Wisdom, and Its Tales of Glory

Posted on by 30aaronw

 

Do you like wisdom? Do you like hearing about how wisdom can be turned into a comic? I didn’t think so. At least about that second one. But If you like both things, then I’ve got the blog post for you! In this post, I will be talking about how I read, converted into a comic, and made a blog post about a wisdom tale!

So, if you’re unfamiliar, we do this unit in Language Arts where we read a bunch of these stories from this book called Wisdom Tales from Around the World. We do summaries on each one. This year, we did 20 total wisdom tales. I picked my favorite and a popular choice, The Smuggler.

You might be quite underwhelmed by my  drawings, and I do not blame you for feeling that way. You might also be able to notice that I actually only drew the smuggler once, and that I only drew the donkey twice. I saved about two hours of drawing time just by adding photos of the characters. That is how I ended up drawing absolutely nothing on the final panel. I only had to spend 30 minutes on redrawing characters.

I drew this comic on Sketchbook, a drawing app with a lot of great features and utensils. For example, the ability to lasso and move objects. Sketchbook is a completely free and amazing app that I totally recommend it! Now, the drawing app that I will not recommend is Paper By Fifty-Three. I have tried Paper By Fifty-Three, and I disliked it. It has half of the features that Sketchbook has, and you need a premium subscription to still not get as many features a Sketchbook.

The other app that I used to make the comic is Comic Life. Comic life is a very useful app for people aspiring to make comics for a living. The app contains multiple templates for making you comic, and multiple fonts for your titles. You also have access to multiple speech bubbles that you can use to make your comic perfect. Another feature on top of that is that you can put your pictures into your comic by looking at your photos and selecting the picture that you want.

We had someone come and help us with strategies for  drawing our comics called Brittain Peck. He’s an illustrator and makes drawings about all sorts of things. He does murals, illustrates advertisements, you name it! He talked to us about how you can look at different things different ways. An often times overlooked part about art is that you don’t actually need to be super detailed with your work to make it look good. You can just arrange shapes in a nice style to make a great drawing.

The moral of this story is that something could be hidden in plain sight. The summary of this story is:  One day, a wise smuggler came to the border connecting two lands. He was stopped by a guard. The guard searched through all of the hay on the donkey, but couldn’t find anything. In the end, the thing the smuggler was smuggling was a donkey. This story was my favorite because of its comical aspect. The “think outside of the box” aspect was perfect when it met the story line. Would you pick this story too?

I worked really hard on this project, and I’ve got the blog post, comic, and slideshow to show for it. It was really fun working together on this project, especially the comic part. I hope you enjoyed this post and look at others on my page. I have plans to make a school paper, and have updates every week on what’s going on at Durham Academy. Thanks!

Planking For Seven Weeks Straight

Posted on by 30aaronw

Planking

                For 7 Weeks Strait

                                               (Kind Of)

               

           So I know what you are thinking. You planked for 7 WEEKS straight!?! Well, not really. I planked every day or, well, almost every day on some days. I did plank and I did benefit from it. I was 4th in our plank challenge of 14 people, at 7 minutes 30 seconds. My goal was to make the top three, but I couldn’t reach that mark. I gained a lot and proved to myself that I am strong. That battle was all about mental strength, and that’s what I showed. I’ll tell you how you can do that too, with anything really.

                           

So we first started this challenge in late October, when most of us could barely last 2 minutes. I had done multiple planks before this challenge, so I was ready. We began this challenge going for 30 seconds each class. Then we started moving up by 15 seconds each week. You’d think that that would be a lot of time, but it really was easy when you do it. The compound effect of planking each day piled up.

For the next daily habit, I am challenging myself to do 1 minute of basketball but every day the amount of time doubles. This may not seem like a lot, but I’ll be doing 64 minutes in a week. That will get me back in playing shape because I’ll be starting my new AAU season in a month. Getting back to the Language Arts challenge, I noticed that I was really not that consistent. I would either not mark down the day, or just not do the plank, but I was doing a CrossFit workout for 1 hour every week, so that likely helped.

