Derek’s Blog

This series of books is about a Boy, his family, and best friend. He travels deep into the earth, and on his journey he meets new people, some want him dead, some save his life, and some become traitors to him. He gets to eat animals that he thought were extinct, he finds new animals all together.

The main character, Will Burrows (Seth Jerome). Never fit into his life as a child, topsoil that is. He felt that he didn’t fit with his family, he never had any friends. He was as if he wasn’t from this world, really he wasn’t he was from the Colony. He was adopted and his family never told him. And one of the crazy things is that he was Albino.

For Will he didn’t have, the brotherhood, sports, five men, leaders, family, and religious contacts that I have in my life. Will really is lost within himself. Will is lost in him self in many different ways, no family connection, friends or any connetion at all. The question, What makes us unique? Distinctive?, to Will is very simple to answer, everything is unigue and distictive for Will, nothing is simmilar or fitting for him. Will is almost too destinctic form “Topsoil” people.

Will is face with a fear or hights, when his brother dies he finds that anytime he is near a drop or anything, he wants to junp. He wasts to be with his brother, dead with his brother. Now when he knows every time he migh have to face his fears he is scared and this affects him his is travles to find his father, who is not his father.

Topsoil is the word that is used to describe earth as we know it today.
The colony is the word used to describe the secret life underground.
Will has to names because on is his topsoil name and one is his colony name.

I have wrote many post about my heroes, especial when I was going through the tough times of losing my friend, brother, father figure, and one of my heroes, Shawn Ganton.

Because I have written so many posts about my Heroes I am going to explain one of my pomes, The Five Men. This poem is about my Heroes. People who read this poem might not understand it, because they are not a part of a fire community. This post will break down my poem so that you can understand what a true hero is to me and who my heroes are.

The first paragraph of thee pomes is about what I feel are the one greatest traits of the five men that are my five heroes. Having a; brave soul, smart mind, calming smile, guiding hand, sharp eye. These are aspects heroes have.

The second paragraph is about the traits that these five men have and some of the great things that they have done for me; one of the men taught me all I know, one of them could say one word and it would mean 1000, one of them could do one little thing but yet it meant the world to me, one put everyone before himself, and one of them can look at you and you know everything is fine. These are the greatest traits of my Heroes. 
My heroes in this picture are first row, skip one, then there is Trevor, Shawn, Bill, Anton. But really everyone in this picture is one of my heroes. (Missing Logan)

In the third paragraph I list five numbers, 09, 12, 30, 03, and 42. These numbers are, respectfully, the numbers of my heroes on the Vermilion Fire Department, because all my heroes are or were at one time, members of the Vermilion Fire Department. Number 09 is the number of late Shawn Ganton, 12 is for the Chief Bill Roth, 30 is for my Father and Deputy chief Anton Krys, 03 is for a former deputy chief Trevor Mistal, and 42 is my brother and fellow rookie, Logan Roth. All of these men listed above are my Heroes, fathers, brothers, and best friends.

The second last paragraph is about the sights sounds and feelings that my heroes deal with everyday, and they way they deal with these things is what truly makes them heroes. My heroes deal with sounds and sights that would put the undertaker to his grave. And they never get to see people at their best, but they always see the opposite of that, they see people at their absolute worst, and they way they deal with it and cope with it, is what makes them heroes.

My last paragraph is about some of the pain I deal with because these men are my heroes, I am scared that I won’t get to see them again, or I will have to say good bye, I don’t want to have to cry because of my heroes. A few times in this poem I mention a bell. The bell is what fire departments used to communicate before technology of phones and radios. When the fire department they would ring the bell, quickly 3 time, 3 times. “Ding, Ding, Ding” “Ding, Ding, Ding” “Ding, Ding, Ding.” Now that we have the technology we don’t use bells anymore, however, at the funeral of firefighters, when we send them home, to their real home with God, we ring the bell for them. That is the bell I am talking about in my poem, and sadly one day I might have to ring the bell for one or more or my heroes.

