Winter Wonderland

             Just a glimpse at my winter days!

Guns, Germs and Steel Pt. 3

           We continued to discuss the video that Jared Diamond produced about cultural inequality. Although this was what the class was about, I am choosing to write my blog about how Mr. Schick BROKE Sophia's computer charger. Sophia very clearly asked him if she could plug in her computer in the back and yet he still failed to see her cord. Mr. Schick ended up tripping on it and completely bent the metal part. The charger is completely broken and there is absolutely no chance that it is going to work again. I feel so bad for Sophia because the cord is $20 and that isn't cheap given she didn't know her cord was going to snap today. I'm sure her dad isn't going to be very happy about it either which isn't good.

Guns, Germs and Steel Pt. 2

            In class today, we continued to watch the video with Jared Diamond, "Guns, Germs and Steel," just to make sure that the information is stuck in our head. Today's section of the video was mainly about animal and crop domestication. Domestication in general is controlling/altering the natural growing and habitat process of crops and animals. Domestication allowed for different civilizations to thrive because now they have a steady food source. In total, humans have tried to domesticate 148 different types of 100 pounds+ animals. Out of all of these tried animals, on 14 have successfully been domesticated. These animals come from all sorts of classifications. More specifically, these animals are; goats, pigs, cows, horses, sheeps, cows, donkeys, arabian camel, llamas, bactreian camels, water buffalo, reindeers, yaks, mythons and bali cattle. People mainly only want to domesticate land animals that are considered "beasts of burden". Animals that fall into this category would include ones such as horses, donkeys, and yak because they are very strong and powerful.

Guns, Germs and Steel (Class Viewing)

             The video Mr. Schick just kind of threw at us yesterday is honestly so interesting to me and I truly do enjoy it. We rewatched some of the video today and paused at all of the major points made. The biggest section that I added new notes to was about the Westerners that traveled New Guinea and their awful feelings towards the New Guineans. When the Westerners (white men) appeared, they flaunted their good and treated them like religious items just to show them off. This made the New Guineans associate power with material goods but the Westerners thought power was solely based off of ones race- white= powerful, non-white= not powerful. This behavior is extremely petty and just goes to show how ignorant people can be. What's the point in showing off like this anyways? All they were doing is showing people who don't have anything and probably won't have anything that you're privileged. Honestly, this would just open one up to being robbed.

First Day of Western Civilization

           When we walked into class today, I was honestly pretty excited to hear what Western Civilization was going to be about but, this honestly never happened. Instead upon entering class, we were greeted by new seats (which suck and since we're no longer allowed to complain in class, I'll just do it here) and I personally find it unfair that Belle, Syd and Sophia all sit right next to eachother and I am on the COMPLETE opposite side of the room. Then I guess our talking made Mr. Schick really, really annoyed so he just made us watch an hour long video on Guns, Germs and Steel. This video was mainly about cultural differences and how certain parts of the world have been around for so long yet are struggling greatly.

Semester 1 Human Geography Review

         Human Geography during these first two quarters has been quite an interesting class. During these classes, I feel like I've watched a lot more puppy cam then I have learned. This class honestly did bore me a lot but with this being said, it honestly still was pretty fan. I'm kind of happy that my class doesn't change next semester because I get to stay with all of my friends and I get to watch more puppy cam! The only thing that kind of upsets me aount keeping the same class is that I don't get to switch up my environments which would be kind of nice.

The Most Random Class Ever

          We got to class today and someone immediately asked if we were getting our exams back. To my surprise, Mr. Schick said yes so he allowed Sydney Walsh to pass out everyones exams. The one catch was that we had to be very quiet so that Mr. Schick could finish grading Colin and Belle's exam. As a class, we were actually pretty quiet which is the first time in a long time. During my waiting period, I watched even more puppy cam (today was a Great Dane cam) and then I played lots of 2048. The room was quiet for the most part except for Olivia's music that you could hear perfectly through her headphones. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if she is deaf now. All of my semester classes have kinda been a joke recently because we've finished everything we needed to finish.

