Halloween

I know everyone else is talking about Halloween adventures in their blogs but I think it's always good to do it yourself. Anyway, I usually go trick-or-treating but this year I'm invited to go over to the (fake names used) Adamses' house for a party. The Adamses are great people and I recently became friends with Damaris, a daughter of theirs. I was planning on going trick-or-treating but I really didn't know what I was going to be. Usually, the night before Halloween, I come up with some really lame costume that looks stupid compared to my friends' costumes. For example, when I was a seventh grader I was a guy with a wig and a big hat. I was supposed to be an old man, but everyone thought I was dressing up as Saddam Hussein. Not to mention, I hate an old costume with all its little parts. If I go to the party this year I won't have to dress up. Some of my other friends might be coming, too. However, one of my friends doesn't want to come because he prefers scaring children's pants off when they come trick-or-treating. But his type of humor is pretty strange sometimes. Some of my other friends might still go trick-or-treating just to get the houses' candy. But, I have decided I'll go to Damaris's party.

My Week

DAY 1: Monday was so fun! Okay, so, the first good thing that day was that I actually woke at 5:30 and STAYED UP! For everyone who doesn't know me very well, believe me when I say it is a miracle. Anyway, things just keep getting better and better and by the time I get to school I am like jumping off walls and not even all that tired. So, right after 3rd period I am walking past the Spanish teacher's door and see the NAL list. I made it! The rest of that school day passed normally but when we had NAL meeting later that day, I found that I had a lot of friends in it this year. When I had done it 2 years previously, I had like one friend in NAL. So it made me way happier to know I had some friends this year. When I got home even later that day, I got my homework done way speedy and had more spare time than usual.

DAY 2: Relatively speaking, Tuesday was a "normal" day. I had fun talking with my friends, but the lessons in class were extremely boring. When I got home that day I tried to watch TV for a little bit, but was interrupted so many times that I soon completely gave up. I had some fun though and when my homework was done and my chores completed we watched Transformers.

DAY 3: The worst day of my week. Wednesday was terrible. I got up at 5:30 and stayed up for about 2 minutes before falling asleep again. In school that day, I was so sleepy that I almost had 3 missings in my first 4 periods. When I got home I did my homework, which took forever, before falling asleep. The only good fortune I had that day was when my Mom came home from New York, where she had been visiting my grandparents.

DAY 4: Today was pretty fun. It was kinda like a Monday-Wednesday mix. I had a pretty good school day. In seminary I did a devotional, which was not nearly as scary as the last time I did it. All my classes seemed to go by pretty fast until science. She had us do the notebook assignment where even graded assignments were part of it. Then I had English where we were reciting the poem "IF". I had already done mine so I was dead bored. When I got home, I fooled around and now I'm writing this.

DAY 5(added later): Friday was terrible with a ray of sunshine. My day started out at O.K. but just went down from there. I got up fine and went to school without incident. But then, for some reason, bad luck set in. I started forgetting things, then started zoning out for no reason at all, etc. I am counting myself extremely fortunate that I didn't have much due that day or I would have had a lot of missings. Then, in seventh period, I had a substitute. I did not like the sub and I don't think she liked me all that much either. So, because there was a sub and the fact that I lost my ID card, I could not use the computers, which prevented me from taking the AR test that will decide my grade. Finally, class got over and I got to go home. I got home in a not so happy mood and became very obstinate(which I am ashamed of). Then I got to go to the Ward Halloween Party which I thought was going to be not so fun. I was wrong. It was about the only good thing I did all day. I had friends there, DDR, Kareoke to songs that I hate (High School Musical) but was fun anyway, and best of all FOOD. And it came to pass that (like my blog) my day ended.

Snowball Fights

"Hey Moe, where are you?" calls Dad. "I'm down here in my room," I call back. "Guess what?"Dad says,"It's snowing!" "Really?"I say. "Yeah, come on outside. I expect to see you there in five." I grumble and get off my bed thinking of ten million other things I would rather do. Dad, laughing maniacly, walks back upstairs and goes outside leaving me all alone. I am not so surprised to find that I don't care at all and begin to get on thicker clothing so I don't become the Human Popsicle (the super hero who doesn't move much). Finally, after ten minutes I am geared up in full body armor, the best gloves I could find, and my lucky hat. I walk into the garage, then go out the back door, locate everyone, gather a few balls of snow, and soon I am doing the dodge the snowball jig while dealing out deadly missiles in every direction with a person. After a while, we(my dad, two brothers and I) call a temporary truce and divide into teams. The brother on my team decides to be an idiot and goes to ridiculously close distances only to completely miss his target, get pounded by snowballs, and wait for me to come rescue him. The brother on my dad's team isn't quite so dumb, but just as inaccurate and seven times as scared of getting hit. So basically, it was just me and Dad, hurling snow in powerful, fast, and pretty accurate throws. So, I had just nailed my dad squarely on the arm when I looked down to gather more snow and had my sixth sense kick in. For those of you who have never been in a really intense snowball fight, your sixth sense is your sense that tells you that something is just about to hit you really fast and really hard. Anyway, I threw myself to one side and feel a snowball going at like mach 2, graze my coat. After trading a few more deadly blows, we call it a draw and go inside, where we warm off and eventually eat.

