Thursday, November 29, 2007

Bouncing Souls Intro.

Hi. My name is Kevin Vermillion, im from Bath, MI. I am a sophmore at Bath High School. I am in English 2. I have wrote some papers for my English 2 class. There are some creative writings, some essays, and revision papers. These were assingments I handed in for a grade.

Revision Paper

One nice bright afternoon Jake, my Sis and I were playing around out back of are old house. We were about eight, nine years old. It was a scorching hot summer day. The sun was beating down hard. I was sitting in the soft, green grass drinking a nice cold coca-cola. We always explored around are house. We were told that we cant go past are property line, which was the line of trees on the North side, through the wood to the neighbors lawn on the South side, to the road on the East side, and through the woods to the barbwire fence on the West side. We were all still playing and roaming around. We were over by the old, rusty barbwire fence.
“Let’s go over the fence to see what’s on the other side,” Megan said as she looked around to make sure no one was looking.
“Your mom said that we were not aloud to go past the fence though,” whispered Jake. But by the time Jake was finished talking Megan was already on the other side of the fence. She put her foot on the fence and pushed down. The barbed wires on the fence were pushing into the ground.
“Come on,” she said. I put one leg over the fence then the other. Jake followed me. Megan slid her foot off the fence after we got over. The woods were really thick on the other side of the fence were we had crossed to. Their were a ton of picker bushes that we had to dodge and crawl under.
“This is stupid we should just go back,” I told them.
“No let’s go a little further,” Megan demanded as she was crawling under a picker bush. I could see a big log cabin through the thick brush, it was pretty far away. My mom told us when we were younger that their was a family that was home schooled that lived back their. We came to an open spot by this dirt drive way. I saw something moving. We all walked a little closer to see about five boys digging a hole. They all looked up at us. Their faces were dirty and their close was all covered in dirt. Two of them looked younger and the other three looked a little older. We all looked at each other for a minuet.
“He ou kid bet ge off ar propy,” one the younger kids yelled. I couldn’t understand what he was saying.
The other younger kid yelled, “You better get off are property or ill shoot you with my bee-bee gun.” Jake, Megan, and I all started laughing. One of the kids started running toward his house to get a gun. We stopped laughing. I looked at Jake and we started running.
“Ah, ooh, aw, owe,” we all were saying as we were running through the picker bushes. I was in front of Jake and Megan was in front of me. Megan was running as fast as she could go and jumped right over the fence. I thought if she could make it I could make it. So I ran to the fence as fast as I could and cleared it by about a half a foot. When I hit the ground again I was still running. I saw Megan in the grass running toward the house. I looked back.
“Come on Jake jump it.” Jake was running about half speed it seemed like. He bent down to jump the fence. He took a dive over the old rusty barbwire fence instead of just trying to hurdle it. He landed almost face on the fence. His body came sliding forward and his foot was lying on the fence. I stopped and turned around and started running towered Jake.
“Oh crap,” I said to myself as I was running through the trees.
“Ahhh,” Jake moaned as he was lying in a bed of dead pine needles. His half white and now half red sock has caught in the fence. His shirt was pushed up to his neck and he had a huge blood scratch down the middle of his chest. Blood was dripping down the side of his stomach.
“Come on dude get up,” I said as I was untangling his ankle from the bloody, rusted fence. He got up and was still moaning. I ran back toward the house with Jake limping behind me. We got in the house and I slammed the sliding door shut. We were all panting like dogs, and Jake was shaking.
I started yelling, “Mom, mom their was these kids and we could have been killed and it was all Megan’s idea.”
“Slow down,” my mom said. We explained what happened and she cleaned up Jake’s wounds on his chest and ankle. It took about an hour for her to get all the pickers out of us. We told her about the boys going to get a gun and how they were saying they were going to shoot us for being on their property. We met all the boys later that week again and we all talked and played together. We had become good friends with the Sceilies boys after that. We would always play soccer and flash light tag. In the winter time we would all hide from each other in this big metal tube under the road. We would sit on the frozen water and wait for some one to find us. We have always been friends now, but still to this day Jake, Megan, and I still think that they were really going to try to shoot us with their bee-bee guns.

