Down These Mean Streets Part 1

Dear Group,

In the first section of the book "Down These Mean Streets", we are given the first part of the autobiography of Piri Thomas. It focuses on his early teenager years and the troubles he went through growing up in the Spanish part of Harlem known as El Barrio. He gets involved in drugs and runs away from his parents numerous times. When this happens, he moves in with his friends sometimes or maybe even his relatives until he can tell they are growing tired of him. With no house, he goes out and looks for a job, but it almost always ends with him selling drugs and even using some to get through.

A number of questions have popped up in my mind when I have been reading this book, especially because of the way it is written. Alot of the language is a little bit slang and if you don't know what it means, it can definitely be confusing as to what the sentence means. I also didn't know that people talked like that back then. It seems that kind of language is making a come back. Unless he changed the writing to make it seem more understandable for people nowadays, but a lot of the language is similar to what it is now today.

I have been annotating on post it notes to keep track of what I think will be important possibly later. Piri has met a lot of people, some helpful and some not so helpful. Piri himself is helpful. One example is how he often gives money to homeless people, but he is also not oblivious to the world. He knows that money will probably be used on drugs and realizes it doesn't affect him, so why should he care? It is just him being helpful to someone else and they can do what they want with their lives. Overall, this book has been great and I look forward to reading some more.

Basketball

This week is almost certainly the last you will hear of the Warriors this basketball season until the draft which is almost 5 months away. They played on national TV two times in one week. That is amazing. They have 16 wins this season. There are teams out there with more wins than the Warriors have losses. And yet they give you the false hope that maybe they will actually look good on TV. I mean come on, they came back from 18 down against the Hawks, an Eastern Conference playoff team, and the best of it, it was all on national TV. People come to school the next day, saying hey man, did you see the game last night? It is great except for the part where they have 16 wins. 16 WINS! People around the country probably are asking around, what is wrong with the Warriors? How can they beat a team like the Hawks, but only have 16 wins this season? Then they start questioning the clearly better team. What do you think is wrong with the Hawks this year? I will tell you right now, nothing is wrong. It is just what to expect from a young team who's oldest starting player is 25.

Laker's center/forward Andrew Bynum was fined 25 thousand dollars for being quoted as saying "It's hard to win when it's five against eight." He is talking about the refs being the other three for those of you out there who feel refs are completely impartial. Those people need to get a reality check if you are a serious sports fan or are planning on becoming one. This world and this sport are anything, but perfect. Actually, other than the refs at times, this sport is almost perfect.

The Lakers are rolling other than the 8 on 5 game against the Mavericks Wednesday night. They beat the 76ers 99-90 on Friday night to stay close behind the Cleveland Lebron's for the best record in the NBA. If they had won that game against the 8 deep Mavericks, they would be tied for the best record in the NBA. This is big for home court advantage if it comes down to Cleveland against the Lakers. Home court gets you the all important deciding game 7 in your building with your fans yelling in their team's ears. Still doesn't sound like much? Imagine not being able to hear as your coach is yelling instructions at you. He then gets angry at you for not listening. Pretty frustrating, isn't it? Plus imagine how hard it would be to put a ball in a hoop while barely being able to hear yourself think. Ya it is a pretty big deal.

So the Lakers are 44-15 trying to claim that all important home court advantage and the Warriors have 16 wins and are trying to put as many bingo balls in the lottery for the number one draft pick next year to add to their already juvenile team which might actually need to get older and more experienced.

...

Now that the football season is over, it seems as if I have run out of stuff to blog about. This looks to be the end of my blog...NOT. There are still plenty of sports to talk about especially now that the Olympics are starting. However, for me, it does not really seem like the Olympics. Especially after the death of the Georgian Lugist. I will admit it though, I have been watching. I am sure there have been more exciting Olympics than these, but I am entertained. I have almost been on the edge of my seat and I have even yelled when someone crashes during a race. I almost screamed when the two Koreans crashed into each other. When they went flying into the wall, I thought the one's blades was going directly into the others face.

It is also almost the basketball playoffs. Well not quite, but we're getting there. The Warriors still stink, but they do look promising with their young line up. The Lakers are looking great, even without their star player, Kobe Bryant. They were 4-0 entering their game with the Celtics, and they still only lost by 1. For missing a player who averages about 30 points a game, they would have handled them if Kobe was in the line up. Not only that, but he is the most clutch player in the NBA, no doubt. He has the most game winning shots in the entire league, and without him for that last second shot, the Lakers suffered.

On the other hand, Lebron is one of the least clutch players. He had 3 straight shots to win and/or tie the game in the last minute, and he missed them all. What kind of clutch player is that? How can you be the best player in the NBA, but you can't even hit a 3? MVP? I think we know who it SHOULD be this year.

