my xbox story..

Today I decided that I wanted to try and figure out what was wrong with my nephews xbox. I took the xbox apart and looked at the inside of it and it was dirty and full of dust. I started to look for a can of air but couldn’t find any. I thought that I saw a can somewhere laying around the apartment but I guess I saw it at my sisters place. I started to think of how I could clean out the xbox and get all the dust out.

            When I was thinking about what I could use I thought about using a hair dryer. I used the hair dryer and put it on a cool setting. When I did that a lot of dust came out of the xbox. When I was done I looked at how much dust came out and I was surprised that that much dust came out of the xbox.

            After that I started to put the xbox back together. When I was done putting the xbox together I plugged it in and turned it on. The reason I did all this is because my sister had said that the xbox over heats really fast. I decided that I wanted to try and figure out what was wrong with it. That’s why I decided to do all this.

            When I turned it on I texted my sister and asked her how long it took for the xbox to over heat. When I asked her she said it took twenty minutes to over heat. I turned it on and let it sty on for a while. When the time was passed twenty minutes I decided that it would be safe to go ahead and play the games.

            So I did my five paragraphs for this week. I hope you enjoyed my story about my xbox. If you ever want to talk hit me up on facebook. I also recently thought that students should get a grade for making thei teachers laugh. If we got a grade for that I would have a A++ in Social Science and ELA. Enjoy the rest of your day.

                        The Godfather.

         

My time in the Academy...

 October 1^st of 2014 I flew out to Anchorage Alaska to join the Alaska Military Youth Academy. When I got there it was about 9 pm. I went to the main building on camp called the TLC. TLC is an abbreviation for Team Leader Center. I went there and they got me my supplies that I would need for my time there.

            When I got there a team leader named Mr. Pazos checked me in and took me to my platoon. When we got to my platoon he told me that I would need to go to the latrine (bathroom) and shave my face. That was the first time that I had ever had to shave in my life. When I was shaving I cut my face maybe 4 or 5 different times. Then it was off to my rack for the night.

            We didn’t get to wake up on our own we woke up to the team leaders using the Shock and Awe tactic. The Shock and Awe tactic is when the team leaders come in the barracks using whistles and yelling at us to do PT. We were in the barracks for maybe 5 or 10 minutes Before we went out to the PT pad. The PT pad is a stretch of concrete that we did all our PT on. When we got there we started doing a lot of PT.

            After doing PT we were told to listen up because our commandant was going to talk to us about all our responsibilities and expectations. They told us that the first two weeks were going to be the longest two weeks of the academy. They call the first two weeks “acclimation phase”. During acclimation phase you don’t get to sleep in a bed, you don’t get to sit while you eat, and you don’t get condiments for your food. You’re also referred to as a candidate until you make it past two weeks then you’re referred to as a cadet.

            During the first two weeks is the time they lose most of the kids who signed up. The reason they lose the most during that time is because the kids have trouble adapting to that life style and cant handle it. You also learn about the things you will have to do, the classes you will take and the things you have to accomplish to graduate the program. You will also learn how to address team leaders and the cadre the proper way.

            After the first two weeks is over you start to test on the computers they have. The test you take is called the T.A.B.E test. The test helps them to see where you are in school so they could put you in the proper classes and with your level group. They have the school groups divided into different classes. They use the group names to place you in your level work. A is the highest class and G was the lowest level class. The names for all the groups were Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, and Golf. My academic level was Echo, there was 17 of us in the academic class Echo.

            We had eight classes during our school there. We had four classes a day and started school at 9 am and our last class of the day ended at 5 pm. From our last class of the day we went to retreat. After retreat we went to dinner. Dinner was from 5 to 630 pm. After that we went back to the barracks for the rest of the day.

            Another thing that you will learn in the first two weeks is about your mentor. If you’re not from Anchorage you will have two mentors, one for you in anchorage so you can visit with him or her and one back home for after you graduate. Also your mentor has to take a class for mentors if he or she did not already. They have to be older then the age of 21 and can not live in the same house as you. They also have to be the same sex as you.

            Your mentor can bring you the supplies you may need for school or other things for the academy. They can only bring you stuff that is allowed and approved by the commandant or cadre there. They can also come and visit you face to face once a week. You also a get one mentor pass while in the academy and its only a 6 hour pass. You have to go and collect a couple job applications while out on pass.

            Another thing that is required you do is to write your mentor once a week. If you have two mentors you write them both a letter once a week. If you do not you will be written up for noncompliance. Mentor are used as someone you can talk to about your stress or whatever you feel you need to talk about. The mentor I had while in anchorage has been mentoring there at the academy for cadets for awhile now.

