Limericks

I once saw a very old lady

With a dog at her side named Sadie

She waddled about

With intent, I doubt

And to this day sits where it's shady

I once saw a girl at the mall
She was really incredibly tall
She walked all around
Having to stoop down
So she wouldn't hit her head and bawl 

There once was a girl named Sue

Who knotted the lace on her shoe

She tried to undo it

But totally blew it

And then got it stuck in some glue

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

I like the poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, by Wallace Stevens, a lot.  I found it interesting that it was thirteen, rather than a landmark number. such as ten.  Stevens probably wanted a special number.  Also, there is twenty mountains, instead of 13 or a different number.

    The seasons in this were interesting and made me think of the haikus.  It starts off at winter, then moves to autumn, back to winter, then spring, and finally back to winter again.  It's almost a year.

     There was lots of assonance in this poem. In the first stanza, there was some when it said "twenty snowy," and "among mountains."  Finally, in the third, it said "blackbird whirled."

I noticed some internal rhyming too, in the second stanza, where it said "I was of three minds,” page break “ Like a tree,” another page break “In which there are three blackbirds."  Three, tree, and three again rhymed.  There was also some regular rhyming too, with different stanzas.  For example, in one stanza it ended with minds, and in another it ended with pantomime, and those are approximate rhymes.

Another interesting thing I noticed in this poem was that the “countdown” was in roman numerals.  Maybe because regular ones were too boring?  Also, why does it count up from one? I guess you see it both ways, but for some reason I was expecting it to start at thirteen and go down.

Aren't I a Good Thing?

I have seen people swallowed up by water

The precious moment of life or death

The power of strength

Weakening, Crumbling and Collapsing down

The craziness conquering one

From happiness

To fear

I wind my waves to the confused moments

Because that's when one needs me most

When one is scared

Yes, it is shameful

To give myself to people

But I help, and keep one thriving

Or they would not act the same

I’d rather be Bravery

And give people the courage they need

But I do

I am giving, because

Don't people need adrenaline?

When they are in terror

No matter what that might be

I know how to use myself

And to be where people need me most

Among the frightened,

From a dark night,

When you suddenly swerve

To

A sunny yellow day

But then the sharp sound of a gunshot

I suddenly come out

And with me, they keep fighting

I say nothing, but with me

They know what to do

Because with me

It's the only way they can overcome

Or they would stop their struggle

So aren't I a good thing?

Haiku Poems

Daffodils growing

the cold days are behind us

kids playing outside

A big butterfly

flies around high in the sky

it is a beauty

This tree's good to climb

climb as high as possible

do you have your grip?

Morning paper comes

dog runs out to retrieve it

too wet to read now

Many birds singing

crisp smell of morning

cherry blossoms sway

Fingers tap on phones

kids locked into screens

where did nature go?

A dragonfly there

flies for the first time at all

eaten by a bird

Abstract Thoughts

Fear is night black caves at midnight
Selfishness is sandy tan toys in someone's home
Loneliness is sky grey coffee shops at night
Quiet is paper white libraries
Boredom is dead leaf brown dirt on the solid ground
Dreams are ocean blue pools in Hawaii
Happiness is citrus lime green popsicles
Success is wizard purple parties at the beach on a hot summer day
Love is heart pink chocolates with a gooey caramel inside

Spring is Like a Perhaps Hand

 

        I really enjoyed reading the poem, Spring is Like a Perhaps Hand, by E. E. Cummings, because it talked about how Spring is a hand moving everything around to get ready for it, like placing a flower somewhere.  I found it interesting how Cummings layed his poem out.  He had a large section, and then a separate stanza that said "changing everything carefully," which was referring to what the hand would do.  Then there was another large section and after that the last line was "without breaking anything."

      I didn’t really understand why Cummings had parentheses in some of his lines.  I can see why he would do that, but it seemed like they were put in weird places.  For example, he said “(which comes carefully,” then a line break, then “out of Nowhere) arranging.”   It kind of makes you wonder about the poem though, and that’s good.

