Seira’s Blog

I am quite sure that you may have seen people smoking. Whenever I walk past the smokers, I would hold my breath and think, “What a very silly thing to do”. Smoking is just full of negative facts like, it will pollute the air, it is bad for your health, your breath will smell and so on. I can not imagine why some adults like to smoke even when they know that smoking is very bad for you and other people around you. Of coarse there are some good things about smoking to the smokers because that makes them want to smoke more but I think smoking should be banned. 

This is one reason why smoking should be banned: It is very very bad for your health and for your body.

Cigarettes contain at least three substances that can cause problems: Tar, carbon monoxide and nicotine. Tar is a sticky black substance that settles on the mucous membrane (a thin layer of skin that covers the inside of the nose and mouth and the outside of other organs in the body). Tar makes the mucous membrane not remove the dust and dirt of the lungs anymore so it causes lots of disease like lung cancer and cancer of the throat. 

Carbon monoxide is a colorless and scentless gas. It causes the blood not to transport oxygen anymore so the heart and other body parts gets less oxygen. Also, it damages the walls of blood vessels so that fat and calcium can settle more easily. This can also lead to many diseases of, such as, the heart and brain. 

Nicotine stimulates the nervous system, which brings up the heartbeat and contracts the blood vessels. This causes higher blood pressure. Nicotine leads to addiction and hypertension.

So there is lots of disease that might kill you if you keep smoking. My grandfather is a very heavy smoker and he has been smoking for more than 50 years. Now he is staying in the hospital for few weeks because the doctor found a tumor in his lung and now he has to have a surgery to cut a quarter of his lung.

There is a fact that 90% of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking. But it is hard to quit because nicotine makes you addicted to it.

There is lots of other reason why smoking should be banned. For example, it pollutes the air and environment, it affects the people around, it releases carbon dioxide so it can be one of the things that causes global warming, it can cause fire, it makes your teeth dirty, it smells bad, they are a waste of money and what else can there be?

If there are so many bad things about smoking, why does not the government ban smoking? Or maybe even invent a healthy cigarette that does not cause problems?These are the questions I have thought of. I hope that problems with cigarettes will be gone in the future because there will be less people affected by them.

 

 

 

What do you think about using a blog/ website for learning at school?

I think using a blog for learning is a good thing because we can do something different from working in our notebooks and we can learn how to do things in the computer. Also, our post gets updated on the computer so everybody can read our blog so I try very hard writing things as best I can.

What are the best/worst things about using blogs?

The best things about using the blog is that we can write anything we like and it is kind of like a diary so it is easy to write but the bad things are that the website is on the computer so when we do not have time, we can not work on the blog so sometimes I do not go on it for a long time. Also, I am not good at using computers so sometimes I get confused of what I am doing.

Do you like the idea of using your blog/website for other classes, not just English? What subjects and why?

No because if we have too many blogs for each subject, we can get mixed up and we have to work on the blog a lot. But it might be a good idea.

What are your favourite websites that you use?

I do not go on the computer a lot but I like youtube.

Do you think it is important to learn how to use things like blogs? Why? Why not?

I think it’s important because it is good to know how to write things on the internet and it might come in handy in the future.

This book is by Stephenie Meyer and I think that she is a very good author. I really like how she wrote “Twilight” because it is a romance book but not only romance. It also has some horror in it and it really made me scared. By mixing romance and horror and some action, it makes the book exciting and not boring. I had to read on and on because I could not stop and put the book down. Even though the book has lots of pages and it is long, it never seemed like I read that much because it was so good. There were hard words for me to understand but if I read on, I would most likely understand it and once you read it, it does not seem so hard. The story is pretty interesting with vampires in it. When you hear “vampires” you might think that it is such a fake story and too much of a fantasy, but it is very realistic that it might really happen in this world! I enjoyed reading this book and if you have a chance, you can read this book. You might of already read this book because it is very very popular. I would also like to watch the movie and read the second book of the series “New Moon”.

“Lord Ben, I need you to go to Gertihall, the most dangerous place in the city and get two packs of magical dragon eggs, a poisonous orange herb for my experiment, five large brown beans for growing a beanstalk and one pair of yellow bird claws for food for the horses.”

 

This is what the master ordered to Ben very early in the morning. It was so impossible for him, a five year old, to do this kind of stuff. Normally the master himself goes but he was very busy today.

“I will have to try my best. “

Ben told himself.

 

“Now lets see, a bag, a map, a compass, a binocular, a cape, a mask for hiding myself, and the golden coins for trading. These will do for my long journey. Now off I go before the sun starts to set.”

 This is how everything started.