Live Puppy Cam

            In class today I'm almost positive that we actually learned something but I did not listen to a single word that was said. Instead of actually listening like I am supposed to be doing, I decided to look up Youtube videos of live animal feeds. I ended up watching a stingray, fish, giraffes, kittens, skunks and puppies (labs and bulldogs) all within a 50 minute class. My favorite out of my six different live streams is definitely the puppy one because there were so cute and they were constantly playing. Watching a total of 13 puppies play and sleep is by far one of the most relaxing things I have ever decided to do. In Mrs. Gauthier's class we meditate but, in my personal opinion, the puppies are far more relaxing. I probably shouldn't be admitting this because it is not at all what I was supposed to be doing. With this being said, I do think it is important for everyone to know that live streams of cute animals are best videos to ever be put on the internet.

The Five Religions

Christianity was founded in the first century to account for Jesus' eyewitness accounts and teachings. Currently, there are around 2.2 billion followers that are often called Christians. Christians can be found all over the world but, mostly found in the Americas and Europe. These followers abide by the Bible and the many writings within the Bible. The Bible surrounds Jesus, making Christianity monotheistic. The beliefs include that Jesus is the son of God, Jesus is human and divine, lead a virtuous life, crucified, died- buried- resurrected, and ascended into heaven. These major beliefs are currently taught by the Pope (head of church), priests and bishops.

During the seventh century, the second largest religion was founded. This religion is Islam which was founded by Muhammad. Islam has roughly 1.5 billion followers (Muslims) that are located mainly in Indonesia, Middle East and North Africa. Within these billions of people there are two denominations- Sunnis (75%-90%) and the Shiites (10%-20%). The major belief of the Muslims is the Five Pillars- testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting and pilgrimage. There are three other major beliefs that can be found in the Qur'an (Islamic holy book).

Hinduism was founded on philosophical points of view therefore, there is no one person to give credit to as the founder. With this being said, there are roughly 1.1 billion people who agree with these view points and they are called Hindus. The book in which the point of view is found and spoken in the Vedas. Rather then just being a legit book, the Vedas are poems and songs that are meant to be sung and memorized as a big group.

Buddhism is a very old religion and encourages a life of happiness and peace. The total number of followers (Buddhists) is very unknown to people but it is somewhere in the range of 500 million and 1.5 billion. These people are typically found in Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, Japan and there are supposedly around 1.2 million in the United States. The Four Noble Truths (1. there is suffering 2. attachment to desire is origin of suffering 3. cessation of suffering and 4. eightfold path leads to cessation)  and the Eightfold Path (right- view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and dedication) are the two absolutely crucial beliefs of Buddhists.

Judaism was once a fairly large religion but it has fairly rapidly decreased in size. There are currently 14-18 million Jews (follower name) and this number is predicted to decrease. Majority of the followers are found in Israel but there are a few to be found in America. Under the founder Abraham, the holy book (Torah) was created and contains the main beliefs of the Jewish. The two biggest beliefs are the Ten Commandments and the 13 Principals of Faith.

Exam Objective Grades

           During class today we started off by reading a packet and highlighting stuff and I don't really remember what went on during this portion of class. This whole week has been so long and I cannot remember anything I do in class anymore. It has been like this all week and this probably isn't a very good thing. Anyways, I asked Mr. Schick during class if we could have our exam grades and surprisingly he said yes. He starts to read grades out loud and most people were nervous but honestly for the most part, our class did pretty good. I got a 91% which is a lot better then I thought I would do so I'll take it. Semester one exams were actually pretty easy and I hope second semester proves to be the same way.

I Only Remember Cuddle Time

           All of today was one big blur to me and I honestly do not remember a single thing that happened during class. The one things I've managed to remember about today's class is that Mr. Schick had cuddle time last night and he held the tiniest baby. He held a baby that was only 4.5 pounds and I thought that was the cutest thing ever. I absolutely love tiny children because how could you ever imagine a real life human being that tiny. Then he started talking about the biggest baby he's ever held/seen and it was an 11 pound baby and that is HUGE. I can't imagine giving birth to that big of a baby or even holding a newborn that is that big.