      I noticed that he capitalized some words: nowhere, hand, new, and old.  I think he was trying to emphasize them all of them.  He wanted you to really sense the word nowhere, because that’s where the hand comes from, and he wants you to think of where nowhere could be.  When he capitalized hand, the line was “hand in a window.” I’m not that sure why he did that, but it’s probably because he wanted readers to get it into their minds that it was a hand.  For new and old, he most likely meant that new is the Spring things he's putting there, and the old is stuff from Winter that he's taking away.  

      Lastly, he had some repetition when he said “Spring is like a perhaps hand,” in the beginning, and in the last stanzas beginning.  I don’t think there was much else in this poem.  I did really like reading this poem though, to see how Spring was created.

Maggie and Milly and Molly and May

This is a poem called maggie and milly and molly and may, by E. E. Cummings. I really like it because I think it has a great rhythm to it, and it's kind of just a silly poem, unlike the other we read by E. E. Cummings, called l)a.  The poem is about how Maggie, Milly, Molly, and May went to the beach, and then things happen to them.  Maggie finds a shell that sings, Milly befriended a starfish, Molly was chased by something blowing bubbles, and May came home with a stone.

In the third line of the poem, Cummings says “so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles, and.”  I think that the “and” should be in the next line because it doesn’t really fit in that line as well as it would in the next.  Also, in a different line, it starts out with and, so why shouldn’t the first?

         I think that there was a lot of assonance in this poem.  For example, there was when Cummings said “smooth round stone.”  There was also alliteration when he said “maggie and milly and molly and may.”  Lastly, I thought the last line was the best of all.  It was a metaphor talking about how sometimes one gets lost in life, but they always come back.

Food Enemies

Hamburger BLT Sandwich Taco Pizza Enchilada Mac’n’cheese Shrimp Calamari Mashed Potato Strawberry Banana Apple Blueberry Crackers Kiwi Cherry Sour Apple Candy Chocolate Rocky Road Mint Chip Caramel Squash

Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs. Vs.

Hotdog PB and J Burger Spaghetti Quesadilla Soup Baked Potato Crab Fish Salad Pineapple Orange Cherry Watermelon Cheese Guacamole Blue Raspberry Watermelon Ice cream Vanilla Sherbet Cookie Dough Apple Cheesecake

Rainy Days

Gray Skies

Wet boots

Muddy Kids

Board games

Umbrellas

Sometimes thunder, sometimes lightning

Chit chat of bored people

Quiet voices

The ever continuing pitter patter on the ground

A sudden tiredness

Filled bird bath

Video games

Moths that can't fly

Branches dumping water on one when shaken

Boring beach

Kids letting rain fall into their mouths

A rainbow?

