Linda Medina Is Famous

Congratulations to Linda Medina. Her review of the new 3 Doors Down CD is now published on the Houston Press's music blog. Click the link below to read it and leave a comment about it.

Linda Medina's review of the new 3 Doors Down CD

Claim To Fame

On the off chance that you live under a rock (or you've been kicked outta class), you should know that six of our writers in the summer program were selected to write some CD reviews for the Houston Press. We are very proud of them. If you haven't already, you need to read the review and leave a comment.

To read Vincent Rodriguez's review of the Weezer CD click here.

To read Laura Cabrera's review of Usher's CD and Hat's review (Gerardo Castillo) of the Coldplay CD click here.

Make sure to leave a comment. Later today they will publish Linda Medina's review of the new 3 Doors Down CD.

Congratulations Are In Order

A very special congratulations goes out to six of your classmates today as they were selected to complete an CD review for the Houston Press, one of the largest weekly newspapers in the country. It's a very impressive accomplishment in and of itself, but to top things off, they'll receive a free copy of the CD that they reviewed and will be paid $1,000 for their work... Oh, my bad, I put too many "0"s there; it's supposed to be $10, not $1,000. Either way, they've got more money in their pockets than I do.

Congratulations to:

Laura Cabrera
Hat (Gerardo Castillo)
Vincent Rodriguez
Linda Medina
K1 (Kishan Patel)
Evelyn Flores

Also, check out what your classmates had to say about last week's listening party subjects: My Morning Jacket.

Best Of The Reviews: My Morning Jacket

Thursday in class we had a CD listening party for Evil Urges, the latest LP from My Morning Jacket. The kids heard six songs and were told to write down what they thought of each on their own blogs. As expected, the kids that put forth an honest effort had some really interesting and thought provoking things to say. On the other hand, reading some of the others kids' stuff, the ones that didn't try, was like being punched in the brain. Here are some links to some reviews that I enjoyed:

Of the 100 or so reviews that I read, Jennifer Hoang's was probably the best. (She's like a genius or something. Who knows how smart she woulda been had she come to class more than twice this summer.)

Ashley Salazar was a fan of the "Librarian" song.

Anybody who knows the band Queen automatically gets their work put in the Best Of The Reviews post. (Leah Rodriguez)

Bam! Bam! Bam! Elizabeth Sandoval has proved herself to be a very good writer.

Jorge Marquez thought it was mostly gay, meaning, it was mostly gay.

Cucumber (Josue Quirino) wants to know if the singer is a stalker.

If you're Vincent Rodriguez's girlfriend you can expect to hear "Thank You, Too" on your birthday.

Laura Cabrera shows why she's now getting paid to write reviews for the Houston Press with her excellent review here.

Dis like, ay, what it do, ya feel meh dawg? (Fig aka Jacob Figueroa)

You know how Estella Izaguirre is always getting in trouble and wants people to think she's just a goofy girl who plays too much? Turns out, she's really smart and good at writing reviews. (Good job, Estella.)

Gilberto Perez thinks My Morning Jacket is trying to kill him with the awfulness of their first song.

Yiselisilisily (Yisely Martinez) thinks My Morning Jacket is great, you know, as long as they're not singing.

Michael Del Bosque thinks that different people are singing each song. (That's kinda funny but it's also kinda sad.)

Alex Gutierrez thinks there is no hope for My Morning Jacket. (But he also thinks it's cool to call himself "The Mexican Truth" so take from it what you will.)

Rage Against The Machine > My Morning Jacket (Joe Lazalde)

K1 and K2 are not fans of My Morning Jacket. (Kishan Patel & Kevin Truong)

Veronica Hernandez was glad that "Remnants" was not horrible.

All Valerie Zamora has to say is, whoa, NOT GOOD.

Ceslie Urbina made her Madrina proud with this very well written review.

Linda Medina thinks maybe the singer needs to use the restroom.

Football Player's review was short, but it was written very creatively. (Tony Johnson)

Is this a rock band or is it a bunch of girls screaming? (Brianna Luera)

Not only did Bacon finally turn something in, but he actually did a really good job. (Brandon Dimas)

Hmmm... maybe they recorded that one song in space? (Gissel Castillo)

Finally someone agreed with me that "Highly Suspicious" is frigg'n awesome. (Joselene Navarette)

My Morning Jacket is like Michael Jackson, but a little bit worse. (Alexandra Mendoza)

Sounds like Ashley Hall spends a lot of time in working out in a gym.

