8/21/2008

Freedom of Chemical Dependency by Toey

Like every school year for the past half a decade, the FCD organization is going to be talking to the seventh and eighth graders at ISB. FCD is the abbreviation for Freedom of Chemical Dependency and it is an organization where former alcoholics and drug addicts talk to middle school aged students, with the exception of sixth grade, and above about making intelligent choices about alcohol and drugs. They also talk about their experience since they have all been through it. The FCD organizers will be coming to our school on the 22nd and 23rd and of September for a two-hour session with the 7th graders and only 1 hour with the 8th. The administrators at ISB believe that if students receive drug education from outside people with experience, they will learn and understand more deeply of the use of drugs and why they shouldn’t be following in the speakers’ footsteps. You hear the same thing in 7th and 8th grade, but it’s different in high school. The two people that are most likely coming this year are Diana Wilson and Alex Juchniewich; both were drug and alcohol abusers but they have both recovered from that. Some of the speakers return to ISB the next year after they have done their presentation and session, but most do not. The Freedom of Chemical Dependency program is very important and you will get to learn what they have to tell to help you with making the right choices later on.

Dangerous Jellyfishes by Vignesh



Jelly fish are plank tonic marine members. They are in the group of the invertebrate animals. There are about 200 types of jelly fish. The most surprising part is that jellyfish have no brains, no hearts and no eyes not even blood! Jelly fishes are made up of 95 percent water, that’s why it is hard to see them. They can glow brightly in dark waters. Jelly fishes came to earth 650 million years ago even before sharks and dinosaurs. The box jelly fish can kill a man in a couple of minutes with its stings! Jelly fishes have about 3 million stringing cells in every centimeter of its tentacles. Jellyfishes are actually predators, but Jellyfishes don’t chase their pray, they paralyze it

Now more and more jelly fish are showing up on the beaches. Scientists say that it means Mother Nature is saying that “You people are treating me badly polluting me”. All the fishes are running away and the jellyfish is coming to the beaches. Dangerous stingers have even been spotted in Scotland, England and Britain where they didn’t used to appear.

Some people at ISB have gotten stung by jelly fish. Brett smith, who is in grade 7, got stung last year. Rishab Yadav, who is in grade 8, also got stung by a jelly fish over the summer holidays.

Look out for signs of jellyfish when you go the beach. These sighs that there are jellyfish there.

Holidays to Pattaya-by Raimy

Anyone need a holiday? I do already. When I am tired, and I’m on a school break, I like to take a trip. Mostly, I go with my family, and only sometimes I bring a friend with me, but either way, taking a vacation is a fun experience.
Pattaya is a good place I would suggest. If you like relaxing and hanging out by the beach or the pool, this is the place for you. Pattaya takes approximately 3 hours to get there, but it is all worth it when you get there. The sea has jellyfish, so if you want to swim in the sea, then you would have to take a boat to an island called ‘Ko Lan’ and you can snorkel there also. There is a parachuting place on the way to Ko Lan, so you can stop there if you want to parachute. A boat will pull you around the parachuting base once and trust me, it feels just like you’re flying. It’s fun!
You can find a shopping mall by taking a 5 minute drive from Pattaya. It’s easily recognizable because there is a plane sticking out of the building! The plane is a part of the ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not’ in the shopping mall. In addition to that, there is a haunted house, a mirror house called ‘Infinity Maze’, and a 4-D moving theater. It’s a fun mall, mostly for kids to play in. The food court there is not so bad either. If you go to the mall when the sun is out, then you can sit out on the huge balcony and eat there. The view is amazing.
These are some hotels that I heard a lot of people stayed in.
‧Hard Rock Hotel
‧Sunset Village
‧ Dusit Resort
So, if you decide to go to Pattaya, then take some of these suggestions, and have FUN!

Which Would you Rather Have for Lunch? by Afek

Which do you think is better?
Bobbies or Epicure? What do you prefer?
Matt said “I’d rather eat at Epicure, they are just better for me.”
Robbie said “it’s complicated. For breakfast, I really like Epicure, but for lunch it’s too expensive or not to my taste.”
Ethan said, “I think that Epicure make good breakfast, but I miss the Bobbies BLT and lunch.”
Tim said,” I just would like to have Bobbies.” Tim wants to stays true to Bobbies.
Personally I rather like Bobbies. I think that they have better tasting food and better prices. The prices are the problem for a lot of people. I also think that if Epicure wants more customers then they need to get a better lunch menu. I really believe that they should just give a little push to make the food better and I think that many people would appreciate that and respect them a little more and buy more. If they make this move they would be making a lot more profit.

