Somebody that has been influential in my life is my mom. She is very special to me because she is supportive of me for everything in life and she is very kind to me. Some of my favorite things about her are she helps me if I’m struggling with something and she gives good advice about what to do if I don’t know what to do. Some more reasons why I’m thankful to have her in my life are she always helps me get ready for school and she makes a large majority of my meals. As you can see by the reasons listed above I am very thankful to have my mom in my life.

This week my goal for my project was to complete five Duolingo lessons. I crushed my goal by completing eight lessons. This week I learned that in Spanish instead of saying cheese sandwich you say sandwich of cheese, in this case it would be “sándwich de queso” in Spanish. Another Spanish word I learned this week was “pagar” which means to pay and “cuenta” which means check. Some of my successes this week were destroying my goal with a new high score of lessons completed in a week. This week was perfect and there were no struggles for me, therefore I had no adjustments to make. This week I also mastered Spanish numbers one through ten with Logan on note cards. Next week I will be focusing solely on my poster, doing things such as taping up basics words and phrases and making it look nice for the 20% project event.

This month I read a book called Heat by Mike Lupica. In this book the main character is a boy named Michael Arroyo. Michael lives in New York City with Mrs. Cora after his dad passes away. He plays baseball on a travel team, the Clippers, and is the team’s 80 mile per hour throwing ace. However his dad’s death is a secret to everyone other than Mrs. Cora, Michael, and his brother Carlos. When the authorities begin asking questions, Michael and his brother’s future becomes uncertain.

I would definitely recommend this book. This book is really good because of all of the challenges that Michael faces are applicable to everyone such as friendship difficulties. I picked this book because I wanted to read a book about baseball. My favorite character in this book is Michael because he is positive. On page 160 the text states, “‘You can put your bat on him, even if it’s just for a bunt.’” This quote is when the Clippers are down to their final out before the game begins extra innings and Bobby Cameron, the team’s worst hitter is up to hit against the opposing team’s best pitcher Corey Allen. Michael is the third base coach and he encourages Bobby well. This shows that Michael is extremely encouraging.

My favorite quote from the book is, “Now the cheer from inside Yankee Stadium was for him.” (220) This quote is meaningful to me because Michael and his baseball team has overcame so many challenges to get to the finals. This quote occurs when throws a first pitch strike at Yankees Stadium.

This week my goal was to finish five Duolingo lessons. I accomplished my goal by completing with six lessons completed. I learned more helpful Spanish words and phrases today such as “tren” and “autobus” which means train and bus. Some successes I experienced this week were completing more than my goal with six lessons. Another success that happened to me was I am now promoted to earn experience points in the gold league. You practice to get experience points and they help you achieve a higher rank which can eventually help you get promoted to a higher league. This week was perfect and I had no struggles this week. A adjustment I will make next week is trying even harder to finish even more lessons than six on Duolingo. Specifically, I will try to really work hard on completing my weekly goal of five lessons. Next week, I will resume my goal to try and accomplish my goal of finishing five Duolingo lessons.

This week my goal was to complete five Duolingo lessons. I successfully accomplished my goal by completing with six lessons completed. I learned more helpful Spanish words and phrases today such as “mucho gusto” which means nice to meet you. Some successes I experienced this week were completing more than my goal with six lessons. Another success that happened to me was I am now at the top of my silver league. You practice to get experience points and they help you achieve a higher rank which can eventually help you get promoted to a higher league. I only had one struggle this week and that was three times I ran out of hearts and had to practice to regain them. A adjustment I will make next week is trying even harder to finish even more lessons than six on Duolingo. Specifically, I will try to really work hard on completing my weekly goal of five lessons. Next week, as I previously mentioned, I will continue to try and accomplish my manageable goal of finishing five Duolingo lessons.

The room in my home that is my favorite is my living room. There are multiple reasons for this room being my favorite of them all. One reason is this is where I rest and sometimes sleep after school. After school once I put my backpack away for the day I lie down on the soft, blue couch. Later at night, if the Dodgers are playing me and my family (not always my brother) watch the Dodgers play on our Samsung TV. We sit back and put our feet up on our beige wooden coffee table. Typically at that time of day, our dogs will sleep with us on the couch or on the cement mantel. There are so many reasons while my living room is the favorite room of my house.

