Balloon Boy

It was October 15, 2009 at 3 o’ clock. I had just gotten home from school and I was flipping through news channels to find some interesting stories for current events. But when I looked through all the channels it was all the same news story. “This just in – there is a 6-year old boy trapped in a giant balloon 2000 feet over Ft. Collins, Colorado.” I was like WHAT!?... I just had to listen to this story.

So on the news reporter went about how this little 6-year old boy climbed into this 20ft wide saucer shaped balloon and floated away in the balloon because the rope holding the balloon down came undone. I was thinking to myself, how could parents not notice the little kid climbing into this crazy balloon? So I had to continue watching this story to see how they were going to get this balloon down from so high up in the sky.

On they went about how getting too close to the balloon with a helicopter would be too risky and how a net would just make it plummet to the ground. So all they were going to do was to let the balloon slowly lose its helium and float gently to the ground. So for the next 45 minutes I watched and filled my dad in on what was happening too.

So after 45 minutes the balloon was falling to the ground near Denver very slowly and rescuers were underneath the balloon ready to catch it and rescue the boy. So when the balloon finally landed 15 minutes later they held down the ropes that came detached, poked holes in the balloon so it couldn’t fly away and were starting to pry open that compartment that the little boy was in.

So finally they opened the compartment, and believe it or not guess what they found in it, NOTHING. I was like huh? You mean I waited an hour and a half to watch a big balloon fly around in the sky. So I quickly changed the channel in disbelief.

Later that night on the Larry King Show, there was an interview with the family about the whole incident, they talked about being worried and how they found the little boy in their attic they happened not to look in. So I thought to myself, oh well I understand why they were so worried… until I heard what the little boy had to say when his father asked him why he was hiding from everyone and didn’t come out when they called him name the little boy responded, “Um…you guys said we did this for the show.”

So now I knew that this isn’t real, although they were on the show “Wife Swap” the little boy would not be talking about that in an interview. So that was pretty much my entire Thursday evening because this story took a while to fully unravel.

The Nobel Peace Prize

In the past week it was announced that Barrack Obama the president of the US has won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Prize committee said it honored Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." And this is my viewpoint about it.

I personally feel Obama should have not won anything; he has been in office for less than a year. The only thing I see he has accomplished is talking with Pakistan and Iran about simple things those two countries could have done by themselves… And another thing is what he did that international in the last 2 months, the only thing I’ve seen him talk about is the Olympics, health care reforms, shortening summer and increasing school years.

Yeah he might of strengthen international diplomacy in Iraq and Afghanistan, but how did we get this far, it was the former president that got us that close with Iraq and Afghanistan Obama just finished up the job and took all the credit for the work. Also we think Obama has done a great job because we have had a not so good president for the last eight years and are used to bad leadership from a former president.

Last year’s winner Martti Ahtisaari won for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts. These efforts have contributed to a more peaceful world and to "fraternity between nations" in Alfred Nobel's spirit. – NobelPrizes Now this man really deserved the Peace prize, he tried to make this world right for over three decades. Obama has been in office for only about nine months, and has accomplished very little. Maybe the Nobel Prize committee looked into the future and saw all he accomplishments in the near future.

Obama isn’t a bad person don’t get me wrong, I think he is a great president and will lead America out of this rescission we are in. He just doesn’t need to earn the peace prize… it could have gone to someone with greater will power, and isn’t doing all those things part and responsibly of his job as the president, to lead our country better and helping others around us? Source

Defiance

Over the weekend I saw the movie “Defiance”, it was a movie about three Jewish brothers trying to survive in a Nazi controlled area in a small forest village they constructed with the help of about 1000 other Jewish families just trying to keep alive one day at a time.

This movie taught me a lot of things, not only to value everyday of your life but to enjoy the freedoms we have every day. There were many ways these three brothers faced hardship every day, they had to feed, shelter and protect all of these villagers in a Nazi controlled area, without being noticed by the outside world, and try to build a strong community as well. One of the main factors that helped the village survive was the help from a nearby camp of Russian soldier’s whose goals were to move in and try to reclaim Nazi controlled areas.

One of the main focuses of the story was getting revenge on the Nazi squad that killed and destroyed the three brother’s family and surrounding Jewish people. They used the help from other people around the area that were non-Jewish to cover up and help hide the village from being spotted. I think it was incredible what these three brothers and a few others could try to stop the Nazi’s from over running the entire area they were in.

Eventually all this resistance would make some attention and it eventually did. A non-Jewish friend of the village had told a Nazi official of their whereabouts. It wasn’t long until a squad of about 20 soldiers had tried to invade the village, but the Villagers were ready to defend, with the motivation of surviving and pulling through they fended all 20 off.

“Hope”, this was one of the words that really gave one of the three brothers to start to regain faith in their village that had been destroyed by a bomber. With their village destroyed and many dead they had lost a lot of hope. Eventually they rebuilt about 10 miles north and held out for the next 3 years. Eventually the war had ended and the 3 Brothers had immigrated to America, to live very successful lives.

I would recommend this movie to many people interested in history of WWII, It gave a good perception of an amazing tale of a family and village with an admission to survive and never give up hope in the others around them.

A - Z Poem

A is for Athletic I love to play sports with friends and always try my best to play sports I like such as football!
B is for Baseball, Baseball has to be one of my favorite sports of all time. I grew up playing it with my cousins and loved it then and still love the game today.
C is for Coca-Cola, It is my favorite drink and the only drink I will drink other than juice.
D is for Drawing, I like to draw many things that mean something to me (present) although I’m not a good one.
E is for Energetic, I am full of energy when not in the classroom!
F is for Friends and Family, I like to hang out with them as much as I can!
G is for Grandparents, They are my favorite part of my life.
H is for Helpful, I love to help others in need. I also like to help people when they are sad.
I is for Intelligent, I always try my best to exceed in my academics.
J is for Joker I am always trying to make others laugh and make people just have that much better of a day.
K is for Kind, I always am kind to everyone I meet and never try to be mean.
L is for Laughter, I am always up for a good laugh with friends. I also like to make other people laugh.
M is for Matt, it is my name.
N is for Nice, I am very nice to people, always trying to help people and make them laugh.
O is for Outgoing, I like to go out of my way to help people and become friends with new people.
P is for Pizza, it is one of my favorite foods. I love its greasiness and taste.
Q is for Qdoba, It is my favorite fast food restaurant, it’s even better then Taco Bell.
R is for Running, for exercise I enjoy to run and workout by running.
S is for Sunny, I love it when it is sunny outside, I feel much better during sunny days then cloudy ones.
T is for Trying; I always give my best effort and am always trying to improve inside and outside the classroom!
U is for US; I am very patriotic and love to represent my country.
V is for Video games, I love to play violent video games because they relieve my stress!
W is for Watermelon, It is my favorite kind of fruit to eat.
X is for Xochimilco, It is one of my favorite restaurants of all time located in Detroit, MI.
Y is for Yellow, it is my favorite color, it also reminds of the summer.
Z is for Zoo, the zoo is my favorite place to go during the summer.