CALI

So this weekend I went to California, it was pretty dang fun. It started out with a 5 hour drive on Tuesday to St. George to my cousins house. They are very interesting! Right when we got there, we were beckoned back into the boy’s room, only to find that the pet snake had gotten out. While we were half-heartedly looking for the baby snake which had gone missing, I over came my fear of big snakes, because they also had a huge snake! (No worries, they were both King Snakes, which aren’t venomous, but prefer to strangle their pray to death). *Quick Verity: I don’t know if you knew, but king snakes eat rattlesnakes.* I held the big snake. Yes, I did. And I’m very proud to say I have no fear of holding them now, well, as long as they don’t have venom, and don’t bite, and for picture sake of course.  Along with the two snakes, they have two dogs, two birds, and two fish. They also have 5 kids, are homeschooled, and live a sugar free diet! It is really a vibrant life! I was homeschooled until third grade, until my mom got struck with a pretty nasty virus of Giardia, which made her hair fall out and made her really sick.  Ok, so after we ate a French toast breakfast, we embarked on another journey of 6 hours to California. The first day at Disney Land we walked a total of 15 miles (I know this because my mom wears a pedometer called a “FItBIt”.) On Thanksgiving, we walked 13 miles, and had an exceptionally eventful day. We went on the “Pirates of the Caribbean” in hopes to hear a little “Yo ho yo ho a pirates life for me”, but ended up getting stuck on the ride for an hour, listening to that song over and over. I swear, if I ever hear another blimp of that song, I will kill somebody. That song…. is tattooed… into my…. brain. We then had ribs and corn bread and corn and chocolate milk and chicken for dinner. It was really good, and also really expensive. Another day at Disney Land the next day. On Saturday we went to the Gun Show, we are really good friends with the owners of the show, (we actually went with them to two days of Disney Land). We got sunglasses and a Bob Marley bracelet for me. When we were done with that, just my family went to the ocean and looked at tide pools, which are actually way cool! I held like everything in there. Later that night, we went to “The Old Spaghetti Factory” and ate dinner with the two families we had been hanging out with before. We had to wait an hour for a place even to sit, but the time passed by because there was a balloon making guy who made all sorts of creations, and was free. Today was the worst day. We left to hotel at 7:45 this morning, and didn’t get back home until 8:45 tonight, and we only stopped three times! An hour and a half into the drive, my little sister puked up her brains all over in the car… And  I was sitting right next to her when her stomach exploded. I did all that I could to get away from it. But she managed to splatter some right on my favorite jacket. I almost threw up myself. Other than that, all went well, and I’m very ecstatic to be home!

What Drove the Sugar Trade?

What Drove the Sugar Trade?

            Today, sugar is an alleged necessity. We have a colossal amount of sugar in our diets every day. We put sugar on our already sugary cereals, in our lunches there is usually a “treat” of a rice crispy treat or brownie, and yes, chocolate milk has sugar. Some soda for a snack, a few kit kats, hot chocolate to keep us warm, sugared yams and cake for dinner.  We consider a day without sugar, a day not done. (At least I do). But little do we know that a while back, you couldn’t buy a candy bar, or let alone a bag of sugar at the store. What drove the sugar trade? I do believe that what drove the sugar trade consists of the following: Land and climate, consumer demand, and complementary goods.

            In order for sugar to grow to its full goodness, it is ideal to have 68-90’ F, 80-90 inches of rain each year, and volcanic or alluvial soil that is sandy/silt/clay. Two Caribbean Islands fit the deal pretty well. Jamaica’s temperature is primarily 68-86 F., has a clay/silt/sand mix, and has generally 77 inches per year.  The temperature in the Barbados ranges from 72-86 F., has clay/sand mix, and has about 60 inches of rain each year (Doc 2). The British own both of those islands (Doc 1). The way that the islands could get money would be to sell the sugar, but even better! They could trade it for things that they needed! But first, people would want it.

            Everyone has somewhat of a sweet tooth. Who doesn’t love a little sugar every now and then? Since we have it at the tips of our tongues, we take it for granted. But in 1846, sugar was limited. So much so, that children would lick the bottom of the barrels that it was transported in (Doc 3). In Britain alone from 1700-1770 the sugar jumped from 4.6 pounds per capita per year to 16.2 pounds per capita per year.  The more that was imported, the more the consumption rocketed (Doc 5). How are they eating all this sugar?

            Sugar goes good with everything. Correct me if I’m wrong. Did you know that chocolate is bitter on its own? That alone would have a huge impact in trade. Chocolate is delectable. A list of all of the things that sugar goes well with would be forever stretching. One thing that sugar goes great with (at least I hear it goes great with, I never have had any) is tea. Tea is and has been the most popular nonalcoholic beverage in the UK (Doc 4). Everything tastes awe-inspiring with sugar in it. So much better than when it is plain. So, That’s why I think that complementary goods drove the sugar trade.

            In finale, I would just like to say that these are the reasons that drove the sugar trade. They all add on to each other, there had to be land to grow the sugar on, people had to want to purchase it, and they had to have a reason to obtain it.

