Recommendation Report

May 1st, 2013

To: Mother

From: Daughter

Subject: Recommendation to visit Miami, FL

As you requested, I have investigated and have come up with two perfect destinations for our annual summer trip! The purpose of this is to recommend two cities that we should visit this summer. After plenty of research, I have narrowed down the search to two spots: Miami and New York City. With your comments and suggestions in mind, I have developed the following criteria that will most likely support our decision:

1. Airfare cost

2. Hotel cost

3. Things to Do

                                                         Recommendation

I recommend that we visit Miami this summer for our trip. I believe that Miami is more suitable for our lifestyle because we are outside, beach-loving people! The weather would be very convenient for us, since we would be going in mid June. I also recommend that the dates we travel there are from June 21, 2013 through June 29th, 2013.

                                                          Discussion

AIRFARE COST

Flying across the country could get pretty spendy, depending on what city, state or country you’re flying to, as well as if you fly economy or first class.

Miami

On June 21st, 2013 at 6:40 am, we could be on a flight to Miami from San Diego via Delta Airlines. We would return to San Diego on June 29th, 2013 at 8:44 pm. The round-trip airfare cost would average out to $639 per person, totaling out to $1,479.

New York City

On June 21, 2013 at 6:20 am, we could fly to NYC from San Diego via Delta Airlines. The day we would return would be July 6th, 2013 for various reasons. The total cost of the round-trip flight would be $1,139.60, which is $340 cheaper than Miami airfare.

Conclusion: Even though the NYC airfare is $340 cheaper, I think Miami is more suitable because of our likes  and also because of the outrageously cheaper hotel cost in the next criteria.

HOTEL

We want to stay in a fabulous, great customer service-equipped hotels and all of the qualities of each of this would be more than perfect for our likes and we would enjoy our stay very much.

The Palms Hotel

After researching this magnificent hotel and reading a few of their past customer’s positive reviews, The Palms Hotel in Miami would be absolutely perfect for us, as it sits right on the beach! The hotel and spa is open to all of its booked guests, as well as many other amenities. The cost per night is $260.25, which equal out to a total of $2,082.

Marriott Downtown.

The Marriott Hotel in downtown New York is one of the most fanciest hotels in New York City. It’s pretty costly, but they offer what would be a tremendous visit. The cost per night is about $271, making the total be $4,640.

Conclusion

Coming to a conclusion, I think that the Palms Hotel in Miami would be our best pick because even though the Marriott Downtown in NYC is much more fancy than Palms hotel, the Palms Hotel is $2,558 cheaper and I feel as if we would have a more enjoyable time if we knew we saved over $2,000.

THINGS TO DO

Miami and NYC are both known for being tourist cities and they both have a great and wide selection of activities we could enjoy while we stay.

Miami

In Miami, there are so many things we could do while we stay! One of the activities I would really love to do and I know you would too, is to go jet-skiing. A company called Miami Jet Ski Rental has rates of $129 per person for an hour and I think that that is a reasonable for jet-skiing in Miami. The most costliest activity on this trip that we could also do would be to rent a yacht from Tropical Boat Charters! They have different prices for every two hours you spend on the boat and I think that 4 hours would be suitable for us, which would total out to $1,600. The yacht holds approximately 12 people. Spending $1,600 on just one activity seems like a lot of money, but it won’t go over our budget. The last spendy activity that would be so much fun would be to......swim with the dolphins! I found a great place called Dolphins plus in Key Largo, FL that charges $195 for 45 minutes per swimmer! We could of course have to drive to Key Largo which only be an hour and fifteen minute trip. Some of the more less costly things we could do could be as simple as visiting the Miami Seaquarium, going to the Miami Zoo, enjoying the plenty of beautiful beaches and spending more money on shopping! Other days that we won’t have to spend much money, we could just relax in the hotel pool and go out to lunch.

New York City

There are many things to do and a lot of them are free, which is always a plus. To start with the more spendy activities, one day of our trip, we could go river rafting. We would have to drive up to the border of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but our destination would be the Delaware Water Gap and the car ride is an hour and twenty-five minutes but it’s definitely worth it. The cost is $58 per person for a 2 hour water adventure! Another water activity is of course jet-skiing! A company Rockaway Jet Ski has rates of $75 per person for an hour ride. The most expensive thing we would pay for on this trip, would be to rent a yacht for the 4th of July, but I think it would be an excellent choice. We could rent Francesca’s Touch Of Class” at a rate of $1,700 for 4 hours! Some of the very less expensive activities are as simple as exploring Central Park, looking at all the exciting chaos in Grand Central Station, visiting the crazy Times Square, going into the Empire State Building, looking at the art in the American Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History and lastly, going shopping in the huge shopping district!

