Nola Redd asked:
After hearing a number of people recommend Shannon Hale’s The Princess Academy, I couldn’t resist trying it out myself. I found it to be a delightful read, perfect for children and young adults, and rather engaging even for us ‘big people.’ More than your average fairy-tale, the novel creates a protagonist that exceeds the usual boundaries.
The premise of the novel is fairy-tale typical. When the priests of Danland determine that the prince’s bride will come from the slopes of Mt. Eskel, an academy is set up to permit potential brides to learn the knowledge and manners of the court. Young Miri is one of the twenty girls taken from the quarry-rich village down the mountain. As she learns more about life beyond what she has yet experienced, she finds herself struggling with her desire to marry the prince. She wants to help her family to have a better life, but she also loves her home and does not wish to leave. When bandits capture the school, Miri must use not only her book knowledge but also the knowledge she has gained about herself to rescue herself and her friends.
Although the novel has a fairy-tale premise, Hale goes beyond the simple story and creates three dimensional characters that are both realistic and engaging. The headmistress appears cruel and overly harsh, but by the end of the novel we recognize her motivation. Miri’s desire to “marry the prince” and leave he rhumble home is both typical and human, but she also struggles with her love of Mt. Eskel. And though the motivations of one of the more spiteful girls is rather psychologically typical - bad childhood and all that - it is also presented in a credible light that makes it not completely trite.
What I most enjoyed about this novel, however, was the way that Miri uses the knowledge gleaned from the academy not just to acquire a husband, but instead to improve life for her village and her family. Through her studies and desire to read, she finds that the villagers have long been cheated, and uses that information to improve life for all. When she realizes that her older sister and the boys (and even the parents!) also wish to learn, she sets up an academy in her village so all can study. In doing so, she teaches young readers that even children have power to apply what they learn, if they but seek it; that knowledge and study both have real-world applications and can make life better now instead of just ‘after graduation.’ The young women are empowered by their mind and by exploring and expanding on their natural gifts and talents, and these are the things that really matter.
In short, rather than just being a fairy tale where the prince is astounded by beauty, The Princess Academy encourages young adults - especially young women, who are the most likely target audience - to apply themselves and to seek benefits from that application now rather than later. Between this premise and the engaging and excellent writing style that makes the story live in the reader’s mind, this is a book I would recommend to anyone.
Stephen Condren asked:
The first day of Juarez Unido Day is called the Renaissance. Juarez Unido Day is a homeroom day when school is scheduled for a half day schedule once a month. During the second part of the half day students work with their homeroom teachers on test preparation and other activities to give academic direction to the students. Homeroom, or Division as it is called in other CPS schools, is the class where enrollment and attendance are taken as well as the distributed of other pertinent material and information for the students. The time length of homeroom during regular schedule is approximately 15 minutes.
The school was decorated festively with ribbons and balloons all over the patio and cafeteria. There was free soda pop and food for the students outside on the patio. There was even a disc-jockey ready with good music to hear that all the students enjoyed. In the center of the cafeteria inside the building was a large cluster of tables with school clubs that students could join. The displays where beautifully set up and many student volunteers were available to help students decide what clubs were best suited to them. One of the purposes of the Renaissance Day is to encourage students to get involved in school activities and programs.
Juarez Academy is a High School that is part of the Chicago Public Schools. The school celebrates with pride the ethnic background of the Hispanic community. Not far from Jaurez Academy is the Mexican Museum of Fine Art which works closely with the school offering diverse programs for the students as well as a cultural out reach for the community.
There are approximately 1,600 students at Juarez most of which are of Hispanic heritage. The students are polite, courteous, and well mannered. Often you are offered food and drink by students at this event to make you feel part of the community. The spirits in the school runs high this time of year when students come back and see their friends and prepare to study.
Over the years Juarez’s scholastic standing has been on the rise due to the vision of their Principal, Mr. Natividad Loredo. Together with his Assistant Principals: Dr. Carmen Cruz, Dr. Richard Gelb, and Mr. Juan Ocon, Juarez students are scoring higher on standard achievement tests, higher on grades, and higher on college entrance. Further, working with Mr. Manuel Medina, Officer of Languages and Culture of the Chicago Public Schools, the school has become a center for cultural events, social enrichment, and learning.
