Driven to Distraction

Driven to Distraction
Date: 1/18/10
National News
N.Y Times UpFront
By Matt Richtel in Logan, Utah
pg.18


Over 2,600 traffic deaths are caused because of calling/texting while driving. Studies also show that if you Text/call someone while driving it is the same as driving with a .08 blood alcohol level. If you don't know what that means its the standard limit for drunk driving. Seventeen states have made it illegal to text while driving, and if they get caught they will spend three months in jail and a $750 fine, but if they cause injury or death they will spend up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. In 2006 Reggie Shaw a 19 year old resident of Utah was texting his girlfriend and clipped a oncoming Saturn sedan. And the Saturn spun across the highway and hit a pickup truck. Reggie killed two grown men just because he was texting his girlfriend, because of that pandemic Utah is very strict with people that text and drive. Alaska is equally as tough as Utah. If the police pull over or see a car that has a computer or video monitor they consider it a felony and punishable up to 20 years in prison. They think the same way for texting too.
I totally agree on banning texting and calling while driving. If it causes that many deaths and if its the same as driving drunk then it should be illegal in all the states. It is such a stupid thing to do. I hear people in the class say that they are all for doing it..I wonder if they will be "all for it" if they have killed someone on the street and serving 15-20 years behind bars. Everyone loves texting right but do they love putting their family members, friends, or strangers in danger...no. So I am "all for it" and what I mean by that is I want all of the states to ban texting and calling while driving

Discussion Questions

1.) Why do you think that texting and driving has become a big problem???

2.) Do you think that the jail time for texting and driving is fair?

3.) Do you think that some people should be able to text and drive if they have had nothing on their record or not?

Poem from last year haha

Free verse Poem
A Life of a Teenager

Stuck in a world you thought you once knew
Now all your friends are turning their backs on you
Once quiet people, like puppies on rugs
Have turned their backs and started doing drugs
The boy next door that you liked for years
Has turned his back and started drinking beers
All of these changes are going around
And you yell and scream but they don't hear a sound
What happened to the innocence so easy to find?
You wonder if you're the only one who still has their mind
They try to pull you in and you know you might fall
But nobody knows there's a solution to it all
Right over this wall you can have your life back
Of friends, and laughter, be back with your pack
There's no need to worry, no need to fear
All of the innocence you know is still here
There are just a few obstacles you know you must climb
Persuading and begging to get back your mind
You cannot give up the prize is far too great
Just hope your obstacles don't make you too late
Do all you can to help your chains break
This is all real, nothing is fake
You're stuck in a world you thought you once knew
Turn your back on your world they've turned theirs on you

OCD.....Romeo and juliet thesis

Romeo & Juliet Thesis
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Romeo is a love sick dog obsessed with Juliet. This love affair is making him sick and weak. He is the reason for the untimely death of his love. He doesn't even know her and he is making assumptions that he is in love with his only enemy, Capulet. He only loves her for her looks, because he is so young he doesn't understand what love is and how to handle it.

All he thinks about is the feeling he thinks is "love" but really it's just a teenage boy mind running wild. For example Pg. 23 line's 197-199 " Love is a smoke made with the fume of sigh's; Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers eye's; Being vexed, a sea nourished with lover's tears". Romeo was way to into this fling with Juliet, but then again so is she, when they meet and fall in love, they have only known each other for about 10 minutes, it's crazy. It doesn't happen like that...at all. All it is is DRAMA and over reacting.

Romeo really doesn't love Juliet, he loves "love", he always has to have a woman in his life just to love. In the beginning of the book Benvolio was talking about how much Romeo loved Rosaline. For instance Pg.33 Line 90. " Sups the fair Rosaline whom thou so loves" Benvolio still thinks that Romeo is head over heels for Rosaline, so its not a new thing with Romeo it seems.
the why Romeo is so desperate to marry Juliet its the only thing on his mind and they have known each other for about 12 hours hes just way to caught up in this "fantasy". When Romeo marries Juliet he tries to make amends with Tybalt, but he thinks that just because he and Juliet are married that everything between the Capulets and Montagues are okay and happy, but they're not, he does things without thinking. For example in the beginning of the book it tells about their grudge and how bad it is. Pg. 7 line 1-5. " Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes.." It says right there how old the grudge is and how much they hate each other so why would Romeo still go after Juliet when he found out that she was a ungrateful Capulet, wouldn't he know the trouble it would cause his family?
And all of this Information shows how "love sick" he is and how he just cant live without love. So this concludes the thesis of Romeo and Juliet, and how Romeo is the center of all of the troubles and is the reason for the inglorious ending to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

mayflower journal ch 15

(Ch.15)
Mar.24 1630
I'm 14 now and soon to be married to someone in there late 20's. I don't know how I feel about it yet I have heard word that another ship of puritans is on there way to New England. I wonder how they will take it.. I wonder if they will be scared..all I can do is wonder. I see in my mind those people risking their lives to have a good life here, but honestly its not better then home.
They have started a charter (a document written by the lawyers) so that we can govern ourselves. I couldn't imagine a world with out laws the town would go a rye! it would be constant trouble.

