Grammar Exercises

1- The team won (its) (it's) game. Did you win (yours)

(your's), (to)(too) (two)?

The team won its game.  Did you win yours too?

2- They left (their) (there) books (there) (their)

(they're).

They left their books there.

3- I hear (your) (you're) about to graduate.

I hear you're about to graduate.

4- (Its) (It's) nice that (there) (their) (they're)

friendly.

It's nice that they're friendly.

5- Although I get (alot) (a lot) of colds, I feel

(all right)(alright)now.

Although I get a lot of colds, I feel alright now.

6- (Whose) (Who's) prettier (then) (than) you?

Who's prettier than you?

7- Are you tired? I'm out of (breathe) (breath),

(too) (to) (two).

Are you tired?  I'm out of breath, too.

8- Run back and (fourth) (forth) from (hear) (here) to

(their) (there).

Run back and forth from here to there.

9- (Your) (You're) about to (loose) (lose) (your)

(you're) book.

You're about to lose your book.

10- Everyone will (accept) (except) the prize (accept)

(except) you.

Everyone will accept the prize except you.

11- Do you know (weather) (whether) or not he will give

me the prize.

Do you know whether or not he will give me the prize.

12- Many people (choose) (chose) to live in large cities.

Many people choose to live in large cities.

13- Is the doctor (through) (thorough) (threw) with my

exam?

Is the doctor through with my exam?

14- What (affect) (effect) does the school (principle)

(principal) have on you?

What affect does the school principal have on you?

15- What did he (advice) (advise) you to do? Did you take

his (advice)(advise)?

What did he advise you to do?  Did you take his advice?

16- (There) (Their) (They're) are (alot) (a lot) of (your)

you're) friends in the boat.

There are a lot of your friends in the boat.

17- I will (buy) (by) a book (buy) (by) Ray Bradbury.

I will buy a book by Ray Bradbury.

Exercise #2: 60%

Exercise #3: 38/40

The 5 Best Xbox 360 Action Games

My favorite hobby is gaming.  So I did the 5 best action Xbox 360 games because I have a lot of favorite games that belong into this category.  Most people base a good game off of the graphics or just the action within and don't pay any attention to the other aspects, like music, smoothness of gameplay, storytelling, difficulty and most importantly how the game is organized and brought together.  The action games that I'm about to talk about consist of super heros, cowboys and streches into the olden days of Babylon with a famous assassin.  Action games have no limit in the gaming world. 

Number 5 in this category starts in Babylon with your action packed game Prince Of Persia, developed by Ubisoft Montreal.  This game will have you fighting for your life and running and jumping off walls, literally.  In this game you play as the Prince of Persia, occompanied by the Princess Elika restoring the land of the kingdom lost to the evil god of darkness, Ahriman.  I myself have not yet tried this game, but I have followed the game since it was announced, I would really like to play it because I was a huge fan of the other ones, and this one is supposed to be great.  From reviews I've read the only weak aspects to the game is the difficulty and the storytelling.  The story telling bothers me cause this game has a huge story and I hope it was able to keep there action packed story alive for one more game.  The strong aspects to the game is the beautiful graphics, great music and acessible gameplay.  The game is said to have a great new story but less combat than the others, all in all from the reviews I've read on this game I cant wait to play it and get witness first hand how they layed out this game.  This game although has no multiplayer, it is strictly a single player, story telling game.  I'm giving this the number 5 spot because of great reviews, the amazing series and the pure fun it brings to the table.

In the number 4 spot we travel into the life of Rico Rodriguez, the mercenary spy, in the do it yourself action movie called Just Cause 2, developed by Avalanche Studios.  In this game you are fighting against a corrupt govenrment.  This game is a free roam do as you wish style of game that allows you to do things you could only dream of ever wanting to do.  Like for example how many people grapple hook onto a airplane and then parachute off it into a high case scene landing on top of a car then hijacking the car from the driver?  Only Rico Rodriguez.  I have infact played Just Cause 2 but although I never got to try the story, mostly when I played it I just fooled around and did crazy stunts, which is probably the best aspect to the game.  I do agree with people giving it the number 4 spot, and heres why.  Even though the game has some very strong aspects like; great graphics, new helpful gadgets, huge world to explore and its untimely amount of fun the game also suffers some serious weak aspects.  Some of these aspects are wonky controls, glitchy gameplay and the world may be too big for the game to handle, causing these problems.  I haven't played this games multiplayer but reviews tell me it is really fun.  Its basically free roam do what ever you want style of multiplayer allowing for anything, and I mean anything to happen in the world of Just Cause 2.  I think this game does deserve the 4th spot because of the amount of fun you can have, from experience in playing it and with the great reviews.

