Chris Gardner 10 EE

10 EE Chris Gardner
All information from Chris Gardner's biography The Pursuit Of Happyness

Birth date and place:

Chris Gardner the author of The Pursuit of Happyness was born February 9th 1954 in Milwaukee Wisconsin.

Family Members:

Chris never met his real father but had an abusive alcoholic step father named Freddy Triplett, but at least he did know his real biological mom Bettye Jean. He had an older half sister named Ophelia, and two younger sisters Sharon and Kimberly who’s dad is Freddy. He had three uncles from his mom’s side Archie, Wille, and Henry who he had spent time with when he was in foster care. He has an ex wife named Sherry, a son named Christopher Jarret Medina Gardner Jr, and a daughter Jacintha Gardner.

Childhood/School Life:

Chris had an extremely rough childhood he had never met his biological father and in return had a horrible excuse of a stepfather. Freddy would beat him, his mom, and his sisters. Freddy at one time even tried killing his mother with a 2x4 right in front of him he would also accuse his mother of things and get her put in jail forcing him and his sisters into foster care but luckily they always had contact or lived with his mom’s side of the family with his aunts and uncles. Despite all of the horrific things going on at home he was always very good in school he said that he enjoyed school and learning because it was the only place he could escape to and it would make Freddy mad that he was smart because Freddy was completely illiterate so Chris would purposely read out loud when he was home. He was at the top of his class a lot of his school career. Although he was very intelligent he never went to college because he got his girlfriend at the time pregnant with his son.

Hobbies Interests and Activities:

Chris was very interested in school always had been since he was little always very curious and wanted to learn. He also liked to go with his uncle Henry on his motor boat until he died. Chris was never good at sports so he never pursued any of that.

Anecdotes:

The most life impacting story Chris tells in his book is when he is at the San Francisco General Hospital walking out going into the parking lot when he see’s a red Ferrari with its roaring revving engine pulling in; curious as to how someone could afford such a car at around the same age as him he approaches the man in the Ferrari and offers him his parking spot for exchange of knowing what he does and how he does it. The man accepted and said I’m a stockbroker but to tell you how will have to be for another time it would take too long so he gave Chris his card. This later turned into him turning into Chris’ mentor of the stock market his name was Bob Bridges and inspired Chris to be a stockbroker and eventually own his own firm making millions.

Career:

Chris started off as a doctor’s assistant for Dr. Robert Ellis but had ten years of medical school to go to and with the upcoming advancements in the field by the time he graduated the medical field would be completely different so he quit but later in his life he became a stockbroker and eventually started up his own firm named Gardner Rich & Co in Chicago, Illinois later he sold his shares and became CEO of Christopher Gardner International Holdings that has offices in San Francisco, New York, And Chicago.

Reason For Fame:

Chris Gardner’s Reason for fame was his book, life story, and movie the Pursuit of Happyness that ensures that no matter what if you have the dedication and motivation you can pursue and accomplish the “American Dream”.

Later Life:

When Chris married his ex wife Sherry he was in the medical field as stated in career but once she found out he had quit she divorced him and gave Chris full custody of his son but with no job and kicked out of where he was living with Sherry he was homeless and raising his son he stayed at shelters, buses, bathrooms and trolleys with his son for years until he finally made it as a stockbroker. Chris Gardner still owns his company but is doing great things with his money by being a philanthropist and donating his money to a lot of causes and organizations a lot of which have to do with kids and homeless because of his situation when he was homeless with a kid.

Journalism Article

Is The Dress Code Obnoxiously Strict?

    Have you ever been harassed by campus supervisors about something as trivial as wearing your hoodie or shirt with something as little as a gun on it? Well most would say the dress code at WHHS is overbearing. Everything seems to be a dress code violation at Westhills from hoodies,beanies, hats, shorts, tank tops, to even the word "straps". Everyday I see both girls and guys getting sent up to the business building to change out of whatever they're wearing wrong into the old gross loaners the school provides. I think the rules on our clothing are way too strict isn't this a public school after all not a private school? The smallest things are dress code violations like wearing your hood or hat, or even things as little as spiked jewelry even if they're earrings! I feel as if they lie and say it's for the schools safety but I think it's just another way to keep the student body under the school's thumb even more than we already are. Also let's say you don't want to take off whatever you're wearing or you accumulate a number of violations you get threatened or dealt with detention, Saturday school,  refferall , ect. I think that the student body should talk to ASB to should try to set a meeting with the principle and the staff to try and change some of the dress code. I do not think all of the rules are bad just some like the headgear, spiked jewelry, tanks, and a few others. Some of the rules actually do help keep our students looking decent and not déclassé like no pajamas and ones like that. But I think if we as students don't try to bring this up to administration it will only get worse and worse adding on more and more for the next incoming students at WHHS. I asked some students what their opinions on the dress code were one male student had said "Some of the things on our dress code I can see why they have it but others like no hats, hoods, and things like that make no sense. Plus it's hypocritical because almost all of our staff wear hats almost everyday". Another student but female this time said "I'm fine with everything except for the finger tip rule on shorts because my arms are very long so my shorts would have to be abnormally long to where there's no point and I should just wear pants". I haven't got a staff opinion but I know that one of the "narks" that used to work here actually quit because he really disliked getting students in trouble for the littlest things on campus but especially the Dresscode. But overall I'd say most people agree that there are some rules on our Dresscode that should be taken off for obvious reasons but it won't happen until we the students do something about it.

