Paul


 * I Believe**
 * I believe in equalit[[image:paul-summerschool-2011-semester2-.jpg width="480" height="317" align="right"]]
 * I believe in peace
 * I believe in tolerance
 * I believe in trying
 * I believe in new ideas
 * I believe in the truth
 * I believe in fate
 * I believe in questions
 * I believe in freedom
 * I believe in sleep

I know what it is like to have a little brother. I have a brother whose name is Bryan, he is eleven years old. My little brother is probably one of the weirdest people I know. Every day he is always constantly trying to interfere with my business. He never knows when to leave me alone, but I have to put up with it for the rest of my life.

Ever since he passed the age of five my brother has been always interfering with my life. I don’t know if it’s because he has no friends or whatever that might be, but he insists on bothering me, every day when I come home it seems like he always has something dumb and insignificant to say to me. He would always try to get to me and sometimes it worked. Sometimes.

My little brother always knew how to get to me in the dumbest of ways. It ranged from making stupid faces to noises. The point is that he just wanted to bug me, and I will always know how this feels. Annoying.

There is going to be the day though, that my brother finally realizes that what he does is stupid and that it just makes him look dumb. Whenever that day comes, I’ll be happy for him.

Larry was the type of person that would attract a lot of attention wherever he went, he would wear girls clothes and accessories and even wear makeup. Being like that outside of school will draw attention to you. So you could imagine how he was viewed at a middle school in the eighth grade. Everyone must have known him as “the gay kid” Larry was different that wasn’t hard to see. I think that he shouldn’t been using his sexuality as a weapon, that he should have known that if he kept on acting, that something was going to happen to him. This whole thing could have been prevented if Larry just would just have know his limits, So to me Larry has the most fault in this murder.
 * Larry King Essay**

One day in his class Larry was told to take the makeup of his face by a teacher. Larry did, but the next day he was wearing more than ever and when asked to remove the makeup Larry said that it was his right to wear makeup and that he could if he wanted to, because Ms. Epstein had told him so. I think that Ms. Epstein was right, that constitutionally he had the right to wear makeup, but I also think that at the same time she was fueling his gay pride and leading him to push the limits that eventually ended up with a student being pushed to murder. If you are going to middle school and you are in the locker room telling the boys while changing “you look hot” something must be done to stop that. Sexually harassing his peers, Larry was creating more tension between staff and students at E.O Green. If Larry would have not said or done some of the things he did/said he would have probably been alive today. In conclusion, the murder of Larry King had many people involved ultimately, but the most blame falls on Larry King himself. Brandon only did what he did because Larry was harassing him and just did not know when to stop. When you put this situation in the hands of two 8th graders there is not going to be a good outcome. Larry should have just know his limits and the consequences of pushing the limits of others.


 * Before Im 30**


 * 1) Graduate high school
 * 2) Get into college
 * 3) Learn a new language
 * 4) Travel somewhere in Europe[[image:paul-2011-summer-semester2-.jpg width="560" height="371" align="right"]]
 * 5) Learn to drive
 * 6) Buy a car
 * 7) Get a tattoo
 * 8) Have a job
 * 9) Own a pet
 * 10) Travel to Amsterdam
 * 11) Never take summer school after this again
 * 12) Visit the great wall of china
 * 13) Save someone’s life
 * 14) Visit Japan
 * 15) Take a road trip
 * 16) Start a business
 * 17) Shoot a gun
 * 18) Run a race
 * 19) Buy expensive clothing
 * 20) Climbed a mountain
 * 21) Take a Ferrari for a test drive
 * 22) See the northern lights
 * 23) Visit all 50 states
 * 24) Record music
 * 25) Eat mushrooms from the wild
 * 26) Ride a horse
 * 27) Buy a snake
 * 28) Win something from a t.v game show
 * 29) Walk to golden gate bridge
 * 30) Write something

Classmate Larry K. was shot and killed by classmate Brandon M. Although his actions were unjust, you should never take some one’s life away, I think that Brandon M. Should be tried in Juvenile court not adult.
 * Juvenile or Adult?**

Even though Brandon’s crime was adult like I still think that he was a 14 year old boy. He was just confused and angry about what was happening in his life and he took his father’s gun and acted on how he was feeling without much thought on the consequences that would follow.

I think for the crime that Brandon committed, that he can be rehabilitated and released into society. The actions he did were based on what was going through his life and I don’t think he is such a dangerous criminal.

What Brandon did was wrong but I think the justice that he should receive should be in a Juvenile court, he should be given rehabilitation and some time in juvie, but he should not have to have his whole life go to waste for something he did when he was fourteen without much thinking. He should have time in juvie and a second chance at life.

I think that even though Brandon committed a serious crime, that he should be tried in juvenile court. He was fourteen when he committed this crime and I don’t think that it is just to try him as an adult.

Sontag tells us that we can never understand anything from a photograph. That photos hide more than what is shown. Sontag thinks that photography limits our understanding of the world. I disagree with Sontag because I think that photographs can teach us a lot about the world rather than limit our understanding of it.
 * Sontag**

Photographs are one of the easiest ways of understanding the world. Photos are everywhere we look today. Even if we have no understanding of what is behind events photos can give us an understanding of what is happening more or less. An example of this is Jacob Riis and “how the other half lives” and Lewis Hines photography. Both these people took photographs and people were not limited to understanding the world. They understood the world more; they changed the world because they saw these photos.

