Ever since I was a young kid, I've loved the idea of money. Don't mistake me as a penny pincher, but I always try to find a way to make money, whether it be selling lemonade at a lemonade stand, selling gum at school, or simply finding loose change. The idea of collecting, saving up, and spending money thrills me for some reason.
Ever since 2006, I've ran a lemonade stand for supporting Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, a foundation for supporting research for children with childhood cancer. I was around 7 years old at the time, and all of my earnings went to charity. All I sold was lemonade, lemonade, lemonade. Nowadays, 20% of my earnings go to the charity. I sell much more items now; take a look at this: I've created quite the creative menu for this stand. It includes the items I sell, information on my stand, etc. (click on it to expand the size)
Here's me with my current lemonade stand sign:
It doesn't hurt to have a paper-folding artist as a mom! :) So I lug up my cooler with all of my supplies up my hill with a table and the sign. I usually have a friend help me carry everything up and help me out as we make money. Seems that my cookies and fudge are a hit! People just pass by to grab more and say "those are amazing!" It's a good start for this Summer!
Being a teenager, you always want to have money, so I still donate to charity, but I have 80% going to me. Don't think me selfish just yet, because I ask every customer if they want the money to go specifically to the charity.
I have currently made around $10 for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation at the moment and I've only been up and running for a week so far this year! Wish me luck as I try to get more money for the foundation!
My question for this week is...
Have you ever had or been a part of a lemonade stand before?
I'm going to tell you a story about my ex-friend, John, and his lunchbox. My whole family and many of my family friends have heard this story before and they are sick of hearing it. So, how about I tell you guys? Let's begin.
This story takes place in second grade when my friend (at the time), John, was eating lunch. We were sitting together at the table. It was Trix Day at school, which means packaged cereal and milk. I bought the platter, Trix, that day and John had packed.
Lunch went on normally, including random, uncalled-for jokes and immature laughter. But, it came time for lunch to end. At the end of the lunch period, the lunch aids told us to empty out trays and we did. While I emptied my tray into the trash can, John was walking with me to chat as I dumped my trash in. But somehow, John did the strangest thing: He dropped his lunch box into the trashcan! It looked like he did it purposefully! I thought it was his, but I didn't bother.
John went into line to be dismissed back to class. I saw he didn't have his lunch box. While I still stood by the trash can, I saw another friend, Max, who was emptying his trash in as well. He bought the platter too, and all I could see was this milk just splattering and pouring down on his lunch box. I was shocked and I ran into line to tell John.
In line, I explained that I think I saw his lunch box. John is still confused, as he has convinced himself that he didn't pack that day. I turn around and see a teacher holding a soaked, smelly, lunch box while saying, "Is this anyone's?" I said, "JOHN! That's yours!" and sure enough, he's just like "Oh my gosh!" and is brought somewhere else that I wasn't sure of. All I knew was I was cracking up!
He comes back about ten minutes late to class and I saw his lunch box tied up in a bag. That sure would take a while to clean! It was such a funny experience and I still remember it even after five years!
My question for this week is...
Do you have any funny stories like the "John and the Lunch Box" story?
Avatar: The Legend of Korra is an animé TV series which premiered on April 14th. I was going to do a post about it on April 14th, but I had others planned. Anyways, This TV show is the PERFECT combination of compassion, action, drama, comedy, and much more. It is everything a human can ask for in a cartoon. When some people think anime, they may think it is only for nerds, but this show is for EVERYONE with a great imagination. There is a wholelot to explain before I tell you any more, so bare with me as I attempt to tell you all about The Legend of Korra's predecessor, Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Aang:
In the beginning, God created the heav- wait --Wrong beginning. There are four nations which include the Air Nomads, the Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation. All of the nations lived together in harmony, until the fire nation attacked. A war has erupted and the Avatar, who is the master of all four elements is the only one that can possibly help save the world. When the world needed him the most, he vanished. 100 years go by and a young girl, Katara and her brother, Sokka, both members of the Water Tribe, find the new Avatar named Aang. Aang was born as an Air Nomad and knows airbending, and must master the other three elements, water, earth, and fire.
Now a little explanation; you may be wondering: benders? Yes, benders are people who have the ability to control one of the four elements including air, water, earth, and fire. However, what makes the Avatar special is that he/she has the ability to bend all of the elements. Depending on what nation a bender is born in, it usually determines what element they can bend. Whichever nation the Avatar is born in is their (as I like to call) original element, which is the one element they master first.
