of My Writing

1. April 2013 Must read article "Xbox for all" by John Holbrook Pg. 4 A great family tradition found in "Santa Claus" by John Holbrook Pg. 6 of My Writing

2. Table of Contents page 1. Editorial page 2. Editorial part 2 page 3. Letter to the reader page 4.X-box For All page 5.X-box For All part 2 page 6.Santa Claus. Featured Story page 7.Santa Claus. Featured Story. Part 2 page 8. My 26 letters page 9. My favorites page 10. My Sister, Rachel page 11. My Sister, Rachel part 2 page 12. Ship Breaker: Book Review page 13. My Life Quotes page 14. This I believe essay page 15. This I believe Essay part 2

3. Editorial John Holbrook LABA 2/3 December 17, 2012 Watch Your Words We should all realize how much people are affected by words said to them or about them, and do our best to make a positive effect on people’s lives. Positive words can improve aspects of someone’s health and negative words can cause harm to them. Human beings have lots of emotions and feelings, which can be hurt easily. Consider the idea of what goes around comes around, “Karma”, then speak accordingly. I think we must always be aware of what an impact we have on each other’s lives and how important our words are to our friends, family, schoolmates, and even strangers. I don't think anyone would purposely want to affect someone’s health because of words they used, but this can happen. A person’s health has three components, physical, emotional/mental and social. The words we select when talking to or about someone can directly affect their emotional/mental and social health, and indirectly affect physical health. If someone tells me, great job after shooting a round of arrows at archery class, I feel good and my confidence will be higher. But what if I overheard someone say, he is the worst shooter I ever saw? Then I would feel awful. This would negatively affect my shooting, keep running through my mind, and perhaps I would want to quit archery.

4. Editorial part 2 I think words can sometimes hurt as much as sticks and stones. According to the old phrase, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Although I find that lots of old sayings have good meanings and are usually true. This one has good intended meaning; words can’t hurt you if you realize they’re only words. The reality is, we are all human and our thoughts and feelings are very fragile, maybe even more so than our bodies. I think getting punched in the arm would be better than someone saying bad things about me. Since my arm would stop hurting shortly, but the words would run through my mind for days. I believe we all should consider Karma before saying negative words. To me Karma means doing good things will result in good things happening and doing bad things will result in bad things happening. This reminds me of the television show, “My Name is Earl”. The show centered on Earl discovering Karma and his work to right all the wrongs he had done to people, his list. If someone says helpful words, something good might happen to them. Saying hurtful words, might bring bad things. Some advice, don’t build up a list of hurtful words said to people, “wrongs”, to hope you could erase someday. It would be nice if we could buy an invisible word filter to fit over our mouths, but until that time I think we must all be careful in the words we use to talk to people or about people. Most of the time people hurt others with words unintentionally, so everyone needs to just think before they speak. Instead of saying something that could hurt someone’s feelings, brighten up their day and say something kind about them. The world can be a better place with kind words.

5. Letter to the Reader Hello Readers. My name is John and I am the author of this magazine. This is my autobiographical magazine of my writing about me, some stories of my life and things I believe in. The story " X-box For All" is about me influencing you to buy a xbox.I tell you information about xboxes, the ways it can help you, and how it could improve your skills. Like how it improves your hand-eye coordination and how it expands your imagination letting you become anything you want like a racecar driver or a medieval knight slaying dragons or others without the risk of getting hurt. The story " Santa Claus" is about a story in my life about Santa. Its about a tradition my family has that consists of 1 of us being Santa to put presents under the tree while the rest of the family watches from our balcony. This was the year I was Santa Claus and how my Sister, Rachel, was so excited to see Santa. The story " My Sister, Rachel" is all about my little sister Rachel. I tell you when she was born and some of her character traits she has. I also discuss some of the things she does to help others or how she shows kindness to animals.

6. X-box For All Do you like to have fun, socialize with friends, watch a good movie, or check your Facebook? If so, Xbox 360 is the entertainment system for you. There are thousands of awesome games for all age groups. You can play with people on the same Xbox or you can play online with your local friends, plus gaming friends anywhere in the world. Besides all the entertainment, Xbox improves your eye- hand coordination. Playing Xbox, which requires you to focus and strategize, really challenges and stimulates your mind. It can also stream Netflix, so you can watch the movie or TV show of your choice. Need to connect to the internet? No problem, with an Xbox entertainment system, you can easily connect to watch funny YouTube videos or search the web. Given all the Xbox game choices, the biggest problem is deciding which games to buy, and then which one to play. If you can't get together with your friends, you just meet online, and it’s just-like-being-together. When you play a game, you will become one of the characters or one of the teams in the game. The video graphics, running the latest technology, are so real looking you will think you’re actually in the game. If you have surround sound, you can hear someone in the game sneaking up from behind. Have you ever wished you could play pro football, drive a race car, find lost treasure, or be a medieval knight? You can with Xbox, and don't worry, because you don't have any chance of being hurt.

