R = Eight People To Emulate

1.      Rainn Wilson - He is definitely one of the funniest people on TV and he is a star on one of my favorite shows; The Office. Also he is able to easily make fun of himself, a trait I feel we all should possess.
 
2.      Rajon Rondo - Even though I am not a Celtics fan I still greatly admire Rondo. He is an extremely talented Basketball player and you can tell that he give 110% every game.  

3.      Ralph Fletcher - Growing up Fletcher was one of my favorite authors. All of his books are fantastic and really who can't love Fig Pudding and Flying Solo, they are classic books. 
4.      Rafael Nadal - He is a very talented tennis player and even though I don't play tennis he is still an inspiration. He has been able to be the best player in tennis for many years and that really shows his dedication and determination.
5.      Ryan Fitzpatrick - Fitzpatrick is one of my favorite players on the Buffalo Bills. I emulate him because he is the only player in the NFL to wear his wedding ring while playing. This shows how much he loves his wife and I feel like that is something to try to copy.
6.      Ringo Starr - Not only was he the drummer for one of the greatest bands of all time but he was also the mastermind who wrote one of the Beatles best songs ever; Yellow Submarine and really, who doesn't love that song.
7.      Reggie Miller - Growing up he was always overshadowed by his older sister but he worked very hard and made it to the NBA. Once Miller was in the NBA he had many great seasons and plays, including all his huge games against the Knicks. Miller really showed that hard work pays off.
8.      Robert Carpenter - Rob is my cousin but I emulate him because of the fact that he is in the army. I do not intend to join the army but it is very inspiring knowing that one of my family members is fighting for America. And I wish to one day help change the world as well or at least try to.

TU Tuesday -- Culture

Article: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Northern-Ireland-man-charged-over-car-bomb-3322361.php

Poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-wake-of-bloody-sunday/

 "Eamon Cassidy, 49, offered no plea and was ordered held without bail over his alleged role in planting a 100-pound (45-kilogram) car bomb across the street from the courthouse in Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second-largest city, in March 2011.” The story that I read was about a Northern Irish man by the name of Eamon Cassidy who is being accused of planting a 100 pound bomb across the road from a courthouse is Londonderry. Though the attempted bombing happened in 2011 the police have finally tracked him down. The prosecutor explained how Cassidy was found: "A prosecutor said Tuesday that police linked Cassidy to the attempted courthouse bombing by collecting his DNA following his September arrest and matching it to DNA traces found inside the car bearing the courthouse bomb."

This story connects to the poem "The Wake of Bloody Sunday" by Liam ó Comáin. The poem is about the aftermath of the Bloody Sunday massacre that happened in Ireland in 1972. In the poem ó Comáin says: "A city sobs. A nation weeps. Because of a people’s loss." This is talking about how Ireland reacted to the tragic happening on Bloody Sunday. This poem relates to the story because the poem talks about an Irish tragedy while if this bomb went off it would have been an Irish tragedy. Thankfully the bomb didn't go off and Cassidy is in jail now, but if the bomb went off it could have been another situation similar to Bloody Sunday.

Valentines Day

Clarence the Candy maker rubbed his hands gleefully. In two days, he would introduce the world to a whole new kind of Valentine's Day candy that would revolutionize the whole candy business. Clarence wasn't in any ways a successful candy maker; he was always coming up with very odd candies that no one enjoyed at all. But this Valentine’s Day it was all going to change. Clarence was finally going to create a candy so delicious and perfect that everyone would love it and buy it this Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately for Clarence though, Valentine’s Day was only two days away and he hadn't come up with any ideas yet. Well actually he had a few ideas but they were all very bad and ended in a disaster. Even though Clarence was having little to no luck he didn’t give up. After a few more bad ideas Clarence was starting to get disgruntled. Clarence desperately wanted to just give up but something in him would let him give up. Then it suddenly it came to Clarence. A perfect idea! Clarence got right to work and within a half an hour he had a prototype candy. It was a red colored sugary candy. Clarence than tried the candy and realized that he had created a revolutionary new candy. It was remarkably delicious and left you wanting more of the candy. Clarence than got to work putting them into a heart mold and making thousands more. He made many different flavors or them as well, each with their own color. By 12:30 A.M. Clarence had already made thousands of the little candies and was ready to release them to the world. The next day when Clarence opened his shop not that many people were there. It looked as if Clarence had failed yet again. But around 2:00 people started to flock to Clarence's candy shop. Word had spread about how delicious the candy hearts were and everybody wanted some. Clarence was overjoyed. He had finally made a candy that was a success and that everybody loved. Then one customer came up to Clarence and asked him a question. The customer said; "These candies are delicious, but I must know, what are they called?" This stumped Clarence. For a second he had known idea what to call them then finally it came to him, he would name the candy after his last name. Clarence responded to the customer with a very concise answer, he said; "They are called...Branch's Candy Hearts."

We secretly hope that birds will never learn

The Birds Overrun: 

We secretly hope that birds will never learn 
Of the one thing that sets human apart
We all think it would be quite fun
But on the inside we know how it ends

First they learn the language
The things that sets us human apart from other animals
At first it is just quite dandy and fun
But soon it turns terrible and evil

The birds are then the same as humans but worse
They speak the same language but the human customs do not apply
The birds curse and poop whenever and wherever they please
In a way they are human and not human at the same time


Eventually the world becomes overridden with birds
They are everywhere, polluting the cultures 
And making the world much worse
The birds are taking over countries one at atime


We all wish that birds could talk
But if you ever stop and think
What could go wrong you will know
You secretly hope that birds will never learn

Comic Connection

When I first saw this comic I had an immediate connection. The point of this blog was to make a connection from this comic and this one I feel has the strongest connection to me. Ever since kindergarten I have had the same best friend, Marc duMoulin. Marc and I have always clicked and we have been hanging out with each other thousands of times over the years. But this isn't how I made the connection, I made the connection to the comic through the things me and Marc do together. When Marc and I get together we do some pretty stupid stuff and over the years we have racked up our fair share of injuries from these and have barely lived to tell the tale from. Well that's an exaggeration but in a way it’s not at all. With Marc at my side we have done crazy things that include scaling a running waterfall and walking down a river until we got to the end than walking the six miles back to school. Together Marc and I have also racked up a large sum of injuries. I was there when Marc tore a ligament in his knee playing wiffle ball. We actually weren't doing anything stupid at that time but he still tore a ligament in his knee, a pretty serious injury. Marc was also there when I was riding my bike and I then got close lined by a branch and dot flipped of my bike and literally almost decapitated myself. I only ended up with a nasty looking abrasion on my neck from that but it took a few trips to the chiropractor to fix that one. So really when I saw this comic I made an immediate connection. Because in the comic it shows two boys know that something is a terrible idea and still doing it. This comic is very similar to Marc and me in real life though. Even though we know that something is a terrible idea we still do it and have great memories from them.