Reflecting back….

Reflect on what you have learned this year in class?

English class has taught me so much throughout this year. It seems as though every we had a load of homework to do in and out of class. The books we have read and the assignments we had defiantly improved almost every aspect of my English. When I compare the writing I did in the start of the year to now it is amazing at the the progress I have made. My grammar, sentence fluency, vocabulary and overall flow has taken a huge improvement to when I started sophomore year. My rewarding ability’s have also improved dramatically to how they were. Through the discussions and group presentation I’ve been able to improve my public speaking and preparation. I hope to continue to improve my writing and carry on what you’ve taught me to my new school in Australia.

How to Use Torrents

First off What are torrents?

A torrent is a small text file associated with specific content. When a torrent is opened in a bittorrent program it sets up communications so that transfer of the associated content begins. The transfer of the content is done using the bandwidth of the active users on the torrent.

How do they work?

A torrent file and posts the link to it on a public tracker site. The torrent is like a map for where to download the file from. You could be getting the file from anywhere in the world.

What Programs?

For Mac: Transmission, Vuze and For PC: Bittorrent, Utorrent and many more.

What Websites?

http://thepiratebay.org/top

www.mininova.org/
www.isohunt.com/
www.torrentreactor.net/
www.torrentz.com/
www.torrent-finder.com/

Sizes of files

· 1024 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
· 1024 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte

In the Torrent world the content is divided like so.

-28.7% movies
- 22.8% music (I’m guessing mostly whole albums and compilations)
- 16.9% tv-shows
- 8.1% games
- 7.3% software
- 5.8% anime (why is this separate than pictures and movies?)
- 5.6% books
- 4.0% other
- 0.9% pictures

Is this even legal?

Torrents themselves are not illegal. They are simply small files that help a BitTorrent client connect to a tracker and find peers to download files from. Nor is downloading stuff using torrents necessarily illegal. The BitTorrent protocol is a legitimate way to distribute large files without straining a server too much. It is used for legal software like Linux distros and OpenOffice, as well as some public domain music and videos.

What Do You LOVE??

Love can mean a lot of different things. It took me a while of thinking of something that I really do love. So many likes out their that its hard to decide what love is. I didnt want this post to be about the obvious thing I loved like my family, friends and my dog Jenny. So I narrowed it down to my top 5 active things I love! Basketball, snowboarding, bodyboarding, skating and sleeping! From their I just chose the most interesting to readers. Which in my opinion would be bodyboarding.

Some of you might ask “what is bodyboarding?” So let this video give you an idea.

Its hard to describe the feeling you get while bodyboarding. Its not just riding on the wave its the whole experience of it that I really enjoy. The sand, sun and warm water. If the water is cold forget about going in. In Bali Indonesia the water is like a bath and the waves are perfect everyday. Getting through the waves and getting out their is more then half the battle. Catching a good wave makes everything worth it. Getting a barrel or doing a perfect 360 feels awesome! Overall its something I feel very passionate about and hope to do a lot more of!

Classmates Blogs!

This blogs is basically a review of three of my classmates blogs. These classmates are Billyp12, Sharony12, and Jessicac12.

First off is Billyp12.

http://billyp12.wordpress.com/

The thing that Billyp12 stood out that most in is that he has a very unique style of writing. He has a very laid back type of style. Billy tends to use slang words such as WTF, straight up and many more. Although these things may seem to make it a little too informal, I believe that this adds a lot more humor to the subjects he is talking about. The main reason I would recommend people to subscribe to this blog is because of his funny topics and such a down to earth type of style.

Next Sharony12.

http://sharony12.wordpress.com/

The most unique thing about Sharons blog was the topics she chose. Most blogs seem to focus on a certain subject and usually do not stray too far off of it. However Sharon seems to be very random and spontaneous with her blogs making them about any topic she feels. This can make for a very interesting and fun subscription. Another positive thing about her blog was how she adds photos along with her blog to strengthen the impact of the blog. Overall the blogs Sharon has uploaded have captured my attention and I strongly recommend checking her blog out!

Last but not least! Jessicac12.

http://jessicac12.wordpress.com/

The blogs Jessica has done are a great mix of school and her personal life. Jessica manages to fit in some entertaining things even with some of the educational blogs. The topics she uses are very unique and is defiantly a good blog to subscribe to. Her personal opinions stand out the most in this blog showing her unique style of writing!

School is Cool

There are plenty of cool things I learn at school everyday. So far this year the coolest thing I have learned has been from speech and debate. Although speech and debate may not be a core class and also may not be the most interesting class, I believe the things I learn in that class will help me in the future the most. Speech ad debate class has really helped me become a better public speaker and a more outgoing person. Most classes we are all doing some sort of speech, improvisation or debate. Now most of you may think “how is making 5 minute speeches cool?” well honestly I hate them. I almost always get nervous before presenting anything publicly. The best way of getting over this stage fright is to practice, practice, practice!! The less nervous I am before a speech the better I usually do, so once I get over that nervousness my public speaking will improve drastically.

Butteryass Mondays Video Response

I stumbled across this video on a popular skateboarding site called The Berrics. The Berrics is basically a bunch of pro skateboarders who own a skate park warehouse and run a site that uploads videos of other pro skaters. This video is a series that comes out every week basically showing you how to do something. Donovan Strain is his name and he does have black accent although he is white.

This is hands down my favorite video he has uploaded. The way he starts out with only five dollars and ends up with. Some of the things he does in the video may be illegal but they are all great ideas and are really original. Using pawn shops, news paper advertisement and dollar stores he is able to spend a day at the zoo and a night with his girl. This guy is a true hustler!

English Related Blog Post: Dracula Comparison

Today’s blogs post will be related to what our English teacher Ms. Patterson assigned to read. The book is “Dracula” by Bram stoker, we were assigned to read the alternative text of the book and then write how it compares to Stokers original work. After reading both texts I realized how different they actually are. The alternate version of the book gives a lot more simple words and seems to be a lot easier to read then

Hey guys!!!, Unfortunately I’m doing another school post about Dracula. In our English we were insisted on reading this alternate text and make a comparison with the original text of Dracula by Bram Stoker. Overall the alternate text and the original text is extremely different. While reading the alternate text I thought that this gives more enthusiasm, excitement and  fear than the original text. I also found Gothic elements used, architecture and settings were both used in the introduction. In my opinion I believe that the teenagers reading Dracula today would not find much fear while reading the book however, the alternate text shows more fear and excitement. In the alternate text Gothic themes such as death and settings were shown to make the text a bit more interesting.