Sontag does have a point though. We sometimes will view a photograph and have the wrong idea of what is really happening in the photo. Sometimes there is more to the photo than we know of, and we jump to a false conclusion to what the photo really is. Most of the time though we will know what is going on in the photograph and have more or less a good understanding just by looking at the photograph, but I do notice that Sontag does have a point, I just don’t think as rationally as her. That photography limits our understanding of the world.

Photographs are what expand our understanding of the world. If it wasn’t for photographs we wouldn’t get the feeling and emotion that text couldn’t bring. It’s true that we can learn a lot about our past through history books and articles, but to get the feeling of what was happening at the time, to capture the emotion. Is just something that text cannot provide. Photographs almost instantly provide a better understanding because it brings the emotion with it. An example of this is Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan”. The movie shows us what it was like to go through d-day and you can feel the intensity of what is happening thought the movie and in some ways you get the feeling of what it was like.

In conclusion I think that the claim Sontag makes, that Photographs limit our understanding of the world is completely false. That if she took the time to look at photos in a different way that she would find them to widely expand our understanding of the world. I think that photographs can teach us a lot about the world rather than limit our understanding of it.

I think that although love and romance are a bunch of chemicals going through our body and getting released, that love is more than chemicals in our body. That love and romance is more than just science and chemicals getting released in our body. That there is something other than that. That ”soul” has something to do with love.
 * Love v.s Science**

It is true that women are chemically attracted to the stronger, bigger, more manlier men. That men like women that appear more womanly. This dates back to the cave man times, women wanted the strong me to protect them from the dangers of “saber tooth tigers” and that men wanted women that appeared fertile and that could have their children. This is true that our selection process might be chemically still the same but obviously things have changed since we are no longer in danger from “saber tooth tigers”.

Although it would be nice to think that our attractions come purely from “love” there is science behind our attraction to the opposite sex and sex drive. Our levels of testosterone and estrogen rise when surrounded by the opposite sex, This gives us a feeling of pleasure and when we are heartbroken we go into a horrible sadness or even depression. This is because those good feelings we got when surrounded by the opposite sex are gone now and we still yearn for them like someone would after using drugs and stopping. In some ways Love is mostly chemicals and science.

Love I think though is something that we cannot put on science fully. People everyday show extraordinary signs of their compassionate love towards the one they love and I do not think that chemicals and science is really driving the actions of these people. That they just have compassion towards each other that science just can’t prove. Does science prove anything after a couple being married for their whole lives? This almost goes against what our evolutionary science is telling us.

In conclusion I think that although love is partly science and chemicals, That peoples romance is more than that. That there is a deeper meaning to love that chemicals and science just can’t explain.

One thing that has special meaning to me is my skateboard. It is important to me because it has improved me in many ways. It has greatly changed me for the better.
 * One Thing**

I was first introduced to skateboarding in the 6th grade. I had already knew what it was from watching others and from the media, but I really wanted to try out skating. So one day I went to Big Five and got the perfect “target skateboard”. It probably wasn’t the best thing out there to skate on, but I didn’t know better, I was in the 6th grade anyways.

My skateboard is important to me because it has made me many long lasting friendships and has given me the chance to learn something new and I think that just from going to parks and learning to ride has given me all it has had to offer is a great experience. My skateboard has really improved my life and has taught me many new things, not just about skateboarding, but about how in order to get something in life, you have to work for it.

In conclusion, my skateboard has been a very important thing to me and it has changed me for the better, it has taught me new things and given me a trying state of mind, and I know now, as long as I keep trying with something, that it will eventually come to me. That all I have to do is put some time and effort and anyone can succeed.


 * Traditional v.s Romantic**

When it comes to mirages these days there are a lot of things that you need to be thinking about. Love, compassion, true love, but what kind of mirages actually work? A traditional arranged mirage or a modern romantic mirage? In this essay I will explain how traditional arranged mirages usually are more successful than modern romantic mirages.

It is true that traditional arranged mirages have been curing long before modern romantic mirages and for a longer time. So isn’t this the right choice of mirage? People have been doing it for hundreds of years so it must be right? I think that traditional arranged mirages have the pros of, being easier, that your parents are older and wiser, therefore choosing better, and that your parents know you well, also your mirage just won’t be based on sex. A traditional arranged mirage will be better for you in the long run.

Modern Romantic mirages compared to the traditional arranged mirages are more based on emotion and heart, rather reason and heart. Those mirages usually will have more compassion than a traditional mirage would have, also I think that during this kind of mirage that there is going to be a bit more love foe each other because if someone chooses your life long partner for you, you’re not necessarily going to love the person back. Modern romantic mirages are mirages that go for love, but that’s not necessarily the bigger picture of mirages.

In my opinion I think that traditional arranged mirages are the better mirage to get because traditional mirages usually are more successful than modern romantic mirages. A mirage should be based on love, but I also think that it should be realistic. If you say that your mirage was for the compassion and love for each other and you’re always fighting and being unhappy with each other then I do not think that the mirage based on “love” was a good descion. In this case it would have been better to have had a traditional mirage because it would have probably turned out better than a modern romantic mirage. If you want a more successful future I think that a traditional arranged mirage gives you a more promising realistic future than a modern romantic mirage.

In conclusion I think that a traditional arranged mirage usually are more successful than modern romantic mirages. Traditional mirages are just more realistic and the statistics show that we are having more divorce than ever now so I think that the traditional mirage is the better one to chose if you do want a more promising future.