Christian the Lion 2

Dear John and Ace,
I think you both did a wonderful job raising Christian. You really cared for him and you can tell that from the book. It sounds like you 3 had a lot of fun together. I think its kind of cool how you guys had no idea what you were doing but the way you took care of him seems to have been just right. Like how you really interacted with him so that he would be okay around other people but at the same time the games that you would play later helped him be introduced into the wild. Reading this book almost makes me want to get a pet lion but then I remember that Christian’s story is very unique and not likely to happen again. I like how you guys make you sure that the readers know that although you had a great time with Christian but that lions are not pets. I would really have liked to meet Christian, he has a lot of personality and his stories are very cute. It’s weird how he’s a cat but a lot of his behaviors remind me of a dog, like chewing up toys, and running and jumping, and just not laying around all day doing nothing. Stories like this make me interested in working with animals when I get older. I think I would like to work in a zoo one day or do like on animal planet where the families or people take care of the babies animals in shows like Growing Up Tiger Cub and stuff. You’re book is really inspiring and I love reading it.

Christian the Lion 1

So far I really like this book. John and Ace seem like they were extremely excited to get Christian and like they had a ton of fun with him. They talk about keeping him in the furniture shop where they worked because they lived above it and there was a giant room in the basement where Christian could hangout and they didn’t have to worry about him ruining things because all of that furniture needed to be repaired. People would come in just to see Christian and some people didn’t believe they really had a pet lion. Whenever people entered the store they always asked “How do you feel about lions?” and still some people refused to believe there was a lion in the store until they saw him. Ace and Christian weren’t the only ones to have exotic pets in London. There was another lady that bought a Puma or something like that named Margot. Margot was also a very good pet and lived with the lady her whole life. The casino owner also kept tigers and gorillas. It’s crazy to think about wild animals living in the middle of London. I feel bad for them because they couldn’t have had the best life possible living in the middle of a busy city when they should be out in the middle of no where Africa. Christian is really lucky compared to the other animals because John and Ace took such great care of him.

Quarter 4 A Lion Called Christian

For my outside reading book I chose a Lion Called Christian because I saw the youtube video and the Animal Planet special on him. He's soooo cute! This book is written by one of his ex-owners and it just recalls everything that happened during their time together. I've always loved animals and the bonds they can form with humans. I think that it's crazy how much Christian obviously loves Ace and John so I wanted to read more about their story and found out how they made such a strong bond with a wild beast.

Quarter 3 Post 10- Northern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo Day

Vaugh, S.W.. "Obscure Holidays You Never Needed to Know About". American Chronicle. 3 March 2009 .

There are a TON of really weird holidays. Like December is Bingo’s Birthday Month, I think its sposed to be like “there was a farmer who had a cow and bingo was his name-o” bingo but I’m not sure. And December 1st is Hypnotize Yourself Out of Pain Now Day, December 1st seems like a really weird day to have that but it’s a weird holiday so whatever. And National Whiner’s Day is December 26th, I wonder why… January is National Radon Action Month and it obviously isn’t very good because I had no idea the US had a problem with radon. February is national Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month. And the 13th-19 is Jell-O Week. Then there’s Wave All Your Fingers at your Neighbor Day on the 7th. Get a Different Name Day is on the 13th, the examples on the website are, Goober Liverchunks, Booger Gigglebutt, and Cheeseball Wafflefanny all from Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants. My favorite one is Northern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo Day which is on the 20th. A hoody-hoo is either a shout of joy made by LARPers (live action role players) or a call for the killaz according to Master P. I think it’s really sad that all you have to do to get a national holiday is buy a copy of Chase’s Calendar Events and fill out an application form to “have your special day commemorated forever in print”.

Quarter 3 Post 9- Bollywood

Bride and Prejudice was a really weird movie. I really only got to see one class’s worth of the video but still. I thought it was annoying how they’d just start singing because their voices were really annoying. I also thought a lot of the lines were really weird and cheesy. Mr. Kholi was a creep. He eats really nastily. I also don’t get why the main girl was upset when her bestfriend married Mr. Kholi because she didn’t like him anyways and didn’t want to marry him so she shouldn’t really care. The move did really remind me of Mamma Mia though. I think it was because of the random singing and the whole love stuff. Mamma Mia was better though because it was actually funny and it had pretty decent music. The Bollywood music was just really bad. I think if there were better music and Mr. Kholi didn’t eat so grossly the movie would be a lot better.

Quarter 3 Post 8- Culture

Unknown, Unknown. "Snowboard culture shares blame with Lindsey". The Associated Press. 23 February 2009 .

In the 2006 Winter Olympics Lindsey Jacobellis won the silver medal for Women’s Snowboard Cross. Snowboard cross is a sport where 8 athletes race each other all at once on a course filled with turns and jumps. Lindsey was well ahead of the rest of the pack when she got to the second to last jump, she was so excited at being ahead that she decided to throw in a little style. Lindsey did a nice method off the jump and caught her edge in the landing causing her to move down to second place. Many people criticized Lindsey for being unsportsmanlike and showboating. Rick Morissey who writes for the Chicago Tribune made a comment saying, “It probably would be a good thing if somebody explained to the snowboarders that once they decided to sit at the adults’ table, they made the tacit agreement to play to win. They made the decision to act like Olympians, which now means to act professional.” Many adults agreed with Morissey because they don’t understand the snowboarding culture. Although snowboarding is a very competitive sport and there are many rivalries almost all of the riders are friends. They compete with each other over and over and see each other at many events. Respect is part of the snowboarding culture, not just being nice a polite but respecting people’s talent and style. Snowboarding is a sport built around style. Men’s Snowboard Cross gold medallist Seth Wescott put it like this, “In snowboarding, there’s a huge focus on style, it’s the aesthetic that draws us in,” and that, “It’s the nature of how we ride, it’s second nature to us. That’s how we snowboard.” Many adults are focused on “acting adult” and being mature, they don’t understand that people that are very into snowboarding live their lives different. There are many adult snowboarders that live paycheck to paycheck making just enough to get by because they love what they do. Life needs to be more about having a good time and less about stress and the snowboard culture really exemplifies that.

Quarter 3 Post 7- Global Warming

M., Tim. "Think climate change won’t affect you, Snow Person? Wrong.". Heresy Snowboarding. 21 February 2009 .

global warming is really bad for our planet. it causes a lot of negative effects. a lot of people think that its not going to affect us because its not that bad yet but it is and it does. This year the siberian tundra has been really warm which is bad because the permafrost thaws and releases tons CO2 and methane into the atmosphere. the added CO2 would make global warmning even worse. Scientists have been warning about global climate change for a long time. NASA first starting bringing up the topic in the early 80's and now organizations like the UK MET, NASA, Australian CSIRO and Bureau of Meterology, are all saying that global warming is happening. Despite all the proof of global warming many people still aren’t worried about it. But the truth is that many people are noticing how the weather is acting funny and that everyday there is more evidence supporting climate change. If we start rapidly changing the amount of our emissions in 2010 they will decrease 47% by 2050, start slowly changing the amount of our emissions in 2010 they will return to the same levels from 1990 by 2050, if we start slowly decling our emissions in 2030 there will be a 76% increase in the amount of emissions by 2050, and if we do nothing by 2050 the amount of emissions will have increased by 132%. We need to start doing something about global warming now so that we don’t destroy the earth for later generations.