Why don’t you just post your comments on the subject.

8/20/2008

‘Faster, better, stronger’ methods of searching the Internet? by Grace

Information adapted from http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/32d181ae-9aea-4e83-9126-3cfaaf5170561033.mspx

Pictures of Address bar and Google Search tool are screenshots, while the Instant Search tool is taken from the website above.

We all know the Internet contains a humungous amount of information, which would be far easier to search than a stack of encyclopedias. However, I’ll bet there were times when you just couldn’t find the right information for a project, or research relevant enough for an assignment. Here are some tips for searching the Internet more effectively, to get your results faster (and better).

  1. Use the Instant Search tool. (Live Search)

When you open up Internet Explorer, look in the top-right section of the page, right below the ‘minimize’, ‘restore down’ and ‘close’ options. There should be a little box with a magnifying glass on it. This is the Instant Search tool.

Type what you are looking for inside the box, and click ENTER. If you want the results of your search opened in a different tab (so the original webpage won’t be lost), click ALT+TAB instead. The results will be generated by Live Search.

If you want to access and type into the Instant Search tool without using a mouse, click CTRL+E. You can then start typing what you want to find straight away.

2. Use the Address bar/Google Search tool. (Google)

The Address bar is the rectangle at the middle of the top section of the page, where a URL is displayed and where you can type in a URL to browse. This is also where you can start your search.


Type in ‘Find’, ‘Go’ or ‘?’ followed by what you want to look for (it may be a URL, phrase, or keywords). Google-generated results will follow. Similarly, clicking ALT+ENTER instead of ENTER will enable your results to pop up in another tab.

On the other hand, you could also use the Google Search tool, which is found on the left-hand-side below the Address bar.



Type in what you’re looking for directly into the box (you don’t need to type ‘Find’, ‘Go’ or ‘?’) and click ENTER to view your Google-generated results.

3. Use multiple search engines.

There are many search engines you could use, so don’t just stick to one, because your results may vary. Just type in its URL into the Address bar and then conduct your search using the sites’ respective search tools. Examples of search engines you could use are Google (www.google.com), MSN (www.msn.com), Ask (www.ask.com), Dogpile (www.dogpile.com) or Yahoo (www.yahoo.com). Be sure to try as many as possible if at first you don’t get the results that you’re looking for.

4. Search more efficiently.

There are many ways of changing the way you look for things, to make your results more specific to the information you want.

§ Use specific terms, instead of general categories. For example, if you’re looking for information on Cocker Spaniels, don’t search under Dogs, search under Cocker Spaniels.

§ Use quotation marks “” to narrow down the search. Between the quotation marks put a specific phrase you want to look for. Your results will then only display web pages which feature the specific phrase together and not separately. For example, if you search ‘”I was”’, you would only find websites that feature the words ‘I’ and ‘was’ together. However, if you search ‘I was’, you might get websites that feature parts like ‘I am Jane. She was my friend.’

§ Use the minus sign – to ‘tell’ the search engine not to provide pages with the specific word. However, be sure not to leave space between the word after the minus sign, and the minus sign. For example, if you type ‘Jane –dog’, you would find websites with the word Jane, but not the word dog.

§ Eliminate common words, like “the”, “a”, “my”, or “of”. This narrows down the search. However, don’t do this if you’re looking for a specific title or webpage. For example, if you’re looking for a song title, include the common word, and put the entire phrase in quotation marks.

§ Use synonyms. This widens the search. If you’re stuck, use a Thesaurus (online or manual).

§ Search only on a specific website. For example, if you’re looking for an article on viruses on www.microsoft.com, don’t just type in ‘viruses’. Type in the phrase ‘site:’ followed directly by the site URL (without a space in between). I.E. ‘viruses site:www.microsoft.com’.