Benjamin Chin asked:
The Air Force Academy inducts 1,300 cadets each year, and the competition to become an Air Force Academy cadet is fierce. Cadets are selected for strong academics, athletics, character, and demonstrated leadership ability.
However, it takes more than a 4.0 GPA to get into the Academy. Cadets must also meet certain minimum physical requirements, such as an 8 minute timed run on the mile, the ability to cover 50 miles with a heavy backpack, and several other stringent requirements. However, this article isn’t about those requirements. It’s about the some of the more challenging ones to meet.
No Air Force Cadet ever gets into the Academy without a good letter of referral; these letters of referral should come from people prominent in your community, such as your pastor, your high school teachers, employers you’ve worked for and the leaders of any volunteer organizations you’ve belonged to. They should focus on your strength of character, your work ethic, and your ability and willingness to go to extreme efforts to help others, and to accomplish difficult tasks.
You will also need an appointment letter. Every US Congressman and US Senator is allowed to make five appointments per year, as are the US President and Vice President. Additional nomination slots are available for the children of career military personnel, the children of veterans killed or disabled in the line of duty, and the children of Congressional Medal of Honor winners. The admission process is difficult and lengthy. Most students considering an Academy appointment should start making preparations for it during their junior year of high school.
What stops most candidates who get through the initial academic screening is weak letters of recommendation. It’s worth your time to try and contact other Academy inductees to see what they went through to get into the Academy. If you’re weak on the academics, there are programs that you can take that will instill strong study habits in you, including rigorous time management techniques and more.
Even if you have good academic scores, you’ll want to improve your study techniques. All of the service academies demand not just a rigorous course in engineering, but that every student participate in at least one sporting endeavor, while also working through leadership and character-building exercises. Solid study skills are an essential component to not flunking out of the Academy.
However, the swing vote on getting an Appointment to the Academy is almost always the letters of recommendation and the personal essay by the candidates. Academic grades, and standardized test scores tell how well a student is at taking tests and following instructions, but it’s the essays and the letters of recommendation that show the leadership and character that the Academy is looking for. Candidates with excellent letters of referral and weak academics have a better chance of getting in than candidates with strong academics and average referral letters.
Cindy Marcus asked:
The 78th Annual Awards is a great gala of great looking celebrities. Everyone is dressed their best and have some of the hottest hairstyles. We will take a quick glance at some of the hottest looks for male and female nominees. We start with the best female celebrity hairstyles and there are a huge selection to chose from.
Lets start with two England stars Rachel Weisz and Keira Knightley, two great actresses. Rachel Weisz’s tie back chignon style was very sleek and tight. The hair is brushed up and arranged smoothly as to present her ****** area with much distraction. A very cute look with complex tie back. Keira Knightley’s look is quite different with split bangs and a pony tail. The hairstyle is not as elegant as the one from “Pride and Prejudice” but is still beautiful. Now we go to great blond hairstyles presented by some of the bigger names. Charlize Theron presented two great looks, the first one before presentation with split hair and crunches all around. Her second look during presentation was with split bangs and a very elegant updo. Reese Witherspoon is as usual with a very great hairstyle to match her homely nature. Her simple elegant updo presents a southern touch similar to her “Sweet Home Alabama” hairstyle. Two hot divorcees that any man would be more than happy to pickup include Jennifer Anniston and Nicole Kidman each with simple, flowing hairstyles slightly sweeped on one side. Both are great looks that are not too fancy. Jada Pinkett Smith shows a very sexy, sleek hairstyle that is sweeped to one side with a simple tie back as well. There are many more hot looks as well. Now lets name those women’s hairstyles to avoid. I found Dolly Parton’s hairstyle that only she can pull off and definitely no one else should even try. Jessica Alba and Amy Adams both had updos that were not as flattering to their face. Both were not done well and too high for miss Alba’s. These hairstyles could have been done better.