I noticed how much easier planking is. I probably couldn’t plank for 1 minute before, but now I’m constantly hitting 5 minutes in my sleep. I did not have perfect form, looking back on it, but I did still last as long as I did. The pain of guilt that came with not doing a day, coupled with the fear of regret for not being consistent, got me to last much longer. So when I did the planking, I was going over the base time. It was satisfying to get the work done, like finishing your work the day before summer break. I didn’t really do this challenge with anybody other than occasional timing with friends. Other than that, I didn’t really work with anybody that much. 

Another daily habit that I will be doing is doing one push up but every day. The amount of push up I do doubles for seven days. I am already done with the first 4, but it’s about to get really hard. I’m trying to become stronger and more athletic with this challenge, so I can become the best basketball player possible.

So after all of that planking, I am happy to announce: That YOU should do something like this. It will improve your abilities in all of the things that you want to improve on. You could do this with basketball, sit-ups, pull ups, anything. The compounding skill that you’ll earn from this experience will amaze you. So please, do try this.

My Reading Story

Posted on by 30aaronw

Image rights from Sora

Image rights from Sora

The greatest book is the deepest book, one that you just cannot put down. That’s what a good book should do, suck you in. You can’t stop, won’t stop, and just need more. In this blog post, I will be talking about my favorite books, and how they suck me in, like a clean, worded, vacuum cleaner of wonder. 

One of my favorite books right now is The Soul of Basketball, by Ian Thomsen.

Yes, that is how you spell his last name. The reason why this book is so good is because of the way it’s written. The lore of which explains the history of basketball, the history of the NBA, and the suspense of which he carries for 100 pages. Finally, he showed LeBron James go to Miami to win chips along with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. This book has 750 pages in it, so I’m not going to be putting it down any time soon. What’s your favorite book? Put your answer in the comments section below.

The best book is one that’s not too long, or short. A smooth, 250 pages. I know, ironic coming from the guy whose favorite book is 3 times as long as that, but that’s usually the case with books. They can’t be too long, because then the reader will feel guilty when they can’t finish it because it’s too boring. But it can’t be too short because what if the book is a masterpiece, but only 50 pages. The reader will feel sad, because the book’s already done. But with a nice 250 page book, the book won’t feel too long, but isn’t too short. If a book is bad, and too long, you’ve wasted your money. If a book’s too short, and great, you’re sad. So a nice 250 page book can be finished in 15 to 25 days if you pace yourself. 

I am going to be honest. Reading is usually boring for me. I’d much rather play basketball at my house or kick field goals on our miniature post. But when it comes down to it, I can love reading. Some books just aren’t for me, and I am a picky reader. But reading is possibly the most healthy non exercising hobby. It has helped with anxiety when I feel stressed. It has helped me with my well being. You should read too, because it could help you with these problems.

 

My Bumpy Basketball Journey

Posted on by 30aaronw

Image created by Aaron

Today I will be talking about my Basketball Journey.

This story begins with my brother. He had just been born, and we had to move me into the guest bedroom. He slept in the small bedroom that I used to sleep in for one year, that was until we moved. I remember that small house vividly, but I still come to see the outside part of it every once in a while. Along with us moving, me and Jacob, my little brother, had to switch schools. I went to two other children’s campuses before my kindergarten year. My first children’s campus before we moved was a nice preschool with plenty of outdoor activities and space. That was where I met my best friends Will and Evan. They play a huge part in this story, but more on that later. The second one I went to was a small, cold place with a terrible playground. I had no friends, was the oldest in my class, and it just wasn’t fun. But tied for the worst one is the newest, biggest of them all. It wasn’t the classroom or the size that was the problem. It was the fact that they expected 4 year-olds to have fun on a flat turf with nothing. The playground was just bad. Now for the fun part. I was a rising kindergartener, and was about to pick my school. I was going to pick Duke school, because the visit to the school was the most fun. That was what was going on in my head. 4 year-olds are very simple. But then I saw a video of some Durham academy graduates walking in the school with some graduation gowns. So I picked D.A. That was the best decision of my life.

