U.S Gov't

What have you learnt about American government? 
I have learnt about the three branches of the government: Judicial, legislative, executive. I have also learnt that Congress is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. I also discovered how a bill becomes a law. In addition, I learnt about the laws and the various things that the state and federal government share, as well as the things they don't share(reserved, concurrent, delegated).

What questions do you still have about U.S government? 
I am still a bit unclear on the separate roles of the judicial, legislative, and executive branches, and the differences between them. I'm also wondering about the courts, and the roles juries have to play as well as how the court system works.

Enter the Murderous Mansion of Mr. Uno to Enter a World of Comedy and Astonishment!

Performance Title: The Murderous Mansion of Mr. Uno

Theater Name/Location: SAS Drama Theater

Day Reviewed: November 22, 2017

Written By: Tavishi Baidwan

Directed By: Ethan Curnett

Number of Stars(1 to 5): 5

The Murderous Mansion of Mr. Uno was a show not be missed. It is was a student-led play, but was done so well that it felt professional! The play took place in a mansion which belonged to a man named Mr. Uno. In this mansion, we start off with a lovely dinner with 6 different characters being introduced. It starts off happy enough, but when each character receives a different letter from Mr. Uno, things start to go downhill. Soon, the play progresses to a series of murders that take place in the mansion, and the incredible part about this production is that the audience votes on the murderer! It is full of suspense and accusation on who the murderer is, and is filled with drama and comedy that is sure to leave you in fits of laughter! In my opinion, this show was undoubtedly a success, not just because of the emotional acting, but also because of the lighting skills. 

Although this play was completely student-led, the acting felt so professional that I was completely engrossed in the story. Every character had its own flaws and personalities, and because every character had a different attitude, the play was immensely interesting. For example, a character named Mrs. Tarragon was a little crazy and had a frantic loud attitude. On the other hand, General Spragmorton was a strict military soldier with a leadership attitude. These two character's personalities and attitudes contrasted with each other to create comedy. The acting and the words that they said to each other and everyone else, seemed extremely realistic. The tone of their words fitted their personalities perfectly and I thought that everything executed was magnificent. Another example of great acting was Madame Isis. She was acting as a classy person and acted it really well. Her words had a sarcastic edge to them and an undertone of "I don't care" attitude beneath them. I thought that her acting was especially good, but everyone's acting was superb and everyone's attitude was also funny and intriguing, but most importantly, every character brought the play to life!

The second brilliant work of this play was the lighting. Sometimes, the lighting of a production is underrated and only the acting is spoken about. Well, I can assure you that this play wouldn't have been half as good without this incredible lighting. In the beginning, the whole stage was covered with light. As the characters were dining, everything was lit up, showcasing the gorgeous set. Then, only half of the stage was lit - the half that the characters were standing in. When the characters received their ominous letters from Mr. Uno, only the half of the stage with characters was lit. This was done so that the tension was directed completely at the characters opening the letters so that the audience wouldn't be distracted by the other set pieces. Next, the characters all moved to the other side of the stage and only that half was lit up so that all eyes were once again directed to the other side. But, that wasn't all, another technique used was the dimming of lights. For instance, in a scene in which someone gets murdered, all lights are off and it is pitch black, so you can't see anything and can only hear screams. When the lights came up, there was a dead body. This lighting technique was used to create confusion for the audience. Lastly, the classic spotlight was used. This was usually used to create comedy like when the beam was on General Spragmorton boasting about how he knew who the murderer was. In all, the lighting techniques were used expertly and brought this play up to the next level! 

The Murderous Mansion of Mr. Uno was a great production which I thoroughly enjoyed. The play is suitable for middle schoolers, who will enjoy the great acting and suspenseful lighting, as well as find great comedy! For younger children, some of the comedy may not be clear enough, and for older kids, they could find this play a bit too melodramatic. Overall, it was a fantastic performance and a definite must-see! 

Nutrition Poster

PHYSICAL WELLNESS DECIDE MODEL

D Define The Problem	How am I going to continue to improve and protect my physical wellness in order to have the best quality of life for my lifetime? I am going to improve my stamina and cardiorespiratory endurance through running the mile every two weeks.
E Explore The Alternatives	I could also swim to improve my stamina as well as play tennis since I have to have the strong cardiorespiratory endurance to do both of these things well.
C Consider Possible Outcomes	If I run the mile, swim, or play tennis, my risk of chronic diseases will decrease and my heart rate will be faster. Specifically, if I go swimming, I will improve myself for long distance swims as well as swim sprints, but I will not be just focused on stamina and cardiorespiratory endurance but will be focused on upper body strength for the arm movements in swimming as well. If I do tennis, then I will be improving my pacing throughout the game but will again also be training my arm muscles and not just my stamina. I also won’t be training as hard in running as I will be hitting the ball and focusing on my arm technique more often than not. However, if I run the mile, I will be training mainly my cardiorespiratory endurance with the exception of some technical changes but it is mostly my stamina. Running the mile will also help me in both swimming and tennis since I need stamina in both games.
I Identify your Values	If I swim, I am showing grit because I will be swimming a certain distance, but am also showing cowardice for not wanting to run the mile, and would rather be not just focusing on the improving my stamina which is tough, and would be averting the goal by focusing on an easier movement - upper body strength. If I play tennis, I am showing compassion for the sport as I want to improve it. But, I am also showing laziness for wanting to focus more on technique and the actual game than improving my stamina - similar to swimming. If I run the mile, I am showing determination to achieve my goal, because I am solely focused on improving my cardiorespiratory endurance and are not clouded by thoughts of technique.
D Decide and Act in agreement with your Values	Running the mile is the best option because I am following through on my goal while at the same time not getting distracted with other techniques and muscle groups. I am also showing the most compassion and determination towards my goal by trying to achieve it, not averting it with other easier techniques to focus on.
E Evaluate Your Plan	I will set up a time in the evening every other Friday or Saturday to meet up with a friend with the same goal. We will meet at someone’s house and will go outside or on the treadmill for a jog, where we will run the mile. After running the mile, we will go to the gym to cycle or just stretch and cool down. We will go back to our separate houses.