Moving on to the 3rd best action game brings us to the brutally gory zombie slaying nonsencial game known as Dead Rising 2 developed by Blue Castle Games.  In this game you follow the life of Chuck Greene and his daughter Katey in the apocoliptic world.  Katey has been bitten by a zombie, but the medication is keeping the disease from evolving.  Chuck is blamed for an outbreak while trying to get money for his daughter and now only has 72 hours to clear his name and wait for rescue.  I have played a Dead Rising game in the series but it hasn't been this game.  The game lets you explore a zombie infested town and have all the zombie slaying fun you wish.  This game has way more stong aspects than weak, which I love to see in games.  The stronger aspects are the new combos/weaponary, nice presentation, brutal gameplay, huge open world to explore and it maintains to keep that Dead Rising feel that players came to love.  The game of this series I did get the chance to play, I can strongly say that Blue Castle Games have the ability to make great and amusing zombie games.  Although it does suffer from some weak aspects, and the most major one is the clunky controls and long loading screens.  No gamer wants to spend 5 to 10 mintues on a loading screen, they want to be right in the action, killing off zombies and enjoy it.  This game also consists of a multiplayer feature allowing you and your friend to team up and fight zombies together having much more fun.  This game is awarded number 3 because of its gameplay, presentation, ability to make an excellent and amusing zombie style game. 

The runner up contender will no doubt go to the action packed western game Red Dead Redempetion, developed and published by Rockstar San Diego.  The life of ex gang member John Marston isn't easy, trying to provide for his family, keep his farm and hunt down his other gang members, to save his own life.  John travels from the state of New Austin to Mexico insearch for his former gang members encountering troubles along the way.  I have played and beaten Red Dead Redemption and its many DLC's (downloadable content; like Undead Nightmare) and I can honestly say that it is the funest and most excellent third person western shooter I've ever played.  The way this story is presented is by far amazingly well done, although about 3/4 into the game the story starts to lose interest, but gains interest very quickly again.  There are many very, very strong aspects to this game like amazing story and character developement, solid voice acting protrayed, well designed free open world and very fun gameplay.  Even though this game is almost perfect it still suffers from too downsides with is glitchy gameplay and off pace story near the end.  This games multiplayer allows the game to be taken to a whole different level.  Allowing to play with friends and do co-op missions, go hunting cougars or bears or raid forts for loot.  This game gives you unlimited options wether by yourself or with your posse.  Red Dead Redemption has won the title of Game Of The Year in 2010.  No other game could be worth the runner up spot for best Xbox 360 action game besides this one.

Now the moment we've all been waiting for, the number one best Xbox 360 action game goes to none other than the amazing third person fighting game sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City developed by Rocksteady.  About.com states that "More than any other game before, Arkham City makes you truly feel like Batman, and that is pretty awesome," and boy are they right.  I'm a big fan of this 2 part series, I loved the first one and the second one was just icing on the cake; it simply blew me away.  There's honestly parts in this game wether you're fighting for dear life against a boss or free roaming the city and stoping crime, that will take your breath away.  It happened to me numerous times.

In Batman: Arkham Asylum you play as Batman in the Arkham Asylum.  While putting Joker behind bars, he escapes, taking over the entire asylum unleashing this Titan gas which was used to create Bane's monsterous figure.  This gas is basically a preformance enhancer gone through the roof.  You go through the asylum facing the many bosses that stand in your way like; Bane, Killer Croc, Scare Crow, Posion Ivy to reach The Joker.  In the end you end up defeating the Joker like always and the Titan gas is taken undercontrol, atleast thats what you think, until you see one of the major bosses hand sticks out of the water (depending on what difficulty you beat the game on).

In Batman: Arkham City you continue playing as Bruce Wayne aka Batman, but instead of evil terrorizing the asylum, the Joker has taken it to a whole new level, he's taken control of Arkham City (a large walled off area in Gotham).  The world to explore is now bigger which means more activities to do, more secrets to find, and more bosses to fight.  New additional bosses that were added into this game are as followed; Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, Penguin, Solomon Grundy, Clayface, and the two russian henchmen twins.  Not only do you play the role of the dark knight Batman, you also get to see the life of Selina aka Catwomen, which adds a new and neat aspect to the game.  Bruce has been thrown into Arkham as a prisoner, he esacpes and recieves his Batman equipment so he can find out what is really going on inside this corrupt city.

