Pathway to Success

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Pathway to Success
By:  Sreya Palnati
I remember that day perfectly,
Tears running down my face.
Dead cold stares on me,
A shattered grey vase.

Impossible, you say,
This dream of mine I’m dreaming.
But I’ve got lots of hope,
I’ve done some persevering.
Some days being fun with happy rainbows,
Other days filled with sadness.
I didn’t what was going on,
Or how do deal with this madness.
One day you told me about a song,
How it might help.
But then you never let me hear it,
Letting me feel the feelings I felt.
Soon I find out about a poem,
That shows me the pathway,
A very important one indeed.
Now I see everything in color instead of only grey.
We’re grown up now,
We know a little more too.
You know I’m living the life

That you’ve always wanted to.

Heroes We Never Name

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Back of the men we honor

Enrolled on the scroll of fame,

Are the millions who go unmentioned –

The heroes we never name!

Those who have won us the victories,

And conquered along the way;

Those who have made us a nation –

A tribute to them I would pay.

Back of our nation’s first leader,

Of Lincoln and Wilson, too,

Back of the mind directing our course

Was the army that carried it through.

Back of the generals and captains

Was the tramping of rank and file,

And back of them were the ones at home

Who labored with tear and with smile.

And What of the “everyday” heroes

Whose courage and efforts ne’er cease!

Toilers who struggle and labor and strive

And hope for a future of peace?

Hats off to the worthy leaders;

Their honor I’d ever acclaim –

But here’s a cheer for the many brave,

The heroes we never name.

By M. Lucille Ford

‘via Blog this’

Business Letter to Nintendo

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23027 Weybrigde Sq.
Ashburn, VA 20148


October 8th, 2014


4600 150th Ave NE
Redmond, WA 98052


Dear Mr.Reggie Fils-Aimé,


I recently have bought the new Wii U console and I have been immensely enjoying it. The device is great; the ability for the games to have stunning and beautiful graphic makes gameplay much better. The other features placed in it are amazing such as the dual screen, fluidness in motions, and new control possibilities with the gamepad, once again, making the gameplay great. I recently bought the game Super Smash Bros for the Wii U. This game has been awesome! I really love the features of the game and the updated graphics make the game really enjoyable to play and watch. Also, the 8-player brawl feature is an amazing feature added in. On top of that, the many new characters added in such as Lucina and Robin from the Fire Emblem Series and Shulk from the Xenoblade Chronicles series make the game have a much higher variety which, once again, makes the game very exciting. The old characters that seemed to be overpowered were also fairly debuffed and vice versa.


However, I do have a few concerns, the first being that there is no adventure mode inside this new game. Inside Super Smash Bros. Brawl there was an adventure mode called the Subspace Emissary. Throughout this, we had to stop some force from taking over the land where all the characters seem to live. This led us to the final boss, Tabu who we had to destroy in order to bring peace back to the land. My friends and I spent a countless amount of hours playing the adventure and the fact that there is no adventure mode was upsetting. When it comes to the next patch of the Super Smash Bros.4 series, please keep this in mind and make an adventure mode as exciting, if not, even more exciting than the one in Brawl.


My second concern is the lack of understanding of the controls. Before playing, I wanted to know how to do a “smash attack,” the attack that enables the user to more easily launch up the opponent into the air. I spent at least 5 minutes for searching how to do this, as this feature was described in the tutorial. I understand that there is the manual in order to do this, but reading the manual is not very exciting to do. However, I was desperate and I went through the manual. I feel the best way to integrate this lack of knowledge of controls is into an interactive tutorial rather than a quick 30 second video that does not explain the controls that well. I also later found the controls button hidden in the bottom right hand corner of the settings. Please make the controls more easily to be seen as Smash Bros. has some of the simplest controls to use compared to other fighting games but new users and people (like me) who did not even thoroughly understand the controls of the previous games will not be able to figure them out too easily.


I highly appreciate you for taking the time to read my critiques on your new game, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. In addition, if this letter is not sent to the correct area, please forward this letter to the place it should be.


Thanks again,


Harish Karumuri


Haikus

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Bora Bagdatli 
Mr. Koch
Block 3
12/8/14
Thoughts in My Head

His words were bitter
All he saw is the cold world
“No love,” he whispers.
He doesn’t feel much
Only regrets of his past
You should not bother him.
The sun is shining
The weather is very sweet
Nature is gorgeous.
He enjoys writing
Poetry is his passion
But not in this form.
Leave me alone
I can’t take the attention
I’m going insane.

Being Harish Karumuri

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Being Harish Karumuri

When I first picked up Being Henry David by Cal Armistead through my club, Battle of the Books, I groaned. I was tired of these books about some guy who I don’t even know having amnesia who is trying to find out who he was. I mean, really? This is not a bad concept, but it is so overdone that the genre is no longer interesting. But then I started reading the first page. And the second. And the third. Before I knew it, I was reading the last page of the book, staying up until 2 o’clock in the morning to finish it.

The book is very well written, using a sense of living life to its fullest, feeling loss, and joy of a person trying to find out who he really is. This also has a scenario of what to do when life is controlling you, not the other way around.

The main character, who goes by many different names, but mainly as a character named “Hank”, wakes up at Penn Station without knowing who he is. The first person he sees is a psychopath named “Frankie,” a guy who will eat anything from ID cards to wallets and pages of books. The only items Hank has are a 10 dollar bill and a book called, “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau, an abolitionist with many careers such as an author and a poet. Thoreau has a major effect on the book by giving Hank a pathway through the story, giving him a person to connect and feel to, especially when no one was with him. This book personifies a quote by Thoreau; “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”

A good component of the story is the adventure. Hank has no idea about who he is or where he is from, but tries to figure out when life starts to stress him out, especially when he accidentally kills someone. Led by the book in his hands, he goes to Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts in order to see if he can remember who he is.

The upbeat part of the story is when Hank meets a person named Jack, who gives him shelter, food, and a job at the library. He then befriends many people, and even gets a girlfriend. Life seems to be simple, and most of all, he seems to be happy. However, he still goes searching for who he is and wants to figure out how he got to the place he was at now. Throughout the book, there seems to be a struggle between himself and a “beast” that seems to guard his memory and prevent him from remembering his past. However, once he finally gets information about himself, he freaks out trying to figure out what he should do next.

The end was very beautiful, as he begins to see everything come through. In spite of the hardships to leaving this new life, he decides to go back to who he really was and live his old life. That “struggle” is what makes the entire story very well written and enjoyable to read. This was one of those moments where I wished I could cry. It was just that moving.

As I mentioned before, the story gives a meaning behind “build your life”. You have control of your life; your life does not control you.

I feel that a story is made through emotions, actions, and interactions. The emotions are what the person is thinking behind his actions, and those actions lead into interactions with other people, other objects, and themselves. Cal Armstead has used those components very well making the book have an uplifting feeling inside of you after seeing or witnessing something emotional and inspiring.

I clearly remember the feeling that I got after I finished reading the book. I was struggling to go to sleep as the thoughts I had about the book were swirling through my head. I was and am truly glad about joining the club and deciding to give the book a shot.

As Thoreau said in Walden, “However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace.” This quote is the meaning behind this story and for that reason, and the reasons before, I highly recommend anyone and everyone to read this book.