SaRaH’s BlOg!!!

     Have you noticed how common an Ipod is? Everywhere you go you seem to see atleast one person listening to there Ipod(s).you’ve probrbly heard about how awesome an Ipod is, but you haven’t heard some of the negitives with an Ipod. Here are eight facts you probebly never knew about an Ipod!

1.) If you have an iPod, you probably know they’re not the most sturdy thing in the world. I bet you especially know that if you’ve happened to drop yours on the ground or hit it against something. Yes, the iPod ads show everyone running down the street with their iPods in hand, so it may seem like you can do anything with it, but in all actuality, the iPod is very fragile.

The iPod runs off a tiny hard drive that can halt service if it’s dropped even once or knocked around just a little. You also always need to be very careful with the iPod screens. They are a bit flimsy and can scratch or crack very easily. If that somehow happens to you, it will make it quite difficult to see what song is playing and all the information that goes along with it. You might not expect such a faulty thing to come from Apple, but it unfortunately has.

2.) How many songs do you have on your iPod? Is it over 15,000? If so (and even if it’s not that many), you might want to delete some of your songs off so you can replace them with others. Well, that may not be as simple as it sounds. Once you have as many as 15,000 songs on your iPod, Apple will not let you transfer them to another computer or any other device. If you do, it’s sort of put under the copyright infringement status. It may not be just Apple that is harping this issue, but I’m sure they’re not losing any sleep over it.

3.) So, how long has your battery lasted? Yes, the new iPod promises a battery life of 20 hours or so, but their fine print really says that the “battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings.” You can also only recharge your iPod battery so many times before it has to be completely replaced. It’s said that the magic number is 500, but it just depends on how much you use your iPod. You will also know when the “death” of your battery is coming, because after about 400 charges, your iPod may only hold 80 percent of its normal capacity. You better start saving for a new battery now!

4.) This is a common factor when it comes to music players. Of course, if you have an iPod, you probably have earphones that go along with it. If you want to take your iPod anywhere with you (besides in your car), you must have the earphones in order to listen to it. Well, by doing that, you could be damaging your hearing. According to a study done, the iPod’s full range of sound can go up to 120 decibels, which is just like standing next to a jet plane when it’s taking off. If you listen to your iPod that loud (hopefully you don’t), you could already be suffering from hearing loss.

On a positive note, Apple has come up with a fix for this though. They have designed some software that will allow you to cap the volume of your iPod. This is especially helpful for all the kids who have iPods. As their parent or grandparent, you can lower the sound on their iPod with this software. It’s available for free on Apple’s Web site.

5.) One thing you probably don’t know (or even ever considered) is that sometimes products are out of date before they’re even taken out of their boxes. It’s possible that right after you buy an iPod, Apple will come out with a new model, just days after. They are shortening their product cycles, so it’s possible that you could get your hands on an “older” version rather than the brand new product. No, it’s not the end of the world, but who wants to spend that much money for an old version?

6.) If you have an iPod, you better keep a close eye on it, because they are starting a crime wave all over the place. iPods are one of the most favorite products of thieves these days. It’s not just happening in urban places like New York City either. It’s going on in high schools and colleges all over the U.S. iPods are so popular, because they’re easy to steal and they have a good turnover rate on the street (black market). They are also very easy to spot. If you’re listening to yours with your bright white headphones, you may be a target. So, make sure you keep yours safe and sound with you and no one else.

8.)Finally, the last thing you may never had heard about your iPod is that once you start using one, you’re stuck for life. If you use iTunes to manage your music files, you will always only be able to listen to that music with your iPod. They will not work with any other music device, because of the special format they’re under. Also, no other company is allowed to make a format that will work with Apple’s products. Seems a little stingy, doesn’t it? But, I guess it’s all about money and competition.

I’m not saying that Ipods are a bad thing, I still think that Ipod are really neat! I just thought you guys would like to hear some interesting facts about you’re ipods!