Vedic Texts

           Within the Hindu religion there are hundreds of writings and different types of literature, some of which include the Vedic texts. The four types of Vedic texts and their total number of hymns are: Rig-Veda with 1017 hymns/verses, Sama-Veda with 1549 hymns/verses, Yajur-Veda with 1875 hymns and Atharva-Veda with 730 hymns. The Rig-Veda is the wisdom portion that also contains the mythology of the Hindu gods. Sama-Veda is mainly melodies and chants to be sung by followers. Yajur-Veda is mainly the worship hymns/worship rituals and is one of the scriptures within the Hindu religion. The last Vedic text, Atharva-Veda is the daily procedures and followings that each Hindu is expected of abide by.

            The practices of the indulgences are two major beliefs. The first belief is that when one is accused of a sin, the only logical response is punishment so they can learn after disrespecting God. The second indulgence is dealing with purgatory and allowing someone a place in heaven despite the increasing total of their sins. These indulgences were once sold so that people wouldn't be uneasy as to weather or not they would wait in purgatory or if they would be forgiven for their sins. By selling these, all of the pressure and worry was lifted off one's shoulders. Martin Luther  objected this in his "95 Theses" writings that were printed without his permission. ML essentially thought that one shouldn't have to pay for what God promised us from the beginning. ML went to all sorts of churches and Pope's to share his thoughts surrounding the negativity.

            The Hajj is the movement of the Muslims to the Mecca and it is the most holy moment of a Muslims life. There are multiple steps to Hajj, the first one is entering the holy state of ihram, then they state their intentions or niyah and finally put on white unsewn clothing. The entire process typically lasts 6 days for most people. The Hajj last each and every hour of the day and requires full commitment and attention.

https://www.miifotos.com/im%C3%A1genes/wheres-mecca-5d.html

CIA Worldfact Book vs. Adherants

            The five major religions in the world are Christian, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Buddhism. According to the CIA Worldfact Book, Christians sit at 31.4%, Islamic (Muslim) 23.2%, Hindu 15%, Buddhist 7.1% and Judaism (Jewish) is 0.2%. When these numbers are compared to the data that Adherents.com provides, most numbers are fairly close. On this website, Christians are 33%, Islamic 21%, Hindu 14%, Buddhist 6% and Jewish 0.22%. All of these numbers slightly differ from one another but none of them are dramatically off from one another. The biggest difference is between Muslims and it is only a 1.8% decline which is not terrible. Within the next few years these numbers will continue to change which will be very interesting to see.

Religions Continued...

         In class today we added on to the three religions we learned yesterday to (almost) complete learning about the top five religions in the world. Added on to the religions from yesterday were Buddhism and Judaism. Buddhism has always been something that is super interesting to me because everyone just has such a peaceful life. I always think about what it would be like to preach to a peaceful life. The only thing I really remember about Judaism is that its the ninth or twelfth most popular religion but it happens to be on our powerpoint about the top five. This honestly makes no sense to be but I guess it's whatever. So far this unit is actually interesting and enjoyable which is super weird to me.

Back to Class!

           After a very long (and much needed) break, we returned to class today and it was definitely rough to say the least. It was even harder to pay attention today because my brain has to get used to actually doing things again. With this being said, from what I remember about class today, it was actually kind of interesting. In class our new unit is dealing religions across the world and today we started to talk about the five (most popular) religions amongst the world. The time in class only allowed for us to cover the top three religions. With this being said, the most popular religion is Christianity with 2.2 billion followers. The second most popular is Islam with 1.5 billion followers and the third most popular is Hinduism with 1.1 billion followers. I am honestly pretty interested in this unit and can't wait to hear what the other two religions are.