Time Demons-Religous?

I HATE time! (Yeah, I know that "hate" is a strong word but I'm trying to convey a strong point.) I dislike everything about it. When yoiu want it to go slow, what does it do? It speeds up! And just guess at what it decides to do when you want time to just fly by? It's like there is a little time demon who instinctively dislikes you, and he's been blessed with the power to see everything you ever do for the purpose of making your life as miserable as he possibly can. No...scratch that idea. I think Satan has millions of time devils that, as soon as we cross the veil, are assigned to us to make us as miserable as possible and weaken our defenses so he can crush us! And God lets it be that way as part of our test to see if we're worthy. Now you probably think I'm kidding, and I'm taking a lame stab at humor. Not so. I'm actually deadly serious. Now that I come to think of it, most crimes are a result of lying, which I've found in most cases to be because of a lack of time. Like when someone steals something it's usually because they didn't feel they had the time to earn it honestly. No, I'm not saying that everyone who has a tight schedule is going to end up robbing your local drug store. Just a few messed up, weak, weird people. So I challenge everybody who actually finished reading this to be strong!

BYU Ballroom

Today was the day of the BYU Ballroom Dance Company's performance. They were awesome! I would describe their amazing performance...but...well...I don't think that's possible. You would have had to have gone! Did anyone else go? There were two sessions: a 2:00 one which some of you may have heard endlessly about from Border Walker, and a 7:00 session. I went to the 7:00 show and it was an awesome way to end the day.

Religious Candidates

I recently read in an article that religion is becoming a major factor in this upcoming presidential race. Hilary Clinton, defying all odds, is actually going to church. Obama is making big statements about religion, Huckabee is a born-again Christian, and then we've got Mitt Romney, who is Mormon. In the article, it said a poll was taken to find out if people would vote more or less for candidates if they were a different religion. I'm happy to report that most people said they didn't care. I don't think that it should make a difference if you are one religion or another. I have met many people who are not Mormon, but uphold better standards than some or most Mormons. Why does the religion of a candidate mean so much to some people? Is it because you automatically assume that if a candidate is your religion they uphold your same values? I can't even begin to imagine that being the case. People should be able to figure these things out. For example, there are inactive and active Catholics. There are Mormons who go to R-rated movies and play M-rated video games while others believe in watching only PG movies and playing E-rated games. Instead of looking at the religion of a candidate, you should be looking at the moral standards and leadership abilities of all the candidates and assess each one. But hey, who ever listens to me?

Poetry

So who entered the poetry contest in first term? I did, and guess what?! I was chosen to be published in the anthology for young poets. I didn't think I was any good at writing poems! But, apparently, I am! I'm so happy because this is like one of the only contests that I didn't think I should win anything for and yet it seems to be the one that I'm doing the best at! Happiness! Maybe there were only a few people to enter though and thats why I got chosen........that's probably more likely.......but who cares? I'm still getting published! My sister who is eight also entered and is getting published, too. We are geniuses! We could probably take over the world! Anyway, this is what the poem looked like. It's a free verse, so if you expect every sentence to rhyme...you're going to be disappointed.

Dino Life
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.

Disappointment

Have any of you ever had one of those times when you were really impressed with how someone was and then they go and totally disappoint you? Say, for instance, (and this is just theoretical) your sibling is invited to the geography bee. Wouldn't you be really proud of them? Wouldn't you encourage them to do it? Of course, if you were a good brother or sister. Say they then throw away that opportunity by not even showing up. Wouldn't you be really disappointed in them? I mean, how short sighted is that? Extremely, huh. That's all I really wanted to rant about. It' s just that someone really close to me just threw away an amazing opportunity.

Persuasive Essay

This is an essay that I had for English Class. It's a persuasive essay with over one thousand words! That means this is the longest paper I've ever written.

Hands-On Museums
By Moe Joe


Imagine you are a Pharaoh of Egypt. What is it like? You can see an Egyptian Sphinx on the far side of the building. You walk toward it, then run. You’re almost there when, all of a sudden, “STOP”. A museum manager walks over and quietly tells you that you can’t touch anything. There is no touching in a museum. Is this fair? No. Museums really should make their experiences more hands-on. It would attract way more attention and money, would allow kids and adults to gain more experiences and best of all, it can be done without ruining any of the artifacts.