Conclusion

I think that Miami is still the best pick we could possibly choose. Both NYC and Miami have plenty to do and we would have fun in either city, but Miami would be cheaper and we would have more fun and be comfortable in Miami because the beaches are always calling our name!

Biography of Oprah Winfrey

Element 1:

Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29,1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi. After she was born, Oprah’s mother left her with her grandmother and she lived a rather unpleasant life in her early years.

Element 2&3 (combined):

Oprah as a child

Oprah’s childhood was different from a rich kid’s one. Oprah lived in horrible poverty with her grandmother for 6 years. Her grandmother was very poor and struggled to support Oprah throughout her early years. After 6 years of living in poverty, Oprah’s mother came back into her life and they moved to Wisconsin. Oprah had a half sister and another sister after the second one was born but Oprah wasn’t around them much. Oprah’s mom spent more time with her half-sister than she did with her mom for long. Oprah then lived with her father in Nashville. Oprah then got sent back to live with her mother, but her mother was still never around as much.

Oprah then had come to a time in her life where she experienced a horrific experience. She remembers that she was raped and physically abused. She would always be left with different relatives to get babysat at times. Those times she would get raped and the first time, she was raped by her 19 year old cousin. After that, she was told to keep quiet about the rape. After that, it continued to happen and she wasn’t just raped by her cousin. Another time she was raped by her uncle and other people she knew.

Oprah’s school life was different than other kid’s but in a good way. Oprah excelled in school and her teachers definitely noticed. Oprah learned was taught how to read by her grandmother at age 3. Oprah wasn’t in kindergarten very until she skipped to 1st grade. After she skipped to 1st grade, she then moved to a different school and had skipped another grade once again. Oprah had always been great and smart when it came to reading, writing and public speaking.

Element 4:

Oprah only had a few hobbies and interests, but she was always very passionate and committed to them. Oprah has always loved to read as soon as her grandmother first started giving her books to read. She was an accelerated reader and that’s why she skipped 2 grades when she should’ve been in kindergarten. She also enjoyed to watch a lot of tv because she had plenty of free time to do that. When Oprah felt alone as a child, tv is what she turned to. That’s when she realized that she wanted pursue something in media.

Element 5:

When Oprah was just 9, she had become a victim of sexual and physical abuse. She wasn’t just raped one time, it had happened for 5 years after that. The first time she was raped by one of her family members, but never told anyone. Oprah described it as the most traumatic experiences she ever had to go through. After her first rape, it kept on happening over and over. She was physically abused by her uncle, cousins and family-friends; not just raped. When Oprah’s tv show began, she had addressed her issue and came out about the sexual abuse that she had been through, hoping to encourage others to come out about the situation if they were going through the same thing. When Oprah was 14, she found out that she was pregnant. She didn’t have a boyfriend or anything. She was still being raped at the age of 14 and one of the people that she knew that was raping her, was the father.

Element 6:

Oprah on her tv show.

Oprah knew what she wanted her to career to be when she was little. Her career actually started out when she was in high school. She was hired by a WVOL, a radio station to do the news while she was continuing her education through high school and college. After that, she was hired at 2 more stations. The 2nd one she was hired at was WLAC-TV, which she was the first black female anchor. After that, in Baltimore, she was a co-anchor for WZJ-TV. How Oprah got her own tv show was from hosting another tv show called, AM Chicago. The previous show owner gave the rights over to Oprah after the audience was clearly more interested in her. The first episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show aired on September 8,1986. Oprah would talk about a variety of different topics on her show and have many guests be the attention of her show. Not only was she on tv, but also in film. Oprah has been in 2 movies and then written a script for 1. Oprah had much more than that also in her work profile. She had created her own magazine named O, the Oprah Magazine and that had been on the market from 2004-2008.

Element 7:

Oprah today.

