Schedule

Jan 24, 2008

My first class of the day is math with Mrs. Mahaffey. I usually walk into her class about 3 minutes after the first bell rings and go to sit with my group Tommy and Harrison. This is one of my better classes because I can usually do good at my work but Mrs. Mahaffey doesnt accept late work which sometimes pts me in a rush to finish. I then head to PE with Mr. Jokinen, he is a very good teacher and is great at what he does. Everyone has fun in his class because he always keeps the games doing well and fair. My next class is Science. This is the class that I get the least work in. Most times I have no idea what Mrs. Hoelting is talking about because she refers to some things that make no sense to me. 4th Period is my elective, Shop. I really like this class because Mr. Sage runs it very well and is a respectable teacher. Lunch is most likely the best part of the day. I get to hang out with my friends and just walk around doing whatever. 5th and 6th period is block which is fun also. I think this is the best class to have at the end of the day because Mr. B is laid back and a very good teacher.

Langley@Lakewood

November 29, 2007

On Tuesday this week we had an away meet at Lakewood. This is probably our shortest bus ride. When we arrived we got to mess around for awhile since we had to wait for the ref. Usually when we are not doing something important we talke to our assistant coach Jason or just hang out. When I saaw their team I wasn't sure if they had anyone my weight so I didn't think I would wrestle. After they matched everyone up we found out Patrick Monell was the only one that didn't have a match. My match was toward the end so I could just rest, watch the matches, and wait. When I finally saw the kid I was going to wrestle, he was about 5 feet, 150lbs, had a mohawk, wouldn't stop smiling and smelled...BAD. After tying up with him I got him to the ground and pinned him with an armbar. I had the fastest pin with 29 seconds into the match.

French and Indian War

European Trade Goods

My Native American Project is on the French and Indian War. During the war which lasted over 70 years there were many trades. Europeans brought to the New World things the natives had never seen, such as guns. Guns such as the flintlock musket were some of the more popular European trade goods. Glass beads were also and interest to Native Americans. They replaced the decorative quill work that had traditionally been applied to moccasins and headbands. Other ornaments introduced by the French were brass bells, brass rings, lead crosses, silver bracelets and silver gorgets. Most items were made of metal. These items replaced traditional objects made of stone, bone, and shell. For example, iron knives replaced knives made of chipped stone; iron ax-heads replaced celts made of ground stone; and iron hoe blades replaced blades made of mussel shell. Iron was a popular substitute because it was more durable and stronger than the usually Native American tools. Most European trade goods were not absolutely necessary for the Natives but were more convenient, such as the brass kettle. Even long after the kettle had been broken it could still be turned into something useful like an arrowhead. Woolen Blankets were also sold to Natives which helped many because it provided more heat than the traditional blanket. Other European trade goods include: mortar and pestle, mirror, and copper teakettle.

Territory

Territory was a major factor in the French and Indian War. Certain territories gave either the French or English a certain advantage in battle. Others gave an advantage in trade. Both New France and New England wanted to expand their territories with respect to fur trading. The French claimed the vast territory between Appalachian and Rocky mountains. English had the East Coast in which were its colonies. The English also had most of the surrounding area of the Hudson Bay. Some territories were neutral; territories where both French and English owned. Newfoundland was not a neutral area but the English had South Newfoundland and the French the North. Acadia, which is now modern-day New England was a neutral territory because or certain trade routes near the St. Lawrence River. An area near Lake Ontario was also neutral for the same reason. Spain was out of the fight for North America early and settled with New Spain, which is now Mexico. The Spanish controlled Florida during the French and Indian war also. The Rocky Mountains to the west were left unclaimed by Europeans. All these territories influenced the outcome of the war.

