Advertisement Homework

1) Advertisements influence consumption by making us buy their product. Advertisements exist to make us do something; to buy their product. Which uses up materials and things that we don't need that ends up in landfills, causing consumption on to Earth.

2) No, because advertisements on billboards, TV, websites, newspapers, etc, only say the positive things about the product. The people who are trying to make us buy the product only say good things because if they list the negative things, we probably won't buy it.

3) Yes, because whatever we get is because of a celebrity or it looks cool, etc. If it's a celebrity, people want to be like them and they make us think that if we buy it, it makes us cool. Or maybe the way they show the commercial like in the "Lucky Charms" cereal. It's all magical, sparkly, and the kids think it gives you luck, making the kids want to buy it.

Examples of Sustainable Developments

1) start using solar energy for any electric usage.
2) use heat generation by power plants.
3) change gasoline to cooking oil.
4) start using recylced things.
5) turn off any electricity that we're not using
6) same goes with unplugging things, so we're not wasting energy.
7) instead of riding motorbikes and cars, walk.
8) save water by turning the faucet low.

"The Two Countries I Call Home" - Immigration/Migration Assessment

Darlene Nguyen 8p1
The Two Countries That I Call Home
My name’s Darlene Nguyen and I was given birth in California, United States. As you see, I’m half Vietnamese because of my last name. My parents are both from Vietnam and they immigrated to California to have a better life and thought it was better for us. Unfortunately, we had to move back to Vietnam in 2008. I had to move back here for push factors because my dad often comes back here for his jewelry business that he opened up about a few months ago in 2007. He didn’t want to waste money anymore by fleeing back and forth. Also, he thought that living in the US was boring, having nothing to do, while in Vietnam he had many friends and things made him busier. I’m half glad and half not glad about the external migration. I was pretty shocked when my parents didn’t tell me about the movement. I actually found out that we were moving from the amazingly, large stack of posters faced down on the table. My parents weren’t home yet when I walked home from school and when I walked in, the papers were sitting on the table. I was curious, like always, and took a sheet and immediately saw pictures of parts of our house on the top and along the side of the page. I quickly skimmed through the description, noticing that someone is describing our house. Then, I saw at the bottom was a picture of a man named George Wong. I couldn’t believe that my parents wanted us to settle in Vietnam.
Moving to this region wasn’t much of a big problem for me. Since it’s partially my homeland, I visited this country every winter break. Some positive things about going to a new place are that it could be much more different than the place that we lived in before. Sometimes different things are a good thing because you can learn what you have in common with them and what you don’t. Also, buying things is very affordable here, when you calculate between the dollars and the Vietnamese money. A negative thing about going to a new place may be that you won’t be fully adapted to the country for a while. I felt like an outskirt coming to a new school. But also leaving my country could affect the relationships I have, such as the friends I have made. We haven’t interacted with each other for two years, until one of them found me on “facebook” in the summer of 2010. I was really ecstatic when I found them and wanted to catch up but things have changed and we’re not immature like before. Also I leave my whole family back there with all the cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents. Although I’ve known them all my life, it wouldn’t be weird hanging out with them because I’m comfortable with them and I come back to visit them every winter break. A positive effect about leaving the country may be that we could make new friends and meet my 4 cousins that still live here. Overall, I’m okay with my parent’s decision of relocating where we live. Moving to an urban area like this isn’t necessarily pleasant, but it makes me feel like there are people everywhere and it keeps me company. Either way, California will always be my home and so will Vietnam.

A Message From Mother Nature?

• The main point of the article is that most of the natural disasters such as flooding, record-breaking heat waves, and earthquakes have global warming to blame. 
• --------
• Weather is a condition that happens over a short period of time such as rainy, snowy, hot, etc on a particular day. Climate is the average weather over a long period of time of a location over a season. 
• Some examples of extreme weather was the floods in Pakistan, the heat wave in Russia, and the some record-breaking heat waves in the eastern part of the United States. 
• I haven't experienced extreme weather conditions yet, just maybe mini earthquakes that you can't feel in your sleep in California but that's it.
• Perception means what you think, feel, or understand about somethings. 
• My perception of global climate change is that all of these floods, and heat waves, fast climate changes are all because of global warming. Well, global warming is happening because of us. Because of us polluting the air with our cars and factories, we send carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And once the sun's rays hit the earth, it stays in the earth and heats up the world.

Map Assessment: 5 Themes of Geography

Region
My world is called "Darlene's Paradise." It's most definately the home of the jewels. My region is a bunch of lands that formed perfectly together like a puzzle and has united to become the land full of jewels. It's like the olden days when people had to mine underground. I'm not sure if people still do that, but I'm guessing they do, just in a safer way. Because where do we keep getting our gold from? Underground x).

Location
Every single country is all very similar to the others. Each location has similar names, just different ways of titling it. Such as "World of Jewels" and "Bling Bling Empire." They are quite similar, still around the category of attraction, sparkles, and dazzling, etc.