7. X-box For All part 2 Playing Xbox well takes skills and practice, but just like anything else you want to be good at. But a big difference is Xbox games are fun from the start to the end. You have to use all your fingers in a precise manner, and you’ll have to keep a clear and focused mind. You will be amazed at how fast your hands learn the skills and how quick your brain tells them what to do. After a short while, it will seem like your fingers have minds of their own. Many games aren’t just about speed, but also about the strategy that you will use to win the game. Soon, your brain will react like a super computer, and you’ll be amazed at how good you become figuring out solutions to problems. After a long day at school or work, Xbox may help a person relax and be even-tempered. Thousands of movies[streamed instantly from Netflix, are available through Xbox. Don’t worry about connecting to Netflix, since Xbox makes it a piece of cake. All you do is click on the Netflix symbol and connect, then search through all the things available to watch. This is great because you can watch anything, anytime you want. Xbox can also search the web, just like a million dollar computer. This allows you to watch videos on the web, like your favorite YouTube clips, or check your Facebook. Xbox lets you have a lot of fun playing games and interacting with your friends and family. It improves your hand-eye coordination, makes you better at strategizing, lets you easily stream Netflix, and allows you to use the internet. Xbox is King. If you haven’t played an Xbox, don’t wait another second until you do, unless you hate having an awesome time.

8. Santa Claus One of my family’s traditions is to have someone dress up like Santa Claus and put our presents under the tree on Christmas Eve. The rest of the family (especially the kids who are young enough to believe in Santa) watched from the second floor balcony. I still remember thinking Santa Claus was real and sneaking to see him visit our house. When I saw Santa delivering our presents I would shout ‘’Santa.. Santa.. Santa!’’, in a voice that grew louder each time. My mom would try to quiet me and tell me I was supposed to be in bed and Santa could not talk because he had lots of toys to deliver. My two older brothers, who knew that it was really just a family member dressed up, were always about to burst out in laughter, but they managed to hold it in. When the person playing Santa was leaving they would open the doors to our fireplace. Mom would say she heard something on the roof. We really did not hear anything but I always believed Santa and his reindeer were flying off our roof to deliver presents to our neighbors. Then when I was finally allowed to go downstairs, I would see the fireplace doors open and run over to look up the chimney.

9. Santa Claus part 2 Our tradition, year after year, completely convinced me Santa was real. After all, I had seen him in person and in my house. Of course as I grew older I finally found out he wasn't real. But the fun continued, when it was my turn to dress up as Santa for my baby sister, Rachel. It was Christmas Eve and we were all up stairs and I made up an excuse I had to get something in the basement. I put on the Santa costume and got the Santa bag of presents. I looked funny and I didn't think my ‘’ho ho ho’’ was very believable. I thought Rachel would figure out, that it was just me, dressed up as Santa. But she believed I was Santa just like I had believed for many years. I heard her talking to my family and trying to say something to Santa, but I pretended not to hear anything. When mom finally let her come down the stairs, I was dressed in my regular clothes and she came running telling me what I had missed. She was so happy and excited so I guess I was a pretty good Santa. Then we opened our presents and Rachel said,’’ This was the best Christmas ever’’!

10. My 26 letters N- Nice O- Observant P- Playful Q- Quiet R- Ready S- Smiley T- Tired U- United with others V- Veracious W- Wonderful X- Xanthic Y- Young Z- Zippy A- Awesome B- Brilliant C- Caring D- Delightful E- Excellent F- Funny G- Good H- Helpful I- Intelligent J- Joyful K- Kidding L- Lucky M- Math

11. My Favorites Favorite Food- Pizza Favorite game- League of Legends Favorite Color- Blue Favorite sport- soccer Favorite sport's team- Green Bay Packers Favorite TV show- The Walking Dead Favorite Board game- Monopoly Favorite subject- Math 2nd Favorite subject- Language Arts