§ If you’re searching for pictures, use the specific tool to search for it. For example, many search engines have ‘search Images’ tools, so you don’t have to search the whole wide Web to find an image.

Hopefully, these tips will help you search for your research and information more efficiently. Good luck!

Importance of Drama Class - Anurag

Have you ever been on a stage and felt hesitant to say your lines, or in front of a class saying your speech or presentation? If it has ever happened to you or you think it might. GO JOIN DRAMA CLASS. Drama class makes you brave enough to go in front of people and talk. I know all this because I’ve been in Drama I and Drama IA.

Drama class is so good and fun. You have parties and acting games which are spectacular. I had beginning drama and then I had drama IA which is intermediate. Mr. Huxtable is so cool and helps in every way. You have these cool assignments like Shakespeare acting, etc. If you join it once, you will probably wish for more.

The importance of drama class is that the nervousness which you have at first totally disappears. You have to be really creative, and it is really easy to get an A+J.I hope you join the class and learn new ways to act.

Hokkaido By: Shawnie

Hokkaido is the best place to go on your summer holiday. It is located in the north of Japan, on Japan’s second largest island. It has very beautiful flower gardens, especially the lavender there.

Lavender is a very popular flower in Hokkaido, even the sweet smell can attract you from far away. During the summer they make lavender ice-cream with fresh milk. They also harvest the sweet honeydew melon.

There are many activities to do there, such as horse riding, picking lavender, and SHOPPING!! Hokkaido is a very good place to have your vacation, I know this because I’ve been to Hokkaido myself. Trust me, it is a great place.

New Food at ISB By Steven C & Nino S


As you all know, Bobby’s is no longer selling in ISB’s cafeterias, but a new caterer, Epicure, is here; however, some students still aren’t satisfied with the food. And most students are displeased with the high prices that come with the new food. To get a different point of view, we interviewed the manager of Epicure.

Steven:“What’s your goal this year?”

Manager: “We want to provide delicious and nutritious food to the whole ISB community.”

Nino:“So what is different this year?”

Manager: “Well, we have non-fat, 0% sugar frozen yogurt ice cream. Also, we added a Japanese cuisine called ‘Donburi’

Steven: “I see lots of green panther plates, why do you use them?”

Manager: “We really care about the environment. By the way, did you notice that we aren’t using any plastic?”

The manager’s goals are to provide nutritious and delicious food the whole ISB community and also, there are a bigger variety of foods. For example, non-fat, 0% added sugar frozen yogurt ice cream and a Japanese food called “Donburi” (steam rice and meat). The managers are very caring about the environment, so they are not using any plastic and they use green panther plates. Now let’s hear some students have to say about the food!

Benedict: “It’s too expensive however; the food is ‘ok’, but I like Bobby’s sandwiches better.”

Anurag: “The food is a bit better than last year, but it still needs some improvement and the cafeteria layout is very confusing.”

Jacob: “Before, I thought Bobby’s was bad, but now it’s starting to look good to me. The sandwiches from Bobby’s were way better.”

Epicure is an improvement for ISB with new, healthier food for the student body. But still students want lower prices, better food, and most of all, better SANDWICHES!

The fastest human in the world By:Tim


On August 16th, Usain Bolt from Jamaica won the mens 100m sprint in the Olympics and broke the world record by running in 9.69 seconds. He is currently the fastest human in the world. When I was watching him run, I felt amazed at how fast he could run. He was leading so far from that we could tell with our own eyes who had won. Sometimes, we have to use photo finish because the person might be winning from only a part of his/her body. It was truly amazing. At first, I thought that he was not going to win because he was not running very fast, but then he started going faster and faster until he was leading and won. Everybody who was watching in the stage was cheering and I think that Usain Bolt was proud of himself.

“The Movie “Made Of Honour” by Oda


"Made of Honour” is a romantic comedy. Tom (Patrick Dempsey) is the main character in this movie. Tom and his best friend Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) do everything together. Hannah goes to Scotland to work, and while she’s gone Tom realizes that she is the right one for him.