A single sunbeam

Revisiting the Anticipation Guide

     Lying is justifiable if it's for the greater good: At first, I had this as a three, but I would change this to a four now, because even though lying is really bad, if you're are trying to kill the bugger race so they won't kill you, then it's probably more okay then if it only helps you.  Or if it's to save someone's life so they won't do something that puts them in danger, then it's okay.
      Sometimes violence is the only way to solve a problem: I put a three on this one last time, and I would keep it the same because I pretty much still agree with it, It makes sense for this to be true if someone is attacking you and you are defending yourself.  Also, it would be true if you're in a war because two countries can't decide on something that you both want, and it's a big deal.  On the other hand, people should mostly be able to talk it out in words, because most of a time, there's always a way to make peace.
      It is okay to kill someone in self-defense: I put this as a four last time, and I still think that it should be that because if someone's trying to kill you, then you don't want to die!  I think that it's kind of their fault if you kill them, because they were trying to kill first.  If they didn't try to kill you, then they wouldn't be dead.
      Words are stronger than fists: I had this as a three, and I still think it's true because, as I said before, it depends on the toughness of the person, or how strong the words are.  Some people are tough and can 
just let words bounce off their backs,  or some are really hurt by mean words.  Fists can't hurt people as easily as others, and some are knocked out on the first throw, kind of like Ender beating up Stilson and Bonzo.
      Bullies hurt others because they have low self esteem: I did have this as a four at first, but now I would change this to a three because Bonzo seemed to be a bully, but he did have a lot of pride, and I think that he just wanted Ender out of his way.  This statement does seem to be true most of the time though, like in Stilson's case, I don't think he had very much self esteem.
      Only the best and brightest students should receive the best education to become a nation's leader: I still think that this should be a one, except if you're fighting a whole league of creatures. If you're not the brightest in school, then maybe you have other talents that qualify you? Or if your grade point average is like a 3.8, that's pretty close to being the brightest!
      Revenge is never justified: I put a four before I read Ender's Game on this, and I'm still sticking with that because you should never fight fire with fire, as I said before!  And as I said last time, if you can if it's something big, then go to court with them or something like that if it interferes with the law.
      Crying is evidence of weakness: I still think that this should be a two because everyone has cried sometime in their life, so you shouldn't be mean about it! If you are hurt, sometimes you just have to! Don't judge people on what they do and why!
      Any action is acceptable in war: I put this as a two, but now I would change it to a three, because if it's self defense, then any action would kind of be acceptable, or if you were fighting for your nation, then it kind of would.  On the other hand, you shouldn't hurt somebody already on the ground, or hurt in some way already.
      Teenagers need discipline and rules because they can't control themselves: I put this as a two last time, and I definitely wouldn't change that because most teenagers can control themselves fine, and can behave well.  Sometimes, we might get a little goofy, but we can still control ourselves and no when to stop.  We can make our own rules and things.
      Only through personal sacrifice can someone create positive change: I still think the same for this one, a one, because you don't have to sacrifice yourself to do good to the world!  Making a positive change is just doing little things, like picking trash up in the community, planting trees, and more! That's what makes a difference.
     Generating compassion for your enemies is the only way to create peace: I put a three on this one before I read the book, I would keep it the same because compassion isn't always the only way to create peace, because if you hate your enemy, you don't have to kill them, but you can bear with talking peacefully to them.  As I said before, hold a white flag up and work it out with words.

Ender's Game Questions Chapters 12-15

Chapter 12 – Bonzo
1. Ender provoked Bonzo by insulting his honor. He said how Bonzo's father would be proud of him for trying to kill somebody smaller than him, and things like that.  Bonzo responded by trying to kill him at the showers.

2. Stilson was the bully who tried to hurt Ender when he still was on Earth at the beginning of the book, but then Ender ended up killing him.  Ender was thinking of him because when Bonzo was there with him at the showers, he was reminded of all his enemies and people who had tried to hurt him.

3. Ender still expects help from the teachers because he thinks that they care for him and want to make sure that no one gets hurt at the battle school because of liabilities, and he's only a kid so he doesn't realize that he has to care for himself.

4.  I knew that Stilson and Bonzo were killed because of the clues in the chapter where the teachers were talking about how there was a death at the battle school, and it was the second one in history, and things like that.  The teachers said "they didn't tell him about Stilson, either," so that's another clue.

5. Ender was justified because he was a kid, he didn't mean to kill them, and it was self defense.  The teachers didn't tell him about the deaths because Ender didn't want to kill them, so if he knew he had, then he wouldn't do as good at the battle school and think that he was just like Peter, but worse.

Chapter 13 – Valentine
1. “Perhaps it is impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.” This quote means that you can't pretend to be somebody else and not naturally act like that. An example of this idea is when Valentine started acting like Demosthenes  even though that's not who she was, because when she was asked a question, she would say something that Demosthenes would say without even thinking about it. 

2. It kind of is a natural, “good” instinct for humans to be killers (survival of the fittest) because we want to keep thriving, and need this instinct to do that if another species is trying to kill us and fight us.