Geographic Features of New World

One thing that was important to both French and English was the geographic features of North America. Waterways were used for easy transportation. In the fur-trade both French and English needed an easy way to transport their goods from North American interior. The French controlled the fastest way, the St. Lawrence River. Using the St. Lawrence River the French dominated the fur-trade. Since the French claimed St. Lawrence as there’s they were allies with the surrounding Natives. Since the French controlled St. Lawrence the English needed another way to transport the furs to Europe, the Hudson River. Due to the shorter length than the St. Lawrence River there were less trade post on the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Using the Hudson River the English stayed up with the French in the fur-trade. The Great Lakes and Hudson Bay where was most of the furs came from. These waterways were the home to beavers, raccoons, muskrats, minks, and red foxes. With the fur-trade came economic wealth for both countries and these waterways helped them. The whole east coast was also a geographic feature that had importance in the French and Indian War. The east coast was home to the English Colonies. In the area around the coast copper, mica, pearls, maize, shells, gourds, skins, nets and many more were traded. At last, the biggest body of water involved in the French and Indian War was the Atlantic Ocean. This, of course, was the only way to get all of the trade goods and furs to Europe from the New World.

Relations

During the French and Indian there were many relations betweens the Indians and the Europeans. The French were allies with the Algonquian Indians and the English were allies with most Iroquois. The Algonquians and the Iroquois weren't just one tribe, they were a group of many. Algonquian tribes allied with the French included: Shawnee, Ottawa, Mahican, Delaware, and Sauk with many more spread throughout the northeast. The Iroquoian Tribes of Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Cayuga, and Onondaga had formed a strong alliance. They pledged to come together as one for the protection of all. This made them respected by the Algonquian tribes scattered throughout this region. The French had better relations with Indians because when the English came they pushed the Indians off their hunting lands, and relations became strained. The French had long, friendly relations because they lived among them for many years and adapted to their languages. Without good relations with Indians there would have been no fur trade because the Indian Tribes Huron, Ottawa, and Ojibwa were the main founders. Before they were beaten the Dutch established a very successful trading relationship with the Iroquois. When the English took control of it they inherited the Indian partnership. Most of the time the Iroquois were not happy with their share of the fur trade. The French and Algonquian tribes dominated most of the fur trade and the Iroquois resented their success. Without these relations betweens Indians and Europeans there would have been a very different outcome of the New World.

Reasons for North America

The long struggle between the French and the English in America was known as the French and Indian Wars, but was not as the name suggest wars between the French and the Indians. All the fighting was done between the French and Algonquian Indians and the English and Iroquois. The American conflicts were closely related to the wars in Europe between France, England, Spain, and the Netherlands. Each time war broke out in Europe the effects were felt around the world where they had colonies or trade posts. In North America the French and English colonists used these European wars as an excuse to start their on battles over lands and trade. The main reason for North America was land and trade. This is what caused the Dutch, English, French, Spanish, and the Netherlands to fight over. The population English colonists was more than twenty times the the French population of New France. This gave the English and advantage because they had more people. The English having a bigger population was a result of encouragement to immigrate to the New World. Another reason of England's for the New World was a place to send troublemakers. Anyone who was not content for life in England was to be sent to the New World to make sure England stayed a good country. The reason for the French population being small was that little was done to encourage immigration. Most of the French population was made up of adventurers, traders, explorers, and priests. There were few French families in New France. The French and Indian war started the oldest business in North America(Hudson Bay Company), set the borders for our new states, and introduced a whole new way of life for the Native Americans.

Langley @ Sultan

December 4, 2007

Last week on Wednesday we had an away meet at Sultan. We got there kind of early around 2-2:15. Everyone didn't have to weigh in since we did it the day before. Both of our teams were small so getting the matches set up was easy and fast. The matches started at 2:30 and I wrestled first and pinned my kid in the first round. On and on our team kept finishing in the first round. The longest match was an exhibition against Jake Leonard and Patrick Monell; which Monell ended up winning by points. All of our matches were pretty good. We ended up leaving Sultan at a little after 3. The whole meet was about 30 minutes long; which seemed like nothing. Even though fast the meet was still fun.