11/11/11

I don't know if you realized it, but yesterday was one of the luckiest days of your life. Even though it didn't even seem like anything different; I promise you, it was a once in a lifetime kind of day. You will never experiece another day like that. I envy the people who are alive on 11/11/2111. And I can't even imagine 11/11/1111 at 11:11:11.

Me and my friends celebrated this hmm... Lets just sobriquet it "Awesome Day". On Wednesday, we made these attractive shirts that had 11.11.11 on the front, and a list of the 11 things we had to accomplish. Seriously, everybody else at school was jealous of our swag walking down the hallway yesterdays very fine morning. Here is the list;

1. Eleven jumping jacks at 11:11

2.Eleven pictures of eleven people...

3.Kiss eleven friends ON THE CHEEK!
4.Eleven cookies to eleven strangers (One to each stranger)

5.Eleven prank calls

6.Eleven laps around the house

7.Make an eleven ingredient meal

8.Eleven minute soccer game

9.Try eleven ice cream flavors

10.Eleven laps in pool

11.Order eleven donuts

at 11:11 we went in the hall and had a teacher video us doing 11 jumping jacks; sadly, he forgot to hit record...So we had to do it again really fast before the minute ended.

The pictures thing? I didn't have a camera...But I had my picture taken? I did kiss 11 people on the cheek. All boys. Half of them were really awkward..more like almost all of them. I gave 11 cookies to 11 strangers..so check. I listened to people in my car doing prank calls... Ohhh boy. We weren't at the house, but more on that later. We didn't have time for the meal because a few of my guy friends, and myself all had soccer games. The boys had two, so we just ordered pizza. We did an eleven minute soccer game between the two games. We tried 11 icecream flavors at my house... They were rather delicios. We were planning on doing 11 laps at Clearfield Aquatic, which is where the futsal games were, but the pool was closed for a swim meet, so we went to Surf 'N' Swim and did that. Swimming is way tiring, but I think I was the only one who got tired.. Or, probably the only one who complained (;. We ordered 2 boxes of eleven donuts. Bon Apetite. But so we swam, then I went to my soccer game, and then watched the two others. By 11:11 at night I was just ready to go to sleep. But there was a little tent at Clearfield Aquatic (I'm so sick of that place, 4 hours last night were spent there. Just kidding, I love soccer), and so people ran around it 11 times and we counted that.

Other than that day was a fun day with friends, I still didn’t feel any different. I’m actually kind of disappointed at the upshot. I was hoping that we were all to be turned into seething beasts, but no, nothing even happened. But next year at 12/12/12..Oh the possibilites!

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So, to tie off my thought from last week, I will tell you about my thoughts on 9/11.

About 3000 lives were lost on the date of 9/11.  Innocent people.. Not even expecting anything.

How many people have been killed by our armies in Iraq?

Iraq Body Count project 103,160 — 112,726 civilian deaths recorded as a result of the conflict and 15,114 new deaths added from the Iraq War Logs.

Isn’t that a little of a difference? And how many of those were innocent children. Maybe we should focus more on the damage that were doing. How are we defending our country? We are in their countries! Why do you think they are coming over and being “terrorists”? We are killing their people, and blowing up their things, all because of oil! Instead of trying to kill them for their land, why not just be allies? It makes no real sense to me. But since it is 10:33 on this fine Sunday evening, I will change my change in thought.

11/11/11 here we go!

So, tonight I went to a dear friend’s house of mine to watch the Real Salt Lake with some other families accompanying us. Although Real lost to LA Galaxy (fun game to watch, Espindala had two of the most intense shot opportunities, and missed, and Beckerman hit the pole.. TWICE. Number 11.. don’t know his name, broke his ankle in May I think, and was still playing. It was crazy, that’s only a few months, and he totally broke it, look it up on Youtube or something. ) It was way fun. We planned what our particular group is going to do for 11/11/11. It’s going to be the most magical, fun packed day! Think of the joyful wishes you could make. I advise thinking of them in advance, because this is a once in a lifetime thing. I wouldn’t be surprised  if at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11, something extreme happened. Like, maybe scientists finally found a way to make clones, and there would be many, many clones running around and nobody knew who was who. I wouldn’t be surprised if every single persons wishes come true. (10:40, what to write, what to write). When we were planning what to do for 11/11/11, we came up with various ideas. I don’t have the list of them right now, because we are making lamentations of the lists, and will get them tomorrow. I have to buy a shirt for 11/11/11 that says 11 on it. Oh, and if any students are reading this right now (teachers don’t be afraid to join), at 11:11 we are all standing up and doing 11 jumping jacks. The only people that know so far are three little chitlins I dare to call my friends..so spread it around (10:43, 467 words..soo close).

Don’t you hate that feeling when you totally forget an assignment right before it is due? Yeah, I did that with science, so tomorrow morning, I will be doing homework. But, I want to sleep. And I just hit 500, so see you later. Bye. Ciao. Adios BABAY!