Sunday, November 8, 2009

12 Angry Jurors



Last night we watched a Play at the Spring Lake High School called "12 Angry Jurors". If I had been asleep half the time I would have said that it was about some kid who had supposedly murdered his father. But, I WASN'T asleep half the time and the Play was too interesting to fall asleep during anyway.

The Play was about (Want to guess?) 12 very angry Jurors. Or maybe it should have been called 7 angry Jurors because not all of the Jurors were angry.

Anyway the Play was Incredible. This Play is a classic. It has been reintroduced many times. The Movie was made after the Play was first Introduced. Both were hits.

I suppose you might want me to REALLY tell you about this Play. Here we go: There are 12 Jurors. No wait, You already know that. Let me try again. There is this kid. His mom died when he was 9. His dad beat him up on a regular basis. He had been caught several times during knife fights. He had been sent to reformed school for stabbing someone. The kid is now the age of 19 and Is arrested with the charge of killing his father with a knife. One witness claims to have seen him do it, the other claims to have heard it all and then seen the boy run down the stairs of their apartment building. The knife that was found in the fathers chest was identical to the one that the boy had bought that very morning.

Now, if the kid's found guilty he'll die in the electric chair. His life lies in the balance of what 12 Jurors decide. The Play is not about the decision, as much of the deciding. The movie is not about the kid, but the jurors.

One reason that this play is obviously a made up story is that nobody in their right minds would have picked some of these people for the jury. One man has a son who went through much of the same things the kid had. He had beat up his son. Later the son ran away. The man hates the kid because he reminds him of his son. He simply wants the kid to die, guilty or not.
Another hates all people from bad towns like where the kids from. She doesn't care if he's guilty for this crime, but is sure he will do something else. Another still just wants it to be over so he could go watch sports. And one more just goes with whatever most people think.

This here is why jury selection is important. Thinking about this wretched Jury selection made me think of another doomed Jury. It was a class project. One of my teachers picked out our jury. This jury consisted of: the accused brother, friends of the accused, friends of the defense attorney, and a couple of kindergartners. Can you guess how that turned out?

Anyway this is a Play/Movie that makes you think. I would suggest bringing your brain to the place you are going to watch this movie. I'm not going to point any fingers, but for those of you who keep your brains in your bed room drawers when you go to school- Keep them in your head during this movie. You know who you are.

This play is no longer showing at the high school, but if you want to see it rent the movie at your local Family Video, Block Buster, Etc.

Does the kid even have a hope? Find out! Seriously. Find out.

[Illustration by XMG]

Sunday, November 1, 2009

This is Halloween



party of a sort and our guests included the friendly Now that Halloween is done and over, And all were left with as a reminder of this holiday are some pumpkins, sugar skulls, soiled costumes, and a one big bag of candy!
We had a Halloween party of a sort and our guests included the Minnebos, and our grandparents!
Picture, From left to right: Anna as Quinlan Voss (a Star Wars character, of course.) Lilly as Padme Amedala, My dad as (if you haven't already guessed.) Darth Maul, Next me as Ashoka Tano, My brother as young Anikan, Greg Minnebo as Han Solo (The easiest name to spell by far.)



Above- Me. I hope I look enough like an alien.


Although you can probably guess which pumpkin's mine, I made the cat pumpkin and Mr. Minnebo made the awesome one. His pumpkin is worth $50.00 as thats what he got for it when he won a pumpkin carving contest.
Hope your Halloween was as fun as mine was!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Movie report/Market Day/Food Pantry

Well I have to say I have been neglecting blog duties lately. So lets get cracking here.

#1 Movie Report
I went to the movie "Where The Wild Things Are" It isn't scary, (Well except for when there was threatening of eating people up. Of which happened a lot.) Really it was more depressing. If you've seen the trailer then you might think I'm wrong and the movie's all happy and everything. well it isn't so you would wrong. It was a cool movie certainly. Very entertaining. I would watch it again in a heartbeat. but this is not a movie for little kids. Its deep. The director definitely knew what he was doing. I suggest this movie to ages 10 and up.

