MINI ROLLER COASTERS!

Okay, well as you all know our lovely twelve graders made a truly ah-mazing project. It was (drumroll...)

Making Roller Coasters For Marbles!

I tought about each:
1.JUNGLE! This one was flawless and FAST but it had too much part on the bottom and not that many curves... It wasn't very tall either. It was cool how they had "grass" though.
2.SOCCER FIELD! I loved the idea that a marble lands onto the net and it definetely worked. It is a very good idea and I loved the enthusiasm the presenters showed.
3.CITY BRODWAY!I did't like this one that much because I thought it didn't work very well and It was too simple.
4.CHINA!This one was very very attractive and TALL (OH MY GOD!) and I would TOTALLY go in it, especially if I was looking for an adrenaline rush.
5.CANDYLAND! This one was my personal favorite, since it was very detailed and attractive and great.

Quite-a-Patriot

Is this really why that American man with a deadly weapon is in Iraq?

Today, a respective little retired soldier from the former U.S. Army came by to our English Lit. class. He came in to talk about his experience in Iraq. WOW. His talk was "intense", and all that. He came in with SUCH an atittude, but I'm not sure I liked it. One thing was for sure: he was NOT the smiley-warm type of guy... then again, he's not to blame. Shot a 15 (or so) year old in Iraq. AN INOCENT DUDE! Sadness, sadness, and to think he was proud. I, for one, would NEVER decide to go to a military academy, much less war. His talk was firm. He believed that the Army had done right to invade an irrevelant country. A country who's buisness is their own. Little Mr.Bush made so many mistakes. Okay, Iraq was a little messed up. Yet, the question lingering is what does the USA think it is? Was, should I say? Viva Obama! Viva Iraq! LL Peace! So next time you think of America, don't only think of McDonald's and The Statue Of Liberty. Think of how proud you are that Obama is cleaning up Bush's blood-red mess.

About a girl

Hey! I am going to dedicate this blog post to someone very important: myself! Mr. Mark, my computer teacher has asked our class to make a blog post that has three whole paragraphs about themselves. Right now, I'm not sure what I can say. Well, first of all my name is Fernanda (but people call me Feris). I was born in Mexico City in September. Right now, I live in a small town called Puerto Vallarta. My family and I moved here because my dad works in an offshore marine as the director. Puerto Vallarta is on the Pacific Coast, and it is very different from Mexico City. Here it is humid, hot and surfing, windsurfing, kiting and fishing are common sports. The town is small and there are hardly any buildings, meaning people mostly live in houses. There are plenty of trees and palm trees. In Mexico City, it is cold there are a LOT of buildings, pollution and there are almost no trees. Here (in Vallarta) people usually wake up at 6 or 7 a.m. Kids like me go to private schools from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. We have subjects like English, history, Spanish, computers, art, physical education, science, algebra, health and music. After school we go home and eat at around 3:00 p.m. Common foods include vegetables, salads, meat, fish, chicken, tacos and soups. My favorite food is Japanese, and there are many Japanese restaurants here. During weekdays I do my homework, take tennis and French and I am also on the school play, so I go to rehearsals.

During weekends, I go to the beach, the movies and parties. The last movie that I saw was called "2012" and I tough it was really good. I also saw "New Moon" last Friday. I am a Twilight fan, and of course I was delighted when it came out. I prefer Jacob over Edward because he would never leave Bella alone like Edward did. This weekend we had a break since it was Thanksgiving. During Thursday, we only had school until 12 but for me it didn't count as school since it was only the Talent Show. I was in the Show with two friends called Ximena and Courtney. We sang "Love Me" by Justin Beiber. I had a real fun time doing it, but I was so nervous because the whole school was looking at me. The hardest thing was finding the karaoke version of the song. The best act in the whole show was four male teachers dancing in tight suits to Beyonce's "Single Ladies". I know it sounds crazy, but I guess that's the way we are in Mexico (loud, fun and wild). Well after the talent show, I went to a small restaurant called "Ensaladas y Baguettes (Salads & Baguettes)" and then I went to the grocery store with my sister. On Saturday I made Christmas decorations with my sister and I had SO much fun! I love Christmas, It is one of my favorite holidays. This year, family from all over Mexico is flying in to celebrate it here with us. It doesn't snow, and in fact it is how so Christmas is not what you probably picture. Still, we put on our Christmas tree, we bake turkey and we exchange presents. This year, I asked for a laptop and I'm very excited.