This week my goal was to complete five Duolingo lessons. I fell just short with four lessons completed. A big reason for this was the excessive amount of ads this week and me making to many mistakes and running out of hearts. Duolingo limits the number of questions you can get wrong by giving you hearts and I struggled with getting some of the new words right. If you get a question wrong, you lose a heart and you only get three per day. Some successes I experienced this week were learning the Spanish colors with Logan. I only had one struggle this week and that was not completing my goal of five Duolingo lessons. A adjustment I will make next week is working more on Duolingo. Specifically, I will try to really work hard on completing my weekly goal of five lessons. Next week, as I previously mentioned, I will continue to try and accomplish my manageable goal of five Duolingo lessons.

It was a sunny, beautiful day for baseball at Dodgers Stadium. Game seven of the World Series was set to take place between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Houston Astros. The Astros defeated the Red Sox in Game seven of the championship series and the Dodgers defeated the Phillies in six games. Dedicated fans were just beginning to show up and find their seats to support the Dodgers. On the mound for the Astros was the veteran Lance McCullers Jr. meanwhile getting ready in the Dodgers bullpen was the young, lively arm of Bobby Miller. As the Astros finished taking their hacks during batting practice the Dodgers elite lineup walked out onto the field. A couple of hours later the Astros leadoff man Jose Altuve strode into the batters box and immediately was doused with boos from the Dodger fans. These two franchises have some history in the World Series as they met back in 2018 to clash for the trophy. The Astros did emerge victorious, however further investigation revealed the Astros had cheated using signs to communicate with the hitters accumulating the nickname the Trashtros. They used the center field camera to see the catcher’s signs and then they banged on a trash can to tell the hitter the pitch type.

Miller fired a first pitch strike at 100 miles per hour. Since coming into the league in 2023 Miller has the highest average fastball velocity for a starting pitcher. Yet again Miller gave some heat to Altuve, who took a swing and a miss at the high cheese. The next pitch was a changeup in the lower part of the strike zone and Altuve was just late on it, hitting it foul down the right field line. The next pitch Miller delivered a perfect slide at 91 miles per hour and it got the whiff from the Houston second baseman giving Bobby his first strikeout of the ballgame. The left handed right fielder Kyle Tucker hit next for the Astros and he popped up the first pitch he saw the slugging third baseman Max Muncy retreated into the outfield to make the catch and it was now two outs. The power hitting lefty Yordan Alvarez stood in the batter’s box next and the first pitch he saw he launched into left field. Teoscar Hernandez the Dodgers left fielder leaped on the warning track and robbed Alvarez of a dinger. Cheers erupted from the crowd as Hernandez held the ball up for the umpires to see. Teammates swarmed him with high fives as he jogged back into the Dodger’s dugout.

The Dodgers got their helmets on and they were ready to face Lance McCullers Jr. Mookie Betts, the multi-time All Star who had also worn a Red Sox uniform in his career, was set to leadoff for LA. He took the first pitch in the dirt and it was blocked by the Astros’ catcher, the second year player, Yainer Diaz. Betts put a good swing on the next pitch and the crack rippled through the air as the ball soared into the left field concourse for a leadoff home run. The lights flashed and music echoed through the stadium as Mookie jogged around the bases giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Next came the 700 million dollar two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani. Ohtani quickly got ahead of McCullers with a 3-0 count. McCullers served up a cookie to Ohtani and it was crushed and off the wall for a triple. Next came the veteran talent Freddie Freeman. Freeman hit a deep fly ball into center field but Jake Meyers caught it just shy of the wall. Ohtani tagged up for home and Meyers had no chance at throwing him out from that deep in center. The cleanup hitter, the young number one catcher in MLB, Will Smith was the next to hit for the Dodgers. The first pitch he saw he took a swing and a miss at a fastball in on the hands. The next pitch was in a similar location but this time McCullers used his change up and Smith fouled it back behind the plate out of play. The count was nothing a two and with two strikes Smith took a swing and he drove it deep to right field for an opposite field 439 foot home run. An irritated Astros pitching coach walked out to the mound to have a word with the Astros’ starting pitcher and the infield, while the right-handed reliever Rafael Montero began to loosen up the Houston bullpen. Next came the hot corner Max Muncy who quickly struck out on just three pitches. Teoscar Hernandez followed Max with a strikeout on seven pitches. After a 25 pitch first inning McCullers finally could sit down on the dugout bench.