Tom and Hannah have been best friends for more than ten years, and they always do everything together. For example, they always go to the same café’ even though they have to stand in line to get in, for thirty minutes, and they order two desserts for each other to share. But now Hannah is going to Scotland to work, and Tom tries to have as much fun with his other friends as he had with Hannah, but it’s just not the same. Now that Hannah is away, Tom realizes that he is in love with her. When Hannah comes home, Tom is going to tell her that he loves her. When Tom meets Hannah at the restaurant, he is happy for about one second, but then a man shows up that is holding Hannah’s hand. Hannah introduces Tom to her new fiancé, Colin (Kevin Mckidd), and Hannah wants Tom to be her maid of honor. Tom goes on a big journey, as Hannah’s maid of honor, and at the same time he tries to stop Hannah from marrying Colin.

If you like movies with humor, adventure, and romance this is the movie for you. I like this movie because the acting is very good, and I love comedies. What’s bad about this movie is that you already know from the beginning how the movie is going to end. I recommend this movie for both boys and girls.

Student Council - By Raimy

Do you think it would be fun to stand in front of the whole middle school and run assemblies? How about planning fun events like spirit night, or even parties? If that sounds like fun to you, why don’t you try being a part of the MS student council?

The student council takes a very important part in middle school. They run assemblies, plan special events, and best of all, they think up new ideas for the middle school so it could be a better school year. The elections will be held on August 18 to August 22.

I’ve never been in the student council since I am only in 6th grade. Some students don’t really want to be in the student council because they are not confident enough to be able to give ideas. That’s okay, but you should still contribute to the school by putting slips of good ideas in ‘Think Outside the (box). However, by being in the student council, you can help more.

Here are some more facts about the SC (Student Council) and what it is all about. Each grade level House is electing two members this year. The SC will have 12 members in all, and those members will elect a Prime-Minister, Deputy Prime-Minister, and Grade Level Captains. They also form ministries, or ‘committees’, the HooHa Ministry, the Recognition Ministry, the Social Ministry, and the Information Ministry. The SC Ministries will meet on Tuesday afternoons, and have Lunch Meetings on Thursdays.

The SC’s main job is the empower you, the students, to have voice about the Middle School activities. If, after reading this article, you want to be a part of the student council, you should hurry and go see Mr. Straub. I encourage you to try it, I think it will be fun!

“Batman (The Dark Knight)”- by Robbie


The new Batman movie was released on July 18, 2008. It has become the fastest movie ever to break the 400 million dollar mark. I went around and questioned some of my friends about what they thought of the movie.

Matt said, “The Dark Knight is a must see movie.”

Steve said, “I did not like it at all.”

Nino said, “It was awesome.”

Win said, “It was good.”

Shea said enthusiastically, “It had me on the edge of my seat!”

Tim said, “It was very suspenseful.”

Christian complained, “I did not really like it.”

David said, “It was good.”

Ethan said calmly, “I agree with Matt, it is a must see movie.”

Khun Ed said, “I liked it.”

Sasha said, “It was darker than most, and they should have saved two-face for another movie.

As you can see people have different views. Personally, I thought it was the best movie I have ever seen, I strongly recommend that you watch this movie. The reviews said that it was better than all three Spidermans put together. Batman is rated PG13 because it is very graphic in ways kids are not able to deal with (it could scare them). I thought the acting was very good, especially the Joker (Heath Ledger). The plot was very interesting and had many action scenes which I liked. I also like how I always thought the movie was going to end but then a new problem arose. The movie is approximately 2 ½ hours long.

Olympic Controversies by ETHAN

Every four years the best athletes around the world gather in one city to relive the athletic spirit and compete against each other represent their country, and………….to go for the gold. Athletes come together and enjoy this special event every four years after hard training. Not only do the athletes come together, but so do the billions of spectators. Everybody considers the Olympics a fun and lively event, but sometimes the Olympics aren’t always perfect. Many times controversies arise and sometimes things go out of hand and people get banned from the Olympics. But why does this happen?

Here a few major controversies in this year’s Beijing Olympics:

1) Steroids: Many men and women take steroids to improve their performance during the competitions, but the drugs are illegal because they don’t show the true athlete and the drugs are also illegal.

2) Opening Ceremony Faults: It is said that the Chinese girl singing in the Olympic Ceremony was lip-synching to the words of another Chinese girl. The girl who actually sang the song happened to not be the best looking but had the best voice, so they took her own voice and took a prettier girl to sing the song.

