Ben's Blog

It was a sunny day and no clouds were in the sky, me and my team warmed up for our game today, it was the best team in our league that we were playing against. As the team showed up we started to hit in the batting cages warming up. Today was one of the days the I was hitting my best, “ I am gonna hit a home run today!” I said to myself. Out of no where my coach told us to go to the field and the game was starting. We were the away team so we were batting first, I was put 4th in the lineup. We saw the pitcher warm up and I knew this was the pitcher I was gonna hit one off of, first batter walked, second batter walked, third batter walked, and now I was up I went to the batters box with confidence. As the pitcher nods his head for a pitch I load and get ready, I see the perfect strike come flying down the middle of the plate, the height of the pitch was perfect, It was right by my belt. CRASH, was the sound the bat made, I look to the sky and see my ball soaring across the blue sky. I sprint to first hoping I hit the ball out of the field. I hear a roaring cheer coming from my teams side of the dugout. I look at the umpire and he starts waving his finger around which means a home run. “Yes! I hit a grandslam!” As I jog around the bases I see my mom and dad cheering and my mom recording. Its a great feeling.

This month I read Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. It’s about 2 people, Katniss Everdeen and Peta Malark. They are the 2 victors from the most recent hunger games and are enjoying their freedom, but the game makers don’t like all the attention they are getting and decide to make an anniversary Hunger game that has all the previous victors play against each other. So all the best players play against each other. Katniss gets picked to play and Haymitch also gets picked, but Peta volunteers as tribute for Haymitch. They go on into a new arena and try to survive.

I really liked this book because every page I read was filled with excellent details and so many interesting things were happening on each page. I really think that if you liked the first Hunger Games you would like this book.

My favorite character was Katniss because of her skills and bravery and how she prioritized herself for others. One of her character traits was bravery. A quote to prove this is on page 37 “I let the arrow fly, see it hit its mark and vanish, pulling the thread of gold behind it. My hair stands on end and the lightning strikes a flash of white runs up the wire, and for just a moment, the dome bursts into a dazzling blue light.” Katniss is trying to stop the games by hitting the dome when the lighting strikes for a new hour. She uses her bow and it strikes her back, she knew this could have killed her but she did it for Peta and the others so they could survive.

My favorite quote from the book was on page 391 it says “Katniss, there is no district Twelve.” I liked this quote because it must have been so scary for Katniss in that moment as she realized what the capital had done. When I read that part my jaw dropped in surprise, I’m sure if my hometown was destroyed I would be extremely sad as well.

There are so many people I would want to invite to dinner, but here are my top three. First, It would be my Dad because I really appreciate all that he does for my family. He has been feeding and providing our family for my entire life, inviting him for dinner is the least I can do. Next, I would invite my Mom. I would invite her because she is always trying her best to keep me and my siblings safe and she helps us in our lows. She deserves it after all the work she has put in for me and the rest of my family. Finally, I would invite my grandma because she loves me so much and helps me when I am struggling. She takes me on trips with her to see my cousins and takes me to church whenever I want to go. I’m very glad I have a grandma like her and I would really want her to come to dinner with me.

My dream job would to be a five star private chef. First, I would love to be a private chef because every day us humans have to eat food, being a private chef would mean making delicious food for yourself and for others. I would love being able to make delicious food with ease whenever I’m hungry. Next,  I could make really good money being a 5 star chef, I could make delicious food for people, and make good food at party’s where I can get payed a lot of money. Finally, I could make really good food for homeless people on the streets or people who can’t afford food. This would be a great thing for me to do because it can maybe save lives by giving them food that transfer’s into energy so that they might be able to get money and get a job. These are the reasons why I would love being a 5 star private chef.

A magician has turned me invisible for 24 hours! Here is what I would do. First, I would show everyone that I am invisible and go to popular news channels such as Fox, or Abc and try to find the magician that turned me invisible! Next I would visit my family and show them the cool things that I would be able to do. Such as pick up objects and then to them it looks like something is floating, or be able to put powder in the air so that they can see my outline. Finally, I would join a show where they show me and the tricks that I could do and make a ton of money from it because I would be the only person in thew world who has ever been invisible, so that would guarantee me a lot of money

This month I read Scythe by Neal Shusterman. This book is about a world where there is no disease, no war, no misery. The humans have even conquered death. In this world there are scythes that glean people to control the population, glean means killing people. Scythes are very important because they are the only group of people who can glean and are treated with high respect for what they do. Scythe Faraday, a wise scythe decided to pick two people to become a scythe, Rowan, and Citra. Scythes will learn plenty of important skills such as Bokator, a powerful Cambodian martial art to master. And they will get taught history of the scythedom and different poisons, and different weapons to use to glean.

What I loved about Scythe was how it was so interesting, such as the plot twists about Rowan and Scythe Faraday. I think that everyone should read this book, and in my opinion it’s one of the best books I have ever read filled with interesting parts in every chapter and page. Another thing that I loved about this book was how well the writer Neal Shusterman wrote the book, he made it super easy to understand what was going on and I loved it.

My favorite character was Scythe Faraday because of his fairness because I think that everyone should be fair and treat everyone equally. A quote to prove his fairness was in chapter 5 on page 62 it says “She opened her mouth as she was told, and Scythe Faraday placed the pill on her tongue. She closed her mouth, but didn’t bite it right away. She looked at each of them in turn. Rowan, then Citra, then finally settled her gaze on Scythe Faraday. Then the slightest crunch. And she went limp. Simple as that. But not so simple at all.” This shows that he is fair because if someone is nice and fair to him he will reward them and make their death not painful.