A Tough Decision

There have been numerous times where I have had to choose between my family and most of the time, my friends. I have always wanted to be able to go out whenever I want, but growing up on Bay Farm has definitely affected me for the worst. Most of the time, my parents have given me the “Do what you want, but I expect you to make the right decision.” What is that? It’s not even a choice for me to make. It's my parents saying I am not allowed to, but they are going to make it seem like I actually have a choice in the matter.

It also affects me when people want me to spend the night. Then I have to tell them that my parents gave me the speech. They know what I am talking about right away and they know that feeling because they have all been there. Guilt tripping is the worst feeling so when my parents do it. I just can’t say no to them.

There has always been one time that sticks out in my mind when my friends were all spending the night at someone’s house about a block away from my dad’s house. He gave me the whole speech and I still said yes after great consideration. He looked so shocked and said he “respected” my decision and was completely ok with it. Throughout the whole night, I didn’t even think about it. That is until I woke up. I had a dream that he didn’t let me go and I was extremely upset. He gave me the speech after a few minutes of fighting, and I choose to go. It seemed so real that when I woke up, I was dreading calling him to let him know I was going to be gone all day probably. He picked up and seemed calm, but too calm for me. I completely forgot that it was all a dream, so I thought he was really mad and just choosing not to show it. It was horrible thinking of what he was going to do when I got back. I couldn’t even enjoy anything.

While I am sure some people have way more difficult decisions to make in their lives every day, I still remember the speech and will always remember it. It’s not like I don’t make hard decisions, it’s just that none of them stick out like this one. All of the other decisions are forgettable.

The speech applies for everything nowadays. Whether it is chores or going somewhere incredibly boring like a distant relative’s house that refuses to have any electronic devices, they bust out the speech. I always role my eyes, and they say that they don’t need my attitude. This of course leads to more arguing and more rolling of the eyes. I hope I am not as annoying to my kids as I think my parents are.

When it comes to the Holocaust, my situation doesn’t even come close to the things that they went through. They were fighting for their lives and they did it every day. I make a “tough” decision every once a month for fun, and they made multiple tough decisions every day for their lives. I can’t imagine what that felt like, or even looked like. When I hear about Hitler, I automatically think that that was a bunch of years ago, like in the 1800’s because of how messed up things were. But no, these things happened less than a hundred years ago. I immediately think “How can something like this happen?” Nobody has had an answer for me, so I am still searching. I guess nobody really knows except for the people closest to Hitler himself and I don’t think they will be talking and sharing their secrets any time soon. So my questions remain unanswered and I remain completely confused about my questions.

All in all, decisions may seem tough to you now, but remember that things could be much harder. I am never going to over think any decision and let my mind calm down. Stress is never a good thing for the body and it can always get more difficult.

The Game of Hype

This week has been boring to say the least. Nothing of interest has happened and I have had a bunch of homework which I had to do because it is the second semester (not that I don't do it all the time). Also nothing interesting in sports has happened so I have been unbelievably bored (and tired) all week. I will just have to make with what I got.

The Pro Bowl was last week and I blogged about it earlier. I stated it was a useless game and nobody had any reason to play in it except for the pay day for the winning team. I mean, nobody from the Superbowl was even allowed to play for obvious reasons.

The Superbowl is also this weekend and it will be extremely interesting for not only everybody watching, but especially for me. I watch football every weekend for the hope that my team will make it somewhere (Miami this year). So I honestly can not wait for this game. I also have a bunch of money riding on it, but I am not gonna say how much or for who.

We have known who was going to play this Sunday for two weeks and it is finally time to get the game going. A bunch of talk leading up to the game is just that, talk. It doesn't get you anything in the game unless your opponent is extremely weak willed and lets things get to them very easily. But it makes for great TV and CBS must be eating it all up for the hope of astronomically high ratings (last year scored a 42 on the ratings which is one of the highest ratings any show has ever gotten). I am just hoping that the game itself lives up to all the hype.

The Pro Bowl

I am going to be completely honest right now because I totally forgot about doing a blog post. Now for the actual post. This Sunday is the Pro Bowl and many players are not even going to play in it. This is raising many questions among fans such as "What is even the point" or "why even watch?" By moving the Pro Bowl to before the Super Bowl, the NFL thought that that would bring more of a sense of importance to the game that actually means nothing. Not only are the fans upset, but the players are as well. Why would they move it from Hawaii, many of them are asking. Why should I even risk injury in this meaningless game? These are questions that need answering.

Some solutions are obvious. Obviously move the Pro Bowl back to Hawaii. Next, make the game actually mean something. Reward the winning conference with home field advantage for the Super Bowl the next year. I mean, I do not understand how hard this could be. I'm almost 16 and I am capable of making decisions. Why can't grown men who get paid to do it, do it? It's really not that difficult.