Seven innings later the score was 13-2 Astros. Due to the fact that Dodgers closing pitcher Evan Phillips, who attained a rib fracture during an end of season game against the Diamondbacks, Brusdar Graterol came into the game in the top of the ninth. Graterol was not a bad make-shift closer in fact, on many other teams he would have that role in the bag. Graterol had shown back to back impressive years out of the pen, this season posting a 1.46 ERA in 63 games. Graterol delivered his first pitch to the first baseman Jose Abreu who popped it up in foul territory. The catcher Smith tossed his mask and made the grab for the first out in the ninth. The next hitter for Houston was unlucky as well as Yainer Diaz chased in the dirt for a strikeout. Next to hit for Houston was the center fielder Meyers. Meyers knocked a base hit into center field but it was irrelevant as the second baseman Altuve struck out looking at 102 miles per hour from Graterol.

Now the Dodgers had to pull of something near impossible. They had to come back from a nine run deficit with only three outs to do it. The nine hole hitter Gavin Lux smashed a double into the right field gap. Betts tried a bunt to move him over and it was perfect. The unsuspecting third baseman Bregman lunged forward for the bunt but his throw was way late and Lux advanced and Betts was now on first base. When Mookie swiped second base Yainer Diaz let him have it without a throw from behind the plate. It was now second and third for LA. The next pitch Ohtani saw he hit it to the moon with a 498 foot home run. The Dodgers were now getting closer with the score now being 13-5 Astros. Freeman walked. He stole second. Smith hit a double. Freeman scored. Muncy hit a sacrifice fly. Smith advanced to third base. Hernandez hit a home run. 13-8 Astros. Outman hit a home run. Heyward hit a single. Taylor, who was pinch hitting for Gavin Lux, took a walk. Betts walked. Ohtani delivered with another big fly and the score was now 13-12 Astros. Two outs was all the Dodgers lineup had left to work with to score at least one run. Freeman smashed a double on the sixth pitch of his at bat. Up came the catcher Will Smith. Ryan Pressly, the second Astros pitcher of the inning, delivered a fastball at 94 just below the knees. The next pitch was a swing and a miss for the Dodgers backstop and the count was even at one. Smith took another cut and a whiff on the next pitch. The next one, as explained by Ryan Pressly in the post-game press interview, apparently “Slipped out of my hand.” It was 96 straight at the helmet of Smith. He was nailed and the umpire warned Pressly. As boos from fans were instantly directed at Pressly. Smith jogged to first and up came Max Muncy. The hot corner took a swing and the first ball from Pressly and it was a pop towards shortstop handled by Jeremy Peña for the second out. It was all down to Teoscar Hernandez. Hernandez was one of the many expensive signings of the Dodgers offseason of 2023 other notable names included Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow. Hernandez whiffed on the first two from Pressly and it quickly became 0-2 to the left fielder. Pressly got the sign from Diaz and strode down the rubber throwing way above the mitt of Diaz. Both runners advanced. But what happened next was something Pressly would regret the rest of his career. A curve slipped from the tips of his fingers right down the pipe to Hernandez and while Pressly missed, Hernandez did not hammering the pitch to dead center for a walk-off, World Series winning, no-doubt bomb for Teoscar Hernandez. Teammates and coaches swarmed him as the cheers from the stadium could be heard around the world. When Hernandez received the World Series MVP honors no one was surprised. That is how the Dodgers won the World Series.

Hi my name is Luke and my topic for my 20% project I chose to learn Spanish on Duolingo. This week I had a goal to finish five Duolingo lessons. I barely accomplished this goal by finishing exactly five lessons. I began by also using the Google translator to learn some key and basic words and phrases of the language. Some successes I experienced this week were learning basic words and phrases such as house, school, car and food on Google Translate. Another success was when I completed my goal of finishing five Spanish Duolingo lessons. This week was a great week and nothing went wrong so therefore, I didn’t have to make any adjustments. Next week I will continue advancing my knowledge using Duolingo and I will be using very little if not no Google Translate at all. Next week, my goal will be indentical, completing another five Duolingo lessons.

Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernandez and Will Smith are three people I would love to invite to dinner. All of these people are Dodgers players. Mookie Betts is a utility second baseman, shortstop and outfielder. Teoscar Hernandez plays left and right field while Will Smith spends his MLB time behind home plate catching. I would like to invite Mookie to my dinner because he is a very nice person and he also thrives on my favorite MLB team, the Dodgers. Teoscar shares the same qualities as Betts and he is my hero. He has also played on some of my favorite MLB teams, the Dodgers and Blue Jays. Finally, I would invite Will Smith because he could help me improve my catching skills. With Will, Mookie, and Teoscar our gourmet steak dinner would be cooked by Gordon Ramsay. For dessert, we would have chocolate cake and chocolate mousse.