The cycle of the Avatars. When the Avatar dies, that instant, another baby is born and that baby is the next Avatar. Seems to be a slim chance, right? So there cannot be more than one Avatar alive at a time. The past Avatar's spirit is reincarnated in the next Avatar. That Avatar has the opportunity to spiritually talk to their past lives for advice and other reasons. There is also a defence mechanism of the Avatar called the Avatar State where they gain all of the power of themselves and every past Avatar which gives them much more power. While they are more powerful, they are also at their most vulnerable. If the Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, the reincarnation cycle is broken and the Avatar will cease to exist ever again. This foreshadows some problems that happen during the series.
The main antagonist of the whole story is Fire Lord Ozai. He is the "king" of the fire nation, so everything that the fire nation does to others is an order from him. In the beginning of the series, we are told that Ozai's son, Zuko, was banished after calling him out at a meeting. He has a scar on his eye to prove it too. His father says to regain his honor, he must capture the Avatar. Zuko is positive that capturing the Avatar is his destiny, but will soon realize he is wrong. His uncle, Iroh, who is Ozai's brother, was supposed to inherit the fire lord position, but it was a time when his only son, Lutin, died when fighting a war. He completely fell apart and was upset. At the same time, Ozai and Iroh's dad, who was currently known as Fire Lord Azulon, passed away. Since Iroh was not there to claim the throne, Ozai did. Now, Iroh helps out Zuko. Iroh has a lot of wisdom and loves tea. Zuko tries to find the Avatar (Aang) before others in the first book. In the second book, he is an Earth Kingdom refugee and starts to become independent. In the third and final book, he becomes the Avatar's friend and teaches him Firebending. Here is a picture of Zuko:
Throughout the series, Avatar Aang is taught Waterbending by Katara in the first book, Earthbending by Toph in the second book, and Firebending by Zuko in the third book. A little information on Toph; she is part of the richest Earth Kingdom family. She was born blind, but taught herself Earthbending by observing badgermoles (in the show, they combine animals into one), who were the original Earthbenders. You may think her Earthbending is limited since she is blind, but when you see her, she is one heck of an Earthbender. Her feet are an extension of her senses and she can "see" with her feet by using Earthbending. She senses vibrations in the ground and knows where everything is. She is also the inventor of Metalbending, which she discovered when she was trapped in a metal cage. All metal has pieces of earth in it, right? Here is a picture of Toph Bei Fong:
Katara and Sokka lived in the Southern Water Tribe. Their mother died in a fire nation raid, sacrificing herself to save the last waterbender of the tribe, Katara. Their father, Hakoda, is fighting in the war. Sokka does not bend anything, but Katara can bend water. Sokka chooses to use his boomerang, and later in the book, he creates his own sword out of a meteorite. Here is a picture of Sokka (left), Aang (middle), and Katara (right)
Zuko also has a sister named Azula who works with her father, Ozai, to take down the nations. She has two friends named Ty Lee and Mai. The three travel together to try and capture the Avatar as well. Zuko and Azula absolutely hate each other. Ty Lee is a nimble fighter, but is not a bender. She joined the circus when she was younger and learned balance and agility. She invented a technique called Chi-Blocking, which makes people lose their bending for a period of time. This technique is carried out by throwing quick jabs, almost like pressure points. For Mai, her fighting style is unique also. She uses daggers and throws them at her enemies. Zuko and Mai end up being a couple in the story. Here is a picture with Ty Lee on the left, Mai on the right, and Azula in the middle.
Here is a very cool fanmade montage of Avatar. Watch it!!! It's dramatic and exciting!
So, a VERY quick synopsis of the whole series: Aang masters all of the elements and confronts the Firelord (Ozai) and takes his bending away. The war ends, and Zuko and Aang restore balance to the world. They create a nation where benders and nonbenders can live together in peace. The capital of the city was named Republic City. This act was called the Harmony Restoration Movement. At the end of the series, the fans are left with one question: What happened to Zuko's mother? Honestly, you must watch the whole series to understand everything I'm saying. Right now, I'm going to talk about what I REALLY wanted to talk about, the new series, Avatar: The Legend of Korra.
This series takes place 70 years after the war. The main problem of the story is that benders and nonbenders cannot get along. Some nonbenders believe that benders are a threat and attempt to oppress others. Benders have to fight to keep their bending. The next Avatar's name was born in the Water Tribe, and her name is Korra. The only remaining character from the original series (that we know at this point) is Katara. She is in her 80's. Most of her other friends are gone, but their kids are still alive. Remember Toph? Her daughter is the Chief of the Police. Toph invented metal bending and taught it to her daughter. Her daughter taught it to the police, and now metalbending is commonly used. Also, Ty Lee (Azula's ex-friend) used Chi-Blocking to prevent benders to bend for a certain amount of time. This technique has carried on into this series and it is used by the nonbenders to defend themselves.