12. My Sister. Rachel I was five years old when my sister, Rachel, was born. It was very exciting, seeing her for the first time. Rachel looked like me with blonde hair and blue eyes. I begged my parents to name her Sarah, which is her middle name. Seeing her as a baby, I wondered, what she will be like when she gets older. Although she is only seven now, I know many of her character traits very well. Sometimes it looks like an animal retreat in our backyard. Rachel worries about the wildlife getting enough food. When we go to Logan’s Roadhouse, she always asks for a bag of peanuts and feeds the squirrels in the backyard. She uses her own money to buy bird seed to feed the birds and she made two birdhouses from kits she bought. I think it’s awesome my little sister has such compassion for animals. Observing Rachel meeting new people, especially adults is very interesting. She maintains almost a constant stare, taking in everything they say or do. After a few minutes, she begins some reaction, such as a little smile. As time goes by, her shyness seems to transform to boldness. She begins performing cartwheels, still without saying much of anything. One thing about Rachel is her energy level. She can run and play outside all day, then come in and start cheering for no reason, then suddenly do a cartwheel. I don't remember being that energetic when I was her age. I think she has a gift of almost endless energy. Of course when bedtime comes, she is out like a light.

13. My Sister, Rachel part 2 Often Rachel will come up to me and suddenly make a funny looking face. When I laugh she is so pleased. Telling jokes is another thing she enjoys. I can't say the jokes are always great, but she always waits for you to laugh and when you do she cracks up. Sometimes I can't believe how funny she can be and how much she enjoys it. Rachel wants everything she does to be perfect. When she was younger she won coloring contests, because she did it so perfectly. Now she wants to make perfect scores on everything and made all A+s for the first quarter. I think her ambition to do her very best will take her far when she grows up. Now I wonder what Rachel will be like when she gets older. I think her personality is really cool right now. Knowing her, I would bet my new game system that her character traits will even be more awesome. But she will probably stop doing as many cartwheels at some point. But, I know she is transforming into a young woman.

14. Ship Breaker: Book review Ship Breaker was a fantastic adventure book with a great plot. It has wonderful imagery with a good theme. The plot of the story was very interesting and kept me on the edge of my seat. The story took me on a roller coaster throughout the book and the end was astonishing, it was a true shocker.One example of this great imagery used in the book is "They waded carefully through the pitch black frigid waters, following a stream of struggling bodies that waded, swam, and splashed forward toward the salvation of the sturdy wooden docks."This really displays the great writing abilities of the author, I would suggest this book to everyone.

15. My Life's Quotes "Life is a song - sing it. Life is a game - play it. Life is a challenge - meet it. Life is a dream - realize it. Life is a sacrifice - offer it. Life is love - enjoy it." -Sai Baba "Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." -Mark Twain "A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." -George Bernard Shaw

16. John Holbrook LABA 2/3 December 17, 2012 Watch Your Words We should all realize how much people are affected by words said to them or about them, and do our best to make a positive effect on people’s lives. Positive words can improve aspects of someone’s health and negative words can cause harm to them. Human beings have lots of emotions and feelings, which can be hurt easily. Consider the idea of what goes around comes around, “Karma”, then speak accordingly. I think we must always be aware of what an impact we have on each other’s lives and how important our words are to our friends, family, schoolmates, and even strangers. I don't think anyone would purposely want to affect someone’s health because of words they used, but this can happen. A person’s health has three components, physical, emotional/mental and social. The words we select when talking to or about someone can directly affect their emotional/mental and social health, and indirectly affect physical health. If someone tells me, great job after shooting a round of arrows at archery class, I feel good and my confidence will be higher. But what if I overheard someone say, he is the worst shooter I ever saw? Then I would feel awful. This would negatively affect my shooting, keep running through my mind, and perhaps I would want to quit archery.

17. This I Believe Essay part 2 I believe we all should consider Karma before saying negative words. To me Karma means doing good things will result in good things happening and doing bad things will result in bad things happening. This reminds me of the television s how, “My Name is Earl”. The show centered on Earl discovering Karma and his work to right all the wrongs he had done to people, his list. If someone says helpful words, something good might happen to them. Saying hurtful words, might bring bad things. Some advice; don't build up a list of hurtful words said to people, “wrongs”, to hope you could erase someday. It would be nice if we could buy an invisible word filter to fit over our mouths, but until that time I think we must all be careful in the words we use to talk to people or about people. Most of the time people hurt others with words unintentionally, so everyone needs to just think before they speak. Instead of saying something that could hurt someone’s feelings, brighten up their day and say something kind about them. The world can be a better place with kind words.

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