When it comes to the male celebrity hairstyles, there are a variety of great looks. We start with Jake Gyllenhaal who had a very clean, hairstyle that did not match his slight beard growth. Luke and Owen Wilson presented two very different looks during their presentation. Luke presents the sleek, clean hairstyle while Owen has the wild long hair. Although Owen has done his hair better at other events, they both have descent hairstyles. Now on to the male hairstyles that were not so appealing. Tim Burton is a crazy guy and so is his hairstyle. Most guys should try to avoid this look. Also, Heath Ledger’s was just not his best look. With so many prior great looking hairstyles, this one is just not a good one. This hairstyle was more sloppy and just not as appealing. One look that really surprised us was Tom Hank’s long hairstyle that just did not seem to fit him. The look was more fitting on Tom Cruise but just not as fitting on Mr. Hanks which shows long hairstyles are not great on all guys.
Well this concludes the quick run down on Academy Award hairstyles. Until the next major celebrity event, keep your eyes peeled on those movies and big names in them.
Mario Octavianus asked:
La Masia is the heart of Barcelona youth system, which located next to the Camp Nou Stadium. It was established in 1979 and now used to develop the young players that have had to leave their families in order to train at Barcelona both in a sporting and intellectual sense.
Apparently they have a total of approximately 260 youth players learning their trade here - Ninety percent of them are Spanish and more than 50 percent Catalans. In fact the current Barca team have 12 first team players who have come from the academy.
There are several youngsters that had lived at La Masia have gone on to play for the first team, such as Josep “Pep” Guardiola (academy years 1984-90), Ivan De la Peña (1991-94), Carles Puyol (1994-98), Andres Iniesta (1996-2001), Víctor Valdes (1996-2000) and Lionel Messi (2000-04).
Pep was touted as La Masia’s greatest product. A charismatic player who played 43 caps for Spain and won a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He led the club to six La Liga titles, one Champions Cup in 1992 and two Spanish Cups.
Puyol, a native Catalunyan, is the club current skipper and heading towards his 250th game for the club.
However not all the graduates of La Masia established themselves at Barcelona and some have moved to other clubs to advance their careers.
These have include de la Pena, Luis Garcia, Jose Manuel Reina, Mikel Arteta, Gerard Pique, Cesc Fabregas and Albert Luque.
Fabregas, also a native Catalunyan, was persuaded by Arsenal manager’s Arsene Wenger for a brighter and better-paid future at Arsenal, and so it has proved since he joined the Gunners as a 16-year-old boy in September 2003.
Piqué also has been snapped up by Sir Alex Ferguson to strengthen his team. He is a defender who not only good for his defensive skills but also gets forward and scores.
John Escribar asked:
USAFA Soccer Team is a part of the athletic team of the academy. Many schools and state colleges include the sport soccer as part of their athletic curriculum. This curriculum aims to provide students not only academic knowledge but as well as physical fitness.
The United Air Force Academy is one of the colleges which provide this curriculum. The academy is one of the colleges which are accredited to provide education for officers of the US Air Force. As part of its fitness program, all cadets are required to take part in the schools athletic program. Because of the nature of work of the cadets in the Air Force, physical and mental fitness is of great importance. A fitness test is also regularly conducted in which cadets must pass otherwise they will be required to undergo reconditioning until they are able to pass.
The physical education program requires that all the cadets of the academy must undergo a course in any sport activity such as swimming, boxing, basketball, tennis, golf and soccer. This program will help them in developing their confidence, sportsmanship as well as their physical endurance.
Soccer is one of the cadet’s favorite courses in the physical education program. A regular tournament is held as cadets from the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps compete with each other to find out who among them are the best in soccer. The USAFA soccer team was among the best teams. They were able to beat other cadet teams which have won them the gold during the 2008 Soccer Tournament.
Joshua Fuson asked:
Home Business Success Academy (HBSA) is a training organization for home business entrepreneurs, network marketers, and retail business owners. Founded in 2008 with the goal of providing top-tier training to marketers and entrepreneurs world-wide, they have gotten much notoriety for their blunt style and cutting-edge direct response marketing and education.