The antagonists of the series come from a group called the Equalists. Their leader's name is Amon, who is like the Ozai of this series. In the last episode that I had watched, called "The Revelation," Amon reveals that he can take benders' bending away. This is extremely strange, since only the Avatar is able to possess that ability. The very last episode of the original series showed Aang taking away Ozai's bending. Now, Amon goes around willy-nilly taking away people's bending to stop them. His family was killed by a firebender, and now he's after all benders. This will stir up PLENTY of issues for the series to last very long.
Korra's friends include an earthbender named Bolin and a firebender named Mako. They are both guys, and there are already fan names for the love birds including Makorra. Korra must learn airbending from Aang's son, Tenzin, who is the only master currently. The weird thing about this is, Korra is spiritually related to Tenzin, and technically Korra is Tenzin's father. Weird right? This works out because Korra is the past life of Aang, so she's related to many people.
Here is a picture of Korra (top) and Amon (bottom)
The combination of every character's thoughts, feelings, likes, dislikes, and actions makes this show SO interesting to watch! Not much is revealed yet through the story, but I'd just like to get everyone caught up on the series so that they can jump in and get ADDICTED TO THIS SHOW!!!!!!! (like me) New episodes are currently on Nickelodeon every Saturday at 11:00 AM EST.
With Summer coming quickly, people are making plans to go on vacation and all sorts of activities. Summer is the time for relaxation, family time, and more. There is an endless number of activities to do during summer. Beach parties and gardening are two of my favorite.
School is still going on for me and most others. My school year ends on June 5th. It's hard to keep my focus in class since what's on my mind is SUMMMER SUMMER SUMMER. Teachers will say, "Summer's not here yet! You're still in school!" when in my mind, I'm thinking, "It's here." It just irks me when teachers say that sometimes.
The hardest part of Summer vacation is having to say goodbye to all your teachers and friends for three months. With the lovely power of social networking, most people are able to stay in touch via phones, FaceBook, Twitter, etc.
I went to our school dance last week (alone, since you know I'm against dating in middle school). Half the songs the DJ played I didn't know, but there was one I liked. This currently describes me at the moment! (thanks to YouTube user "thisismytofu" for the lyrics and "Fun" for the song!)
Some of the lyrics don't interest me, but it was really catchy when I first heard it; nice beat.
I've reached a (somewhat) noteworthy milestone! I have received 1,000 total views of this blog from family, friends, relatives, strangers, aunts, uncles, cousins, SECOND cousins, and many more! Now, how many of those pageviews are from ME? Haha, just kidding. There is a setting in Blogger that allows them to not track my pageviews, so this is a legit 1,000 views I've achieved.
I did not expect this blog to be popular (and it still isn't), but it seemed that I needed an adition to my YouTube account and ta-da! -- here we are!
So, I'd like to stretch a big THANK YOU to everyone who supports my blog and enjoys reading it! What surprises me though, is that, on every post I try to have a question-of-the-week sorta thing... And nearly NO ONE responds to them. Guys, you don't need an account of anything to post a comment! Just try it! In fact, I'm not going to have a question of the week this week, but post a random comment if you really read my blog!
Yay! Spring break is here! Except for me... it's just four days... Apparently our school thinks we need to jump right back in to education while other districts have nearly ten days of spring break. Oh well.
So, this weekend is Easter Sunday! I believe from what I know, Easter Sunday is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ according to the Christian belief. He was crucified on a cross on Good Friday and died. That Sunday, people claimed they saw Jesus's soul and he was resurrected. At this point, many believed he was the messiah.
Ironically, I'm Jewish as you all are WELL aware of if you have read my last couple of posts. Easter falls on a day during Passover, a Jewish holiday. Passover is a holiday that comes from a story from Exodus. In Exodus, it tells us how Israelite slaves in Egypt were freed by pharaoh. Have you ever heard the saying, "let my people go"? This is where that saying is derived from. After ten plagues on Egypt, the Israelites were freed by Pharaoh. As the Israelites were being led by Moses out of Egypt, they did not have time to properly bake bread to eat. So, on the go, they carried dough on their back which turned in to unleavened bread. Unleavened bread today is called matzah. Matzot (plural of matzah) is eaten during the week of Passover. Passover lasts for 7-8 days and during those 7-8 days, Jews cannot eat anything that isn't kosher unless matzah is used. NO bread products. Only matzah. So, instead of a nice, PB&J sandwich, we must eat PB$J on hard, crunchy, breakable, flaky unleavened bread. It's like this for a whole week. The point is to show how others suffered. Also, you can't have anything with corn syrup, no chips, no pasta, the list goes on and on.