I have a lot of other "favorites". My favorite food is Japanese, my favorite color is pink, the best meal (according to me) is a special rice, my favorite TV Show is Gossip Girl, my most liked book is The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen. My prefered songs are Black Keys, Fly With Me (Jonas) and Unwritten (Natasha Bedingfield). I know it might seem so ordinary, but I LOVE the Jonas Brothers. I just went to their concert in Halloween and got to meet them personally. Seriously, it was a great experience and they have great voices. I can't wait 'till Christmas and I also want it badly to be the 11Th because I am going on a trip to Yelapa, a small island. I am going with a group of girls from this school (Called American School) and a teacher (Miss Teri Jo) who is the coolest person ever! Well, it is almost time for me to go so I have to wrap things up OK? Well bye!

Sound Effects & Projects!!

EFFECTS ♥
The sound effects I used... were mostly made by me. I used many different objects to create them. While I was recording my song, I was in my desk so I used many things that you'll find in most desks. I used a pencil, a pen, a duster, a ruler and a keyboard.
The sound effects I heard... were impressive. Dogs barking, telephones ringing, babies laughing, children crying, people screaming, tapping and many more. I was amazed at the different sound effects.

The PROJECTS
In general, were really good. I liked them a lot and I must admit that some of them really impressed me. There were a couple that didn't really have rythm and disappointed me. The rest had SO much rhythm and were catchy. I liked the ones that I heard at last best. They are still stuck in my head... especially that sound effect that goes PACOOOOO!!

Making a song in Garage Band

Well, for our computers class we were supposed to make a song made up with sound effects in either Garage Band or Audacity. First of all, I had the worst time doing my song... because I started making it in Audacity. The program is old, and the problem was that we only had limited access to sound effects. We could've recorded but the school has a very low budget, or I don't know but we only have five microphones for recording.

Then it snapped, I couldn't use audacity.

So, I'm lucky because I have an imac and so I started using garage band. I recorded most of the sounds using a pen, a duster, the keyboard, my hands and voice. The other ones were loops included in Garage Band. I had an easy time working with it and it was fun. I look forward to working with that project again. Since I had to do it last minute, I'm not so sure it beats everybody else's but it is sure OK. The only thing I would change about my song is that I would speng more time at it to get cooler effects. I'm not sure who will win our own American Idol because I haven't even heard what everyone else is doing.

MUSIC REVIEW

My Group:
Raul: It had a good beat and sounded professional, I liked it!
Sofia: I liked it because it has very good songs and a lot of beat. You can totally dance with it.
Arianne: She didn't make a song.
Paco: Well, this one was very strange and it had wird noises. Yet, it was creative.

My song:
(Look at the post bellow)

MUSIC!

We had to do a music mix-mash up! For me it was fun and frustrating because I didn't have a lot of the music that I wanted but it was fun because I could practically do anything I wanted which was really cool. I look forward to working with different music again!

Typing Reflections

Typing - It's the new writing. Now, us kids in school don't only have to write adequately, but now we have to TYPE in a matter of timing. That is why we do the program calles "Typing Master", which is very old. We always do the same typing tests. We get bored. Despite it all, we do it, we want the grade. And guess what? We have actually improoved. The very first test that I took in the year was the same as the one I took today. Back then my score was 11 Words Per Minute. Today's? 19! That prooves that, boring as this is, it works. I have improoved quite a lot in basically two months. I totally recommend Typing Master

The Best Artifact in 8th Grade

The best artifact in 8th grade is Laura's: http://strawberriezz-laura.blogspot.com/2009/10/future-artifact.html

She has an incredible idea - a car that travels in light years!!!

That would be incredible to have. I like how she brought it all together, I mean her final project is AMAZING. I would definitely like to have the same impressive Photoshop skills as she does, because everything looks very realistic. I totally could picture myself in the location she made.

I would personally love EVERYTHING about this car!!! It would make INCREDIBLE scientific progress... we could probably find extra terrestrials in a matter of years. I am not so sure, tough, if it could exist in my lifetime (I'm 14) because it would have a very advanced technology, although I may be wrong. You never know what scientists have up their sleeves.

My Future Gadget

My future gadget is a very cool new version on the iPhone that turns your iPhone into anything that is basic for life and has a function like your car keys, plane tickets, credit cards, student ID, Movie tickets, scanner, Computer mouse, and Many other things.
Doing this project was actually very easy for me. I Had to pick out an image of the iPhone, which was the one I used for everything. I had to pick out the backgrounds and I had to pick out the screen shots for the iPhone. Then, all I basically had to do was some merging, erasing, typing and revising the imperfect spots. It was a good experience for me and I actually had a good time doing it.