A couple of days ago, our library got a ton of new books and our librarian invited our class for a “book talk”. He talked about lots of funny and interesting books. At the end of the “talk” he said that all of us HAVE to sign a book out for Spring Break. I thought it was going to be very easy, scince there were a lot of book to check out. While I was searching I found out that, searching for a book was very hard. It was almost time to go and I still hadn’t checked a book out, then all of sudden Mr. S (our librarian) came and handed me a book called Everlost by Neal Shusterman. He said it was a good book so I checked it out. I paid no real interest in it untill I started reading it. I found it really good. When I was done the book I was amazed at how a random book could be so good.

Nick and Allie don’t survive the car accident… …but their souls don’t exactly get where they’re supposed to get either. Instead, they’re caught halfway between life and death, in a sort of limbo known as Everlost: a shadow of the living world, filled with all the things and places that no onger exist. It’s a magical, yet dangerous place where bands of lost children run wild and anyone who stands in the same place too long sinks to the center of the Earth.When they find Mary, the self-proclaimed queen of lost kids, Nick feels like he he’s found a home, but allie isn’t satisfied spending eternity between worlds. Against all warnings, Allie begins learning the “Criminal Art” of haunting, and ventures into dangerous territory, where a monster called the McGill threatens all the souls of Everlost.

In this imaginative novel, Neal Shusterman explores questions of life, death, and what just might lie in between.

I was reading the Junior Scholastic magazine and I found a cool artical about chimps and humans, so here it is!

Who’s smarter-you or a cimpanzee? Probably you. But researchers at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan, say that chimps have better short-term memory skills than college students. In recent tests there, the chimps were faster and more accurate than the students at remembering a series of five numbers that flashed on a computer screen for less that one second.

“People still believe that humans are better than chimpanzees in every intellectual capacity,” researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa tells. “This is a false belief.”

What do YOU think? Are YOU smarter than a chimpanzee?

I was checking out my e-mails the other day, when I found an e-mail that my freind sent me. She said she had made it for her teacher. When I was reading through, the peom reminded me of Mr.R! I asked her if I could kind of copy it. She happily said yes!:-) So all my readers (especialy Mr.R) here is my version of the peom…..

Teachers come and go,                                                                    

But every so often one come along,

That you’ll always remember!

One who makes learning an adventure,

One that mixes fun into learning.

The kind that  makes you want to be your very best!

The kind that teaches not because it’s thier job,

 But the kind that teaches beacuse it’s thier hobbie.

Students are very luckly to have a teacher like that!

I hope that all of you that read this peom got a vesion of your favourite teacher. I certainly did!

Remember I told you guys that Mr. R has decided to make our class do daily reflections. If you don’t remember then click here. Anyways, today Mr. R decided to change something. For example, we don’t have to write our reflections every Language Arts class. Now we have to write them once a week. Also, we can write about any class we want to write about, it doesn’t have to be L.A. So here I begin.

• This week in math class we started a new unit, ratios and for our assessment we are going to have to find out how tall or wide something is. But the tricky part it that we don’t know what we are going to measure. It could be a three kilometer tall building for all I know. In class we talked about clues that can help us do our assessment. My teacher also made us do some practice questions.

• this week in science class I learned how to use a microscope (It was my first time). I also learned what an amoeba looks like. It is purple and it looks like a bean. In French I learned new vocabulary and parts of speech.

• This week in computer class I daydreamed A LOT! Here are somethings I daydreamed about. Why are we learning how much money eBay and Amazon get? What am I going to do for my computer project? Are my friends going to call me? What am I going to do on the weekends? What might Chloe (my partner in computer class) be thinking? What Ipod should I get, an Ipod Classic or Touch?

• What I wanted to ask Mr. R for Socail Studies class was, when is our final project due and when is the Islamic Bowl? I also wanted to ask Mr. W (my math teacher) what are we going to measure?

Today we started the class by reciting our proverbs and verses. Our group said proverb number seven “One hand does not clap”. I think that this proverb means that you can’t always do everything by yourself. You need someone to help you. I also think that this proverb goes with proverb number six “too many cooks burn the food”. I think they go together because proverb number six means that if you have too much of a thing then it might be bad, therefore if you mix the two proverbs together it kind of means that you need the right amount of something, not too much and not too little.