3. When Ender and Valentine were on the raft, they talked about the battle school and Peter.  Ender reveals about himself and his enemies that he felt like a puppet and was being used by the teachers, and that he always won his battles because he knew what the enemies were thinking, but then he would like them, but still kill them.

4. Valentine’s conflicting thoughts about her brothers were how Peter had mellowed, but the battle school had made Ender into a killer. There roles have shifted because Ender doesn't want to kill anybody, but he does end up killing people, and Peter stopped being as aggressive.  Valentine felt like they were two sides of the same coin, but she didn't always know which side was which.

5. Graff told Ender that the bugger war was inevitable, because it was true because they had ships flying to the bugger planets already that would land soon, so they would have to have a war.

Chapter 14 – Ender’s Teacher
1. What disturbs Ender about Eros is how it used to be a bugger planet, and he was living inside bugger tunnels.  Ender figures out the truth about Eros by talking to Mazer Rackham, and asking him what evidence there was in Eros that buggers were smart creatures.

2. Mazer was going to be the only teacher Ender ever had because his other teachers never taught him anything.  Mazer said to Ender "You have learned nothing.  You have never had a teacher."

3. Mazer had been dishonest with Ender because he didn't want him to know he was going to kill all of the buggers, because he wouldn't have killed them if he'd known.  I don't think Ender could've handled the truth.

4. I think that they pushed the children too far because Petra and some other people started to break and not do as well, but it was worth it because they beat the buggers.

5. Genocide, or in the case of Ender's Game where an entire alien race is annihilated, xenocide is justified because the queen of the buggers "thought" to Ender that she forgave the human race for killing them, if Ender would help her hatch her eggs. The xenocide of the Buggers was inevitable because the human race didn't know that the buggers didn't want to hurt them.

Chapter 15 – Speaker for the Dead
1. Valentine said, “Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given to you by good people, by people who love you.” After what has happened in Ender’s life, he would think about this that it was part way true, but it's very hard to fill the roles by good people, and not bad too.

2. Ender listens to the evidence about the deaths of Stilson and Bonzo. His opinion about the deaths are not good because he feels like he is Peter and he didn't want to kill them, just hurt them enough so that they wouldn't hurt him anymore.

3. Valentine made sure that Ender could never return to Earth because she didn't want him to be in the hands of Peter, who pretty much had control of Earth.

4. What's ironic about Valentine’s statement about Peter saving millions of lives is that he is a killer at heart, so saving people seems like the opposite of his personality.

5. The knowledge that Ender gained to enable him to write The Hive-Queen was from the queen herself, when she told Ender how the buggers didn't know that humans were intelligent life forms, so they tried to kill us, but then realized what we were and left us alone, but it was too late.  So now they forgive us for killing them.

6. Ender publishes the book using the pseudonym “Speaker for the Dead” and not his own name because he doesn't want people to know that he wrote it because they wouldn't like him and think he cared about the buggers.

Orson Scott Card Article Response

  I think that Orson Scott Card's views on gay marriage don't affect my opinion of his book Ender's Game, because his personal opinions don't come up in the book, and personal life and careers should be separate.  I do think, however, that many people will choose not to read this book, any of his other books, or see the movie, because of his views, because they don't have his opinions.
    I don't think that Mr. Vack should take this book out of his class's reading curriculum, because even though he doesn't support gay marriage, Ender's Game is still a really well written book.  And besides, if he hasn't taken it out yet, he probably won't ever.
   The movie company trying to keep Orson "out of the limelight" is probably a good idea, because the more he is kept out of the public, the more people will watch the movie because they won't realize how much he had a part in it, see his views on gay marriage, and not watch the movie or read his books.
   This movie shouldn't be boycotted.  Just because Orson Scott Card is in it and all, it doesn't mean that you don't have to watch it. Say you didn't want it to be a popular movie and all, because of Orson Scott Card, but it seemed like a good movie to you, then watch it! It won't be unpopular just because you don't watch it. It's probably still going to be a great movie, so join in the fun!