3) Racist Pictures: Many countries like to show that they have the Olympic spirit and this year’s Asian spirit due to the host country. But did Spain’s basketball team picture go too far? During team photos for Spain, the players were pressing their fingers against their temples to show the Asian Spirit but China took the actions seriously and thought of it as racist. Being racist was not Spain’s intent.

4) Did China Cheat? : Recently, during women’s gymnastics, China won gold in a few events. Many athletes from other countries are arguing whether or not the athletes from china were underage! In the Chinese newspaper the next day, the newspaper stated that the gold winner was 14 rather that at least 16.

5) Restricted Government Officials: George Bush was attempted to not be permitted to the Olympic ceremony but Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe President, was restricted from coming to the opening ceremony. George Bush was attempted to be restricted from the Olympic ceremony because before the ceremony because he was criticizing China. Mugabe was not allowed at the ceremony because many people don’t agree with his past actions towards his own people in Zimbabwe.

Despite these major and minor problems in the Olympics, many of the other athletes focus on their commitments rather than veering off out of their path. In the end the Olympics turns out fine. After all the Olympics is about getting together as one world and competing together fairly.

8/19/2008

New Student Getaway: Destination Rose Garden by Margaret and Grace

On Friday the 15th of August, immediately after assembly, several students new to Middle School, peer helpers, counselors Ms Baker and Mr Estin, and some new teachers boarded buses and headed for the annual New Student Getaway: a 2D1N holiday, destination Rose Garden.

First stop was a half-hour tour through the Human Imagery Museum, where everyone got a glimpse of life-like wax figures of famous icons, such as America’s Abraham Lincoln and Thailand’s Royal Highness the Princess Mother.

Then, they got their first glimpse of the hotel they were to spend the night in: Rose Garden Hotel. Situated next to a lake and a Thai ‘village’, amongst gardens overflowing with various fauna and flora, Rose Garden Hotel was an appropriate place for everyone to get to know each other and relax and enjoy the Getaway.

After a lunch of sandwiches in the conference room, the students were split up into their groups and got to explore the Thai ‘village’ and try their hand at some Thai activities, such as Thai martial arts, dance, pottery and even silk-weaving. This village was to become the venue for an elephant show (which everyone also attended) and shopping for most during their free time.

Ice-breaker games in the conference room rounded out the day and everyone was released to go to their rooms. Students were allowed to visit each others’ rooms and at 10.00 (Lights Out) the counselors visited each room to check that each student was going to sleep. (Needless to say, some didn’t.)

The next day dawned with a 6.45 wake-up call, sumptuous breakfast and then a boat ride to the Wat, a temple where everyone got to see the Thai Buddhist customs- first steps into a temple for some. Buses awaited and everyone headed back to ISB.

These two reporters both attended the getaway, and write about their favourite picks of the trip, as well as what others have to say about the trip.

For Grace, her favourite part of the trip was the ice-breaker games at night. She can successfully conclude that she has got to know even more people through the games, and grown closer to her friends who also attended the getaway. Her favourite game was the ‘I have never…’ where students and teachers get in a circle and put their hands on the floor, all ten fingers out. Each person takes their turn to say something they have never done, and if someone else has done it already, he/she (the person who has done it already) will put down a finger. The last person with at least one finger still out, wins. Specific targeting was used, much to the groups’ amusement, such as a Chinese boy saying he had never been to Korea before, causing the Korean students to ‘lose’ a finger. The games were a really good way to warm up and grow close to schoolmates, and if given a choice, Grace would definitely do it again!

For Margaret, her favourite part of the getaway was having free time after having lunch and finding out our hotel rooms. At free time, we couldn’t go to our hotel rooms unless we were sick, but we could stay at the “Thai Village” which had lots of things to do. It had something like making umbrellas, making flowers prettier, paddling, riding elephants, riding bikes, fighting each other with sticks, shopping, making rice ourselves, making patterns with bamboo leaves, and a whole lot of other things. We had about an hour to play at the “Thai Village”, but that wasn’t enough time to do everything. Still, we bet every single person enjoyed the free time. The best thing that Margaret thought was paddling the boat by ourselves, and riding elephants.