Batman: Arkham City is by far the best action game I've ever played.  It has all the great aspects to make a game; freedom to move around the city as you wish, a great action filled story which also has some tragic moments, lots of collectibles to find, combat moves fluently with no flaws what so ever, and the addition of Catwomen allows a whole new point of view to be played.  Although with every amazing game, there always has to be a flaw, and in this case its easy boss fights.  I dont find this a bad con though, I mean no one wants to spend hours on end trying to beat a boss, you want them to be fun, action filled and you want to be amazed at the end of them and this is exactly how Rocksteady presents their boss fights.  For gamers that haven't yet played this game I strongly recommend this game.  In my opinion it gets 10/10 overall, the game masters every aspect to a great action game.  This game will be a hard game to beat out of its number 1 spot for newer action games, and in my opinion it'll stay number 1, because it's just that amazing.

Editing Exercise

Sentences that are highlighted like so are the original. Sentences in red like so are the edited versions.
It was the hurricane I seen on TV and, I automatically knew I wanted to help.
It was the hurricane I saw on TV and I automatically knew I wanted to help.
I was never so scared in my life. everything went silent, then i started dropping. 
I was never so scared in my life. Everything went silent, then I started falling.
The only thing I disliked about this review is she went it to great detail about the movie. 
The only thing I disliked about this review is that she went into great detail about the movie.
We grabbed the ball off the face off and went down to their side of the quart , I was just outside the 3 point line when I looked up at the score clock and seen there was one second left I took the shot.
We grabbed the ball off the face off, and went down to their side of the court.  I was just outside the 3 point line when I looked up at the score clock and saw there was one second left, I took the shot.
As I cooked my bacon and fried my eggs I knew I was going to have an excellent day.
As I cooked my bacon and fried my eggs, I knew I was going to have an excellent day.
The most valuable player of the team is Josh, he wants to be just like Michael Jordan and all the other popular basketball players. 
The most valuable player of the team is Josh. He wants to be just like Michael Jordan and all the other popular basketball players.
I looked and seen Ty and Mark waving.
I looked and saw Ty and Mark waving.
The monster let's out a deafening thunder of a roar, hissing and snapping at my Shane.
            The monster let out a deafening thunder of a roar, hissing and snapping at my Shane.
Tick...Tick...Tick, its all coming back.
Tick, tick, tick, it is all coming back.
the year was 1964, I was just a young boy going to the new train station going to work for my uncle.
The year was 1964, I was just a young boy going to the new train station going to work for my uncle.
They should not have been more than half an hour and by the time seven o’clock hit, we knew something was terribly wrong.
They shouldn't have been more than half an hour. By the time seven o'clock hit, we knew something was terribly wrong.
The only thing we had to eat was the rotten leftovers of my riders supper from the night before.  
The only thing we had left to eat was the rotten leftovers of my riders supper from the night before.
I heard a crash in the woods the brush was rustling and the trees cracking.
I heard a crash in the woods, the brush was rustling and the trees were cracking.
...and yet it has already set out on it’s long journey, in search of where he belongs in this world.
... and yet it has already set out on it's long journey. In search of where he belongs in this world.
Soon I meet up with the only person who’s time I enjoy, my dearest friend Rory, her hair is so short you can barely run your hands through it, but it suits her.
Soon I meet up with the only person who's time I enjoy, my dearest friend Rory. Her hair is so short you can barely run your hands through it, but it suits her.
 I often travel, I run a blog about visiting un-mapped places. 
 I often travel. I run a blog about visiting un-mapped places.
As we put our winter clothing on to head out. I can almost smell the turkey dinner waiting on the dining room table. 
As we put our winter clothing on to head out. I could almost smell the turkey dinner waiting on the dinning room table.
 I usually don’t agree to go into town because of the fact of how the people.
 I usually don't agree to go into town because of the fact of how the people act.

Finding Forrester Review

Finding Forrester is a heart felt movie produced by Columbia Productions and directed by Gus Van Sant.  It was released on December 19th 2000.  The main characters are Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown), William Forrester (Sean Connery), Professor Robert Crawford (F.  Murray Abraham), and Claire Spence (Anna Parquin).  This film is written by Mike Rich, and is 136 minutes long.

This movie is about Jamal Wallace, who loves to play basketball and write.  He is intelligent when it comes to tests, but his grades are low to keep up his reputation with his friends.  Jamal gets accepted into a new school where he meets a girl named Claire.  Throughout the movie Jamal meets William Forrester and they become like family while William helps Jamal improve his writing talents.  He also is introduced to his teacher Mr.Crawford who put him through many challenges that Jamal overcomes in the movie.

Finding Forrester reminds me a lot like the film The Blind Side.  It reminds me of this because in The Blind Side, the main character is treated differently because he’s black, does really well in school and loves to play football.  Although in Finding Forrester the sport is really the only difference, instead of football its basketball.  The storylines are relatively the same, and as a fan of The Blind Side I could really understand the point this movie was making and made it that much more better of a movie to me.

