“Monday’s quake occurred on a fault where South Asia pushes against the Eurasian land mass, smashing the Sichuan plain into mountains leading to the Tibetan highlands — near communities that held sometimes violent protests of Chinese rule in mid-March.”

“Much of the area has been closed to foreign media and travelers since then, compounding the difficulties of getting information. Roads north from Chengdu to the disaster area were sealed off early Tuesday to all but emergency convoys.”

This has been the deadliest and most destructive earthquake I, personally have heard of. This tragic event left thousands of people dead and others injured in need of rescuing. It’s something that’s going to have an effect on other areas and people near by as well. Not only is it a wide effect, but it’s also an ongoing one too. This left people without power, no running water, the mess it made of the city and people’s property, etc. Not only this, but it’s leaving it’s mark on traveling. Flights were canceled and a major railway was damaged, leaving people stuck for several hours.  I couldn’t imagine how terrifying  an experience like this  would be and the ongoing damage it would leave not only physically on some people and cities, but also emotionally.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080512/ap_on_re_as/china_earthquake

1. What can you create with the black and white adjustment layer? You create a gray-scale image by a black and white layer.
2. What is the “black and white cookie” located at the bottom of the layers palette really called? Adjustment Layer
3. After you tweak the sliders to create a gray scale image, why is good to know that you can hide this mask? So you can return it to it’s original colors to see what you’d want to adjust.
4. What can you press on your keyboard to get the brush tool? B
5. In the realm of layer mask, what do they say about painting and revealing? That painting with black conceals and white reveals.
6. If we want to hide a bit of the adjustment layer, what color do we paint with? Black
7. What happens with the foreground and background color in the tool box when you press X? The color chips switch
8. What does the adjustment layer look like? It’s plain, until you conceal some of the layer, then they adjustment layer shows what ever part of the original image you revealed.
9. Where is the adjustment layer located? Next to the layer you’re working with
10. Where do you find the tint option (in step 4)? You have to double click the adjustment layer and the tint option is at the bottom.

2. The author of this article is his mother, Barbara La Porte

3. Matt La Porte was one of the 32 people shot and killed on the Virginia Tech campus last year.

4. I felt that after knowing that the author was, in fact, his mother, that she didn’t really dwell on the sad part of this situation. Her writing seemed calm with the whole thing, but you could tell she loved and missed her son just from the beginning of the article by how highly she talked about him.

5. I do find myself saying “What if…” after something bad happens. I always wonder what would have happened if something so small went differently that would’ve completely changed the whole outcome of the situation. Thinking “what if…” usually upsets me more, but I can’t help but think them. Usually to clear my mind of them, I just tell myself that’s how it happened, it probably happened that way for a reason, and there’s no way to change it now.

6. I felt that the author’s thoughts on the “circle of forgiveness” was a great way for anyone to handle a bad situation. Of course something like that is going to hurt for a long time, and there is going to be a long period of mourning, but it’s moving on and not holding grudges against anyone or anything that takes real courage.

7. “Rather, true forgiveness is the point at which you refuse to allow yourself to remain hostage to sorrow or grudges. It is the releasing of your own spirit to continue to love and be loved; to accept mercy and to give it. forgiveness is the ultimate empowerment.”

I had to re-read those lines because I felt it was not only empowering to people, but also advice. If anyone that lost someone close read that line, they would feel differently and have a different outlook on their current situation if they’re handling it badly. To me, it was one of those lines where you read it and just think, “Wow, that’s so true.”

8. I was actually surprised reading this article at first. A mother of a son who was tragically killed in another school shooting is writing about it, but it seems as if it was nothing big. It wasn’t until I read further, about how to forgive and love again, that I realized why she was writing about this way. To anyone who’s lost someone, it’s just an article that could make you feel better about that situation.

-from www.dictionary.com

Plagiarism is bad because in a sense, it’s lying and stealing. It’s taking someone else’s work and getting credit for it as your own. If it isn’t caught and you’re dishonest about it, you’re getting full and possibly good credit for work that you didn’t do that someone else put work into. Unless you cite your work, it could lead to bad consequences.