CEJ #5

Harris, Gardiner
2/25/13

New York Times

World

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/world/asia/in-india-missing-school-to-work-in-the-mine.html?_r=0

Children Toil in India’s Mines, Despite Legal Ban

This article is about how children in India, as young as five years old, are working in mines to earn money to survive.  Most of these children are orphans, but some have families they work to feed.  There is an estimated amount of 70,000 kids working in about 5,000 mines.  Basically, what these kids do each day is go seventy feet down a bamboo staircase to a pit, crawl through a tunnel in mud about two feet high for about a hundred yards, and then start digging coal.  They don’t wear hard hats or steel toed boots, and stuff their ears with cloth.  A man named Kumar Subba watches over five mines in Meghalaya, in Northeast India.  He has about 130 people working for him, says that his mines produce about thirty tons of coal per day!  

I think that this isn’t right for kids to be working in dangerous mines everyday, because there is even a law in India saying that all children, ages six through fourteen need to go to school, but it isn’t really enforced.  There is about 28 million kids working in India instead!  Kids shouldn’t have to do this, because without wearing hard hats or steel toed boots, you’re almost literally lying at death’s door.  I think that India is not a very good place, because they don’t enforce their laws, and so many orphans are working there, so they probably don’t have orphanages.  They should at least make the mines safer, rather than having children climbing down wobbly staircases that could collapse at any moment, and having them crawl through tunnels only two feet high!  That’s really hard and unsafe.  These kids working in mines is not a good idea.

Ode to Chocolate

You're always there for me

Ready to fill my mouth

With your wonderful taste

You're a light in the dark

Something to look forward to

The one to cheer me up

You come in different kinds 

Dark, like the night

Milk, like a flower

And White, like the snow

Your minty swirl is like a cloud

Your raspberry tang like a bright butterfly

Melted, you're a chocolate river

Ready for someone to jump into

Drink it up, slurp

Chocolate heaven

And I'm good for the day

Ender's Game Questions Chapters 9-11

Chapter 9 – Locke and Demosthenes
1. There is a real battle, internally and unspoken, between Peter and Valentine. I think that Valentine is manipulating Peter, and has power over him because she doesn't show that she does, so he doesn't realize that she has power over him.

2. Ender is still angry because he doesn't have any fun at the battle school.  It's just work, training for the games.  The same thing over and over.

Chapter 10 – Dragon
1. Ender was the kind of leader that has much authority and power over everyone else.  He was strict and treated Bean like Graff had treated him.  He was this kind of leader because less instruction wouldn't work with an army, like it did with his practice group, or else they wouldn't follow him.

2. What Ender did to Bean was treated him like he was the only one who would make a good soldier, out of all his other soldiers.   He did it because it was what Graff had done to him, in his launch group.      
The teachers wanted him to do that.

3. Salaam means peace.  This tells you how there were many different races at the battle school and that the power of religious identity was strong because the only thing keeping the world in peace was the problem of the buggers.

4. What's important about the end of this chapter is that Ender has started to grow tough and stop crying, and not trust anybody.   Ender’s reaction wasn't a mistake by the teachers, because they wanted him to think that he couldn't trust anybody at the battleschool.

Chapter 11 – Veni Vidi Vici
1. The computer knows Ender well because it analyzes what he does in the game, and looks at his files from when he had the monitor.   It really does.

2. “Yes. That’s the worst that could happen. I can’t lose any games. Because if I lose any--” (page 198).  This quote means that if Ender loses any games, then the teachers will know that Ender isn't good enough to be a commander, and will lose hope in him.

3. The teachers are pushing Ender so hard because they want to break him so that he will make a good commander and be good in the battle against the buggers.

4. The importance of the last two sentences of the chapter is that it shows how Bean's ideas are stupid, but they are actually very clever if you know how to use them.

5. “Veni vidi vici” means, “I came; I saw; I conquered.”  This is an appropriate chapter title because Dragon army came to the battle against rabbit army, saw what to do, and then conquered them.