Text Explosion for Photoshop

This tutorial http://fx.worth1000.com/tutorials/161065/text-explosion
gave me the ideas to change some text fonts in my future gadget to make it look more realistic, but I sadly couldn't do the ACTUAL explosion. Still, this tutorial is very nice especially if you want to make a flyer, banner or any sort of thing that has a main word in it because the result is really cool. I recommend anyone who likes photoshop and is still learning how to use it to take a look at this and all the other tutorials on the webpage because they are great.

MERGING

I have just seen some of the tutorials on the website www.worth1000.com and I choose this one: http://fx.worth1000.com/tutorials/160978/merging-drew-and-bouguereau
for my project because I am going to need to know how to merge two pictures (and more)when doing my future gadget in photoshop. In this I learned how to have two pictures put together s and look like one in a very realistic way. This was very interesting.

FAMILY TREE <3

This is my finished family tree.

8th Graders' Social Network Thoughts

After some research, I have figured out that eight graders approve of social networking. But what does that mean? Off course, it means that they use it, but it also means that they consider it a way of communication. Now days it is easier to find a friend in facebook than by any other way of communication. There is no such thing as 'i couldn't pick up' or 'i had no reception'. We all believe that facebook is a great way to share experiences by photos, play competitive games, and have fulfilling conversations. In conclusion, we all know this is not a FAD. We love facebook!

FUTURE GADGET

This artifact is great. It can not only be applied to parking tickets, but to lots of other things too. Like for example, teachers can use it for class attendance. I think that anything that has a touch screen and substitutes paper is great, because aside from saving paper you do not have to carry a whole notebook. Loose strands of paper are harder to keep track of. I already know what i am going to do though, I want to make a small device that has EVERYTHING in it. It can be used as a credit card, an mp3 a phone, a recorder, a computer, a plane ticket. ANYTHING! It is going to be great!

Facebook

FACEBOOK: FAD or Lifestyle?

There has been a relatively new way of communication. People have to argue, of course, is it to stay? Will it change our lives forever, or will it be popular for a few months? General public believes that Facebook is a FAD, but statistics can prove that it is here to stay. The proove is obvious. What technological invention was the first and only to have 100 MILLION users in less than nine months? Facebook, of course.

Facebook is here to stay, and it will change our lives forever. It has everything. People love how, in the snap of their finger, they can have access to their friends. You no longer have to search for ads, they come to you. You can have unlimited writing space. Fcebook is definetely the new lifestyle.

Now that facebok is avaible practically ANYWHERE people can use it anytime. In an airport, in their homes, in a meeting, in the car. YOU NAME IT! Facebook is here and it is here to stay. Facebook is now a basic form of espression and communication in life, and it's BRILLIANT!

(my opinion)

Perfect Tree

This tree is the one I chose because i is very beautiful, and it is wide at the top. I have many Aunts from my mom's side, so this tree will be able to provide me with all that space I need.

Espresso the perfect Italian place: pizza picture

Book Reviews

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/426775.Chasing_Harry_Winston_A_Novel">Chasing Harry Winston: A Novel by http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3490.Lauren_Weisberger">Lauren Weisberger

My rating: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70054354">5 of 5 starsThis book is very special because it teaches women that being single/engaged/in a serious relationship/married is not what you are nor who you are. I loved when the girls realized that there was no way they would find a special someone if they worried about finding them all the time. There is no such thing as a perfect couple, nor a perfect guy. And there is absolutely not a right age to get married. No matter how old you get.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2700019-feeris">View all my reviews >>

Kensao Review

Kensao is one of the best Japanese restaurants in Puerto Vallarta.

There is not only one, but two Kensaos. One is in Plaza Peninsula and the other one is in Galerias. It is a great place because the service is good and the food is delicous. It is usually corwded on the weekends so it is recomended to make reservations, especialy for the Peninsula Kensao. There are a lot of specialities but among those the following are the best: "Gohan Especial", "Ungai Especial", and "Concha Kensao".

If you are looking for a delicious meal Kensao is sure to grant one.

Espresso the perfect Italian place

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Espresso is a small Italian restaurant located at the romantic zone in Puerto Vallarta. It is known for having some of the best pizzas in town and being a nice place to spend a meal. They have a big variety of pizzas and pastas, in which the Markus pizza stands out for being delicious. The wine selection is just great because they have exquisite bottles of many different places. For dessert, the chef makes amazing cakes of different flavors. It is a perfect place to take your family. If you are especially looking for a place with a great environment, this is it. If you go to the Espresso you are guaranteed great service and food. Espresso is THE place in Puerto Vallarta.

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