By: Kevin Vermillion

Wind Talkers

Journal of Ben Yahzee from WindTalkers
Day 1 & 2 Camp Pendleton, California
I am a Navajo code talker for the U.S. Marines. We have been training a lot today. They teach us mostly about all the code words for tank and ships and stuff like that. They make us listen to a radio that talks the Navajo language and we have to write down what it means. They have also been giving us a lot of hard physical training. Some of the white guys make fun of us because we’re Indians and they call us “Engines” I don’t really care that much but White Horse doesn’t like it.
We have just been hanging out for awhile now. The guys usually play cards or something. Ox has been playing his harmonica and White Horse has been playing his flute that his father gave him. Earlier today I met my Sergeant. Sergeant Enders is his name. I talked to him during lunch, he doesn’t talk much. I accidently spilled his drink and then I spilled mine on him.
They told us that we are shipping out tomorrow. We are going to some Jap island called Saipan. Later after the meeting I talked to Enders again, he is not very nice to be around.
Day 3, Jap island of Saipan
We arrive on the island. As soon as we hit shore bullets were flying over my head. Enders told me to follow him, so I did. I saw the strength that Enders has. He had shot many Jap’s before and didn’t seem to have a problem with doing it now. We covered a lot of ground. It is scary seeing all of these dead bodies lying around. I am always thinking of my family. I wonder how George, my son is doing. Today was long and brutal. Hopefully I can get some good rest now.
Day 4, Jap island of Saipan
I woke up today and took a bath in the river by camp. One of the soldiers keeps messing with me calling me an “engine”. He and I got in a fist fight today but Enders broke it up. We got on the back of the trucks and rode across the island. We covered more then half the island. The stupid missile launcher guys were firing and blowing up our own men on accident. My radio had blown up on my back, it burned really bad. I had to dress like a Jap with pretending Enders was my prisoner so we could get to the Jap’s radio. Some of the guys said I kind of look like a “Nip”. So we got to the radio and I gave them the coordinates to blow up the Jap’s trenches. It worked. Another long day. I killed a Jap but felt kind of bad. White Horse gave me a sacred ceremony last night. It was so the spirits of the dead do not haunt me. I think it helped.
Day 5 & 6, Jap island of Saipan
We came into a city this morning. We were attacked again. White Horse was killed. Enders had to blow him and the Jap’s up in order to save the code. I didn’t understand at first and I got mad at Enders and threatened to kill him.
We have almost covered the whole island. I did more code taking to blow up the Jap’s base. I killed many Jap’s today because I kept thinking about White Horse. I got shot in both of my legs. I had lain next to Enders in a fox hole. He had been shot in the chest and died next to me. But we had won. We took over the island. I can go home now. Enders was my friend. I said a prayer for Ox, Enders and White Horse. The code of our language was never broke by the Jap’s. I did my job – so now I can go home now.

Book Essay

Of Mice and Men Essay

The book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck could have many themes. The one that I choose to concentrate on is work. The whole book is about working. From basically start to finish George and Lennie are working at everything. Their jobs on the ranch are very hardworking jobs. George and Lennie at the beginning never had a job. They were talking about getting a job at a ranch. So they got a job at a ranch. The other characters in the book like Candy, Curley, Slim, Crooks, and Carlson all worked on the ranch with George and Lennie. They would work every day. They all had different jobs that they had to work for to get money. Work is such an important part of life that maybe John Steinbeck is trying to get that across in his book.
As stated above, everybody in this book works towards something. The others that work on the farm, when they get paid, just go blow their money in town drinking and stuff. George and Lennie would always talk about working on the ranch and saving their money up and not going out to blow it all on drinking like the others do. They always talked about how they would buy a little house and have some land to themselves and how they were going to have pigs, cows, and Lennie wanted rabbits. Basically they are going to work hard so they can have a farm to live and work on. But it becomes clear that this will not happen until they work on their friendship.
Working on friendships can be challenging, maybe even more so then the hard physical labor of farm work. George always gets mad at Lennie when he does something stupid, but Lennie can’t help it. He thinks that Lennie is getting in his way and interfering in his life. He says that life would be a lot easier without Lennie. Lennie feels like George hates him and that he should leave George alone and go live in the hills somewhere. So they have to work on friendship with each other and the other people at the ranch. But at the end, everyone’s hard work for friendship with Lennie falls apart when he kills Curley’s wife. His work for friendship with George is done when George shoots Lennie.
So why does George shoot Lennie after all they have been through together? Maybe it’s to work on what he really wants in life. Maybe life would be much easier for him without Lennie. He wouldn’t have to work as hard because he doesn’t have to take care of Lennie. He can work on his goals and dreams. Maybe one of his dreams is to see his friend Lennie happy and he knew he could never be happy by himself here on earth anymore.
I think there is a saying that goes, “no one ever said work was easy.” Everyone in this story is always working on friendship, working on the ranch, and working to get what they want in life. Everyone in this book was working at something to get somewhere or to get something. I think that this book is telling you that if you work hard then some things could succeed and others things can fail. When we work hard we sometimes get what we want and sometimes we don’t.
By: Kevin Vermillion