 

Danger was swirling around everywhere the moment Ben got out of the castle. Tons and tons of evil spirits and creatures where wondering about. He had to disguise himself into one of those creatures with his cape and mask. As Ben took a look at the map, he carefully went to the direction making sure not to bump into huge bodies of the creatures and fast moving evil spirits that seem to growl at everything. He passed through a group of evil spirits; it was amazing how the spirits seem to make his way, with other beastly creatures.

 

He walked about ten minutes following the map and came to a place where there were lots of animals locked up in a cage, screeching for help. Ben could not bear the sound and he felt very sorry for the animals but he could do nothing for them with all the creatures surrounding them. Next to the bunch of animal cage, there was Gertihall. Everything went all right till now (thank goodness). Gertihall is like a trading center and you could trade gold coins for the things you want.“The master wanted me to trade coins for the things he ordered me to get.” Ben took a deep breath and stepped into the place. “I hope everything will go fine and I hope no creature will find out that I am a human and I hope I will not be killed and I hope I can come back safely.”

 

Inside Gertihall was like hell. Loads of bad spirit was flying around, trading gold coins for creepy things like a skull of a cow. Now Ben had to do his task. “OK, a magical dragon egg first.” Ben looked around and found the egg section. He searched for the place that said “Dragon” and their laid a pack of blue eggs. They were beautiful. Carefully, he took hold of the eggs and put them safely in a basket. Next was the poisonous orange herb. Ben did the same thing for finding it and it was not hard.

 

Ben collected everything with no problem and now, here comes the problem. The trading part. He went to the table where there was a very tough looking creature with three eyes and smelly breath.

“What’s up little chick? Ready to trade something hehehe.”

His voice seemed very creepy and mysterious and Ben was horrified.

“Uh um would you trade these with 10 golden coins?”

Ben tried to sound like a brave man but it sounded really weird.

“10 coins! Are you crazy? A dragon egg alone takes 10 coins!”

“Oh then what about 50 coins? I only have until 50 coins.”

“That will do then.”

Ben quickly gave 50 coins to the register creature and got out of the shop without looking back with the bag that had all the objects in it.

 

The bag was quite heavy and Ben, who was not that strong, carried the bag as best as he can. He felt very tired and he could not bother to look at the map for the direction so he just walked the way that he thought was right.

For a while, Ben was walking normally but then, he noticed something.

“Hey, what’s this big wood? I never saw this when I was coming!”

Ben was confused and he just walked into the wood for some rest and to have time to look at the map. The wood was very dark and it was a lonely place and also creepy but there was no evil spirits or creatures so Ben relaxed a bit. He sat on a stone big enough for him to sit and got out his map.

“This place is not on the map! Oh no don’t tell me that I’m lost…”

Yes he was indeed. Ben thought he could not just sit there so he got out his compass and his binoculars out. The compass was no use because he did not know how to use it. Ben was in despair and he lost all his hope.

“If only I new how to use the compass!”

He decided to look around in his binoculars so he could find something useful to his way home. Suddenly, he felt a great shock. Through the binoculars, he saw a very old wizard coming his way. It was the famous “ Evil wizard” that ate people’s heart. Ben got up, snatched his bags and started to dash out of the wood. Behind him, the old wizard was yelling,

“Hey come back! I won’t hurt you. I only need some coins from you.”

Ben just hurried out of the woods. Then he noticed something familiar with the streets.

“Why of course! This is the street that I walked when I was going to Gertihall! I remember the blocks on the street!”

Ben started running back to the castle now that he new the way.

 

When he was home, he heard a sweet voice of a woman say,

“You’re safely home! I was starting to worry because it was taking a long time. How was it? Did you get me the eggs, carrot, potatoes and bananas? Did you pay properly with five dollars? Did you meet any strangers? Did you get lost?”

At that moment, Ben woke up from his imagination.

“Oh mom! I’m home! How nice to be back. I got all the things and paid the right amount but at the way back, I got a little lost and went in the woods and I saw the bad wizard coming toward me so I ran away and luckily, I found my way so I safely came back home. The trip was very tiring and dangerous because there were evil spirits and creatures all around!”

“Now now, the bad wizard must be the homeless that lives in the park and the evil spirits is the car is it? The creatures must be people walking by?”

“NO! They are evil spirits and creatures. You just can’t see it.”

Ben’s mother let out a warm laugh and smiled at her son.

“You did a great job Ben. You can have some ice cream for a prize.”

“Thank you mom! Next time I want to go shopping with you not by myself. It will be much better. Also, don’t forget that there really is evil spirits and creatures. I can show you after I eat my ice cream. Oh yes and I saw animals in a cage and I felt very sorry for them. Creatures should not do these things right mom?”

Ben and his mother had a nice time eating the ice creams and having a long chat about what had happened in his little journey. One thing Ben noticed was that home was the best place ever.