Drones: For Evil or Good?

Deadly, flying machines

Used for spying

Picture taking

Watching traffic,

And murdering!

Good for some things,

Yes

But meant for death

What should we do about them?

What laws should there be about them?

We don't know,

But this is what we do know

Just one click of a button

Will end a life

These machines are good for war

But no deadly ones should be sold to an average person

There are different kinds:

The Hummingbird

Small, perching on a tree

Looking in on one inside

The MQ-1 Predator

Made for hitting ground targets
And there are many more
Lots of different types
But all of these
Are not made for good
So why do we have them?
What good do they do us?
We will see

CEJ #4

Digital Tags Help Ensure the Price Is Right

Stross, Randall

New York Times

February 9

Technology

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/technology/digital-tags-help-ensure-that-the-price-is-right.html?pagewanted=1&ref=technology&_r=0

Have you ever wondered how times stores put a price on an item, and then there’s a different price on the screen for it when you go to check out?  There is a lot.  That’s why more and more stores are getting digital tags for their items, to ensure that customers get their things for the right price.  Most stores put about 5000 items on sale per week and remove the sale prices from a different set of 5000.  That’s what leads to mistakes, if you're changing 10,000 paper tags per week.  A digital tag and sensor maker, in San Jose, called Altierre, is selling the most of these digital tags right now.  They have a gray screen with black text, to save batteries, like calculators.  However, stores aren't switching all at once to this new idea.  The most probable answer is that they are afraid if they try it all at once, they will lose shoppers.
I think that this is a good thing because with this new technology, stores are less likely to make mistakes with their prices, because they can change the prices on their items without having to print all the tiny price tags out and put them on the shelves; they just change it on the computer.  Also, with these digital tags, less paper is wasted from changing 10,000 tags a week.  There are roughly 1.5 million stores in the United States.  That means that about 15 billion tags are produced per week.  That wastes a lot of paper.  So these digital tags are going to be really good.

CEJ #3

Cancer still kills more African-Americans than whites

Reuters, Andrew

Google News

2/5/13
Health

http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/05/16858566-cancer-still-kills-more-african-americans-than-whites

       This article is about how even though there has been drops in smoking with black men, cancer death rates for blacks are still higher than that for whites.  Some studies show that about 288 black men out of 100,000 die of cancer, and for white men it is only 217.  Researchers think that this is because they are less likely to get lung cancer, but have a better chance of dying from it if they do get it.  For black women, it’s about 181 per 100,000 and 155 for whites.  The numbers are more even, but black women still have a better chance of dying from lung or breast cancer than whites.  Carol DeSantis, from the American Cancer Society in Atlantis said "Unfortunately, as treatments improve and newer treatments are coming out, we will see a widening disparity if people don't have equal access.”
I think that it’s horrible how black people are more likely to die from cancer that other races are.   Hopefully this will change soon, but it might not.  At least blacks have stopped smoking as much.  Why they get cancer, is they get lung cancer from being addicted to smoking.  So they shouldn't smoke in the first place.  Maybe since all races have different things they’re good at, maybe blacks don’t have as good immune systems as whites and other races?  So if they smoke they get cancer faster than others.  I think that doctors can, or will, develop ways to stop cancer in the years to come.

Ender's Game Questions Chapters 6-8

Chapter 6 – The Giant’s Drink
1. The purpose of the Giant's Game is that the game wants to see what Ender would do in a situation like that.  He evaluated his success by thinking he was like Peter and was a murderer, but he should've thought that he just was trying to survive in his fantasy game. He is not a murderer because he killed the giant in self defense, and it was just a game!

Chapter 7 – Salamander
1. Alai said to Ender "Salaam."  It is important because it shows that races didn't matter then.  Also, it shows that there was world peace because of the buggers. 