Thing number one. I am a member of the Vermilion Fire and Rescue. I have responded to 5 major fire calls and several volunteer hours of grass burning. My father is the Deputy Chief on the Vermilion Fire and Rescue.

Number two. I have an older sister that is 22. She lives in Edmonton and has her own massage business. She has a younger sister that is not my sister. She likes to drive trucks and sleds, she looks like my mother and acts like me. Her favorite saying is I’m a cheep drunk.

Number three. I have never moved in my life. I have lived in the same town, house, school, church, all my life. This has made for a very tight knit family and friend social network. 

Number four. I am a music nerd. Every kind of music other than rap, most of the time I can tell you the artist, song name and more. Music is one of my second lives. 

Number five. In the same week four of my family members have a birthday. Me, mom, cousin, and uncle all have birthdays with in five days. I know crazy eh?

There you have it five things you didn’t know about me before you read this. There are many other things that I can think of but cannot be placed in this post. Thank you for reading and for the great year.

This movie is amazing. I am not talking about the acting, or the story line, I am talking about the meaning behind it. It’s the brotherhood concept that I have talked about all year. The best line in the movie is “We hydrate together, and we dehydrate together.” This line means that what one person does we all do. If you fall in to a deep pit filled with who know what, then we all go into the pit to get you out. The life I live is a lot like a Jarhead life. 

The movie is mostly shot in the desert and shows what happens in the army when all you do is sit around and not actually get any action, meant more ways than one. The soldiers start to go crazy and get mad at each other. There are many things in this movie that most people would puke when they see it. There are tight bonds made and people’s past lives get in the way, one soldier lied on the criminal record check and was in big trouble for it. They all have their own problem that have to be worked out and somehow they get through it. It is an amazing story and there is nothing that can really be said about it. 

One of the best shots in the movie is when they cross the border and they are immediately under friendly fire. It was crazy how in clear day light someone from the same team, just because they have not shot at any thing yet they are trigger happy and shooting at any thing that moves. The team finds people who have been tortured and left to burn. One of the most meaningful shots in the movie is when right before one of the sniper is about to get his first kill they order an air strike instead. He is so mad, right after that air strike the war ended, and most of the soldiers never got to shoot their rifles.

The days that are terrible the moment you wake up, you know what I’m talking about right? You just open your eyes and tell your self it is a brutal day, and you haven’t even got out of bed yet. Yeah it is the worst feeling ever. Well any way I was having one of those days, it was terrible nothing was going right. There was not enough milk for breakfast, forgot my books, was late for class, missed my ride to work, was not productive at work, got home and had to make supper, had no onion. So I go to the grocery store, thinking well this should ge well. One my way out I thought I should take the other doors that aren’t automatic, and a nice man opened the door for me.

That was it right there, everything that went bad that day disappeared, I was on cloud nine. All it took was that one little act to change everything. This gentleman just smiled as he opened the door as if he knew what kind of day I was having. It was the greatest feeling ever. Now because of what the one person did for me every time I see someone going in ot out a door I open it for them because I know that just might be what someone needs that day. If we all did one good thing a day the world would be billions times better.

The life pressures that we all face are crazy different from one person to another. My life pressures are firefighting, being a student, being a brother, trying to impress my father, and trying to be all I can be at sports. Everyone’s life is their own and therefore, their life pressures are going to be different. My brothers life pressures are completely different from mine. He would rather be concerned about what people think of him rather than how broke he is. My brother, Sean, would rather worry about missing his T.V. show, than missing a social event. 

