Summer Reading Blog

Ed Kennedy is pretty much your average person until he accadentally stops a bank robbery.  Then an ace appears in the mail and his life gets turned around. He goes from being an underage cabdriver who is in love with his best friend and owns a coffee addicted dog. To a messenger. Someone who helps other people and makes other peoples lives better. While being a messenger he has to figure who is doing this to him and why. Throughout the book Ed Kennedy learns how to be become a better person by believing in himself.

Ed becomes a better person by meeting new people and helping new people. One of the new people he meets is Milla, an old woman. She is very old and she thinks that Ed is her dead husband. In order to make her feel better he reads stories to her. He also helps a girl win a race. He does thi selling her to run barefoot instead of using running shoes. He also helps a priest fill his chapel by throwing a party. By helping all these people he becomes a better person.

Ed becomes a better person by helping people. This is a good lesson for humanity because sometimes we feel disinclined to help people. By making someone else's day better, we make ourselves better. This is what Ed learns in the book. He is so focused on completeing the messaages that he doesn't realize how much of a better person he has become.

The Brain

The most mysterious part of the body is the brain. Scientists have thought about it for a very long time. Many early scientists had fantastical theories about the brain. Aristotle thought that the brain cooled the fiery heart. They also thought that "animal vapors" swirled around our brain cavities, and through our bodies, making us do what we do. We are now far from that. Carl Zimmer of National Geographic magazine talks about the recent advances in the understanding of the brain.

These scientists are starting to chart its biochemistry, others are looking at one individual neurons. Neurologist Van Wedeen maps out the brain's wiring. He has found a very interesting thing. He has found that the brain, magnified a lot, is completely made out of grids. The structure of it's pathways intersect at right angles. He has shown that even rats and monkeys have the grid structure. Some scientists are skeptical, but he thinks he has discovered something greater. Other scientists at Caltech and UCLA study how the brain takes in what the eyes see by showing people pictures of celebrities. In 2005 they found that one nerve cell fired only when the test subjects were shown pictures of Jennifer Aniston. Studies after this one imply that there are neurons that are only involved in representing one person, place, or concept. This shows how good the brain is at storing information.

These studies would be an extremely big help to humanity. Knowing how the brain works could help save lots of people's lives. This could help people with autism, Alzheimer's disease, or people who have had strokes. This could help people know how the brain works. It could help people know how the brain developed. Although people are figuring out a little bit more, there is still a lot to learn.

I just finished reading the book Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I t is about a kid named Wade Watts in a dystopic future. There is a lot to deal with in reality but Wade has a wayof escaping it. A virtual reality video game called OASIS. Everything is perfect in OASIS. No one knows who you are, any thing can happen. Wade even attends school in OASIS. When the creator of the game dies, his will states that he will have a contest to see who will collect his fortune. The author is trying to teach a lesson. I think that it is face your fears.

Wade's fear in this book is his fear of reality. Wade tries to escape this fear through OASIS. he does this because reality is really bad. Wade decides to shut out reality. Instead of going to real school Wade goes to school in OASIS. Throughout the book Wade learns how to live witout OASIS. At one piont in the book he goes ino seclusion in an apartment and only plays OASIS. He can't hide forever though. In order to win the contest, Wade has to go hack into one of the biggest companies in the world. He can't use OASIS to solve this problem. Wade has to leaarn to face his fear of reality in order to win the contest.

This connects to teenagers. Facing your fears can help in a lot of situations. Sometimes a fear can hold you back from what you want to do like Wade in this book. Wade's fear was very big but small fears can hold someone back too. Being afraid of things can hold you back from completeing your dreams.

Why College Athletes Should Be Paid

Xavier Markowitz

707

College athletes work very hard and create entertainment and money for lots of people but they don’t get a cent for it. The debate over whether college athletes should get paid or not has gone on for some time but there is still no solution to the problem. Some people say that they should be paid a small salary, but other people say that they already are paid through the benefits the schools give them. Since they have no other source of income, college athletes should get a stipend, so they have enough money to live.

One of the main reasons college athletes should be paid is that they don’t have any way to make money. In the article “BCS Player Round Table: Should athletes be paid?” Notre Dame linebacker Ishaq Williams says that, “You can struggle because you don’t have time to work, to have a job.” Because the practice and games take up so much of their time, the players can’t work a job. In his article, “Why College Athletes Should be Paid,” Tyson Hartnett, an entrepreneur, writer, and former professional basketball player says that “Contrary to what all the opponents believe, being an athlete is a full-time job. On a typical day, a player will wake up before classes, get a lift or conditioning session in, go to class until 3 or 4 p.m., go to practice, go to mandatory study hall, and then finish homework or study for a test.” As you can see, the athletes have no time to have a job.

The NCAA, schools, and coaches are making millions, while the athletes don’t get a cent. Jonathan Mahler is a sports writer for the Bloomberg View. In his article, “College Athletes Should be Paid This Much,” he says that “The new College Football Playoff will be better in every way...There will be more games which means more revenue for the schools and the NCAA .The playoff series will generate on the order of 480 million a year, compared to the meager 170 million for the BCS. Everybody wins! Or, almost everybody. The athletes who are going to make college football more popular and more lucrative than it has ever been won’t earn a penny.” Mahler is saying that even though there is a new and improved system and the athletes are going to play more games than before, they are still not going to get any money for what they do.  The athletes are getting nothing from the occupation that takes up so much of their time.