Oprah’s fame is one of the biggest topics in the world. Her career started in the early 1980’s and her name has never disappeared since. Her first career experience was for a radio station, WVOL. A lot of people had heard of her because of her involvement in the community. After she was hosting many tv shows, one of the shows which was AM Chicago was renamed to the Oprah Winfrey show and that’s when her career expanded and skyrocketed big time. Everyone watched her show and it got millions of views. Oprah has always been involved in charities and other things in the community to help better the world. She is known as a very generous person and Oprah has always and continuously helped the world out. Her total net worth is a total of $2.8 billion and will continue to grow even when she is deceased.

Element 8:

Oprah isn’t completely old yet, but she’s almost getting there. Oprah will turn 60 in January of next year (2014). She has finally retired from most things, like her tv show and lots of the traveling that she did. Now that her show is over, Oprah enjoys spending time at home, going camping and other mini-vacations. She enjoys taking care of her home and relaxing in her pajamas all day as well. Oprah is also trying to do as much as she can before she has to slow it down a bit and stay home more than she already does.

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Coraline

 The movie “Coraline” was written, directed and produced all by: Henry Selick. The film was released on February 6^th, 2009 and the film made $75,286,229. Dakota Fanning plays Coraline Jones, the main character. Teri Hatcher plays Coraline’s busy mother and Coraline’s “other mother.” John Hodgman plays Coraline’s busy dad and “other dad.” The setting of the movie is in Ashland, Oregon in an apartment building. There are many different genres for this movie. The main genres are Fantasy, Children’s and Thriller, but “Coraline” is also an animated family film.

             Coraline and her parents move from Michigan to Oregon, but Coraline would much rather live in her old home. Coraline’s mom and dad are two very busy people and Coraline wishes that they would pay more attention to her. Coraline is desperate for any attention or excitement, so she goes off wandering around her house. She discovers a closed off door, but it’s locked. Coraline really wants to know what’s behind the door. She notices that her mom puts all the keys in a drawer in the kitchen and she decides to look for the key that unlocks the door. Coraline finds the right one after trying a different keys and she unlocks the door, but there’s nothing but a bunch of bricks there. That night, Coraline goes to bed and is woken up in the middle of the night by little mice and she follows them because she notices that they want her to follow them. The mice lead Coraline to the closed off door and she opens it and expects to find the brick wall, but instead there’s a magical fantasy right in front of her eyes.

            The costume designer for “Coraline, Deborah Cook made all of the clothing for Coraline and her fantasy friends. From knitting scarves, to sweaters and mittens, Deborah spent a lot of time knitting every single piece of clothing for the film. It takes hours and hours to perfect each piece of clothing. Film making for Coraline took a very long process. Even though Henry Selick was the director and writer, he had many many people making this film along with him. The way they made "Coraline" was difficult but making animated movies are hard to make. They record the voices first so they know where the mouth positions should be at. They have to move the characters once, then shoot the scene, then move the characters, then shoot the scene and then do it all over again. 

            Coraline’s mouse friends go through the tunnel to Coraline’s fantasy world and Coraline doesn’t hesitate for one second. She goes through and on the other side, is a house. The house is similar to hers, but much more nice and decorated than her original home. Coraline is a bit confused because she walks into the kitchen and her “mom” is standing there. She’s cooking and the table is set and Coraline feels like she’s in a dream. But, she’s not and she finds that out later, but for now, Coraline is excited because she’s met her “dad” and it’s like she has a new life. Her parents are active and they pay attention to her and they make her dinner and everything. Coraline thinks it’s just a dream, but it’s real and she’s soon gonna find out that this is not what she really wants.

        I actually really enjoyed watching “Coraline.” I thought the story was very good and well written. I give a lot of appreciation to Henry, the writer and director and to all of his team for making a tough film. Everyone worked really hard and I wish I could have an opportunity to be an actress in the movie because I think it would be a great experience and a lot of fun. Watching the bonus features really changed my view on the movie. I never imagined they hand made literally everything in the film. The directors and creators are very talented people and they deserve a lot of recognition. Everything about creating this movie was really amazing. 

