Citizenship Pin #1: 1. Write a letter to your newspaper about an issue that concerns you. Send your letter by mail or e-mail.

This is the letter that I just sent to the editor of the Macomb Daily. It is the first letter I've sent from my new email account.



June 15, 2010

Dear Editor,

My name is Rory and I am 10 years old and I really love the weather, which the fire from the oil explosion caused to pollute and I also love marine life, so this is basically the worst thing that has ever happened in my life. I really want to kick the trash out of who caused the oil spill because they killed thousands of fish and now dead dolphins are washing up on the shore and thousands of pelicans are getting poisoned and they act like they don’t care. They have created, I’d say, the worst oil spill in history and people should stop using BP’s gas stations because of what they did.

In all my years of having low kidney function and a bladder condition, it’s gonna be even worse than that for all of the fish, dolphins and pelicans in the Gulf of Mexico.
We need to build a big wall around it and take hay and anything else that absorbs oil and throw it into the inside of the wall. It will absorb all the oil and then we can pick it up. While we do this we should use all the other gas stations, except for BP’s gas stations.

Sincerely,

Rory

Video Game Belt Loop: Explain the Rating System

The Video Game Rating System is because like, let's say that your kid wanted a video game that the title was "Call of Duty." How would you know if it was appropriate for him? I mean, first you think it's like a math game and the next thing you know your kids character is shooting some dude with an assault rifle! So they invented the Video Game Rating System that way you know that your kid is not doing that. Here's how it works:

The first level is E for Everyone. Things like Mario and if they make them, an Americas Funniest Home Videos fame.

Games for little bitty kids are games that are rated EC for Early Childhood.

E 10+ which are games for ages 10 and up. I'm 10, btu sometimes I like to play games like Tony Hawk's American Wasteland which is rated T because it has swears in it. Plus sometimes there's a little bit of bleeding because it's about skateboarding....even when your guy is wearing kneepads, elbow pads, helmet and handpads.

T games are for Teens, and these games are very cool mostly because there's a lot of action and excitement. My mom only lets me play T games that are sports and Naruto.

M games are for mature, which means a lot a violence. Which makes me want to play them but my mom says NO. NO. NO. Mature games are for adults only.

Family Member #13: Explain Why Garbage and Trash Must Be Disposed of Properly

Trash must be disposed of properly because if you don't take it out at the right time your house starts smelling like garbage. Also, if you put it outside but don't have it taken away, you can get mice and bugs around your house and that's gross. You can put the garbage out anytime you want as long as it's not late for the garbage man. But if you do forget to put it out in time, you can use some stuff in your firepit like paper, cardboard and stuff like that. But you don't want to burn plastic and glue and other chemicals...especially TNT. Ha ha. Also, you have to make sure your recycling is not in your garbage, because we have to take care of our planet Earth.

Family Member #2: Make a Chart Showing the Jobs You and Other Family Members Can Do at Home.

This is the chart I made with my mom. I did NOT like loading the dirty dishes at all today so I decided that I can be in charge of unloading the clean ones and my sister can be in charge of loading up the gross, dirty dishes. But I have to put dirty clothes in the washer, so it's fair. Besides, that means that I get to use the washing machine and put in the soap which is way more fun.

ME:
- Swiffer the Living Room
- Unload the Dishwasher
- Load the Washing Machine
- Pick up 10 Things and Put them Away

MY SISTER:
- Swiffer/Mop the Kitchen
- Wipe Down Bathroom Surfaces
- Load the Dishwasher
- Pick up 10 Things and Put them Away

MY MOM:
- Wipe Down Kitchen Surfaces
- Dry, Unload and Fold Laundry
- Vacuum Bedroom
- Dust
- Pick up 10 Things and Put them Away

MY DAD:
- Mow the Grass
- Take Out the Garbage
- Set up Dialysis
- Put Away Folded Laundry
- Pick up 10 Things and Put them Away

Artist #5: Using a Computer, Make 6 Original Designs (1 of 2)

I made these pictures using Microsoft Paint which is really fun and which I did not know even existed until my mom and dad showed it to me today. I made three pictures but then I got bored and wanted to play Pirates of the Caribbean online.

This one is called Abstract #1. My dad said it kind of looked like a Thunderbird to him but I said that it wasn't really a picture of anything and my mom said that art about nothing is called abstract.

This is my favorite picture that I made today. It is NOT abstract. It is a picture of the planets and stars. The sun, the moon, three stars, the earth, Jupiter (the blue one), Saturn (the brown one with rings), Pluto (the little gray one), Venus (the little green one), Mars (the little pink one) and that orange thing with the red dot is a black hole, which no one has ever seen before and which isn't actually orange but black wouldn't show up in space.

This is another abstract picture that I made because my mom told me to experiment with using the shapes buttons. It is called Red Hope, because I thought that was a really cool name.

PS- My mom typed this for me because my fingers are tired from making all this art. But that's not important to the story.

Outdoorsman #4: With a Parent, Camp Overnight with a Boy Scout Toop. Sleep in a Tent You Helped Pitch.

This is the tent that my dad and I did at the 100th anniversary of camp scouting. It was a 6-people tent but it was freezing and we accidentally brought 40 degree sleeping bags. Turned out they didn't really work at all, because it wasn't 40 degrees.

These are two animals that I got to touch. I think my favorite was the snake, because it always smiled for the camera. And I like the alligator a lot because I think he likes me.

ANd there was also a remote controlled truck derby. I kept crashing into other cars and once I hooked up onto one of hte other cars and then when they didn't let go, mine flew right over it and theirs flipped over. THen I hit another one and it flipped over and fell out of the stadium. Mine is the red one there.

THis is me with the bopper I bought. Kicking butt. They had them on sale for five dollars and if you weren't able to buy one, they had ones you could borrow.

That's me going to climb the wall. And it was being run by people in the Marine Corp. I got halfway there, until I ran out of rocks. Then I let go, but I kept on slamming into the rock on the way down.

I don't know what cannon this is.

This is everyone getting ready for the big Scout parade.

This is me riding in the parade. My dad and I rode on the trolley. It was COLD!!

Traveler #4: Take a Trip with a Parent to a Place That Interests You

My Dad and I drove to Muskegon to spend the night on a real World War 2 submarine, named the Silversides!



That's the war room. Somebody got an emergency surgery on this table during the middle of an attack on the sub. Only one person died on this whole sub. And it wasn't the guy who had hte surgery!



This is a picture of the one person who died. This plaque was put on the place exactly where he was shot by a machine gun. He was a lookout.

This is the whole entire deck but not really the whole thing. It was big.

This is a view of Lake Michigan. But it's not really important to the story.

This is a picture of me and my fellow cub scout looking at the lake, thinking about when those sea gulls will poop.

This is a picture of a GIANT gun on a coast guard submarine. And WOW it was big.

That was a tiny back up ship on land disarmed, of course. It was the smallest kind there. The others were SOOO big they were bigger than the submarine.

I do not know what this is. My dad just took a picture of it.

This is where they made their food. Where they ate was right next door and they had videos.

This is the main operating room. The big wheel is one of the hatches for the boat, I think. And the tube-shaped thing on the left is a compass.

This is where the injured people slept. That's what that big cross box is. We did not sleep in here though.