Alaskan Adventure

Revision Story

We were high above the mountain tops of Alaska as the amphibian plane’s engine droned on for what seemed like hours. I couldn’t tell if the butterflies in my stomach were from nervousness or excitement, or both.
“We’re close to the mountain!” Jake yelled over above the engine. The look on his face reminded me of the feeling in my stomach.
“There are storms coming in from the Northwest, yelled the pilot. “We better find a place to land for the night till the storm passes.” This was the beginning of the season when the snow storms really start to pile up the snow. We spotted a large river down below between two big mountains. The pilot yelled again, “We are going down there to land. We will be out of the storm and winds some down there.” The pilot was an old Indian friend of the family. Jake and I had a week off and he agreed to take us around to different spots to snowboard. We flew farther and farther away from the river then made a huge u-turn. We started easing down slowly. The engine was getting quieter and quieter. We landed roughly in the clear river. We weren’t really carrying anything with us. Beside our clothes we had on, we only had our boards and boots. Living off the wild was part of the adventure.
“We are going to have to stay here until the storms pass, the Indian pilot said. “The Indian” as most people called him was like family to me. I have known him all my life. He was best friends with my Uncle George. My Uncle George lived on Sugar Island in Sault Sainte Marie with the rest of our tribe of Chippewa Indians. This friend of my Uncle George I came to know as Bear. That’s what everyone in our family calls him. He calls me Tatonka which means buffalo and my sister Wingush which means sweet grass.
We floated to shore in the plane. My dad was living here in Alaska. By foot, we were 3 days away. Bear said, “We need to start a fire.” We had no matches or lighters. Bear grabbed his axe and disappeared into the woods. We knew he was going to gather some firewood so Jake and I were trying to start a fire with a bow, a stick and some kindling. We were rubbing it back and forth really hard for a long time and it finally started to smoke. Jake was blowing on it while I was spinning the bow. Then a little flame appeared. The kindling caught on fire and the then the sticks. Bear arrived just in time to throw some birch bark on it and it went up like gasoline. It was getting cold. We knew it was important to keep the fire going so we cut more trees. Bear was good at surviving in the winter because he has done it many of times living with our tribe at Sault Sainte Marie. While we were sitting by the fire Bear was carving sticks and chipping rocks that were along the shore. He was making arrows and arrowheads. He also started making a new bow. All the while he was working, he would tell us stories about how the tribe use to live and survive. He would tell me stories about my Uncle George. My Uncle and Aunt were buried on Sugar Island. My dad and I would visit him during the summer. It always made my heart physically ache but kept the memory of him alive. Then we would go fishing like we always did with my Uncle George. My Uncle would always catch the most pike and he would nail there heads to this wood post outside and eat the rest of it. My Uncle George and Bear were best friends. They were in the army together. After surviving the army they both moved back to Sugar Island where they decided to live for the rest of their lives.
Suddenly a gust of wind snapped me back to reality. The storm was coming in and it was getting really windy and cold. We all dug trenches in the snow to stay out of the wind. The winds picked up even more. At one point the winds were stronger then ever recorded in Alaska. We all laid in our dug out trenches trying to keep a fire going for about three days. We had no other choice but to lay there cold and hungry.
The storms started to ease up the 4th morning. We packed up our stuff and got back in the plane. We flew to my dad’s house which took about 3 hours because of the wind. We finally got there and landed in the back of the Wolf River. We all ran through the door and started to eat all the food we could find without even saying a word to my dad. After we ate, we told my dad what happened. Bear went back to Sugar Island with the plane. The storms were too strong to fly us around and in between the mountains. Jake and I decided we would try to snowboard some around my dad’s which we’ve done a hundred times. After Bear left we decided to give fishing a try. We had so much fun that’s all we did for the next two days – but that’s another story.

By: Kevin Vermillion

Eng.2 Media Literacy Essay

Eng. 2 Media Literacy Essay

Parents should not tell their children that they should doubt everything they see on TV. Children don’t really think about the things that are happening on the TV. If their was something about the war in Iraq or about some political issue the children don’t understand and don’t really care. Children only pay attention to commercials and shows that excite them. Parents do know about all the stuff that is happening on TV. They can’t really talk to their kids about doubting everything on TV because they don’t fully understand everything. Some kids know what is happening on TV but they still don’t fully understand everything. The right time to talk to your kids about something is when they are a teen and they fully understand what is happening.
If children were to doubt everything on TV then they will probably go through life thinking that everything isn’t true. People would stop watching the news or reading the newspapers. Some parents and their kids watch the television together and talk about the things that are happening on the TV. Some of the parents or older guardians of the children will tell them that everything on TV are usually all lies, and the kids will listen to them just because they are older and they think that older people know everything. I think that is the wrong thing to do.
Some parents tell their kids that the stuff on TV is true but not to believe everything that they say and the children will listen to them. I think that tell your kids that the stuff on TV is true but not all of it is the best way to tell your kids. When I was in about fourth or fifth grade my dad and I watched TV all the time together and my dad would always blab on during the commercials about how he doubted that any of the stuff on the commercials really worked. He would tell me that the stuff they talk about on TV is true but not to believe everything that I hear. He would even say that about magazines, newspapers, and even the computer. I new he was right so that’s why I believe that parents shouldn’t teach their children to doubt everything on TV.
Studies have proven that children, ages 8 to 18, spend more time (44.5 hours per week) in front of computers, televisions, and video games than any other activity in their lives except sleeping.
Now if they spend that much time finding out all that information in their head then I think it is important for them to know that some stuff is true and other stuff is not true. Just think of all the things that your kid does in his or her life from ages 8 to 18 that watch TV or getting on the computer is the thing they do the most besides sleeping. As children get older and fully understand what is happening on TV they will be able to decide if they think it is true or not for themselves. That’s why I think it is best as an adult to tell their children when they are younger not to doubt everything on TV, not to think that everything isn’t true, but to know that some things are true and some things are not.

By: Kevin Vermillion