Nolan's Blog =D

BaTtLe Of ThAmEs

Nolan — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:11:10 +0000

Ok so we had to write a post one event in the textbook that we read for Social Studies. I picked the Battle of Thames. I think the textbook showed a good job in making you be able to picture the setting of where in the U.S. the battle took place but I believe it did a very lousy job of explaining the battle itself. The section that it covers in the textbook is only 2 paragraphs long! The first one was the only about the setting while the second was just junk. The only good thing in the second paragraph is how they mentioned that Tecumush died. That was a very important thing to add in seeing as though they mentioned him a lot in the prievous sections.

I would have defienatly added how much the British helped the indians during this war. It was pretty much the start of the War of 1812 because it shows how we were trying to control the Canadian region but the British wouldn’t let us. Still the indians did fight which was left out by the textbook. All in all I would give the textbook a whopping 3 out of 10 and wikipedia a solid 9 out of 10. Here is a picture that should have been added to the textbook, it depicts the death of Tecumush.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Death_of_Tecumseh.JPG

WeSt ViRgInA mOuNtaInEeRs

Nolan — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 21:57:17 +0000

Did you know that West Virgina was once part of Virgina and was turned into its own, indivisual state during the American Civil War? If not, here is how it happened: Virgina had been part of the Confederacy (people who wanted to keep slavery in the U.S.) but General George McClellan and the Union (people who wanted to get rid of slavery) defeated General Robert E. Lee and the Confederates stationed in the western part of Virgina. This freed some people in the Union and they were able to form their own government. Even with the new state of West Virgina being created, the Confedercy still staged many raids here to try and win back West Virgina. This is the logo of West Virgina University.

GrEaT lEaDeR

Nolan — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 23:29:23 +0000

This week in school we were asked to write about a great leader and character traits that made him so great. Well since it was about GREAT leaders I chose to write about none other than Alexander the GREAT. Here are three character traits that defined him:

1. Great Ambition

2. Great Intelligence

3. Great Charisma

Alexander had great ambition because he had high hopes that one day he would be able to have one of the greatest empires known to man. He dreamed that he would be able to conquer many lands and have them under Macedonia’s control. He has great intelligence because he was thought to be one of the greatest war generals in the history of the world. He was the first war general to ever keep back soldiers in case the needed reinforcements and he mastered many great battle tactics such as the phalanx. Alexander was also taught by Aristotle himself so he had great knowledge for philosophy, medicine, etc. Alexander had great charisma because he was liked by mostly all of his people that he ruled over. He had a great way of persuasion so he could get others to do what he wanted.

He shows great ambition when he tells his father of how we will conquer as much of the world that he could and expand Macedonia’s empire. Alexander was able to expand his empire to half of the known world.Only the Persians and the Romans were able to do this. He shows great intelligence in the Battle of Issus. He was able to defeat the Persians who were one of the greatest forces in the known time period. He showed great charisma because he was able to conquer all the lands he could but he was not a dictator. He was liked because he would let the people he conquered keep their own culture and not force upon them Greek culture.

http://timesonline.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451586c69e2011570b0e6f6970c-320wi

LeAdEr’S qUoTe

Nolan — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:58:58 +0000

One qoute that we were asked to infer in school this week is this “Do great leaders make history? Or does history make great leaders?” This quote means that if you are a great leader you will be remembered for a long time, thus making history. History making great leaders means that even though someone is not thought of as a leader at the time period then in the future the maybe will be remembered as a great leader.

I personally believe that great leaders make history. This is because great leaders are remembered for what they did in the past. Take Ulysses S. Grant for example. He was a great general in the Civil War and he became the President of the United States so obviously he has to be a great leader. Things that he did in the Civil War and as president will be remembered through history. That is why I think that great leaders make history.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/first-family/masthead_image/18ug_header_sm.jpg?1251138400

A tRuE lEaDeR

Nolan — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:00:34 +0000

Here are what questions that people would ask about leadership:

What characteristics does a good leader have?
A good leader should be able to create ways for people to get involved in things so that something really great would be the outcome. Good leaders are usually have a good reputation for being a good person and they can get along with any person.