I make my decisions because of my life pressures. Some people laugh at me when I am doing some of the things that I do, instead of going to parties I go to work, rather than watch T.V. I work out, I chose an apple instead of chips, I do all of this because of the life pressures I have. If I let myself get out of shape than I can’t firefight properly and may put my fellow brothers in danger, staying in shape helps me stay focused and become a better student. If I let myself go and waste away. That doesn’t show my brother that it is alright to not care and I can’t let that happen. If I can’t work hard and pull wenches the way I should be able to, that I can’t show my father how good of a worker I am, and everyone knows that if you don’t make healthy decisions than you can kiss sports good bye. Sean would rather enjoy that bag of greasy pop-corn and watch a movie than start getting ready for the hockey season that is one week away. Now well he is eaten’ away, I am thinking “Thou churlish unchin-snouted lout” I got one week to get in better shape than I was last year. Sean would just be worried about who he would see, and how he would look and not playing the game.

The Hardy Boy’s Books which I was reading at the beginning of the year, shows how these life pressures, decisions, and values, change what can happen quickly in a day, a week a month, and over a lifetime. The book shows that the pressures they have, their father being the best detective the U.S. has ever seen, the decisions they make, being the way they decide to investigate something or someone, and their values, for them they value friends very closely. This also makes me think of the movie Jarhead this movie shows what people are like when they are trained to do one thing and one thing only, kill. It also shows although we all are different we all fit together to make one big picture, although you might have to squash some pieces together to make them fit. 

Now when I am out working wherever it may be, I miss out on things that most kids my age would never think not doing. I don’t go to movies, I don’t party, I don’t call up friends and say “Hey you want to go do something?” My life is my work. I live with these consequences every day.

This is My English 10 Final Exam.

Some of the greatest poetry that has ever been written, has been poetry that has created a language on its own. Shakespeare has some of the best poetry ever because it is his own poetry. Some of my greatest  poetry is good because I have my own voice and experience to write about. My best poetry come from the experience of my father being a firefighter, and the short time that I have been a firefighter. These experiences have given’ me my own voice and that what makes my poetry my own. 

From the experience of loosing a fellow fire fighter I have  written my best poetry, the five men. This poem shows how that it is really easy to put a person in a bag that you don’t know, but to put one of your own in the ground is impossible. 

Another good poem that talks about the brotherhood at fire departments is lroths brotherhood. This poem talks about what true family is all about. I can’t say much about this poem because you really need to read it and to understand what is really being talked about you have to be apart of this family. The family that I work with is “bustin’ ours, savin’ yours” and that is the only life I live by at the hall.

It is hot, wet, and heavy.
The glass fogs the air gets hot.
He can’t see, only feel his was out.
The water stops coming, the fire rages.

He runs but has no wear to go.
All the air is gone.
The water is out.
There is no safe place to go.

Everything is getting hotter and hotter.
His coat is melting.
He falls into the fire.
But he doesn’t hit the ground.

He keeps falling.
It keeps getting hotter.
There is no end to the deep dark pit.
All he sees is flames.

He hits the ground.
There is nothing to see but flames.
A dark image comes out.
It’s fuzzy can’t tell what, he sees.

He gets up.
It is hot but he isn’t burned.
The figure appears again.
It’s clear this time.

There are horns,
a tail,
and a staff.
It is the Devil.

He wakes up in a cold sweat,
not sure where he is,
The alarm sounds.
He is home again.

My three best poems:

The Five Men

Pain is Her Friend

The Gear they Wear

My pears three best poems:

lroth’s brotherhood.

sberg’s reflection

dkonieczny Unique

This post is in response two Poetry Contest for Grades 9 and 10’s.

The one coat they put on,
the pants they put on,
the gloves they put on,
the boots they put on are all the same.
The helmets are different.

The hose they use,
the water they use,
the nozzle they use,
the foam they use is all the same.
The pressure is different.

The axe they use,
the ladder they use,
the BA packs they use,
the pike poles they use are all the same.
The mask is different.

The truck they use,
the place they travel,
the speed they go is all the same.
The fire is different.

The county they are,
the town they are in,
the hall they are in,
the family they are in is all the same.
Their rank is different.

This poem is in response to One’s Self, En-Masse