2. The "just living" mentioned in this chapter means that your living, without anything to do.  No objectives in life, and you're at peace with yourself.  It's true that Ender has never done this because he always has to train hard in the battleroom, and before that defend himself from Peter.  What Ender wants out of his life is to be happy.  If I was him I would want to just live and be happy, and also wouldn't want to be at the battle school.

3.  Petra helped Ender by practicing in the battleroom with him during free time and training him.  Their friendship is a hindrance to Ender because she was a girl and it split Salamander Army apart, and also Petra is an outcast, so if Ender is working with her, then he is more likely to be an outcast too.

4. What Ender learned about leadership and tactics from Bonzo is that if you're strict, people follow you easier, and they fear you.  Also, he learned how the well-rehearsed formations they had were a mistake because it made them predictable, and they wouldn't know what to do when the enemy attacked the formations.

Chapter 8 – Rat
1. Graff's quote, “Ender Wiggin is ten times smarter and stronger than I am.”means that Ender knew how to use his cleverness and could easily outsmart people.  Graff was saying he wasn't smart in battle, but he was pretty smart in bringing out Ender Wiggin's clever side.  Also, Ender was stronger than he knew, and Graff wanted to see that.

2. What is significant about the quote “So teach me.” “So learn,” is that you can't learn battle skills from other people, you have to figure it out yourself so you can think up better formations and things to do in battle, and also you won't be trusting somebody to be there for you, and then they're not.

3. Ender’s response to an attack is significant because he would make a good commander because of how he tells the boys in his class what to do to get away safely, and he is really good without gravity because of how he can reorient himself.  Also, this is just a test by teachers to see if he should be a commander and I think he passed.

4. The scene with the snake and Peter's reflection represented that Ender thought he was like Peter, but didn't want to be like him.

5. The game knows because it follows Ender's actions around the Battle School, has access to when Ender had his monitor, when Peter tortured him, and so figured out that Ender didn't want to be like Peter.

6. The importance of the last paragraph of this chapter is that it showed how Ender didn't want to do this, and he hated how every time he hurt somebody, he felt like Peter.  Also, he felt like he was just a tool, and wasn't important to anybody, just a tool they would use to fix something, like a hammer.

My Video Game Design

     If I could design a video game, I would make it so you could be any character you wanted.  It would be a game different from any others.  If a bunch of people were playing, it would be the same game for each person, but on different levels you're doing different things.  So say you decided that you wanted your character to be a zebra, then the game would be more safari like, and at the end of each level you would change into a different character that you pick and go into a new scene.  The computer, or whatever your playing the game on, makes the game do things based on your actions in it. 
     You have to complete objectives in the game and the computer would take away the mini-games you don't like, and replace it with something you like better.  Again if your a zebra, you would maybe start out chasing an animal, and then run away from a human trying to catch you.  Then you would go through an obstacle course or something or other, and after that, you start a new level with a new character you pick, and the game is a little harder in a new scene.  If you don't complete the level, at different points there's checkpoints that you pass, and you can start from those, or the beginning of the level.
     Also, you try to collect coins throughout the game, as you do in many others, and you can use the coins to buy clothing, accessories, power-ups, and utilities.  The power-ups would include a coin magnet, a boost where you go so many feet in the game without having to do anything, or a mega coin boost, where you get a lot of coins at once.  You can use these power-ups during the game where there is a symbol on the ground and you run over it to use it.  You can upgrade them with coins so that they last longer, or you get more coins.  The utilities you could get would be headstarts, or a resurrection button (one use only or a certain number of times in a game).
     When you play, there would be things you have to jump over, slide under, or go to the left or right.  You slide your finger down to slide, slide it up to jump, and slide to the left and right to go in either of those directions (in the game, you have to follow a path, and have to turn, and to go to the left or right sides of the paths you slide your finger the sames ways.
     So, in my game, it's almost like do it yourself because for everybody playing it, it will be almost like a different game.  I would try to make it sort of addicting, so people would play it a lot, but I think it would be everyone's favorite anyway.