Movement
According to "Darlene's Paradise", people all over in every country is moving, and trying to escape from the man named Hablaga and his minions. This man is very evil and powerful and he's been robbing the cities with most jewels. He's been to every country except "Heart of Paradise." So thousands of people travel to "Heart of Paradise" to all gang up on Hablaga and his minions and if they have the chance, kill them as well. They want him to return all of the jewels and become one of them... peaceful and loving. But if he refuses, the people will destroy his gang AND have back all the jewels. But some people disagree and say that there's a chance that they might give up their lives. So some stay put in their country.

Human-Environment Interaction
Over thousands of years, people in "Darlene's Paradise" found seeds that make trees called "The Gold Maker". It means that when you put this seed into the ground and water it every day, as it grows into a huge tree about 9 meters high, instead of apples growing, it'll be gold. Every two month there'll be gold 20 gold pieces that fall from the tree. People are living around it so, when 20 gold pieces fall, those people have to try and catch them. Whoever catches them, keeps them, but whoever doesn't, has to wait another two months. Every country has two of these trees and that country is responsible for growing them. If that country is lazy, then plastic jewelry will fall down, but it is no use because people won't buy them. After a few years when the tree dies, the government plants another one in another area in the country for others to have a chance.

Place
South of the "Heart of Paradise" is *Darlene's Spectacular Palace*. Every year on March 12 - March  31 is the time when EVERYONE is "Darlene's Paradise" goes to the palace to worship Darlene :) March 12 was also when she was born. The statue of Darlene is made of crystal diamonds and the walls of the palace is made of pure gold. There are also designs on the side of Darlene's poses made of topazes, rubies, emeralds, pearls, amethysts, onyxes, and violets. It was fact that Darlene was the queen of "Darlene's Paradise" and she would make everyone happy by giving out jewelry. It was a happy world for everyone, which was why EVERYONE had to come and give thanks to her.

Things to Include on the Study Guide

• The 5 Themes of Geography
• The 6 Elements
• The Main 3 Type of Maps & what each mean
• Interpreting a map
• Writing some things that geographers do

Family Tree Presentation

I've learned that when I was telling about how my cousin John died, I didn't know that I was still so sensitive. I knew that I was when I was younger, but I thought I stopped. I've learend this a long time ago, but I forgot to say it in the presentation, but my grandpa on my mom's side left the family and moved to Texas. We never visited him, and I was never sure why. And I realized that I had many cousins than I had expected.I've also learned that my mom was EXTREMELY into style before any of my siblings were born. In some old pictures, I saw her have that 90's hair that's all frizzy and puffy, wearing black tights, boots, more styled clothing, and looking MUCH more younger. Now, she's so different. Now, she wears jeans or leggings every day and simple and styled-ish shirts that you see mothers wear.

I never thought that Celcilia swam and got THAT many medals. I was also amazed how Olia was Russian. I never even thought that she'd be Russian. No wonder the way she spoke english was kind of different then everybody else's. We all know that "Olia" isn't a very common name. But she told me that in Russia it's VERY common, that's interesting.I also never knew that Henry could cook! It seems pretty shocking, but it's cool.

People are similar to us in many ways, but seeing their presentations helps us learn more about them. Now I can understand why people are different and why they do what they do. It's because everyone has some kind of background that makes them different from other people.

Journal Question #1

In southern California, where I lived, there was always a park near by. I went there every weekend to ride my bike in the afternoon. I went there at noon because it seemed to have most people, but it wasn't crowded. I love riding by and seeing people both ways, whether they were sitting on the hill or doing some kind of activity. Plus the wind that went past my face felt refreshing, it was very peaceful and calmed me down.

Everyone at the park looked so happy. They were always fishing, eating ice cream, riding on their bikes or scooter, running around, feeding the birds and the swans, or just taking a walk. Now since I live here, I go there every winter break and sometimes I go late enough to see the glowing sunset, which is amazing. The weather is cool and I never need to bring a jacket, execept for at night. Overall I enjoy spending my time in the park :)

You Wanna Know Me?

Aloha fellow classmates!! My name's Darlene Nguyen and I was born on March 12, 1997. I'm originally from Torrance, California and I was given birth there. At the age of 11, after 5th grade, I moved to Vietnam because of my dad's business. Both my parents are Vietnamese, but I can't speak it very well. I love to wear things that are simple and comfortable. I hate wearing girly clothes. Some people say "fashion first" but I say "comfort first" xP I love making people laugh because it makes me laugh and laughing makes everyone happy :) My favorite hobbies are ice skating, dancing, singing, and acting. I have 3 siblings and I was the 2nd to be given birth. My favorite subject is Drama if that even is a real subject. But if it had to be a main subject, it would be probably Social Studies. So I guess you could tell what i want to be when I grow up ;)

Well here I am in 8th grade and THIS is my Geography Blogger Site :)