I don’t know why, but for some reason I pictured the Slana School a little bigger than it was and having fewer or the same amount of students as our school in Kenny Lake.
    We pulled up to the small yet nice school in our white and green vans. The school has only 18 students in all the kindergarten through 12th grade. We exited the vans and pulled our heavy bags from the white van and went inside where we started to settle into our new environment. We played games, talked, or investigated the other rooms. This was interrupted by Mr. Voley saying “I need some volunteers to get the food out of the vans.” He pointed to Daks, Elias, Trayl and me and said, “You, you, you and you come on.” So we walked outside to the blustery cold world to get a cooler and a couple pans. Unfortunately as soon as we walked in and had everything put away we were bothered yet again to do another task.
    In the easily packable fresh layer of snow outside you could easily make a slick hard snowball. Note that I said slick. The white van had been parked and then stuck in this tiny bit of snow on flat ground and Mr. Voley asked for the same volunteers and a couple more to push the van. Again it was slick so the footing was not good which made it even harder to push the van. With perseverance, a half-hour later we successfully pushed the van out. We ate pizza then messed around for a few more hours before resting up for the exciting next day.
    This was our introduction to the Slana community; it hadn’t started out well but in the end it was a fantastic trip for our Writers Workshop class.

    Lately in our classes we have been assigned a lot of essays. Some topics have been our choice. I am writing a short story essay on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Others are assigned by our teachers, for instance: the traditions that we have and how tradition is the enemy of progress. All of these essays have one element in common though: how they are started. There are many methods to plan an essay, but the one I will teach you is “This is an Amazing Delightful Composition.” This phrase is also known as a pneumonic device. You take the first letter of each word and have another word starting from that letter.
    The “T” is for thesis, which is the point of the story. This can take a lot of brainstorming to figure out what you want to say exactly. Then there is the “I.” This is for Intro; the intro is telling how you are going to support the thesis and you create a hook to suck people into your story. The next step is “A.” Anecdotes are the small stories or personal experiences that are within the story and help support the thesis. “Details.” These are the main points that you want to put to support your thesis even more; the more details the better. Then there is “C,” which stands for conclusion and is probably the most important part of the essay besides the thesis.
    Well, I hope that you can now plan a well-organized essay using the phrase, “This is an Amazing Delightful Composition.” Thesis, Introduction, Anecdotes, Details, Conclusion: four simple steps to make an excellent essay with very little effort.

   Why is writing important? Some might ask this question and just disregard it by saying writing is a useless subject.
    Many occupations require writing, and for those people haven’t graduated yet, it can help earn scholarships. You may not like writing, but it is really important, in and out of school. I really don’t like to write, but I have always needed it, and I am not even in high school yet. Even in math nowadays you need to know how to create or solve problems from a paragraph.
    I have to do writing out of school too. My grandma, bless her heart, is a person who will make you write every day. Every time I go to her house she gives me a journal and tells me to write my thoughts or to fill out a time sheet to prepare me for my not-too-distant future. I thank her greatly for this. This is why I joined Writers’ Workshop: to write and overcome any dislikes I have towards writing. Let me tell you, Mr. Voley has not let me down; he requires me to write a lot. And I do mean a lot. I also thank him for this.
    So you may not like writing, but it is extremely important and is easier to learn how to do it than avoid it. Trust me. Besides why would you avoid something that you need for all jobs?
    My question for you this week: Think of a time and place that you have had to write and you didn’t like it. And if you love writing, please send me your secret.

 People who text while they drive are putting people others in danger. They take their eyes off the road and in doing so they cause car accidents. I think that if people were to stop texting while driving it would make our roads and highways safer. I believe to achieve the goal of safer highways requires that the laws against texting while driving be strictly enforced.
    There are more texting deaths than there are assault rifle shootings in a year. To the people who text and drive, think about whose lives you are putting in jeopardy -- yours, maybe your kids and others people’s families. Think about how bad you would feel if you hurt someone just for a stupid text.
    Whatever you have to say can wait. To avoid hurting people we can take a few simple steps. Number 1: if you have to take a call or text someone for some sort of emergency, pull over. Number 2: If what you need to tell someone isn’t important then avoid risking somebody’s life just to say “what’s up” to a friend.
    People have been too lazy to go to the person’s house and talk. This has been creating two problems: obesity and social depreciation, but that is another story from another person. Since texting has been making us lazy, it is tempting us to break the law. Texting while driving takes your attention off the road, making it easy to coast into the other lane or swerve and hit somebody in your lane. The number of fatalities in America from this is rising rapidly.
    Again, I think enforcing the law against texting while driving would prevent so many accidents. People who text while they drive, please think about whom you are putting in danger and remember whatever you have to say can wait. If you do need to text, please stop before it is too late. You could hurt yourself and so many others. Think about your children or yourself and think about what would happen if your lives were put into jeopardy.

    I get annoyed when people try to remember words to a song or a line in general. I am not one to talk because I scramble my words and stutter all the time. I hate when other people make grammatical mistakes. Well, I am one of one of those who correct and stumble, so to sum it all up, I am a hypocrite.
     It is amazing how many different ways people can be hypocritical. When I was little, we took this class on “kids don’t float.” The people who set up this program said that even when you’re on ice wear a life jacket. Then they also gave me the introduction into hypocritical situations by telling us that only experienced swimmers (like themselves) can go out on the three-foot-thick ice, and they are not even that experienced. Again I am not one to talk because I am a hypocrite all the time, but people come on, practice what you preach. I guess it’s just human nature because like me people are hypocritical all the time.
    Recently, I was listening to my loud music and my parents told me to turn it down. As most kids my age would do, I reluctantly turned it down a very little amount. Just the other day though my dad was playing music so loud in his truck it was making it vibrate until it looked like it was about to shatter the already damaged windshield.

            Until the next blog, think of one time you were a hypocrite, and think about what caused it.

    Hey, I’m Wes and as you can and will see in my blogs, I’m not much of a writer. Also my style is different than others. Some might draft and plan and edit, but my writing is much looser. I’m better when I just write something, and if I don’t like it I start over. When I wrote this blog I wrote it three times before I liked it. I guess what I am trying to say is that if you don’t like my writing then don’t read it.
    I sit here without music, unfortunately; I have absolutely no clue where I put my headphones; I start to look at the back of my hands. Then it strikes me how painful it would be to get a tattoo on them. I have always had \ a strong interest in tattooing, and I want mine in some of the most painful of places. For instance the areas are around the neck, down the spine, on the ribs and hips, to the backs of the hands. I’ve also heard that on the wrists and forearms hurt too. Now if I were to get one, I think I know what I want.   
     On my spine I would have a spider web because if you think about it life is a web rather than a circle. When life is going one direction it can change, leaving you with whiplash and pain in the neck. Now since I am already there I guess I would put a cat paw on the side of my neck, because I have been obsessed with cats for a couple of years now, and don’t think that is going to change any time soon. Now on my ribs to hips I would have highly detailed flames with words hidden amidst them. They don’t have real sentimental meaning since I am not quite sure what they are going to be, but I will think about it more and tell you later. Now I am back at my hand, wrists, and forearms. I am not quite sure what tattoo I would get there though because that is the first thing that people see when they meet you.
    Now some people give you ideas to think about before the next blog, and I am going to be one of those people by giving you something to think about. So, if you were to get a tattoo what would it be and where?