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Sidebar: Clothing trends at WHHS

Some of the clothing trends are very very popular to the point where it seems like everyone is wearing the same thing. Like for guys it's camo anything whether it's shirts, shorts, socks, shoes, ect. Also they either wear cargo shorts, slim straight jeans, or skinnys a lot of people are starting to cuff them. With shoes it's usually converse or vans authentics.

Coraline Movie Review

Coraline Movie Review By Cruz Salas

 
In the eerie and creative movie Coraline about a little girl ignored by her parents in Ashland, Oregon, starring Dakota Fanning as the voice of Coraline, Terri Hatcher the voice of the mother and other mother, John Hodgman as the voice of the father and other father. Coraline is a stop animation film meaning you take pictures frame by frame of manipulated objects like dolls and hand made from scratch scenery in the case of this movie so they look like they're  movie. It's a kids’ movie but there is some adult humor in this movie and the concept of this movie is more adult because I personally don't think they fully understand exactly what it's about and the details about the story line. This movie is also in 3D and how they do that is they film the movie from one camera taking pictures since it’s stop motion animation then move it the length of the doll’s eye to eye space.

In the movie, Coraline, about a little girl who moved to a new house, and ignored by her parents she gets bored and finds a little door leading to a new world where everything is perfect until things get a little weird. When Coraline first finds the door there's a brick wall behind it but at night it's a tunnel to an alternate world where her parents pay attention to her, her neighbors are are actually exciting and fun instead of boring and weird like Mr Bobinsky the blue weird gymnast with rats voice by Ian Mcshane, Miss Spink and Miss Miriam who are too old  washed up burlesque dancers voiced by Jennifer Sanders and Dawn French, and Wybie played by Robert Bailey, Jr. the awkward weird grandson of the owner of the house Coraline lives in, and the world is pretty and perfect. But her other mother and father want her to stay forever by sewing buttons over her eyes when Coraline has a worried look she plays it off like she'll think about it and walks up stairs to go back to sleep where when usually she does that she wakes back up in her real world but when she wakes up she's still in the other world so she tries to escape by heading out the door but when the other mother catches her she turns into this tall skinny creepy spider like creature but with the same face and throws her into a room where Coraline meets three ghost children who the other mother did the same too but the children let her sew the buttons to their eyes so the other mother could eat them to keep her youth and beauty so they warn her and ask if she can retrieve their real eyes they also tell her that the doll that Wybie gave to her from his grandma's trunk not knowing is the other mothers spy so she can create your perfect world to lure you in.  Coraline finds a way to escape but when she gets back her parents are no where to be found and realizes the other mother kidnapped her. So Coraline goes back to retrieve her parents but doesn't know how because the other mother controls the alternate world so Wybie's cat (voiced by Keith David) who can talk there told her that the other mother is a sucker for games but she plays dirty and even if you win she won't let you go so you have to play the game win and distract her to get back home safely.  

This movie is very creepy, but has a well thought out and put together story line. It was also very carefully planned because they used this movie with full stop animation in everything from the scenery, to the dolls, the dolls clothes, and each character had multiple outfits they all were hand sewn and had wiring inside them like the dolls so they could be one hundred percent manipulable, to the furniture that moved, everything was one hand made and two shot frame by frame to make them look like they're moving. It's ridiculous how well they made the movie, how they made it, and how it all came together it must have taken a very long time to make and I am impressed I'm sure that if you decide to watch this. movie you too will be very impressed since you will know how they made everything. I'd say for a "children's" movie it was very good from the story line, to the animation, to the voice actors, to the kinda weird trippy vibe of the movie it was very on point and well put together. All the voice actors for the main characters did a very good job at voicing characters who Daktoa Fanning who has played in other movies such as the Twilight series, Terri Hatcher who you may have seen in the show Desperate Housewives of Orange County, and John Hodgman who has written many books like "The Areas of My Expertise the way the voiced the characters was very natural and well put. 

Coraline is an interesting, creative, weird, eerie movie that relates to the idiom and question of "is the grass really greener on the other side. The story line is intriguing and full of twists and turns. I found it very fascinating how they did the stop animation for the scenery and the dolls alike. Overall it was a phenomenal movie and would give it a nine out of ten.