Granite Falls @ LMS

Last week we wrestled against Granite Falls at home on Thursday. Granite Falls had a big team compared to ours; about 20-30 people on their team. This meant everyone on our team got to wrestle twice. This would be the first time I would wrestle in a real match. It turned out that I lost. I wasn't mad or sad that I lost just kind of disappointed. I had hoped that I wouldn't lose for the whole season but I had lost my first match. I talked to the person I had lost to after when I was getting water and he seemed like a nice kid and he tld me that he had went to state for freestyle wrestling. This kind of impressed me and then I knew that I had lost to a person that had a lot more experience than I had since this was the first time I wrestled. My next match I had pinned the kid in less than 30 seconds. I knew that I had redeemed nothing by beating this kid after I had lost. I just hope the next time I wrestle the kid I lost to things will turn out differently.

Stop-frame explorer animation

Austin Baker
American Studies
November 7, 2007


Animation Reflection Essay

My explorer stop-frame animation was on Hernando Cortes. The partner I did this project with was Harrison Price. When I first heard that we were doing a stop-frame animation I thought it was going to be a good project. It took a long time to complete but it was fun doing. Many things about this project were hard and I have learned a lot of things about explorers and how to do your projects well.

During the making of the animation there were many hard parts like getting started and keeping up with what you had. Before we started pictures we had days where it was hard to try to plan on what to film. Most of the time we didn’t have the right clay to make our project look better. For some days I couldn’t work on the project due to away games for football and other things. My partner Harrison did a great job of keeping everything set and together for days when I was gone. One of the harder parts were getting things done before their due dates, with many scenes needed to get done in a certain amount of time things got difficult. The slowest part of the project besides making all of our props was uploading/importing the pictures we had taken of them. Some times when we finished importing our pictures they would end up backwards and we would have to rearrange about 30+ pictures.

Even though frustrating at times, this project turned out to be really fun. I have to say the best part was making things from clay and making props. At first it was tricky to make our clay people because all we had were unusual colors to make bodies out of like green and orange. Later we got some skin-colored clay and used paper clips to hold body parts like arms together. For one of our scenes our characters needed to be filmed on a boat, the problem was we didn’t have one. We ended up using a brown sheet of paper with blue in front of it and a camera level to the ground to make it look like they were doing things on the boat. Another fun part was that it was a social project. Sometimes I would get off track to mess with people and that is when I would get in trouble. After being told to do my work I tried harder to get the project done and have fun later.

Through this project I have learned many things that should help me with later projects. One thing you could not do during this project was to procrastinate. If you did you would find that the due date was tomorrow and that you still needed to make a couple more scenes. As I look back at it I know that Harrison was more focused than I was on getting the project done and I know now that I should be the same way. During the week that the project was due we had a lot of scenes due and I had two away football games. Even though I was gone for two days we still finished in good time because Harrison stayed after school a day when I had wrestling and finished it up. I am glad that I had such a good partner because that helped me stayed focused more than usually. At last I learned to always do what you need done before you start messing around, that way you will have extra time at the end to socialize.

This is one of the best projects I have had to do for a class in a long time and wasn’t as stressful as some of the other large projects that we get. Most of the time doing this project was fun like when we were messing with clay and talking to people during it. Other times this project was hard and frustrating because there were things that some times interfered with it. After doing this claymation I have learned many things like keeping on track and getting things done. I really enjoyed this project and have had fun doing it.

End of Season

October 30, 2007

Our last game we played against Chimacum. They were in a different league so we didn't know much about them except we heard from the coaches that they were undefeated. our first couple of plays didn't go so good and they stopped us at about the 50. Once they got the ball they immediately scored on about a 30 yard pass. Once we got the ball back we were stopped around the 50 again. This time on their second play of the game they scored on a running play. Them scoring twice really made the rest of the game hard for us. Twice we made it to about the 15 yard line but were stopped by their defense both times. The game ended up 0-25. Even though we lost it was one of the more happier and full of laughter bus rides so far. I didn't feel bad about losing because they were a good team and what would be the point of being sad on of the last times our will be together?