Now, because they don’t have any way of making money, they take matters into their own hands. A lot of athletes have tried selling their used jerseys or autographs to fans. Chris Beck, who was a former collegiate athlete, wrote an article about college players called “College Athletes Should Get Paid: Here’s Why”. He writes about a lot of players in who tried to make money off memorabilia. One of these is A.J. Green who tried to sell one of his used game jerseys. He was suspended for four games. I think Chris Beck included this in his article because it shows that instead of helping them, the NCAA has punished the athletes for trying to put a little money in their pocket.

People arguing against college athletes being paid say that the players get endorsement for being on the team. Jeffrey Dorfman of Forbes magazine says that “they are essentially paid already because they receive free tuition, room, meal plans, some money for books...academic counseling, tutoring, life skill training, and even even nutritional advice.” Tyson Hartnett says “A $25,000 scholarship may seem like a lot of money, but it really only covers the basics. It covers thousands of dollars in mysterious, unknown university fees,... housing, a meal-plan and multiple hundred-dollar textbooks.” As you can see, most of the scholarship goes back to the school through fees they have to pay. Even though the players get pretty amazing things like academic counseling and life skill training, they are struggling to make ends meet.

The athletes should be given a stipend to compensate for what they give to the team. Tyson Hartnett agrees with me when he says that each should be paid 2,000 over the course of the semester. If the NCAA and the schools can make millions off of these kids then why can’t they? With not enough money for basic necessities, the athletes sometimes try to make some money for themselves with autographs and memorabilia. Then they get punished for just trying to get a couple bucks for laundry money. It is unfair to these kids to make them live in just over the poverty line while others make millions. College athletes should be paid so this doesn’t happen.

We just finished reading Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. It is about a middle schooler named Steven Alper. Everything is normal in Steven's life, he has a little annoying brother, named Jeffery,who adores him. Like any other teenager, Steven is always focused around himself. If Jeffery tries to get some of that attention, Steven is furious. But when, *plot twist* Jeffery gets cancer, Steven has to start paying a little more attention to the little brother he had hated just a month earlier.
Steven changes drastically throughout the course of the book. He goes from self-centered moron, to a kind and openhearted young man.

When Jeffery gets made fun at school for being bald, he gets really upset. Normally Steven would be really sarcastic and say something like " Get over it,". Instead, he shaves his entire head to make Jeffery feel better. Another time Steven changes is when he is doing his big end of the year concert. Halfway through, Jeffery gets really sick and has to go to the hospital. Steven leaves his concert to accompany Jeffery to the hospital. These two examples show that Steven gave up things that were important to him in order to help Jeffery.

I think this book is trying to teach multiple lessons. Steven learns these lessons when Jeffery gets sick. I think two of these lessons are maturity and selflessness. Most teenagers are not very mature, but with only a little bit of it, conflicts can be solved easily. Selflessness is helpful in life because selflessness and kindness are linked together. You can easily make friendships if you are selfless and kind.

I am reading House of Hades by Rick Riordan. This series is about Greek and Roman myths that come to life in the modern world. At the beginning of the series the seven protagonists are given a quest. They must overcome the challenges of Greek and Roman enemies that stand in their way. Throughout all the books I saw one major theme that the author tried to say. The theme is that teamwork makes reaching goals easier.

One way the author shows the theme, is that he incorporated it into the prophecy that the protagonists have to follow. One line of it is foes bear arms at the Doors of Death. What this line means is that enemies must work together to close the Doors of Death. Another example of teamwork is when the godess Hecate and Hazel, one of main characters, have to battle a giant. They have to work together and use magic to defeat him.

Many people overlook the power of teamwork. Most teenagers do exactly that. We are inclined to try to solve problems on our own. Sometimes if a problem is too big we get frustrated. With someone helping, a little of the pressure can be taken off of our shoulders. Hazel was very stessed about the fight with the giant throughout the book. She became more confident when she learned someone was helping her.

I am reading The Snake Charmer by Jamie James. It is about Joe Slowinski who was a very intelligent snake expert. The blurb on the back says it is about his final expedition in the forests of Burma. After I was a couple chapters in I realized that the book was a biography of his life. I flipped through the book and saw that about 150 pages in, the big conflict starts. Each chapter of the book is sort of little story from a part of his life.  I chose a certain story from when he was 16.

This story is focused on the my book club's inquiry question which is, how does the character deal with and overcome the conflict in the story. When Joe is going on a special trip to dig for mammoth bones, him an his dad stop for thee night at a campsite. As his dad goes out to get Joe decides to go wildlife hunting and uncovers a rock with a rattle snake underneath it. The snake jumps up and bites him on the hand. Joe tries to get help but no one will listen. He ends up walking two miles to the nearest ranger station. I think this is a good example dealing with a conflict because how he perservered. How a person deals with a conflict is a good way to see character traits. Most people would would panic after being bitten by a snake, but Joe calmly tried to find help. This shows that he is brave. Also, after this incedent, Joe goes on to become a snake specialist, which also shows that he very brave.

This could relate to teens saying how they could become more brave. This book can show people how to keep going. Joe's has bravery and conflict sewn throughout his life story. If we are struggling with something like bullying, be brave. This book is very good at that. It shows how to deal with a conflict.