However, with this holiday, I've found a loophole. Matzah meal is a product you can buy from a store which is basically kosher "flour" that you are allowed to use during Passover. I've figured out by reading the ingredients on the side of the container that matzah meal is just very finely crushed matzot. So, I save our family about $30 every year now by making my own matzah meal for our family to use. With this, we can make nearly anything. In fact, last year, I made kosher brownies for Passover and they were BETTER than regular brownies! Very chocolatey and delicious! So, this loophole has completely changed how our family celebrates Passover. Hopefully, what I am doing is still kosher.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan.
In a medium-size mixing bowl, blend eggs, sugar, and butter. Mix in matzo meal, cocoa powder and walnuts (if desired). Transfer batter to prepared baking pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.
In a small mixing bowl, blend chocolate, butter or margarine and water. Spread over cooled brownies.
Well everyone, I had my bar mitzvah one week ago and it was amazing! Here are the deets:
I went to bed Friday thinking that tomorrow was a normal day. No trouble falling asleep whatsoever. However, I woke up in the middle of the night. After that, I couldn't fall back asleep. I got a total of 5 hours of sleep, but I was wide awake. I get to my temple about two hours early for pictures, getting prepared, etc. I'm somewhat relaxed, but surprised that the day is already here.
As I was getting pictures taken in various poses, my adrenaline was rising. Luckily, my usher, who happens to be my best friend, had walked in. He is so supportive and helped convince me that I'd do fine. At that point, I had to go to my rabbi's office to relax before the service.
I bumped into the cantor on the way to the office. She had her poker face on and strictly told me, "You know, if you mess up, we kick you out and your bar mitzvah doesn't count." She had the straightest face ever and it got me scared, but I knew it was a joke. It wasn't a good time, because I was already freaking out.
So everyone is sitting, chillaxing in the office while I'm hyperventilating. "I can't do this... I can't believe it's here..." I would say. My parents somewhat calmed me down. After the meeting in the office, we departure for the service. Right behind the door where I walk in is where we stand. The rabbi checks to see who is there. He tells us about 50% of the people that are supposed to be here aren't here yet. It is already 5 minutes past when we were supposed to start, so the rabbi says we have to start anyway. At this point, I'm freaking out, about to die.
I walk in. I examine who is sitting where and who IS here. I think to myself, well, I know everyone here. Okay, Michael, you're breathing steadily. Keep it up. I take my seat. The cantor sings the opening hymn, and I'm up. I walk up to the podium. I think, the way I say this first like determines how my stage fright will be throughout the whole service. "Our service continues at the top of page 288" I say. It comes out perfectly.
I conduct the service as I've practiced, and everything comes out fluidly. Halfway through the service, I'm like, hey, this ain't so bad. In fact, this is FUN! I try to savor the moment, thinking, this is the only chance in my life that I will be able to do this. As you can tell, a lot of thoughts are going through my head. Throughout the service in between songs, the cantor and rabbi would stop next to me and whisper in my ear, "You haven't messed up" or "You're doing great." I knew I didn't mess up and I knew I was doing great. Everything seemed like second nature to me.
After the service, I shook every one's hands and they congratulated me on a job well done. All of my hard work had paid off. Now, it was time to PARTY!!!!! I won't go into detail about the party, but it was a blast.
When everything was over, we packed our cars and bags and went home. At home, I immediately begin opening cards and endorsing all the checks. Let me tell you, a bar mitzvah is a MONEY MAKING EXPERIENCE. I'm not going to say how much I got because you'd probably be jealous, but I felt fantastic. I just had my bar mitzvah, I have tons of money, and my whole family is here to support me. Life could not have been better at that point.
The rest of the day however went by extremely slowly. I was so bored because I had nothing to work towards at that point - no upcoming school tests, no homework, no bar mitzvahs to study for, nothing. So, I wandered the house looking for something to do the rest of the day.
My bar mitzvah was amazing.
This will be the last of all posts about bar mitzvahs. Next week, expect normal posts again regularly every Saturday!