The good qualities about this film that I enjoyed was the music/soundtrack and the acting.  I found that Sean Connery and Rob Brown did an excellent job in their acting that really allowed people to connect and understand the emotion and troubles throughout the movie.  The music in the movie was really well placed as well, there was never a song that never fit in the scene.  Music such as “Save Me” by Hanson, and “You’re So Cool” by Hans Zimmer really played well with the emotions of the scene.

    The theme is the most important part to this movie, as well as other movies but this one really stands out.  My opinion of the theme that is trying to be shown is that family is important to everyone, and even though we don’t always get along and lose family, we can make friends that in the end we treat like family.  It’s these kinds of friends that allow people to bring out the best in each other, like William and Jamal did in this movie.

Writing Invetory

 

I do not write in my spare time, I perfer gaming and playing sports in my spare time.  My favorite writer is S.E. Hinton, because my favorite books are writen by her.  I enjoy her writing because the stories keep me interested and once I start reading them I get so into them I read for hours.  The kind of writing that comes easiest to me is narrative, I find that it's easier for me to come up with my own story, then having to do descriptive or writing prompts.  The kind of writing I find difficult is long informative essays because I get confused on organizing and trying to fit enough information into the essay.

I get most of my ideas from taking small ideas and scenes from games, tv shows, and movies.  I don't have any writing pieces I'm working on at the moment.  I'm not sure what piece of writing I'd be espcially proud of, although there was a story I wrote in grade 6 and I was very pleased with it.  With school assignments i usually only do one draft, unless im instructed to do  more then one. 

I think my strogest points as a writer is my organization and word choice, because those two catagories is what i usually earn a alot of points on in my writing.  Although my weakest point would by far be the voice of the piece, I have difficulty making the story come alive and make it sound like you're in the story.  The first subject I would write about would be math, because that is my strongest subject.  My second choice would be science hands down because I enjoy science and it aswell is one of my stronger subjects.  My goals as a writer this semester would be to work on the voice, and reach atleast over an 85% in this course.



Reviewception

The review I chose is The Dark Knight Rises review by Dave White, and also because this movie is one of my favorite movies of all time.  I like this review because it tells how well the actors/actresses do in the movie without spoiling the story of the movie.  He also compares the movie trilogy to older movies such as "Inception" and "The Empire Strikes Back".  It's not a very long and detailed review but it still has good elements into which make a good review in my opinion.  This movie is the third in the series so he also talks about how the trilogy ends and if it had a strong ending to it.

One element I like in a review is when the critic tells about the characters, and the roles they play in the making of the film.  This is even better when the critic doesn't ruin the story of the movie, but allows to leave that little idea of what will happen, but still leaves you guessing.  Another thing I liked about the character review is that it even made some references to the older movies and how they deal with what happened or how they've changed.

The best part of a review to me is when they go over the scenery, special effects and graphics.  This is my favorite part because it gives peoples different perspectives on how they viewed the scenery of the scene or how they think the special effects went along with the action.  I like this element so much because I am a huge fan of action/sci fi/adventure movies.

The Dark Knight Rises Review

The Flight

One magnificent sunny morning, birds singing melodies and a great cool breeze. As I cooked my bacon and fried my eggs I knew I was going to have an excellent day. I packed my lunch which consisted of a delicious and fresh cheddar cheese, and newly bought lettuce. As I packed it into the crumpled brown paper bag I was set for the day.

I left for college in my gleaming spotless silver dodge challenger, getting stuck in traffic for what felt like endless hours. As I pulled into the gigantic brick college I realized I forgot my lucky old white socks. Maybe this wasn’t going to be a good day after all.

I met my tall, lanky, shaggy headed flight instructor. Today was the big day, I get to fly the C-GMFF plane. The toughest plane to fly, if I pass this I’ll be one step closer to being a pilot. As the instructor read the safety guide I filled with excitement. I slowly stepped into the plane, savoring and examining every inch, from the cockpit to the tail of the aircraft.

I sat down in the huge black leather chair and gazed at a gazillion different flashing and dull buttons. The rumble of the engines shook through my veins as I pulled off the ground. The roar of the engines and hum of the propeller sounded just like music to my ears. After finishing my mouth watering lunch there was only ten minutes left to what seemed to be the best joy ride ever. Suddenly an ear splitting bang, and the smell of smoke and burnt metal comes out of nowhere.

Everything was beeping, alarms were sounding and me and the plan were going down fast. My vision went pitch black, and then I felt the numbness creep up my legs.