Walkie-Talkies

I was watching comedian, Brian Regan, a while ago and he starts talking about walkie talkies. He was laughing about them because they were a military invention but somehow got stuck with the name "walkie-talkie". So, like Brian, I wondered how the military, with no humor, could come up with a name like that. So I decided to do some research starting with Wikipedia (which is my personal favorite). I discovered that the walkie talkie was developed during WWII for use by the military. The nickname "walkie talkie" was invented for radio reciever/transmitter. But before the nickname "walkie talkie" was even invented, radio reciever/transmitters were nicknamed "handie-talkies". I also learned that the first walkie talkie was made by Motorola. After I learned that I decided to go do something a little more fun. So I quit that and wrote this.

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs are one of a kind,
With their stomping of feet
And their clashing of jaws.
They throw their heads back,
Way back,
And give a mighty ROAR!
They turn about
With a mighty bound.
Dinosaurs off on a chase;
They hunt all day long
And then there’s the test,
Of settling down for
A big night’s rest.

Global Warming

Are we all doomed to a terrible death? Are we all going to be driven back from the coasts because the water has risen a grand total of 777 micrometers? Are you tired of those extremely pessimistic scientists who only say we are going to be doomed because they want to be known for something? Before I say anything more I would like to add that I am not completely anti-global warming, only I think that the scientists have made global warming sound so ominous when it might effect only a small portion of the world. In fact, I actually agree that global warming is happening and that Antarctica and all the glaciers are getting a tad smaller. But I disagree that this is ALL human doing. Could it not also be possible that warming up a little could be part of the earth's natural cycle? I mean, scientists have admitted that they don't know everything and what if the earth decides to get a tad hotter for a while. They also have evidence to back up the theory that the earth has gone through periods of hot and cold for thousands of years. I also am sure that we as a people aren't helping the matter, but I doubt we are all going to die because the world goes up a couple degrees.

Music

WARNING: If music(especially country) is your entire life, than I would like to ask a favor of you, don't read this blog. Okay, so Thursday was my brother's birthday (the 8th grader who is quiet during school, not the noisy 7th grader, some of you might have seen him). Anyway, so I will now list out his presents for you: music from the Star Wars saga, a pirates of the carribean soundtrack, a lord of the rings soundtrack, piano sheet music, and a lego. My brother was pretty excited about his gifts and I, being the nice, kind, loving indivdual that I am, congragulated him on his presents. Privately though, I was thinking it a complete waste of money. Don't get me wrong, I love music (except country) and I like listening to it but I think he could have gotten something just a little more interesting, such as a gallon of sprite, a cell phone or some other really expensive gift that would make my parents go broke. That's all for now!

Optimism

Now, here is a topic that I have really wanted to talk about, OPTIMISM. Wouldn't you guys agree that optimism is so much better than pessimism? I know a few pessimistic people and they can be very annoying sometimes because they are always putting people down. Pessimists are most annoying during sports (or pretty much every competitive activity). Optimists, however, are awesome to have on a team or activity because they are alway's building you up. I know from experience that having someone optimistic on your team can really make a difference. I am on a competitive soccer team (by the way, soccer RULES), and I had a game on Tuesday. The score was 3-0, then in like 5 minutes(I really have no idea how much time it was but it seemed like 5) the opponents scored two goals. We could have been pessimistic, and doom ourselves, but we told ourselves and our team, that we were better than them. We eventually won that game at a score of 3-2. So, the moral to the story is, BE OPTIMISTIC.

Greek Myth

Hey everyone! I mentioned before that I had to do a report on a Greek Myth. I got to choose the character and I am pretty sure most of you have never heard the story of Deucalion. At least my teacher hadn't. When you are reading this it will probably remind you of a similar story but I promise that it is an original myth. I thought that this myth was very exciting and was kind of fun to write about. I would also like knowing what you think about the myth. The report reads as follows:

My report will be on the Greek character Deucalion. Deucalion’s father was Prometheus, a titan, and Pronoia, his mother. Deucalion has no real symbol but he is commonly paired with the symbol for flood. I am pretty sure Deucalion has never had or used a weapon, but he has thrown rocks. As far as I know Deucalion has no Roman name nor is he even mentioned in Roman mythology. However, there IS a surprising resemblance to a biblical story (Parada).
The biblical story I referred to is the story of Noah and the Ark, where God floods the earth because the people were wicked. He tells Noah to build an ark and stick a bunch of animals in it. It then rains for a long time and the world is flooded, drowning the wicked.
There are actually several versions of Deucalion, not all of them with the same story; the story that follows is not actually one specific story. Rather it is several different versions of the story condensed into one. In this report I would side with whatever version had the majority of sources supporting it. There is an Assyrian version of Deucalion’s adventure that have nothing to do with a flood or a boat, but it is uncommon and I will not use it (Wikipedia).
The story of Deucalion starts with his father, Prometheus helping humans gain fire. Then Prometheus tricks the Gods into choosing the worst part of the humans sacrificed to them. Zeus retaliates with a girl named Pandora, who Zeus gave a box, later called Pandoras Box, which he told her never to open. But curiosity got the best of her, as Zeus knew it would, and she opened the box releasing the many sins of the world. Zeus had hoped that this would scare mankind into obeying “properly”. But with the sins now released in the world, this idea seemed to have had the opposite effect. Now, instead of getting even the worst part of every sacrifice, some men started not giving any sacrifice at all. This angered the Gods on Mount Olympus and Zeus and Poseidon came up with a plan to destroy this wickedness(D’Aulaire 76).
Meanwhile, Prometheus had been punished by Zeus for helping the humans. Zeus then decreed that Prometheus should wear unbreakable iron chains tied to a pole. Furthermore, Zeus decreed that an eagle would come and eat his liver every night, which is continuous punishment because since he is immortal, his liver would continually regrow. Before Prometheus was chained, he had a good son named Deucalion. When he was old enough, he journeyed to the mountain where his father was chained and attempted to break the bonds that held him. However, they proved to be too difficult, so all he could do was fight off the eagle that came to eat Prometheus’s liver (D’Aulaire 76). His father was grateful for the son’s assistance though, so when Zeus and Poseidon came up with their plan, which was to flood the earth, Prometheus, who could see into the future, warned his son and told him to build a boat to escape the flood (D’Aulaire 77).
Deucalion built the “ark” according to the instructions which his father had given him. On board his boat he packed food, clothing and other necessities. The passenger list of the ship was Deucalion, his wife Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus, who is Prometheus’s brother (Wikipedia). After they built the boat, the Gods made it rain for nine days and nine nights after which they floated on the water for many days before finally landing on Mount Parnassus or Mount Etna in Sicily (Papageorgiou). Once there, the first thing they did was thank Zeus for letting them live. Then, as soon as their offering was done, Deucalion sought out the Oracle of Thessaly(who was immortal and therefore could not drown) and asked him how to restore the Earth to its former state. The Oracle replied saying,“Cover your head and throw the bones of your mother behind your shoulder.”(Ovid's Metamorphoses as quoted in Wikipedia). Deucalion and Pyrrha were smart enough to understand the oracles cryptic message and knew that Mother meant Gaia, mother of all creation, and bones meant, rocks of the earth(Wikipedia). So Deucalion and his wife threw rocks behind them, and as they did so, they formed into humans. The rocks of Pyrrha formed females while the rocks that Deucalion threw formed males (Parada).
After the incident with the flood, Deucalion returned home and had two known children. A third child is debated by scholars today(Wikipedia). Deucalion would still occasionally visit his Father but since he recreated the world after the flood he was busier than before. Prometheus would later be freed by Hercules, who would shoot the eagle and break his bonds. But by that time, Deucalion was dead, being a human mortal unlike his father, a Titan (Wikipedia).
There are some differences between Deucalion’s story and the story of Noah’s Ark, which is found in The Bible. In Deucalion’s version of the flood, there is no mention of saving the beasts of the earth as there was with Noah’s Ark. That does not mean that they weren’t on board, merely that the Greeks didn’t view it as important and it got lost in the retelling of the story. There is of course the obvious name differences between Noah and Deucalion and their wives. Also, in Deucalion’s story, it is only Deucalion and his wife, but in Noah’s story they have their children on board as well.
But even with all the differences, there are definite similarities. For instance, Noah and Deucalion both received insight from a wiser source(deity). They both built giant boats to save themselves while the wicked people of the world drowned. The flood was caused by God(s) because the people of the earth were wicked. Afterwards, they both landed on mountains and gave thanks to God(s) as their first act on dry ground.
I think that since this theme appears in two works of literature trying to convey the same general idea, that we can safely assume that the actual flood happened. Whether a person chooses to believe it was caused by the Gods/God, global warming, or some other weird freak of nature, it most probably was a major historical event. Researchers that have studied this event have concluded that the receding of glaciers at about 10,000 B.C. caused the flood mentioned in Deucalion’s story (Papageorgiou). It is an interesting anomaly in the history of the world. It is awesome that these two stories with such a striking resemblance to each other are both still around in literature today.

Ad-Ons

Hey! So I pride myself on being a relatively blunt person(for example, if I don't understand you I would tell you), so I'll cut to the chase. I am trying to improve my blog(make it interesting) but If you see my "poll" you have probably guessed that I was just writing randomly and really had no clue what to put. I have stated before that I view myself as busy(or maybe I just procrastinate, I don't know). So if you have any suggestions, please give instructions as it would cut down on time.
By the way, THANK YOU to anyone(specifically the two kind souls who have already commented) who comments on my blog page!