New student Sasha thought that the best thing about the Getaway was getting to walk around with his friends, feeling that that was the ‘climax’ of the Getaway (being with his friends). However, he felt that the games were a little boring and if he had to improve the Getaway, he would just do away with the games altogether. (Grace: “Aww.”)

Other new students had their own points of view as well. Maggie said, “I loved this trip and it was good to make friends.” In agreement, Allen said, “I think the best thing was making friends.”

All in all, the new students seem to have enjoyed making friends and being with their friends (newfound or longtime) during the New Student Getaway.

“Hellboy 2 The Golden Army” By Benedict

Yes! Hellboy 2 has finally come out. Hellboy 2 is the 2nd movie from the Hellboy series. Hellboy is about a demon that was made by using black magic by the Nazis near the end of WW2. In this movie, the mythical creatures that have been living in a cave away from humanity decide to destroy the humans by bringing forth the Golden Army, an army made of gold which is indestructible. The Golden Army destroyed the human army without losing anyone. The Golden Army is also controlled by a crown. The king of the mythical creatures broke the crown into 3 pieces, 1 for the humans and 2 for the creatures. And now the prince has put the pieces together and gone to start the Golden Army. Hellboy and his friends are out to destroy the crown and kill the prince.

I think that this movie was better than the first because the new one has a cooler plot and doesn’t take too long to get to the action.

Nino said “Hellboy is cool but I think Batman is better,”

Win said “It’s okay but not that good.”

Some people think that Hellboy is good but not that good. I think that it was great because it never got boring. If you didn’t watch it, watch it. You won’t regret it.

The Phelps Dream...turned Reality


Win E.

Michael Phelps is a man who won’t quit. He is a man who thinks of himself as a champion, who has to be best. The 23 year-old American swimmer is not yet at his prime, but he is shattering world records everywhere he goes. This year, at the Beijing Olympics, he attempted to break a record set by Mark Spitz, a fellow American swimmer, almost 40 years ago. That record was winning 7 gold medals in an Olympics. Michael Phelps dreamt of 8 golds this summer. That dream just turned into reality on Sunday August 17. He won 8 gold medals in the 8 events he participated in. In doing so, he also set 7 world records. Probably the biggest scare for him was when he swam for his 7th gold; in the nail-biting last few meters, he beat his closest rival by merely one hundredth of a second.

Currently, Michael Phelps has also broken a very prestigious world record. Swimmer Mark Spitz, gymnast Larysa Latynina and atheletes Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi are going off the record books; Michael Phelps has beaten them with a record in being the most decorated Olympic gold medalist. After breaking Mark Spitz’s record, he has a total of 14 gold medals in his career compared to 9 of the other four Olympians. He is only 23 years-old now, and what he has achieved is already tremendous. He’ll still have at least a couple more years to his career. If he goes on to London 2012, what could he achieve then? For sure, he will be remembered as the one greatest Olympians.

The Beijing Olympics has been great so far and the person that dominates the recent headlines is Michael Phelps himself. Although I’m not much of a swimming fan, the Michael Phelps saga has caught my interest. The interesting part about it is how one person manages to win so many medals.

How do you feel about Michael Phelps?

Helping New Students by Margaret

August 6th was the first day of a new school year. Some were new to the school, some were new to Middle School, and everyone was going to a new grade. It was especially difficult to people who were new to the school.

They would have had lots of difficulty making friends, finding their classes, and remembering everybody’s names. Also, it would have been hard to get to the classrooms on time even though it was ok for the first few days because they would feel kind of guilty. But actually, I think the worst thing was not knowing anyone and not having anyone help you. You would have felt like crying and wanting to be alone.

So I want to say that helping each other will be good to both the helping one, and the one that was helped because maybe they can be friends or new students could become braver and stronger. Also, the helping one will be glad for hearing a “thank you” and for helping someone. Let’s all help new students who maybe are still needing help.

Also, we need to help the ones who are new to Middle School. Of course, most of them will be used to some routines, but it will be hard to find the classrooms in time, open lockers, and get used to the Middle School routines. Middle School would be a tough place for these kinds of people.

This school may be a hard place for new students and the ones who are new to Middle school. We need to help each other and be nice friends to those who need our help.