My favorite quote was when Rowan on page 392 “I am what you made me,” he told Goddard. “And you’re right: I enjoyed that. I enjoyed that more than anything I’ve ever done in my life.” Then with his free hand, Rowan reached down and yanked the ring off Goddard’s finger. “You don’t deserve to wear this. You never did.” I love this quote because Rowan is telling Scythe Goddard that he is not what he tried to make Rowan, since scythe Goddard wanted Rowan to enjoy gleaning and do it for fun.

Life on an abandoned is lonely. I live on an abandoned island how did I get here you may ask, well the truth is I don’t really know. Me and my friends on a sunny day were getting ready to go fishing on our motor boat. As we left the harbor we set sail for a deep place to fish. As we got close to the location which was in the middle of nowhere, we saw this 50 foot wave. It looked like a giant looking onto ants. BOOM, our boat collapsed and I woke up on the sand coughing up water. Thats how I got on the island from what I remember. I live in the cave area of the island, there is a big pool of water that I bathe in every so often. If you look to the right there is a wooden bed with leather coated on top for comfort. If you look above you will see string all across the cave, I did this so If I get wet I can hang up my clothes to dry, thats about it. My daily routine is this, I wake up in the morning and make sure the tide is low, if it is I go out and find fish to eat for breakfast. I come back to the cave and cook it with a fire I prepared to last the whole day. Once I finish eating I stare into the ocean and the sky waiting for and planes or boats to come up. If they do, I have a flare gun I can use to signal that I am here. After that, I take a long nap to rest. Once I wake up I go out using my fishing gear that washed up on the shore with me when the boat crashed to find more food. I get enough so I can have food for lunch, and dinner. I cook up my lunch and walk around the island to get my exercise in for the day. After that, I dip in the pool of water in the cave to cool off. I soon dry off and relax until dinner. I use my leftovers and cook it up in the fire. And then I go to bed. Thats my routine for the day.

As I was riding bikes with my friends by my middle school I thought of an idea “let’s go to our school and ride on the blacktop!” Ok everyone else said. We soon rode over as we arrived at the gates by the school and we went through the grass up then little hill and we are the black top. We soon were riding around doing tricks on our bikes. Until it was my turn. I got as much speed as I could, pumping my legs as hard as I could. But then, I soon began to wobble and lose control. As I was zooming down that black top I soon controlled myself again. “Phew” I thought, that could’ve been bad. CLOMP I fell on that black top still holding my bike as I was the bike was dragging me across the ground. The pain in the right hip was aching in pain, I saw a wall up ahead and decided that it would be better to let go of the bike instead of continuing holding it and potentially crashing into a wall. I let go and closed my eyes, I later woke up with all my friends surrounding me. “What happened?” I said with a quiet tone. “You fell! And passed out!” Dax said. I soon recovered from the fall and slowly stood up, My bike was totaled. I soon realized how far I was dragged it seemed to be 300 feet from where I fell. I never chose to do something that stupid ever again.

This month I read Seal Of God by Chad Williams.It’s about how Chad Williams became a Navy SEAL at the age of 23 years old and how he fought through all the mental and physical challenges he had to face during his training. He was a troublemaker, alcohol addict, and had trouble with drugs in his high school days. Scott soon felt like he was a nobody struggling with school and bad habits. But soon one day he was doing donuts in a parking lot in his truck and thought of the idea of becoming a Navy SEAL. Soon he started to work out, get rid of his bad habits and focus on what he truly desired to do. His dad and mom didn’t think that it was a good idea for him to become a navy SEAL because he tends to get over a topic really fast. But no, Chad was determined to become a SEAL. Chad later becomes a follower of Jesus Christ and teaches his testimony to others.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It shows how determination, hard work, faith, and not quitting can make your body do hard challenges that you thought you could never do. I enjoyed this book because Chad described the training very well and everything that he did and felt throughout the training he described in a way you can feel how he felt during the training. I liked how he dealt with grief over his friend in the story and how he recovered from it by wanting revenge (If you read the book you will know what I am talking about). Overall, this was an amazing book and I would recommend it to everyone.

My favorite character was Chad. I liked him a lot during the story because of his ability to not quit, and to be confident in yourself. A quote to prove this character trait is on page 114 it says “I was noticing a strange thing about myself. When guys quit except for Brent, It didn’t bother me, Instead, I felt stronger, as if I’d consumed whatever amount of power they had left behind. I gained confidence when others left. He quit? I would ask myself. At that?”. What Chad is talking about is how when people quit he would be so good at what they quit at and say to himself “he quit? From that?. Which shows his confidence throughout the training process and the reason why he was bothered about Brent leaving, is that Brent was a friend he made in high school that just so happened to be in the same class for navy SEAL training as him. So he felt sad that he left because they told each other that they would not quit but Brett did.

My favorite quote from the book was on page 156 “Each time I passed a test, it felt like the weight of the world had been taken off my shoulders”. It is my favorite. It showed the realistic amount of stress that you felt in each test. And when you passed i’m sure the amount of stress that you released was a lot.

 

“We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy” – Dumbledore. What this quote means to me is that even though some options are better than others, it does not mean it is the right choice. For example, not to long ago I was riding my E bike and I fell and scraped the right side of my hip very badly. I was in so much shock from the pain I felt and as soon as I saw the cut I knew I had to tell my parents. So as I was riding home and for some reason I thought it was the easier choice to not tell them about it, so I got home and did not tell them about me falling and the cut. So I cleaned the cut up in the shower, and when I went downstairs to eat dinner they saw a red mark on my shoulder and asked about it, I honestly did not know what it was but it was I think it was from my fall. So I said “ I don’t know”, and my dad told me “did you fall”? And I lied and said no, they later found out I lied and I got in trouble. But this is how I can relate to this quote by Dumbledore because if I were to have told the truth I would have not gotten in trouble.