Death of an Innocent

          Chris definitely has affected James Gallien when he picked up Chris and gave him a ride.  When James was talking to Chris on the way to where Chris wanted to be dropped off, he learned a lot about Chris and who he was and what he wanted to do.  Chris told James how he donated his whole college fund, and burnt 106 dollars.  He did all of this just to go out in the wild and live on his own.  James thought about this and probably never heard something like this before.  After James finally dropped off Chris he probably thought a lot about Chris and hoped he was alright because he is a great person. After meeting Chris, James definitely didn't take a lot of things for granted.

Celtics History

Clearly the Celtics are the best franchise in NBA history, winning seventeen NBA championships. Most of these championships come from 1957-1969, during these years the Celtics won thirteen of the fifteen championships. This team was mostly led by Bill Russel. Bill was player, a player-coach, and a coach. He was the best player on the team while he played along with Bob Cousy, another great player. This was where the Celtics Lakers rivalry began because they always seemed to meet in the finals almost every year, but the Celtics would come out on top. The Celtics also won two championships in the 70s led by John Havelcheck, who is now the all-time leading scorer in Celtics history.

Then in the 80s there was the big three: Larry Bird, Robert Parish, and Kevin Mchale. This lineup was definitely the best Celtics team of all time and arguably the best team of all time in 1986. Other players like Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge were also a great contribution to their four year stretch of being in the finals. This was when the Celtics Lakers rivalry became big. Bird vs. Magic, Mchale vs. Worthy, and Russel vs. Kareem these were great matchups with the three best players on each team. They would go at it and have some very exiting series in the finals every year.

            Larry Bird is said to be the best Celtic of all time and one of the top five players of all time. You can’t tell how great of a player Larry is just by his stats. His ability to close games and come up in the clutch is unbelievable. With the game on the line or anytime during the game when the Celtics needed a big shot, Larry always had the ball and almost always made that shot.        

The Celtics then didn't win another championship until 2008. That was a huge win for the Celtics because everyone knew the Celtics were back to the old winning ways. When the new Celtics big three came into Boston everyone knew that the Celtics would be a top contender in the league. And the first year with Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce all on the same team the Celtics were ranked first in the regular season and won the NBA title for the 17th time in Celtics history. Once again the Celtics and Lakers meet in the finals two straight years and split the games one to one. The Celtics had some of the best team in history and the biggest dynasty of all time.

WORD COUNT 428

By The Waters of Babylon

Why did Johns tribe go back to a primitive life?

     Johns tribe goes back to a primitive life because there was nothing in the world.  This story takes place in the post apocalypse and the world has been destroyed.  So with the earth like this there is no technology or machines to use.  In this situation you would have to go back to a more primitive life because there's no technological resources to even start.  You can't  start over and make the life they have now, similar to the life was before apocalypse. but if they were to try then it would take many years.  It is very clear on why Johns tribe went back to a primitive life or else it would be very difficult and probably wouldn't work out to well. So the only option Johns tribe had was to go back to a primitive lifestyle.
    

Interlopers

          The theme of The Interlopers is that you don't really know someone until you truly spend time with them.  Ulrich and Georg were born enemies from berth and the story never tells an exact time they both met before this scene.  They probably have seen each other before but probably never talked.  This explains the the theme because once they finally meet and talk for a while, they end up being friends even though they have been enemies all of their life. You can never expect what to think of someone just because of their name or what they look like, this story shows you need to spend time with someone to know what they are really like.

Second Round Matchups

          There are some very interesting second round match up's this year in the NBA playoffs. For example, the Lakers verse the Thunder. This will be a great series because of the stars on each team. Including Kobe, Gasol and Bynum verse Durant, Westbrook, and Harden. It will be a battle of scoring between Durant and Kobe, but a great defensive test for James Harden and Serge Ibaka. The Lakers also have two seven footers, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. This strong suite is usually what makes teams suffer. But, Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins are known for their defense and can really match up well with them two. If the Thunder can shut down the middle, then they can win the series in 5 games.


          The other series in the west is between the Clippers and the Spurs. Some say this is the most successful year the Clippers have had in their team’s history. The Clippers have come a long way from years past of not being successful but, the Spurs do have the playoff experience with almost the same team winning two championships in the past. The playoff experience is what might win this series for the Spurs. None the less, both teams do match up well position wise with similar skill at each position. The Clippers do have some great young players like, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul. But Tony Parker and Tim Duncan will definitely take them on and win this series.