#2 Market Day 2009
An Idea Going to Market
Now, the main reason for this post is to tell you about my market day experience. It all started when my mom bought a fork magnet that we thought would be fun to make for Christmas gifts. It had wire wrapped around it in a design and we all thought it was pretty cool. Months later at school my teacher announced that the class was going to do market day. It would be an opportunity for us to learn about making and running a business. It was a good idea. I decided it might be fun to make silverware magnets with a Golden touch.



Making "Yzzy's Sticky Silverware"
So we started scouting out thrift stores for cheap but nice silverware. I decided to make spoon and knife magnets as well. Using recycled materials is not only energy efficient it keeps product costs low. I purchased wire with coupons and my dad found a good buy on the internet for magnets. I'm passing on these savings to my customers with a low price of $1.25.


My hands hurt!
Has any one ever told you how hard wrapping wire around silverware is? Well I'm telling you now, it's hard! I wouldn't want to making these the rest of my life, and my hands agree with me. So these designs are very limited, if you are interested please buy them now as I don't know how long my hands will last.



#3 Food Pantry
Our church Saint Johns has a food bank. The kids in our sunday school are collecting food for it. we made an ad for the food bank. The economy is failing and there are people everywhere who need food. We hope our poster helps the people who need food get food.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Art on the Street

Cool cats.


Hot lizards.


Art on the street! Come check it out! Downtown Grand haven! you got to see it now! there gonna take it down! Artists from all over west michigan came to paint a picture. They are currently at the construction site at washingston st. we were outside the coffee grounds. are pictures are there. For those in Voyagers who knew him Brandon helped me.

I'm going to a party this saturday (guess whose!) and I will post about it. Those who went to last years slumber party will know what I mean when I say this will be interesting.

Ta Ta for now!

Friday, October 2, 2009

Poptropica!


Poptropica is a really cool website! it is now officially my favorite game site ever! It didn't ask me any personal information! it didn't ask for any information! On Poptropica there are a bunch of different islands. You have to decide which island you go on once you make your character and account. There's Lot's of different islands. I am on spy island, Xavi s on the Super Hero island. There is also a Shark island and native American type that I can't really remember right now. But any way Poptropica is an awesome website so I hope to see you there!


Psst! If you choose the spy island have your character go right first. I'm not so sure about the others.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

The most ausomest book ever that contains math ever!*

Baby Mouse Dragon slayer! Baby Mouse is a mouse (I'm betting you already figured that out.) Who goes to middle school, Walks on two legs, Has a thing for cupcakes, and is horrible at math. Which is tough because her teacher signed her up for the M-Athletes who are just about to compete in the math tournament to bring the "Golden Slide Rule" back from the "Owlgorithisoms" to it's right place in their school. How does all this fit in with Dragons? Baby Mouse has a thing for reading. And this book includes obvious references to some well known classic tales my favorite part in this story being an obvious reference when some fur coats and snow appear in her locker. Baby Mouse is a graphic novel series with a more books in it then I care to count. This book is not the only one with references to classic stories and a funny one is "Baby Mouse: Monster Mash!" has an obvious reference to McBeth. Really I would suggest the entire series but I have not actually read them all. The first book is "Baby Mouse: Queen of the world!" This series made me laugh and ask my parents "This line doesn't mean anything does it? does it?! DOES IT?!!!" And trust me - this is as good as it gets.



*Yes I know that it's bad grammar and also yes I know that it is spelled wrong. It is fine by me.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

"The Last Dragon" You have to read this! seriously.

"The Last Dragon" is a beautifully written story by Silvana De Mari. This is a book for readers who read for fun - not because they have to. This book is more about an elf than a dragon which disappointed me a little when I first read it but now makes a lot of sense. This book is a page turner that kept me up all night thinking about what might happen next. (It didn't help that I was sick) And if you have not yet got what I'm trying to say; I highly suggest reading this book.


-Yzzy