New football / track field

602 5^th street

Las Animas CO, 81054

October 27, 2010

 

Carl Lindauer

300 Grove

Las Animas Co, 81054

 

Dear Mr. Lindauer,

 

I am writing you today to talk about our football and track field. Our football field is ancient and was built close to the 1950’s. The football field is torn up. There are dirt patches close to the end-zone by the scoreboard and the grass is also dead everywhere. There is glass and nails in the dirt. When we run you can see the dirt fly up. It looks like a rodeo out there. When we tackle in the dirt it feels like cement. The track field is also all dirt. If we changed the track to an all-weathered one we could host track meets. We can finally have a track meet here instead of having them out of town all the time. The athletes of the track team would actually be happy to run in front of a home crowd. There are many benefits and disadvantages to this project. The benefits are it will look nicer. The field wouldn’t have dirt patches. We don’t have to water the field. We will have synthetic grass. We don t have to waste money on paint. The lines will automatically be on there all the time. With an all-weathered track we don’t have to worry about mud and we can host track meets here. With a new field we can heighten the community look. As soon as people enter Las Animas the first thing they see is the field. The disadvantages are money. It’s going to cost a lot for a new one. But there is also grants we can apply for that will help us. Another one is time. When are we going to start it? And what are we suppose to do for the football team if it takes forever? Where are we going to practice or play at? Another disadvantage is that it will be messy. Because when we use all those tire pieces they get stuck in our shoes and get caught on our clothes.  

Thank you,

Michael Snead  

The Birds

Michael Snead

English 1

Mr. Armstrong

14 October 2010

The Birds

In this film The Birds, directed by Alfred Hitchcock he portrays the story from which Daphne du Maurier wrote, into an all time high cinematic classic in 1963. The different species of birds join together in a little militia and attack the little town of Bodega Bay California. They swoop down upon the town and create havoc for the innocent civilians. The birds helped blow up the gas station, injure many, and also killed some.

The film begins in San Francisco when Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) meets Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) in a bird shop. Melanie meets Mitch in the bird shop and they tease and flirt with each other. Melanie buys love birds to mess with Mitch because he came in looking for the birds but never got them. So Melanie takes a trip to Mitch’s weekend home in Bodega Bay. She takes a trip over the lake directly to his house. Melanie found out that Mitch had a sister; therefore he changed the name on the card from Mitch to Cathy his little sister. She snuck into Mitch’s house and placed the cage on a foot rest.

As Melanie sneaks out of the house and drives away in the boat, Mitch goes into the house and finds the love birds. He runs outside and sees her driving off in the boat, so he gets in his car and tries to beat her to town. As Melanie pulls into the dock a gull sweeps down and claws her neck. After she stopped Mitch jumps into the boat and helps her out and treats her from her bird attack.

As Melanie gets back from Mitch’s house, she goes to the schoolhouse and while she was there, a whole bunch of crows was sitting on the playground equipment staring at her. She goes inside the classroom and tells the teacher about the birds outside. So the teacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette) tells her students that Miss Daniels wants to see how their fire drill works. As they walk outside she tells them to run home if they lived close or run to the motel if they didn’t. So they started running down the road and then the birds started attacking them. As the kids where safe, Melanie went to the diner to use the phone. She started scaring the customers at the diner. They got into a whole big conversation about the birds and what was wrong with them.

After the attack on the school, there was another attack. A service station attendant was filling up a car with gas then all of a sudden a bird swoops down and frightens the man. He drops the gas hose on the line and it spreads. A man lights a cigarette and drops the match on the ground. The fire spreads quickly setting the service station on fire. Everybody tries to put the fire out but the birds keep attacking them therefore making it harder for them to put it out. Everybody is huddled in a hallway at the diner trying not to look at the mass destruction outside. Everyone in the diner is very scared.

After Melanie and Mitch leave the diner they go back to his house where they boarded up the windows and waited for the next attack. Everyone was asleep except Miss Daniels, so she went and explored the house. She came to the attic door and went and looked in. a whole bunch of birds started attacking her. It looks so fake. And at the end, they get into the car and drive off.

I recommend this movie to you if you like really bad graphics. All it looks like is birds on strings being moved around the set. And also the blood looks like it is being sponged on

The Most Dangerous Game

Have you ever considered that maybe you were going to be hunted for a game? That you just get stuck on some random island and out of nowhere get hunted. Well I would say that is absolutely crazy. You could just be taking a family vacation and to get off that island you would be hunted and have to stay alive for three days. There are many cause and effect relationships that create suspense in a story. It could be from crashing on an uninhabited island to being hunted by a crazy general. It could also be getting trapped on the island. Many things may cause suspense in a story. Cause and effect is when one thing happens there is an effect for it all. There are many types of cause and effects. Well in the “The Most Dangerous Game” there are many cause and effect relationships that deal with the whole story.

“I have invented a new animal to be hunted” (Connell 26)                                                   “It must have courage, cunning, and apart all it must be able to reason” (Connell 27) General Zaroff is about to tell something to Rainsford that he doesn’t want to hear. This creates suspense where Rainsford knows that he is going to say something bad.  General Zaroff is waiting and luring Rainsford into his trap. He has told Rainsford of the training camp he has in his basement. It is filled with a bunch of students who are training for the hunt.

“Hunting? General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder.” Rainsford just found out what the students in the basement were for. General Zaroff uses the people in the basement for hunting. The most dangerous game is a three day hunt in the jungle. Zaroff gives Rainsford a sack full of necessities like a knife, moccasins, and many more items. Rainsford has to run through the jungle, strive for food, and try not to get caught for three days.

“I’ll give him a path to follow;” muttered Rainsford and he struck off from the rude paths he had been following into the trackless wilderness. (Connell 31) In this paragraph from Richard Connell, Rainsford is giving General Zaroff a very difficult path to follow in the wilderness. He is creating a difficult path in the wilderness so General Zaroff cannot find the trails that he has taken. He is creating suspense because you do not know what Rainsford is going to do. He is messing with his General Zaroof’s head. The first night he confused Zaroff with his trails. The second night he killed Ivan Zaroff’s bodyguard. The third night he killed one of his dogs and snuck into his room.

As you can see in “The Most Dangerous Game” that there is many cause and effect relationships that can cause suspense. As you can see that in this story that just by crashing on an island you have a chance to be hunted by a crazy man. Rainsford never expected to be hunted because he fell off his yacht. He was just startled by a distant gunshot. And Zaroff never thought that he would lose his own game.

The Hunter or The Hunted

I would be the hunted because it would be fun just running from someone in the jungle. It would be exciting testing your skills against someone who is trying to kill you. I could try different skills and techniques on how to evade the person who is hunting me. The only problem about being hunted is that it lasts three days and I have to find different places to hide. When the hunter would come after me I would try to kill him. I would set the dogs up to where they would get trapped so they won’t be able to track my scent. I would break branches to lead the hunter away from where I was at. He would follow it and he wouldn’t be able to find me.