Recently, our class has watched a movie called "Life in a day." It was made by compiling a bunch of amateur film clips of peoples lives which were all taken on July 24, 2010. The master filmographers picked a small amount of the thousands of clips and edited them to show the world over the course in a day.

Their were many scenes that were memorable to me but the most memorable one is about a lady who called her husband over SKYPE to chat because he is serving in Iraq. This made me realize how the war is affecting not only veterans but their family. Even though pulling out the troops in Iraq may not be a good political decision, at least family members can have peace of mind. Another memorable scene is when a kid wakes up every morning and prays to his dead mother. It tells me that he still cares about his mom every day.

A scene that gave me a positive reaction was about the guy from korea traveling the world on his bike. His goal is to reunite south and north korea. It showed me how much someone can do to try to acheive their goals. I wish him good luck on his journey.

A scene that gave me a negative reaction was the kid who shines shoes every weekend. It makes me sad to think that kids in other countries have to work to support their family. He also is unable to have a fun childhood which made me depressed.

A pattern I saw was many poor people talking followed by richer people talking.

A juxtaposition that I saw was the comparison of people with a lot of water and a little bit of water. Another one I saw was the people who were happy with the sad people.

The film made me think about how many problems that are in this world that need to be fixed. These include starvation, theft, and lack of water. Even though organizations are doing things about it, it seems that their is still a lot of people that could use help. I would recommend this to a friend because it really showed me how much goes on in the world in one day.

MS. Dhoni Link to Time

Mahendra Singh Dhoni

MS Dhoni for short. I picked him because he's from india and I know about him. He was the captain for the indian cricket team during the time the indian cricket team won the world cup for the first time in 28 years. He has been acknowleged as the best indian cricket captain ever and has inspired every child all over the streets and slums of india. Most indian success stories have to do with richness and wealthy upbringings. But Dhoni was from a humble begining and grew up in a small family and town. The only thing he had is excellence. He is a true hero to india and showed the country how to win.

Chris Colfer Link to Time

Chris Colfer

Chris colfer is an idol to children that recieve bullying all over the USA. I picked Chris Colfer because i've seen him on TV. Even in the fetus, Chris Colfer aspired to be an actor. He never gave into the bullying and told himself that he could be an actor. Now Chris Colfer is on the show glee as the character "Kurt" and advocates that being bullied isn't the end of the world.

Mark Zuckerburg Link to Time

Mark Zuckerburg

Mark Zuckerburg was just a normal kid in high school. I choose him because I saw a movie based on his creation. But that all changed when he decided to invent a new social website called facebook. Facebook instanly become popular and soon launched over the whole world. Mark Zuckerburg was soon granted the honor of being 2010 person of the year by Time. Today the whole world has no idea how everyone can not survive without his glorious invention.

Scotus

The Scotus case that meant the most to me is the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association. The year the case took place during 2010 and some of this year. The case had to do with the governor of California trying to ban the selling of violent video gams to minors. EMA filed a lawsuit because they thought it violated their 1st ammendment right of freedom of specch. The SCOTUS ruled 7-2 in favor of EMA becuase it is protected under the first ammendment. The impact is that now many different things fall under the first ammendment.

This is important to me because I like to play video games and just because they may be violent doesnt mean that some kids cant handle it. Also MW3 is a game that is contraversial even in our own classroom, but I believe that my parents and I have the right to decide what games I do and dont play.

My six word memoirs

1. Learning is easy, being smart isn't.
2. My best friend is a computer.
3. Eat, Learn, Sleep. Standard indian family.
4. Acting stupid is the new smart.
5. Me and my childhood love ourselves.
6. My face on a TIME magazine.
7. Today, drawing stickmen. Tommorow, sculpting masterpieces.
8. My dad is my Jesus Christ.
9. School, I like. Bullies, I don't.
10. A legend born in October. Me.

Ups and Downs

A good thing about being gifted is getting good grades and scores on standardized testing. We also get in gifted classes. I personally enjoy my gifted class. I love being in rogate because I can voice my opinion without being scared of being made fun of. I also get a lot of rewards for being gifted like certificates and trophies.

A bad thing about being gifted is being made fun of because we are smarter than others. Another bad thing about being gifted is that we are considered outcasts by popular kids. Its really hard not being able to fit in middle as an outcast. I also find class very boring when I already know all the information in the class. Most of the math questions and topics come to me very easily.

Asychronous development is when your body doesn't mature mentally, physically, and emotionally at the same time. My experience with this is that I am very short but my mind is 2 grade levels above what it usually is.

A quote that applies to me is that "parents put pressure on their kids to succeed because of their high IQ"

My name is Surya Venkatraman and I am in the 8th grade. My favorite subjects in school are math and science. I love learning about medical facts outside of school. I play video games and read in my free time. When I grow up I want to be a doctor. What makes me happy is when I learn something new