The image was taken from www.google.com

8/18/2008

Blogskins: ‘fashion’ for blogs?

Have you ever heard of a blogskin?

For those who are new to the term, a blogskin is basically like a new ‘skin’ for your blog, which is composed of HTML codes which you can paste into your blog template to complete the ‘makeover’. If you have downloaded a blogskin from somewhere else, you can also edit it using Microsoft Word or Notepad to personalize it (e.g. adding your own personal profile).

If you are a technology-savvy person, then making your own blogskins (either from scratch, or by ‘borrowing’ someone else’s codes and then editing it to put in a different background or features) should be easy. However, if you aren’t, don’t fret--blogskin-making tutorials are available all over the Internet. Just Google the words ‘how to make a blogskin’, or ‘blogskin tutorial’. A recommended site is http://www.sixseven.org/.

On the other hand, you can also download them from www.blogskins.com, where people post the blogskins they made onto a site for others to download, rate, and comment on. This site is made just for blogskins, and their homepage features Top Skins (blogskins with the highest download counts), Recently Submitted Skins and Skin of the Day (something of a great honour for members: the admin behind this site will select what they feel is the best blogskin submitted that day).

While installing blogskins might be a little hard for first-timers, or inconvenient if you just want a simple template, it’s a very good way of ‘dressing up’ your blog. ‘Accessories’ for a blogskin includes music (available on www.imeem.com), tagboards (little ‘boards’ where visitors can leave a message, with their name and URL- available on www.cbox.ws) and links to other websites.

Artistic or technology-savvy people (who don’t mind going through a rather tedious process to get used to the HTML) will love the concept of a blogskin and making or browsing for one to install.

All in all, I think that blogskins are definitely fun and interesting, and you should definitely check them out!

Image used is a screenshot from www.blogskins.com

Should Kids Watch Family Guy Part II? By matt


Should Kids Watch Family Guy Part II? By matt

To me, kids should be allowed to watch Family guy. Why? Because it’s a funny and entertaining cartoon that almost everbody loves. Almost everybody I meet says “Family guy” is awesome”. Kids in my class even agree that family guy is awesome like……

Robbie said, “It is hilarious and I don’t see why parents don’t allow their kids to watch it”

Afek said, “That family guy is awesome… period”

Sasha said, “Little kids shouldn’t be able to watch it because they wouldn’t be able to understand it.”

Grace said, “I don’t like it.”

Shawnie said, “I love family guy.”

Ben said, “Family guy is a must see T.V. show”

Pranav said, “It’s awesome”

David said, “I don’t like to watch it.”

Tim said, “It’s great”

As you can see, family guy is a must see T.V. show, but it’s not suitable for kids that don’t understand it. Almost everybody I interviewed loved “Family Guy”. The main reason for why kids should watch “Family Guy” is because it’s funny, and it’s entertaining. That should be enough to let parents allow their kids to watch the amazing Family Guy. Personally I love Family Guy and think kids who love should be able to watch it. What make “Family Guy” so good besides that it’s funny are its characters. The two funniest characters are Peter who has the mind of a baby, and Stewie who is an evil baby genius that is determine to kill his mother and the other characters. They are what make this T.V. show funny.

Peter Griffin and Family


Why it’s Good to go to a Good School Like ISB By Pranav


Have you ever thought that if you spend on your child they might spend on you in the future? I can give you a good and wise way to spend your money on your child. You can spend on their education. Education is an important thing in life. If you have good education, you can go to a good college, and also have a good job. A superior school to go to is ISB. It is one of the best international schools in the world. ISB provides really good education and many facilities. You can also play sports and compete with other good international schools around the world from places like Singapore and Jakarta. ISB is a well known school. If you come to ISB you might get to go to a good college like Harvard. You might also get a scholarship to college if you study hard. Dr.Gerritz is the headmaster of ISB. He is a wise gentleman. “He says that it makes sense from a parent’s point of view, they are better preparing their children for higher education in other countries. Beside Chulalongkorn, Thamassat, and other local universities, they may want their kids to go to Harvard, London school of economics or the University of Sydney. Studying at an international school, with fluency English is acquired, will help give kids access to western education.”