1. Write this before you leave or on the plane.

     a. Have you ever been to Italy before? no

     b. If no, what are you most excited to experience? the different culture & to see if it’s a lot different than America

     c. Have you ever traveled outside of the country before? no

     d. What makes you want to go to Italy? Besides the fact that it was the planned school trip, I’ve always wanted to visit because it always looked like a beautiful country. & I’m also Italian.

     e. Why do you think it is important to travel? To get out there in the world & experience different things. It’s important so you’re not secluded to your own culture & your own ways. Traveling is a way to open up and realize things about the rest of the world.

Day 2:

2. When you first arrived in Italy, what caught your eye the most? At first, it was actually the fact that it looked a lot like the marshes and swamps in New Jesery, but that was just the part we were passing at the time. When we got into the actual city, the houses & buildings and the way they were decorated were what caught my eye.

     a. Are the people really different than you? They’re really not that different. Mostly the styles are the big difference. & since we were staying in mostly cities, there many people who just spoke Italian. Almost everyone we met spoke English too.

     b. How did it make you feel to hear a different language? It didn’t make me feel that uncomfortable because of the fact that I hear Italian in my family alot, but it just makes you feel out-of-place considering you really don’t know what they’re talking about.

     c. Learn to say “please”, “thank you”, and “your welcome” in Italian.

     d. What are they? please – per favore / thank you – grazie / your welcome – prego

     e. Do you have a different outlook on our students at SMHS qho are from another country? Since we went to Italy, I don’t really have a different outlook because we don’t have someone who’s recently from Italy in the school. However if I went to a country where we have a lot of students from, I’d probably feel different.

Day 3:

3. Write down one random act of kindness you did for a person in Italy (not someone in your group)

     a. Describe the person you helped. The person I helped wasn’t from Italy. They were British. In the hotel we were staying at in Florence, I was going back up to my room after going on the computer. While I was waiting at the elevator, there were 2 women behind me talking with the man at the desk about having trouble with their room key. I asked them if they were going back upstairs shortly & when they said yes, I held up the elevator so they could go on while I was & didn’t have to wait.

     b. How did this person respond to your random act of kindess? They thanked me & complimented on how it was a nice gesture. On the ride up to my floor they asked me questions about where I was from & why I was visiting.

Day 4:

4. How is the food in Italy Italy is obvioulsy known for it’s food & since we ate out every dinner, we got to experience a little bit of everything.

     a. Did you order something that you liked in America, and it tasted completely different? Nothing we had was REALLY different. Most of the pastas and meats we had were the same, they just tasted MUCH better in Italy, especially the pizza.

5. What was your favorite site that you saw in Italy?

     a. Describe:

        I. What was it? The Grand Canal in Venice. There are many small canals in Venice that you take a gondola through which go in between buildings and alleyways, but the Grand Canal splilts the island and is the widest of all of them, with the main buildings on either side.

        II. Where was it? It was in the center of the island in Venice

        III. Why did you like it so much? It was such a gorgeous site. We went on a gondola ride just as it was getting dark, so not only was the sun setting, but a lot of the decorative street lights were on. So we came out of one of the smaller, alley canals, right onto the Grand Canal with the lights on the water and the sun setting at one end.

 Day 6: Write don any of your feelings about leavng Italy and the pros and cons of your experience.

The last day going home, I felt like the week went too fast & once I came home, I missed it and wanted to go back. It really was an unforgettable experience. I would say that a con would be that it was a guided trip, but we honestly would not have experienced and learned as much as we did. A personal con of the trip was that it was my first flight that I remember, because my first was when I was a baby, and I thought that an 8 hour flight with a 4 hour layover was too much for my first flight.

When I first heard that Patrick Swayze had only like 5 days left to live, I was kind of upset because I did love some of his movies, but the fact that a lot of random celebrities that I’m a fan of have been dying. But, now I’m glad to hear he’s at least taking the treatment well and getting better.