Resources for Achieving my Goal

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug-4NXGVEco 

This is a reliable online resource because it is by Shredded Sports Science, a youtube channel that has over 8k subscribers and talks about health and wellbeing.

From this site, I learnt that the left ventricle of your heart is the part of your heart that pumps oxygenated tissues around the body, and that this part of the heart increases in size as you improve your cardio endurance. So, the amount of blood your heart pumps per minute increases a lot, causing your resting heart rate to decrease. This will help me achieve my goal because now I know what exactly I am improving which gives my goal more meaning.

Reliable Website:
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/PhysicalActivity/FitnessBasics/Endurance-Exercise-Aerobic_UCM_464004_Article.jsp#.Wf-7OROCxE4 

This is a reliable online resource because firstly, it ends with org, meaning that it is not used for commercial purposes and is used for educating instead. Secondly, it doesn't have any advertisements, reinforcing that it is used for education, not to make money. Lastly, it is an organization that is called American Heart Association and has tabs stating where it has found it's reliable research and the educators.

From this site, I already knew that improving endurance helps your heart and lungs but I didn't know that it helped your circulatory system as well. I also didn't know that adults are recommended to have around 2 1/2 hours of vigorous exercise per week so I can infer that kids need around 3 to 4 hours of vigorous exercise per week. This will help me because I know how much exercise I need at least every week - at the very least 2 1/2 hours but preferably around 3 to 4 hours, so I can exercise for periods of time-based off that, including running the mile as a part of my exercise.

Study:
http://www.medicaldaily.com/diabetes-and-exercise-cardio-fitness-type-2-diabetes-386326

This is a reliable online resource because I could easily find the author and found that he focused on health and is a journalist for many articles. The sources were also linked and the study was done by a reliable university - University of Minnesota.

From this site, I learnt about a 20-year study which 4,273 people participated in. In this study, for the first, seventh, and 20th year, the participants focused on treadmill exercises - cardiovascular exercises. They assessed diabetes development and found a lower risk among those with a higher level fitness - the group doing more higher level cardiovascular exercises. This will help me reach my goal because I run using higher level cardiovascular exercises - running a mile - instead of doing, for instance, a sprint, so this study put in perspective why I should be achieving my goal since the outcome of lowered diabetes was much lower for most people who did cardiovascular exercise. Now, I know what benefits I will achieve from doing this goal.

Shakespearean Insults Reflection

For this assignment, we were assigned partners and were given a long list of Shakespearean Insults. Out of these insults, we each had to say 3 to 5 insults where were fighting over something. We also had to remember to establish setting, the relationship between us, and what were fighting over.

I believe that I did a pretty good job on this performance. For the introduction script, we established the relationship(best friends), the setting(restaurant), and the conflict(fighting over a boy) clearly from the very beginning through our script, our body language(waving to waiter), and our set(table and chairs). From our introduction script, we slowly progressed into our Shakespear script, where we would start the real anger and build on that. I think that our anger seemed genuine since our plot was relatable to our audience(teens), there was an obvious reason for why we should be angry. I also believe that the intensity of my anger increased a lot. From the first line, being sassier, to the second line starting to get to the anger, and for the third line being full out angry. However, I think that the anger for my third line and the fourth line was very similar in intensity, so the intensity didn't really build for the last line. So far, I have written a lot about the script and voice, but what about the physical aspects? Well, the fighting was planned as we knew that we would push each other, I would be the first person to stand up from my chair, and she would point at my heart directly for one of her lines. In the middle, some pulls were improvised, but our ending was completely planned as we wanted to end with me in a very weak choking stance. Lastly, now that I've watched my video, I would add even more facial expression to myself. As my goal was to add more facial expression which I did for the sassiness in the beginning and fear at the end, but while being angry I didn't frown or show much anger in my facial expression, so that would be the part that I would change. 

2 Line Horror Story

For this performance, we were each assigned a 2 line story. We had 24 hours to prepare this performance by adding the production elements of a background and music, as well as preparing our actions, pauses and coming up with the right emotions for our voice. Enjoy!