            Another thing that they require for graduating the program is improvement. You will need to improve in a few things to graduate. At the beginning you take a test. At the end you take the same test and have to get a higher score then you did before. Through out the program you take three PT test. You need to show improvement in all three tests.

            While there you can get you G.E.D or you high school diploma. To get your high school diploma from there you have to have at least 14 credits or more before you go into the academy. For your G.E.D you just have to apply for it and take the tests. I didn’t get my G.E.D there because I wasn’t ready for the math portion of the test. While there you may earn 7 high school credits for being there and passing all your classes.

            The academics there end on the 17^th or 18^th week. If you are not passing your classes by then you will stay in school as long as you need to. While the others are going out doing things you may be in the class rooms working on what you need to. For me I was passing all my classes when it was time for school to stop. I passed all my classes and got all 7 credits.

            You also get a 5 day pass depending on what cycle you are in. I was in a winter cycle so I got a Christmas break from the 23^rd of December to the 27^th of December. We left and got picked up from the Muldoon center at 10 am and got dropped off at the gate on the 27^th at 6 pm. When you get back from pass you have to take a UA and get all your belongings checked. If you fail the UA you will be written or possibly dismissed.

            We also got a thanksgiving pass that was 8 hours longs. We got picked up from the Muldoon center and dropped off at the gate. We got picked up at 10 am and dropped off at 6pm at the gate. When we got back we had to be checked. I spent thanksgiving with my sister. When we got back everybody was full and didn’t want to do anything but sleep.

            You get three meals a day and a snack sometimes when your in school. Breakfast is at 7 am after your morning PT. Lunch is at 11am to 12pm. At twelve you go back to school until 5pm. You get your snack after your first class after lunch. Depending on cycle you are in is when you will eat. There are three cycles. Theres red, amber and green cycle. Red cycle eats last, amber cycle eats second and green cycle eats first.

            The three cycles are cycled through the platoons throughout the cycle so they can do different activities. Green cycle would go out and do something cool like drown proofing and maybe paintballing. Amber cycle would just relax and do the same stuff daily. Red cycle would go out and do some community service and pick seven or eight cadets to do kitchen patrol.

            Some community service hours may be fun and others just regular hours. Usually the fun hours were mostly with the cadets who didn’t get in trouble and were all caught up in school and passing all their classes. I went on a coupe fun community services but I also went on some that were regular and still had fun. It might be something like going to a food bank and helping out there. The fun ones might be something like going to a carnival and helping out there.

            One fun community service trip that I liked the most was called police navida. It was at the dena’ina downtown in anchorage. It was a twelve hour community service trip. We helped with all the games and stayed at the stations we were placed at. While there I saw a teacher that used to teach at my school. I also got to see her son witch is my sisters boyfriends nephew. She was there because she was with a dance group that was going to perform at that carnival.

            While there you could go and see the job corps center and the UAA campus. You could get a tour of both and learn what types of requirements and things you will need to know. We went to job corps and it was about a half hour ride. After that we went to UAA and got a tour of that to in the same day. After both we went back to base and ate dinner then went to a seawolves game at the Sullivan arena.

            While there I went to three hockey games. All of them were UAA hockey games. I wanted to see an aces game but I don’t think there were any aces games while I was there. We weren’t able to buy any concessions from the concession stands because some cadets would buy nothing but candy and soda. We had a lot of fun at the hockey games.

            They also have competitions between the three platoons. They have ribbons for three different activities. The have a PT ribbon, DMC ribbon, and a Barracks inspection ribbon. They have three tests for all three through out the 5 ½ months there. To earn a ribbon your platoon will need to have the best PT scores and best marching in the DMC competition. For the barracks inspection your platoon must have the cleanest barracks out of them all.

             I was in third platoon and we won the first PT ribbon at the beginning of the cycle. We didn’t win another ribbon until the last three events. We won the last PT ribbon, the last DMC ribbon and the last barracks inspection. We had four ribbons on our guidon at the end of the cycle.

            The last few weeks is nothing but fun activities if you want them to be. We had our senior trip in Wasilla at a sports complex. We spent the night there that night. We had games, food, movies and a dance that night. That was the night we were able to have fun and stay up late if we wanted to. The dance we had was a black light dance so it was pretty fun.

The last week there you spend setting up the barracks for the next class and getting your uniform ready for graduation day. You start to pack your bags the last couple days and returning the stuff you cant keep like, jackets, laundry bags and book bags. You also go and rehearse your graduation day so you know how to go up to the stage correctly. The last day there you wake up at 430 to shower and get ready for graduation. We also went over the graduation one more time just to be safe.