The football "all-star game" is by far the worst and most meaningless of all all star games. Even baseball, which I feel is the most boring out of all sports, strikes more excitement in me. Because it is actually worth something. Why would anyone take a game not worth anything seriously? It's kind of common sense and has blown right over the NFL's executives heads. I will watch the game, but not because of the excitement, but because I want to see the bay area's representatives make a name for themselves on a national stage. So I guess I can't say it doesn't mean anything anymore, but it really is next to nothing.

The Final

10. Where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you to write?

Every week during the football season, I have been writing about local football teams and their success or suckness. I don't read newspapers or even other people's sports blogs to inspire me, I just think that, no matter how corny it sounds, sports is the only inspiration someone needs for writing a blog on sports. When people talk about sports and all the stats, there are millions of people who can do that kind of thing, but when it comes to giving an opinion on sports stuff, whether controversial or not, I will always put my opinion out there. Not that my opinion isn't always the most popular one, I feel if I can open the eyes for other people on things that I write about, then I have done my "job".

Another thing that inspires me, is people giving praise and compliments. When I see that someone likes my blog posts or likes about my opinion on something, I think it's awesome. Whether it be someone saying "Oh I really liked what you wrote about and how you wrote it" or "I think you can actually use this for something", it all inspires me.

Now back to the original question, what inspires me to write. I truly feel that whenever I see something cool in sports or in the news or wherever, I want to write about something that makes me feel better. After I finish a post, I look back and see if I feel better after than I did before. For the most part, this was true for all my blog posts. The blog was kind of like a journal and I was able to express my feelings on sports subjects and it felt good.

1. Explain one or two ways your writing has improved over the semester. Include a few examples from your posts over time, with analysis, to illustrate how the improvement(s) happened.

The biggest thing about writing is knowing who your audience is. I used to hate writing for teachers especially when they only like a certain type of writing and it has to be done that way, or they just flat out don't like you or your writing. Writing the blog has improved not only my writing, but also my outlook on teachers and that, yes their opinion should count, but they should also find a balance between their likes and the writer's likes. Like I said earlier, my writing has improved drastically over the semester. I think typing is easier for me, and when I look back and read my first post, I was typing like I write. And if you have ever read anything I have written, you will know it's not my best. There is just something about sitting at the keyboard that makes the ideas flow for me.

"I'm sure many people disagree with this statement, but the of the matter is, Kobe is greater than Lebron. Last year, an incredible amount of people were hopping on the "Cavalier Bandwagon". It seems they jumped off just as fast as they got on which is bound to happen with any bandwagon. To those certain people, I had one simple question to ask them when the topic of who is better got brought up. That question was "Who's sitting at home, and who is out there winning his 4th title?" The silence after that only proved my point more. Lucky for them the Lakers won the title after school ended so they didn't have to try to defend their earlier statements about who is better."

That is a direct example from my first blog post. I feel if I wrote a blog about the same exact subject next week, you would notice a drastic change in the type of writing. The last sentence especially stands out in my mind as the one that doesn't belong. Whether it is just getting back into writing, or if it really has something to do with writing to the audience, I am just glad that the improvement is visible. At least to me it is.

Mark it down Mr. Sutherland, next week I vow to do a blog post about Kobe Bryant still being better than any player in the NBA including Lebron. Not only that, but the Lakers are the best team in the NBA and will win another NBA title. Sorry for going off topic like that, but it's a point that should be noted and hopefully will not be seen as cockiness or over confidence, but rather having a strong opinion on something and sticking to it.

8. How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?

I love having a blog. Not only has it changed the way I write, but also the way I think about stories I hear. If I have a strong opinion on something I hear, then I think to myself "I have to definitely blog about that later". Almost every day I come home from school, get some food, and watch Sportscenter. If there are any interesting stories on that day, I store them for later and wait for Friday for all the stories of that week. If I really can't decide, then I just make what I call a hybrid post. While only one of my blogs is actually called that, I have done it numerous times especially when both the 49ers AND the Raiders won over the course of the week. While this was a rarity, I feel my writing was the best when I was happy (of course because they both won).

I like writing, or typing, much better now because it has become so much easier for me to do. Ever since starting a blog, my typing has gotten faster and my ability to organize my thoughts quickly is at it's finest. Sorry if that sounded over confident. I am now able to do a normal blog post in about 15 minutes when the first blog post I did took over half an hour. My ability to get past writer's block has also improved and I am now almost never stuck unless I am writing about something I have no idea what I am writing about (see the quickwrite about liberals and conservatives).

Well that about wraps up all my ideas, and I feel especially good after getting so many ideas off of my chest. Now it is back to the regular old blog posts where I hope to improve my writing even more than I have in the first semester.