Are leaders made? or born?
I think that leaders are made. You are always born as a nobody and if you want to be something, you have to work hard to achieve that goal. So definatly leaders are made.

Describe a time when you were a leader.
One time when I was a leader was last summer for my baseball all-star team. I pretty much led my team to a lot of wins in the tournament and a lot of kids on my team looked up to me as sort of the go-to-guy when the game was on the line. Check out the post before this one for a great story about one of the best games I ever had.

Describe a time when you followed a leader.
One time I followed a leader was my 10 year old year of the Majors division. Since it was my first year I looked up to the older players to help me out do a lot of things for the team. It was an awesome time because I got along real well with them and they accepted me to the team so thats why they are leaders.

Can anyone be a leader?
Yes I think that anyone could be a leader if they wanted to. Of course leadership doesn’t come easily so they would have to work hard at something if they wanted other people to look up to them as a leader.

Are you a leader?
Yes, I think I can be a leader or a follower. I think I try to be a leader when I’m around younger people so that they look up to me as a good leader. I also try to be a leader on the baseball field. I’m not really the vocal leader and that is what I’m trying to be more like since I am already the type of set-the-example leader.

What are you strongest abilities as a leader?
I believe that I make friends with everyone regardless if they are really good at baseball or they just flat out stink. I try to make it so that they feel comfortably with playing the game because I know that I was nervous just like them when I was younger and I could help shape them into being a leader.

This is Jason Varitek. He is the leader (captain) of the Boston Red Sox. Even though he has had some really rough seasons in the past he is still a great leader because he is older than most players on the diamond so he has expierence in all types of games. He plays one of baseball’s most key positions, Catcher. The main positions are Pitcher, Catcher, Shortstop, Center Field. http://bosoxinjection.com/files/2010/01/jason-varitek-beard.jpg

SiGnIfIcAnT oBjEcT

Nolan — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 03:26:17 +0000

To many of you out there, this may seem like any old ordinary baseball, but to me it is very important. To me, this baseball reminds me of the greatest happiness that I ever had in my entire life.

Here is the story: Last summer I spent most of my time playing baseball for my Yalesville All-Star team. Now, since we were 12 year olds, if we played well enough we could’ve made it to the Little League World Series which is broadcasted every summer on ESPN. To get there is a major accomplishment because you pretty much have to win around 20 games in a row and you can only lose around 2 or 3 games if you want to make it.

So anyways back to the story. We were playing our cross town rival, Wallingford. Now, our team has never beaten Wallingford. We came close a couple of times but we still lost every game we played against them. So in the Top of the 6th inning, (last one, Little League only plays 6 innings) my team was trailing by 2 runs. We battled our way and ended up tying the game at 5-5. Wallingford managed to get 2 outs so they only needed one more. My friend got the walk and then Wallingford took out their starting pitcher and put in their best one, Chris Ames. Now I wished that I could have batted against their other pitcher because I was 3-3 against him with 2 doubles and 1 single. So anyways, my coach calls me aside and says this, “Nolan, it’s ok to be nervous right now because I know there are at least 200 people here watching this game.” The cool part was it was true. Mostly all of Wallingford was there. We had people from all of our other All-Star teams there to watch it. He continued, “Nolan, I know there is only one kid on our team that would be able to get a hit right here, and that is you. Even if you make the last out of this inning, just know that you did everything you could for our team this year.” So with my coach’s talk I stepped into the batters’ box. The pitcher winded up and threw the pitch and I noticed right away that he had thrown a change-up and I hit as hard as I could and it got over the fence for a home run! I had won the game with that hit. We won 7-5, we had finally beaten Wallingford!

Last sumer was the best time of my life. I made friends from all over the state, Southington, Plainville, Bristol. I also got to spend my entire summer playing the sport that I love. Of course all the home runs were cool but it really was the best expirence of my life. I would give anything for another chance to play in that tournment one more time. I would highly reccomend to anyone that they should play Little League baseball because it is an amazing time to have fun and make friends. If you do play juswt work as hard as you can and give it everything you got because remember, you only get one shot to go to the greatest youth sporting event in the world. Those were the happiest moments of my entire life.

BeSt QuEsTiOn In ThE wOrLd?