TV Premier Review Final Draft

                                                                                                  

                                TV Premier Review Final Draft

Demi Lovato 

           X-Factor USA is back for Season 2 and it’s hotter than ever! Two new judges, Demi Lovato and Britney Spears have joined the judging panel! Demi is a young superstar from Texas who knows her music. She has 3 albums out and is currently working on her fourth album, set to release in 2013. Britney has been a pop star for many years and she continues to sing to this day. She has 9 albums out and is enjoying life as a fiancé right now. Returning judges Simon Cowell and LA Reid were thrilled to help in choosing two new judges to replace Season 1 judges, Paula Abdul and Nichole Scherzinger. Everybody knows who Simon Cowell is. He’s known for his blunt and mean personality, but he makes me money by being one of the biggest producers in the music industry. LA Reid also takes the spot of a big producer as well. On this two-night premier, the first night received 8.5 million viewers and on the second night they received just over 10 million viewers. Thousands and thousands of hopefuls auditioned for a spot to go to “boot camp” in Miami, but only so many will get that lucky opportunity!

Britney Spears

           On the first night of auditions, there were many people that stood out and wowed the judges. One of the first auditions of the night that wowed the judges, is a girl named Jennel Garcia from Rochester, Massachusetts. She sang “Paris (Ooh La La),” originally sung by Grace Potter and The Nocturnals. She gave the judges a sexy vibe and had the entire audience cheering and dancing along with her! Britney, Demi and LA all gave her a yes to move on to the next round. Even Simon gave her a yes and he said to Jennel, “You are on the money.” Another amazing audition is by a girl named Jillian Jensen. She carries a lot of pain from being severely bullied in high school. Demi Lovato was also a victim of bullying when she was much younger. Jillian sang “Who You Are” By: Jessie J. Jillian’s voice has a unique, raspy tone. Her teary-eyed audition got her four yeses from the judges! Next, a charming, 13 year old, Justin Bieber look-a-like, named Reed Deming originally sang Bruno Mars’ “It Will Rain,” but Simon stopped him in the middle. Simon told Reed that he needed to work harder on his vocals. Luckily for Reed, Simon gave him another chance to sing a different song and he did. Reed sang another Bruno Mars song called “Grenade.” This time, Reed impressed the judges and he got four yeses!

        One of the last, but good auditions of the night is by an all boy group named Emblem 3 from Huntington Beach. LA Reid wasn’t very happy when they told him they were gonna sing an original song of theirs “Sunset Boulevard,” which is about California. Their vocal tone is very mysterious and surprising to the judges in a good way, including LA Reid. The boys changed LA’s mind as he said “I don’t like you, I love you.” Demi complimented the boys saying they were cute and they returned the favor. Of course Simon kept saying, “No, no. Barrier!” Emblem 3 got 4 yeses and you’ll be seeing them at boot camp. There were lots of good auditions on the first night, but not everyone could made it to boot camp.

          On to the second night of auditions, incredible and aspiring voices came to audition. One of many talented hopefuls was 16-year-old Johnny Maxwell. Johnny came from Castro Valley, California and brought along his mom with him. His mom, Rachel says that Johnny is her rock and that he has a good heart. The audience, which is mostly full of young girls, was excited to have a young, good-looking boy on the stage. Johnny sang an original song of his, “All These People.” The judges aren’t fans of original songs because they don’t know the songs. But Johnny’s original must’ve really wowed the judges because he got 4 yeses! Next, 34-year-old Jason Brock came onto the stage with a very spunky, energetic and confident attitude as he sang Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind.” He surprised the judges with his unique tone and high notes that landed him a spot in boot camp! Last, but not least, meet a super talented, 13-year-old girl named Carly Rose Sonenclar. She traveled from West Chester, New York to Providence, Rhode Island and it was totally worth it. She sang Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good.” In my opinion, Carly’s voice is absolutely astonishing and incredibly for such a young girl. After her sang, all of the judges were shocked at her voice. Britney Spears called her a little diva and Demi is obsessed with her. I am also obsessed with her because I agree with what Simon and LA said, “A star is born.” She definitely has the X-Factor and I would really love to see her win this competition.

        In this season, Simon, Demi, LA and Britney traveled to Kanas City, San Francisco, Providence, Austin and Greensboro for auditions and gave many the opportunity of a lifetime by saying yes! The lucky ones and the judges will next go to boot camp and the judges will eliminate groups of unborn stars that they advanced in the auditions. Boot camp determines whether or not they will go to the live shows. This might be their one and only chance to get a $5 Sony Recording contract, plus $5 million dollars cash. Many people will be heartbroken, but some people just aren't meant to sing.

First Post

This is my first post for Writing for the World.