Once I got to kindergarten, my parents would consistently have me go to Extended Day. This would be the first time I actually shot a basketball. I made a new friend named Noah, and we would spend most of our time together during Extended Day. Noah would usually have to leave around 4:15, while I had to leave at 5:30. I spent all the time I didn’t have with Noah with a basketball just shooting around on an eight foot hoop.

One day, I decided to reach out to this other kid. He was about three inches shorter than me, and was a grade below. His name was Kai, and we still share a rivalry to this day. This kid would always be there to one vs one me, and I would start doing that once I was halfway through kindergarten.

I should also note that Noah will also play a pretty significant role in this story. Later. I promise.

I kept shooting a basketball for one hour and fifteen minutes, five days a week for two and a half years. And playing Kai, of course. Then, during spring break, it happened. Covid 19 happened. I was without a ball at my side for 2 years. Until fourth grade. That’s when I could play the sport that I loved most again.

When fourth grade started, I began playing i9 sports basketball. That was the league that I played in for 5 seasons, totaling 3 championships. But in my 3rd season, I started playing with Will and Evan. The last 3 seasons were spent with the boys that I still play with to this day. One time, me and my 10 year old best friends went off, and so did the rest of our team. We played a 36 minute game, and our team scored a total of 81 points. The most in i9 history. And the other team scored a historic 6 points. We beat them by 75 points. That would be an NBA record. When we were 2 thirds of the way through fifth grade, I began doing Woodcroft. I had my best game ever with 17 points. This was also when I started playing with Noah, and Owen. I told you that he would come in at some point. No championships, though.

Once Woodcroft ended, I started playing AAU. I still currently play AAU with my friends Jonah, Silas, Noah, Will, Evan, Other Noah, Big Josh, Steven, and Jack. We’ve won one tournament, in which I wasn’t present. But that’s the league that I play in today. This was also the league that I set my new career high. 23 points. Most of anyone in my grade. In AAU, because, this kid, that’s also named Aaron, has dropped 30 in Woodcroft. 

Thank you for listening to my story. It took about a week to write this, but 6 years and counting to get the story part. Bye!

Camp Kirkwood

Posted on by 30aaronw

I remember the camp Kirkwood trip like it was yesterday. So let me tell you what happened.

So, the trip was from Durham, N.C, to Watha, N.C. When we got off the bus, tired from a two hour bus ride, we immediately went to a pavilion that was built like a basketball court. It was pouring. We took a random bag to the pavilion, learned the rules of the camp, and we headed to our cabins. It was an actual hurricane. After we got to our cabins, we had to unpack our stuff. This didn’t take too long, thankfully. After we unpacked our stuff, we got out the raincoats and got out the door to head to lunch.

When we got to the cafeteria, there were already three other cabins there. They were sitting by advisory, but some people woke up today, and decided that they were going to do the exact opposite of what they were supposed to do. So there was no place for me, and the rest of the kids in my advisory group to sit. So the teachers just said, “Sit wherever you want.” So I sat with Jonah, Ajay, and Aaron. We had a beautiful lunch of very bad looking ham and cheese sandwiches. Delish.

I made a half court shot in boys vs girls and won it for us in the first 30 seconds of the battle ball. Battle ball is dodgeball, but if you make it in your opponent’s basket with the pink ball, you win.

Fast forward to after lunch, we got to go to the V swing. A V swing is a swing that swings you in the shape of a V. And does that reeeeally high up. When I went, I screamed at the top of my lungs. Then everybody else had to embarrass me by not screaming. 

At the end of the trip, we had to take the longest ride I’ve ever been on. Or at least it felt like that. When I got in my mom’s car, I was exhausted. I probably slept for, like, 9 hours. The trip was fine, the rides were torturous, and the rain was brutal, but this trip was still fun.