Nolan — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 22:38:51 +0000

This week in class we had to answer the “Best Question in the World.” The question is you take something that you love to do and then ask yourself “What If….?” So heres an example: “What if there was no more writing in school,” or “What if there was school band?”

Here is what I would ask myself: “What if there was no family?” Now there are people that would argue that it would be a good thing because they hate their family, while others would argue that it would be a bad thing because they love to spend time with their family. I, personally would say that I’m in the middle, I don’t love my family but I don’t show enmity towards them. I love spending time with my family around the holidays like Christmas, and Thanksgiving. It’s always so much fun to hang out with all my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Even though it’s always fun to be around them sooner or later you get really annoyed of being around them for to long. I get so bored when I’m around them for like 8 hours straight. You just start to just get ticked off at each other after a while.

This also the way I feel about my friends. It always fun to be around them but after a while you get sick of seeing them all the time. So after reading this post, how about you try answering “The Best Question in the World.”

http://images.cucirca.com/tvshows/Family-Guy.jpg

ThE oRiGiNaL nAvY

Nolan — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:07:46 +0000

In 1794 the United States were trading things across the oceans to other countries such as England. What had been happening is that every time we would send a ship out it would be raided by attacking pirates. All we could do was tell them to stop attacking us. Of course that did no good and the raids continued. Congress decided that they had to make a formal Navy. So in 1794, the Naval Act began. The United States mad six frigates of their Navy. The original six were: USS Chesapeake, USS Constitution, USS United States, USS President, USS Congress, and USS Constellation.

So I am going to compare the USS Constellation to a Navy ship today, the USS Port Royal. The USS Constellation was the first ever Navy ship to set sail and the first to destroy an enemy ship. It first set sail in 1797 and was decommissioned in 1853. The USS Constellation had a length of 164 feet and weighed a whopping 1265 tons. It was armed with 20 cannons and 28 long guns. The USS Port Royal is 567 feet long and a huge weight of 9600 tons! It carries 2 Sikorsky SH-60B or MH-60R Seahawk. It is HEAVILY ARMED with many automatic turrents, automatic cannons, and many torpedo launchers of different varieties. As you can see the devolpment of ships over the years has greatly changed as the USS Port Royal would probably DESTROY the USS Constellation in a couple of seconds.

USS Port Royal (Top) USS Constellation (Bottom)

HoNeStY iS tHe BeSt PoLiCy

Nolan — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:59:50 +0000

Many of you probably have heard the story called The Boy Who Cried Wolf. As we all know, the story goes that a little shepherd decides to pull a prank on the villagers by telling them to come and help him because his flock of sheep is being attacked by a wolf. Then, of course, a wolf really does come along but the villagers do not believe the young shepherd and all his sheep are killed.

Some people may have heard the story, Washington’s Cherry Tree.For those of you who don’t know it here it is: When George Washington was a young boy he received a hatchet. One day young George walked through his garden and he saw his father’s prized cherry tree. He took out his hatchet and with one mighty swing, he struck the tree and it fell. When his father asked him if he knew who did it George replied, “Father I cannot lie, I was the one who cut down your cherry tree.”

We all know that the morale of both of these stories is that you should not lie. Now some people believe that George Washington’s story is real. I don’t think that it is. I believe that the writer copied the morale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf but just changed the characters and changed the plot around. A lot of other stories have been changed around but the morale stays the same. Some examples are: The Grasshopper and the Ant with The Little Red Hen.

http://www.lifeinpencil.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/2598373144_6a4f6c5dfe-300×300.jpg

StRiCt .Vs. LoOsE

Nolan — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 23:14:52 +0000

Would you rather have a strict or loose Constitution? I personally would like to have a loose constitution. If you were to have a loose Constitution then you could do anything that you want to as long as its reasonable. Just because you have a loose Constitution it doesn’t mean that you can go out and rob a bank or kill a guy. You would still get in major trouble for doing these. The laws of the Constitution have to still be kinda strict in order to keep our country in balance but if it is too strict then some stupid person is gonna be like, “Imma go break a law because these laws are so strict.” The elastic clause is a statement in the Constitutin that grants Congress the power to pass laws that are proper and necessary.

http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/links/constitution.jpg