." 2/10/2009 21 Mar 2009 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06275/726154-63.stm

Love #14

Recently I read an article on the 15 greatest love songs of all time on the rolling stone website. My favorite kind of music is rock and alot of the songs written by rock bands are love songs. Especially in the 80's when alot of the bands wrote power ballads which were usally love songs, such as Poison's Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Whitesnakes Is This Love, and many others by bands such as Bon Jovi, Journey, Boston and Def Leppard. But the Rolling Stone article I read didnt have any power ballads in my opinion. Leading off the list at number 15 was Cream's Sunshine Of Your Love which I think is just a good classic rock song. Some other songs that were on there were one hit wonders such as The B-52's Love Shack and in my opinon The Cures Lovesong. Some other big bands that made the list were Led Zeppelin for Whole Lotta Love, David Bowie for Modern Love and Queen for Crazy Little Thing Called Love. I think this list was exceptional because the songs were not only love songs but they were great rock songs as well.

Wenner , Jan. "Readers’ Rock List: “Love” Songs ." 2/17/2009 21 Mar 2009 http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/02/17/readers-rock-list-love-songs/

Ann Frank

Notes of Ann Frank's Persecution
-Cause: The Nazi's persecuting the Jew's
-Frank and her family went into hiding in July of 1942
-Otto Ann's dad thought of a plan to hide away for awhile with help from his business asscotiates, and friends who were later persecuted as well-Effect
-August 4th 1944 the German police force, The Franks were exported to concentraton camps and were charged as criminals and were sent to punishment Barracks for hard labour
-Otto survived the concentration camp and returned home to find Ann Franks diary, he then had it published
-It is said that Ann died of a disease that spread through the camp

"Ann Frank Diaries."Ann Frank victim of Jewish Persecution and her wartime diaries. Mar. 2009. 16. http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/anne_franks_diary.htm

War #13

I read and article about the heroes of World War II. But more specificly the heroes who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. The Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest award anyone can get in the military there has only been 440 given out 301 of the heroes were in the army, 57 in the navy, 87 in the Marines and only one was a Coast Guardsmen. One specific story is from Battle of the Bulge where my grandpa fought in. But this story is that of Arthur O. Beyer of Mitchell County Iowa. What he did to earn The Congressional Medal of Honor was that he tank-destroyer gunner, and he was held up by enemy troops. So Beyer shot two enemies and escaped attempting to save some of his crew. He was being shot at while trying to rescue them, so he stopped and threw a gerndade in the foxhole full of enemies. He escaped saving his crew, capturing 18 German prisioners and shooting down two machine-gun positions, and two bazooka teams and killing 8 enemies. This was just one story of war heroes and one story of one specific battle. This made me think about my Grandpa and what were his great accomplishments of the war and all the battles he fought in.

http://www.worldwariihistory.info/Medal-of-Honor/

http://www.worldwariihistory.info/Medal-of-Honor/Bulge.html

Colonization #12

Recently I read an article about the coloniation of the Americas. This happened when people first arrived in Jamestown, Plymouth and the other colonies around the eastern half of the United States. First it talks about how England tried to colonize the people when they first arrived in the United States. However when they first arrived it was not known as the United States. The people that began the colonizing were William Penn, Benjamin Franklin and Peter Styruesant. After A while the people who were living in the colonies began to get upset and declare their independence from England. England was mad about that but they recoverd. I can relate this to my history class in seventh grade where we learned about the colonies and how they came to America and how they gained their independence from England.
http://www.harlingen.isd.tenet.edu/coakhist/coloniz.html

Global Issue #11

Recently I read an article about Global Issues, this issue is about the Global Financial Crisis. This article talks about who is in trouble in the economy and what did people and companies and even nations do to go this far in debt. It talks about how this could have been avoided and what companies and nations can do for next time. For example companies with alot of money would soon run out, then they would have to turn to the government for a bail out which would in return weaken the nations economy if this happen often. Also as a result the bigger companies would ask for more money disminishing the countries economy. As an effect of that the nation goes under and the people suffer, they lose their jobs, their house and people have to live on less of everything. A text to world connection I can make is when I was watching the World Baseball Classic in China I noticed that there were not as many people in the stands for such a big event. From this I can infer that the Chinese economy is not doing so well. Overall The Global Financial Crisis has an effect on ones nation and in return has effect on the whole entire world.

Shah, Anup. "Global Issues ." Global Financial Issues. 2 Mar 2009. 8 Mar 2009

http://www.globalissues.org/article/768/global-financial-crisis#Acrisisincontext

4th Of July #10

This week I read an article on the website usacity.com. This article summarizes how America came to its independence from Britain on July 4th 1776. Also it talks about the many ways Americans celebrate, through family gatherings barbeque's, picnics and of course fireworks. What I can relate to this article is what I do for the 4th of July and that is go to my cabin. I usually invite four friends and we all go up to my cabin with my family. Sometimes my friends parents go along with us and spend a day with my family. We stay up there for about three days and always have lots of fun. We also always follow the 4th of July tradition and light off a lot of fireworks. Also I can relate this article to both Chinua Acebe's Things Fall Apart and Kamala Markandaya's Nectar In A Sieve. This can be related because America was being colonized by Britain but we had escaped and became our own nation, and in both novels there is a country trying to colonize them but they could not escape.

"4th of July-Independence Day." Happy Birthday America-Independence Day July-4th . 3 Mar 2009 http://usacitylink.com/usa/

Bollywood #9

I read some articles on Bollywood from the Bollywood news website. The site was designed much like an American pop culture website. I could see the resemblance between all of the websites I have seen from American cultures, actors actresses and all the movie businesses. A article that I read on the site was about the produce Rahman who had almost died while producing part of a movie in America. He recalled it as a near death experience and thought of it as a blessing and how you cannot take life for granted. Also as I read the page I began to see some similarities between the movie Bride and Predjudice and the website. I saw most of the actors and actresses in the movie which lead me to believe that Bollywood uses the actors and actresses alot just like we do in America. A text I can relate this to is reading magazines about the hollywood, this can relate because In my opinon bollywood and hollywood are very much alike, only in other places of the world. http://bollywood.celebden.com/