However, not everyone is a fan of the HBSA - in this brief article, we’ll review the good, the bad, and maybe even the ugly of becoming an HBSA student.
Let me be up front in saying that I have a vested interest in the HBSA. That said, I think I can be objective enough to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the organization.
HBSA - The Good
The HBSA is direct and to-the-point. One of the good things about becoming an HBSA student is that all the staff have a very direct style. The education itself is very meat-and-potatoes - the attitude is “here is what works, now go and do it”. They don’t necessarily provide a lot of “motivational” or “feel-good” information, which is nice sometimes. However, in network marketing, there is plenty of feel-good information, and the education provided is very effective.
It mainly focuses on prospecting, closing, and using online marketing sequences to target interested prospects. They talk about Web 2.0, copy writing, and other marketing tools. It’s a neat curriculum.
HBSA - The Bad
For starters, HBSA is definitely not for people who want to get rich quick. They state repeatedly that growing the skills to develop a successful business take some time, and that the only people who get rich quick are lottery winners. They are also pretty hard on hype - they don’t like exaggeration, and they support many of the FTC regulations that affect the network marketing industry.
Their training is also not cheap - their training packages run into the thousands of dollars. There are some substantial guarantees that are included, which is nice.
HBSA - The Ugly
The only really ugly thing about HBSA is their refund policy - in order to get a refund, you have to either return your training package within a week of getting it, or you have to actually use the training and apply it to qualify for their guarantees. However, they state this up front, so it’s not in any fine print. The only time it will be an issue is if someone enrolls and then decides they don’t want to work their business any more.
To sum up, if you are anything less than dedicated to your success as an entrepreneur and self-sufficient marketer, then hiring the HBSA would not be a good move. On the other hand, if you are serious about your business, want to learn how to become pro-level marketer, and are willing to work for success, then the HBSA would be a great asset.
Jennifer Boss asked:
Why waste your time on endless shopping tours trying to find perfect costume looking for kids homemade Halloween costume ideas. The fact is that kids like funny, simple costumes, they like them to be effective and not necessarily very expensive. So if you find yourself in financial difficulties or just don’t want to spend way to much money on costume this year this is how you can save some money and still make a cool costume for your kid.
One way is to dress them up as boxes of Popcorns, all you need is one large box covered with white butcher paper, than you need to add red stripes to make it look like a popcorn box. Off course don’t forget to make a hole for your child’s head, glue some popcorns to the top of the box and you are done.
The weirdest idea is to make old and a bit shabby ideas interesting. You can dress them up into ghosts, but not an ordinary sheet with a single hole for the head and arms. Dress up you little ghost a little with adding some make up and maybe some hair, put on high heals and you get a better and improved version of your old white sheet.
Quasimodo is one of the simple costume ideas. All you need is some foam or a cardboard to build a hunchback. The rest can be easily found in every closet, find some old, worn out clothes, which is several sizes bigger.
The cutest idea for the kids homemade costume idea ever must be a Bag of Jellybeans, and it is quite simple as well. You need one plastic bag, make an opening at the neck for the head, and the legs are fed through small holes cut in the bag. The final step is to fill the interior of the bag with small balloons. They will look adorable in this costume.
Ever heard of a cereal killer? The one lurking the streets on the Halloween!
No? Then follow the instructions, you attach cereal boxes to a shirt, cut a slit in them, glue some plastic knives into the holes, and drip some red paint down the holes in the box, and beware.
And the last will have to be Rubik cubes, or just regular dice. All you need is a large card board box, five different colors, for the dice you only need two, and start painting.
So whatever your choice might be, don’t forget to have fun and get your kids involved in created kids homemade Halloween Costume.
Caroline Mackay asked:
One year everyone at our school was tired of doing Red Ribbon week. They felt that they were being asked to do too many things so they sort of boycotted the whole idea. My class really wanted to do something and I did also, but I didn’t want to have to do too much because time was short. We came up with an idea that the students could help with and would take very little time.
Using the dye cutters that we had in our work room we made up saying that had to do with drugs. Using a roll of colored butcher paper we chose a different color for each saying and made a large hand made sign with the saying on it. Then each student signed their dye cutter item and taped it to the sign.