Mar.27 1630
I am so sick of these Quakers! they don't have the light of God! they will burn in Hell! they believe that they all have the light of God in them and don't need to listen to the minister. I think that is a bunch of Crap!
John Winthrop who was chosen Governor has said " We must consider that we shall be as a city upon the hill" I wonder what that means..I guess i will learn in time. I like Mr. Winthrop, He always try's his best he gets the people he is governing.
Mary More

mayflower Journal ch 14

( ch. 14) Sept. 4th 1621
We have been her for and I'm feeling a lot better about living in America.It has gotten a lot easier in the past couple of months. my brothers have showed me how to skip rocks. It is actually quite amusing because I pushed my bother wrestling into the ocean.
The Land is rocky and it is always cold. Mr.Brewster has thought up the idea to send furs and fish to England. We have to thank the Indians, Without them we would have never survived. They gave us food. We were struggling really bad through the winter. We have made the idea to have a feast so that we can thank them we don't know when to hold it but most likely in the winter when there is no food so that it will be very special indeed. I wonder if I will be able to go since my adoptive father is one of the wealthy men on the ship. It will be very exciting.

Nov.25 1620

The Feast was very good. they were throwing their weapons up in the air at the parade and the Indians were very nice, I played with my brothers while they adults were at the table with he Indian's. I wish i could be older and sit with them it is just so interesting.

MayFlower Mary Mores Journal ch.13

Sept. 16 1620,
There is no room on this boat. The sleeping quarters are as big as the horse stall at home. Because of this new church it has allowed my parents to get a divorce because my mother was having and affair with Mr.Blakeway. So my father sent me and my siblings on to the mayflower to go to America and have a better life. I hate being here on the ship, I am afraid of my life!! all of the people stink and are getting sick. It is absolutely horrid!

Sept. 28 1620,
It is a Better day. The ocean is a pretty blue and the sky's are clear. As I look off the boat I see the birds fly and the fish swim.I am very lucky to be up on the deck, most people arnt allowed on the deck because they might get in the way. My adopted father Mr.Brewster has let me see John Smiths map. It is very difficult to read no wonder they need the fine scholar's to Captain the Ship. I have been playing games with all of my siblings. I'm very happy that my brother and sister haven't died. I would be terribly sad.

Jan. 4th
I can not understand what is happening here in America. It is harder than the sailors back home have told us..were they lying? I have watched my brother Jasper die long ago on the boat and I'm not feeling to well myself, I'm only a young girl and I'm watching the life of my siblings pass, such as mine.
We are growing little on food. I have never felt so sick. My whole body hurts and I feel like I'm going to spew my innards out. I also have sores all over my skin that keep getting deeper.
I have my brother Richard with me and my sister Ellen has gone to another family I remember her not a lot, but I know that I am missing her dearly. I wonder if we will survive here. Its hard to get food in the wild but the Indians have been trading with us so we will be okay once we know the land a little bit better.

Peeps

Peeps!!!

The book Peeps by Scott Westerfeld is a science fiction novel. This book was published in 2005.Scott has also written the famous series The Uglies, and So Yesterday.
Cal Thompson is a carrier of a parasite that causes vampirism (parasite-positives also known as peeps) and must hunt down all of his ex-girlfriends that he has infected. Cal works for the Night watch in New York/ Manhattan , a group that catches and put the Peeps they have caught in intensive care , to make them more human. He also has the parasite, but it's different then the others. He does not thirst for blood or any human flesh.He is obsessed with Girls! He's called a Carrier. He can't even look at them without wanting them...He wasn't always a carrier. When he moved to New York to go to college he met Morgan, also a carrier and she gave him the parasite. He try to find her so he can destroy her so she won't be able to spread it anymore , and during his search he met Lace, a 24 year old girl that lives in the same apartment room as Morgan once did.

Cal and Lace gang up together and try to stop the parasite together because when Cal accidentally told her about it she wanted to help and she wouldn't take no for an answer.

They looked all over town for Morgan and when Lace told Cal that she found out where she lived they went to investigate and Cal saw that there were men there and Morgan was going to turn them too! He was so scared that he jolted out of there and Morgan came after him after her red eyed cat gave her his scent (red eyed cats are vampires too) and he runs all the way back to his apartment in Manhattan and Lace met him there.
In the end Lace gets turned into a Peep when they find out that cats can get the parasite too and transmit it to people....her and Cal fall in love and are still on the look out for peeps.