Nam Tran kind of hates it.

Dear Los Angeles: Spelling incorrectly on purpose is not kewl. (Angeles Quintinilla)

Basically, after the guy starts singing the songs turn to crap. (Luis Vasquez)

Did you think they yelled too much? Then you might get along with Lianis Almeida.

Maybe her dad will like it? (Felicia Mendoza)

It's always worth reading what's going on over at The Mayonesa Show. (Jose Mayo)

I put this up here just because he finally turned something in. (Luis Melendez)

It's not like "Wow" it just makes you reflect. (Bianca Martinez)

It's kinda hard to believe that Demi Jones is only going to the sixth grade because she's such a good writer.

The singer sings funny. (Helen Rodriguez)

Edgar Umanzor does not enjoy romantic things.

Eh, Jennifer Pineda thinks it was not so good but not so bad.

And here's Spongebob's Buddy's review. (Kenia Ruiz)

These guys should totally change their voices. Totally. (Elsy Macias)

Some Awesome Greeting Cards

Yesterday's activity was to create your own greeting cards. Some of the ones I received were really, really dope. Others, eh, not so much. After you check these out make sure to vote on which one is your favorite. (use the poll on the left hand side.) The winner receives a free house cat and a pair of snakeskin boots. If you don't see yours up here that's either because you didn't email me your URL or it was crappy. Better luck next time. Enjoy:

Josue Quirino, or, as we call him in class, Cucumber, had a pretty good one to give to someone who's getting on your nerves.

Ashley Hall has one for those of you who may be interested in always thinking about someone. (Some call that "stalking.")

Antonio Perez is cool like that. Apparently.

Alexandra Mendoza's mother would certainly be proud of her work here.

Chris Martinez appears to have a part-time job making greeting cards because his looks very professional.

I'm always a fan of cards with ninjas throwing knives so Hector Martinez gets the thumbs up here.

The always impressive Evelyn Flores.

Vincent Rodriguez with a very heartfelt message to our troops.

Elizabeth Sandoval with some very good artwork.

Ashley Salazar with the old "better late than never" routine.

Joselene Navarette did an exceptional job with this one.

Instructions For June 16-17

Welcome to the new class blog. Each day when you come into class you will find a new post here with instructions for what you should do that day. Also, we'll use this space to show some of kids work. Here are your instructions for today.

I've got some special holidays coming up that are kinda important so I want to make a cool greeting card for each of them. I figured since you're all so creative you could help. I want you to pick one of the holidays from the list below and make a greeting card for it using Microsoft Paint. After you make it I want you to post it on your blog.

Before you get started you'll need to select one occasion from the list below that you'll make your card for. The occasions are:

• Birthday


• Mother's Day


• Anniversary


• Birth of a Child


• Sorry To Hear Your Dog Got Hit By a Car


• Attacked By a Group of Ninjas


• Belated Birthday


• Thinking of You

(If you can think of some other occasions that you'd rather like to make cards for, feel free to do so.)

Follow these steps to make your card:

1. Select which occasion you will work on first.


2. Make a rough draft of your card using a piece of paper.


3. Open Microsoft Paint.


4. Use Microsoft Paint to make a version of your rough draft.


5. Once you're finished save your image to desktop. (Click "file," click "save as," click "desktop."


6. Open your blogger page and title the post "Greeting Cards." Write a one-two sentence intro about which occasions you picked.


7. Upload the image just like you've done in previous assignments.


8. Repeat steps 1-7 for your second image.


9. Once you're done email me (ser_cul@hotmail.com) your URL so I can see it.


10. Hopefully it will be as awesome as this one:

Note: The Chacons have a free day today because they are the fastest cup stacking Mexicans in the entire world.

Some Scary Reading

This past week some of our kids worked together to write some truly scary stories. Here are a few of the best:

Laura Cabrera came up with a very creative way to make fun of one of her friends with a story called I Am Juan.

Have you ever eaten Cap'n Crunch so fast that it cut the roof of your mouth? Then you'll like Josue Quirino's story: Scary Story.

Giselle Hernandez has a creepy tale about Halloween curses and brain eating.

Gissel Castillo has a very well told story about a little girl whom you would not want as your friend.

Jose Mendoza gives us a tale about a box and a castle that turns into a story about pretty much everyone dying.