The students helped to come up with the sayings and were encouraged to find positive sayings as well as negative sayings. Here are some of the ideas, but we were only able to use five of them because there were only five days in the week.
Give Drugs the Boot, you can use brown paper to dye cut a boot. Have a Ball Without Drugs, use white paper and dye cut a ball, then let the students decorate their ball. Stomp our drugs, use and color paper and dye cut a foot print. Give Drugs the Slip, use yellow paper and dye cut a banana. Sock it to Drugs, you can cut out a sock and have the students decorate the sock and use any color. Drugs are Unbearable, dye cut a cute little Teddy Bear and have the students decorate or color it and use brown paper.
Say Boo to Drugs can have a ghost dye cut in white paper. Drugs hurt, you can dye cut a band aid and have the students put in the dots and sign it. Walk out on Drugs or Drugs are Sneaky and dye cut a tennis shoe or sneaker in a variety of colors. Leave Drugs Alone, you can cut a leaf in a variety of colors and have the students color and sign.
If these are not enough ideas then go into your dye cutters and see what you have and then make up your own saying or better yet have the students make up their own sayings.
The students can paint the sign and have fun doing it.
The rest of the story is that after my class decided they wanted to do it the rest of the school decided to do it with us because it was simple and easy to do.
Keith Allen asked:
Not long after earning and receiving Service Status, I was chosen by my Family Representative for a special opportunity and learning experience. Approached by Mr. Chaffin Pullan, I was asked to help a student, Norine Lopez, by joining her and five other students on a trip to an Indian Sweat Lodge. Two weeks later we were on our way to live and to learn.
I was excited and timid all at the same time. I had known of and spoken to very few of the six girls who were going. Together we joined as one, as sisters, as true bonded, and strong friends. We all have similar struggles with our Dads, having felt lonely and very selective in our relationships. One experience changed my life - the car ride down involving conversation about past problems, embarrassing and funny moments. We didnʼt have a care in the world, except ourselves, and what was next down the road. When living at home we thought we knew everything. If we didnʼt know everything or know what to expect we wanted nothing to do with the situation. However, we experienced just that, the unexpected.
The sun set beautifully over the Idaho Mountains as we arrived at the Lodge. It felt like a mini-family reunion with the love and open hearts eager to meet one another. The next morning I woke up with the sunshine peering in through the opening of the canvas tepee. The sweet smell of breakfast pinched my nose with the promised mouth-watering taste of french toast, bacon, fresh fruit and fresh squeezed orange juice. The rest of the day was a challenge. We learned how to make fire with a flint and steel, tomahawk throwing, shooting a bow and arrows in an attempt to hit the bulls eye. To my surprise an attempt is, and always can be, a winner.
We had taken up a days worth of listening, learning and doing. It was now the time to feel, and the sweat did just that as we opened up to our spirituality of choice and allowed new and insightful chants and stories from the heart be shared within our circle of family. I felt my fears, struggles, happiness, and pain all over my body. I allowed myself to let go of and forgive my mistakes and blame. It got better as I allowed myself to receive and acknowledge all that I have brought, will bring and will share on this earth. Through allowing myself to let go and help myself I unconsciously give to others. Norine has continued to be one of my good friends who I know in my heart I can always count on, and she can count on herself. She is flourishing like the beautiful butterfly and young woman she is.
Iʼve learned that sometimes all someone needs is love and support to allow them to break out and show their true colors. My journey to and from the Sweat Lodge really opened my mind and eyes to what I do have and how much I took for granted, and sometimes still do. No one word can describe the power and feeling I received from the Sweat Lodge. To this day I still refer back to that experience last August. Not just because it was a fun experience, but also because I allowed myself to be re-born through purity and growth as a young woman of Mother Nature.
Iʼd like to thank my mom, Mr. Chaffin, Ms. Amy, Grey Wolf, Grey Owl, our awesome Staff, Ms. Julie and her daughter, Jessica, along with my five other sisters, and last but not least Iʼd like to thank me. I want to acknowledge our effort to want to change and help one another as a growing family.