 

 

 

 

On March 21st, there is going to be an ice show in my skating rink. It is a show where all the club members in my rink skates. Of course I will be in it and from Monday 16th, the practice will begin. I have skated last years ice show and it was very very fun because I got to skate in a dark place where spotlights were shining on us and I felt very special and also, we skate in groups so we got to know other skaters more and it was exciting. I was able to know how professional skaters felt when they skated in ice shows. The practice for the show is very fun too except it goes on for a very long time and it is until very late at night. The part I like about the practice is that when we first hear the music we are dancing to, I get very happy when it is a music I like and I imagine how we might dance to it. I think it is good to have something fun, not just hard and serious practice for competitions. Some of my friends are coming to watch the show so I better do good with my role! I think I will have lots of fun again.

On March 2nd, I had the LAMDA exam and it was better than I expected. Like I said before, I was very nervous and I thought I will be nervous for the whole time but when I entered the room, things changed. There was one lady sitting on a desk with a great big smile on her face. She looked very nice and at that moment my tense body was relaxed and calm. The examiner said to start my speech after a while and I started it. To my surprise, I made no mistakes and I was able to do a very good speech. After my speech, the examiner wrote some note on a paper and this part, I was curious and  nervous of what she had to write about me. When she finished writing, she started talking about my topic. I got to have a nice conversation with her and this is how the exam ended. I had a nice LAMDA exam and I thought the exam was not too bad. I am looking forward for next years exam!

I finally finished the book, “Dragon Rider”. The author of this book is called Cornelia Funke. She is German and she is one of my favorite author. I read this book in Japanese and it was very long so it took me quite a while to finish this but it was such a good book that once I started reading it, I could never stop. Also, the words were easy to understand (in Japanese). It is a fantasy and it is about dragons that live somewhere in Scotland. Their home is being invaded by humans so one dragon sets to a very long journey to find the highest mountain of the world so that all the dragons can live in peace there. He goes to the journey with a loyal brownie friend, Sorrel, and in the middle of his journey, he finds a lonely boy called Ben. He goes with the other two and while the journey is getting exciting, he gets lots of other creatures to join his journey and with all the help, they reach to their destination. There he finds all the other dragons living there. This story is very adventurous and with some time pressure (because there is an evil dragon chasing after them so he could hunt other dragons) it makes the story more exciting. The part I liked best in this story is when the bad dragon is destroyed and everybody lives happily ever after. I like stories that have happy endings (I am sure almost everybody does) because it makes me feel happy. This book is one of my top 3 books so I recommend to read this book if you are interested in dragons and fantasies. I am happy that I read this book and was able to finish it!

On Monday, 2nd of March 2009, there is going to be a speech test called LAMDA. It stands for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. 

There is going to be a person from London coming in to our school and she will examine our speech. The speech will be three minutes and we have to talk about someone we admire that we once met before. I will be talking about a famous Japanese skater that won a gold medal at the 2006 winter Olympic. We also have to have two topics for a conversation that we are going to have with the examiner. The two topic I chose was Ice skating and koto (a japanese instrument). I chose those because they are my favourite things to do. I am very nervous because I never did a speech exam before and we will be doing this one by one for about ten minutes. Ten minutes can be a very short time but I think it will be very long. I think I will just have to try my best to finish the speech and relax while talking and make sure not to make mistakes. I hope everything will be all right. My drama teacher said that we were the only school in Japan that did a LAMDA test so I felt very unlucky but I guess it is a good experience and it will be helpfull in the future. I will just have to get over with it. So, wish me luck!

I read a book called “Anne of Green Gables” few weeks ago.

Two middle-aged siblings called Marilla Cuthbert and Matthew Cuthbert is planning to adopt an orphan boy so that he can help the farming. But with a little mistake, an orphan girl appeared to live with them. Her name is Anne Shirley, a very skinny, red haired girl with freckles across her face. She loves to image all sorts of things and she soon adapts to her new home and makes her best friend, Diana Barry. This story is based on a place called Green Gables which is in Avonlea in Prince Edward Island, a island that is in Canada. The story tells about Anne and her life at Green Gables, studying hard at school for her exams with her friends. At the last part, Matthew dies with a heart attack and Marrila gets close to blind. But Anne helps her step mother.

I really like this story because it is full of Anne’s adventure at Green Gables and you could feel how much love that Matthew and Marrila feels to Anne. When I am reading it, it feels like I am in the story too and it is easy to imagine the scene. But I think the book is a little hard with some difficult words and it is kind of long. But this book almost made me cry when Matthew died. I really liked the first part when Anne arrives to Green Gables and starts a new life. I think that it gets a little bit boring when Anne grows up into a teenager and starts all the studying. Otherwise, it is a great book to read and it is a really sweet story and if you have the chance, you should read it!