          In the East a great matchup between the Heat and the Pacers was over looked going into the playoffs. Now, everyone is talking about it and saying how the Pacers are out to prove something to the Heat and show everyone that they can really play. With all of this being said, I don’t think Paul George and Danny Granger can match up against Dwayne Wade and Lebron James. But I do think that the Pacers are a great team and they can definitely give the Heat a good series. It is possible for the Pacers to come out with one or two wins this series but the Heat are just too good with Dwayne and Lebron on the defensive end. This will be a very exciting series to see how the Pacers do with the Heat. But, the Heat will come out on top in this series.


          The final Matchup in the East is between the Celtics and the 76ers. The 76ers didn’t have that tough of a matchup against the Bulls without Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, so it didn’t take much for them to get to this point. But, they do have depth in their roster with about 7 key players that could do damage at any point of the game. On the other hand, the Celtics are too good if both Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett are playing well. So if the Celtics can get great play from these players than they will definitely win this series in five or six games.


          There is certainly a lot of potential for certain teams this round, but some of these series can certainly go to a game 7 by having great games for all of their player.  But their certainly are some teams that can sweep a tram in four games.

(Word Cout 548)

Open Respnce 2

          When Bryson goes out and buys all of the junk food you would expect him eat all of it and enjoy it. But when he realizes how bad junk food has gotten from the last time he had American junk food, his wife makes him eat every bit of it.  When he fist goes to the grocery store he is so exited to buy it because he hadn't had junk food in years. He goes to all of the junk food aisles and gets all the sugary cereals and just the best things he could find.  You would expect him him to be sort of smart about this because his wife warned him before than he had to eat all of it. But he goes home and realizes its awful and he is confused why the food is so bad because last time he had eaten all of this food it was great, so he expected it to be great.  He finds out all of this was a bad idea and has an awful two weeks eating all the food he had bought at the grocery store.

Open Response

               Corry's punishment is cruel and unusual because being stranded on an asteroid i usually not the punishment for murder.   For example when Captain Allenby Shows up to give hi his supplies that he needs, Corry is begging him to stay because of how lonely he is but the Captain leaves and Corry is very upset about that.  The punishment of being lonely for that long for Corry is worse than being locked up in a jail cell for a longer period of time.  You can tell by the look on his face that when the Captain leaves it shows how upset he is and that he is on the line of killing himself.  So based on Corry and how he takes the punishment, this punishment is definitely cruel and unusual punishmen

Age in the NBA

        Weather a team be considered an old team or a young team, the age of an NBA team clearly affects their play throughout the season. Teams like the Spurs and Celtics have a veteran core to their team but are still having success at the end of their careers. But teams like the Thunder are looking to have great success in the future with three-time scoring leader Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook.
         The Spurs have had Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobill, and Tony Parker on the same team for the past ten years and have put together three championships.  But now they are starting to get old and that could really hurt a team or really help a team. In the past few years they have been using their experience to their advantage, having all the experience they have. For the past two years they have had the best record in the NBA. This year Tony Parker has had arguably his best season so far, and that is surprising coming from his eleventh year in the league.
           With Celtics they are really starting to get old and it is showing but everyone still believes that they still have one more year in them.  They showed in 2008 that having veterans like Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce on the team helped them win a championship the first year they got Kevin and Ray.  Like all teams, having veterans on your team leads to more injuries and that has showed especially for the Celtics for the past few years and right now with Ray Allen. When it comes playoff time you can tell that it is the end of the season because their play starts to decrease and more injuries are occurring.
          Last year the Mavericks had a good veteran group with Dirk Nowitzki, Sean Marion, Jason Kid, Vince Carter, and Jason Terry. They  proved that a team like that can clearly win an NBA championship with a group like that behind Dirk.  Like the Celtics this year the Mavs looked like they made their last run for the title last year and are looking to rebuild after this season beacuse a lot of their players are starting to reach the end of their carrers after great careers.
        With the Thunder on the other hand they are very young and looking for great years to come out of Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook. Even James Harden and  Kendrick Perkins are in the beginning half of their careers.  A couple years ago being one if the worst teams in the league and used their draft picks wisley with Kevin Durant and Russel Westbrook wich are one of the leagues best dou. And James Harden who is looking to win the six-man of the year award.
        Now being playoff time you will see the older teams maybe struggle because they start to wear down towards the end of the season beacuse they start to get tired late in games. And look for teams like the Thunder to make a big run through the playoffs and maybe win it this year, or watch out for teams like the Celtics to make that last run through the playoffs because they certainly have the potential.

(word count 561)