Now for the good part, our group earned 30 dirhams again. Now altogether we have 80 dirhams. We also earned 2 wisdom cards. I think we just might catch up with Baghdad (a team that’s in first place) .

What is the slowest animal in the world? If you think it’s a turtle then your WRONG! The slowest animal in the world is a Three-Toed Sloth. Surprised, I was too. Also, did you know that sloths eat, sleep, mate and give birth in an upside down position.

In Language Arts class we are reading this book called A Wrinkle in Time. Today in class we talked about the book’s theme or the message the book’s trying to tell the reader. A Wrinkle in Time is dealing with four major themes. They are, Good V.S. Evil, Importance of making choices, Family Loyalty and individuality vs. conformity. Our homework is to answer these two questions:

What do you is the most important theme of the book?

What was our overall impression of the book. What was the most memorable? The least? What did you like? Dislike?

I think the most important theme in the book was Good V.S. Evil. I think this because Meg, Calvin and Charllace Wallace face a lot of evil. For example, the Black Thing almost killed Meg, and in the book the Black Thing was evil. Also, IT was evil because it had no love for anybody or anything.

I think that A Wrinkle in Time was an awesome book. It had lots of science-fiction and fantasy. The most memorable part of the book for me was when Meg found Mr. Murry. The least memorable part for me was when Mrs. Whatsit turn into a unicorn type thing. What I really liked about this book was that the author of this book wrote the book before they even had cellphones or camera. Also she really imagined what the universe looked liked (the weird planets : Uriel and Camazots). What I didn’t like about the book was that for me the book had a long introduction. For example, for me the action didn’t began until chapter 7. But overall I thought it was a really good book to read to.

Today in Social Studies class Mr.R made the groups say one of the Arabic proverbs that we learned. We also got a presentation that we have to do about the caliph that was assigned to our group. Our caliph is Hurun al Rashid. I hope I have a fun time doing this project. After that we got about one hour to work on the projects, banner and memorizing the proverbs and verses from the holy Qur’an. Our group worked on memorizing the verses.
While I was reading through the verses, I noticed a verse that was very meaningful to me. It is call the Night.

“…for him that gives in charity and guards himself against evil and believes in goodness, We shall smooth the path to salvation; but for him that neither gives nor takes and disbelieves in goodness, We shall smooth the path of affliction. When he breathes his last, his riches will not avail him.

I think that the message that that verse was trying to tell people was… If you be good to some one less fortunate than you, Allah will respect you and good things will happen to you. But if you do bad thing and brag about how much money you have then Allah will not respect you and bad thing can happen to you. At least, I think that’s what the message was trying to tell me but I could be wrong.

Now, you guys I have some GOOD news for you (I saved the best for last). Our team made 31 Dirhams today and we finally move spaces on the map. Right now we’re in fourth place but I know we can catch up. Today we also earned one Wisdom Cards. Altogether now we have 5o Dirhams, two Fact cards, one Trivia card and one Truth card. I hope we earn the same next class!

As you guys might have remembered that I told you guys that our class was going to start a new unit in Social Studies; Islam If you guys don’t remember then click here! Anyway, today was our second day of the Islam unit and I have some good and bad news to tell you. The bad news is that our team lost some of our Dirhams again but the good new is that we earned one Fact and one Trivia card. Now we have one of each (fact, trivia and truth cards).

Today in class the five most important things I learned were….

1. Gins are made out of fire and they can be good or bad.
2. At the age of 42 Prophet Mohammad got a vision from Allah in a cave.
3. Guitars were originally made from the Arabs.
4. Some of the Arab proverbs are similar to the English ones. An example is: One hand doesn’t clap.
5. The first 100 years of the Abbasid Dynasty was called the Golden Age.

I hope that next class we earn some Wisdom Cards and some Dirhams.

This is a picture of Masjid-e-Nabwi in the city Medina, the grope I’m in.