Museums would attract way more attention and make more money if they have more hands-on exhibits. Everyone likes attention. Businessmen want it to have million dollar corporations. School districts want it for the power it gives them over little (and big) children. Museums like attention, too. The more people they get to come in means the more money they get. Museums like admission and donation money because that’s how they get their artifacts and other things. The problem is that many museums don’t usually get enough of that kind of attention. An example would be the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures. It is a very small museum. Most people don’t even know it exists. But, the topic matter that they have could take up a building the size of the White House. Instead, they have their entire museum displayed in a building about the size of a normal classroom. There are almost no hands-on displays or activities. As a proof that a hands-on museum is the way to go, take Jamestown Settlement. The Jamestown Settlement in Virginia is one of the best museums I’ve seen that uses a hands-on approach to learn. It is also one of the most popular museums in Virginia. The building for it is about twice the size of our school and they still have enough money to employ full-time archeologists and the biggest museum staff I’ve ever seen. Its grounds are based like a amusement park with different sections that you can walk through and touch. They have all sorts of activities, like cannon demonstrations, and even let you walk on board the old-fashion style ships that they made at the museum. If that’s not good enough, they still have traditional exhibits for you to walk through, along with tours of the actual Jamestown site! This museum is so successful that they have as many ticket lines to get in as they have to get into Lagoon.

A hands-on approach of learning gives fun, great experiences for everyone to help them understand the past. In today’s world, machines do a lot of our work. This is good because it makes life easier on people and allows them to get more things done in a faster and usually more efficient way. It’s also a bad thing. It has given people a laid back and disrespectful view of the world. People don’t respect the ancient ways of their ancestors or show nearly as much respect for the great accomplishments of historic figures as they should. We’re like the Romans; we think that we’re civilized and look down on the unclean barbarians and the pagan Egyptians. In all actuality, we are probably less civilized than they were. They were kept humble by the land and had to work for everything they had, which wasn’t much. They were probably tougher than we are, too. The barbarians had to carry boulders large enough to crush the skulls of larger mammals and the Egyptians found ways to not only survive, but to build giant pyramids. Museums need to excite people about the past! According to psychologist Muneera Spence, 30% of the world are visual learners, 25% are auditory, and 45% are hands-on. Hands-on learning is more fun. The brain will look for fun things to associate with knowledge and giving a kinesthetic approach would be just the thing. When I was at the Nauvoo Family Living Center, they didn’t just list a bunch of facts about making candles, making ropes, or playing pioneer games. They let you try to do those activities yourself. And while I was at Jamestown, I got to hold an authentic musket. A hands-on museum not only provides better retention of knowledge but could teach lessons that are being forgotten in today’s world. A good hands-on museum will let you try to lift the barbarian’s boulders or try to write on a papyrus. You could learn how to do all these things while in a relatively safe environment.

The best part of the entire plan is that none of the historical artifacts need to be placed in any harm’s way. The museums won’t have to worry about any 2 million dollar artifacts being stolen or damaged because all of the hands-on exhibits can be made of plastic, wood, or other cheap material that factory machines can produce in a couple of seconds. It would still be just as educational because, as long as it is good quality, there won’t be much difference. Only they wouldn’t be as old and breakable. I’m not saying they should get rid of the real artifacts; they should still be displayed in protected cases. I’m just saying we should throw in some fun. Using fakes for interactive displays could also help kids make decisions on future archeological careers. My brother is a paleontologist volunteer and has received a liense allowing him to handle bones. They are extremely breakable and require long training to handle. As a result of his long training, he is the only person I know under eighteen who can prepare fossils. Maybe a lot of other people would like to do this but don’t have the opportunity. By practicing with less breakable, plastic bones, people can decide whether or not that sounds like any fun before they sign up for a course to do it. By practicing with fake items in a public museum before the real ones, it would reduce the risk of taking a class that you don’t want to do because it would give you a better idea of what that job actually did. Being able to experience things is important and having imitation artifacts for hand-on exhibits will help people have good experiences.

As I demonstrated, museums need to change to hands-on exhibits. Museums who use a hands-on approach are more successful because they attract more attention from the general public and make more money. They will provide both fun and educational experiences. People can learn old fashioned ways of life; they can feel them, not just look. Lastly, museum goers can have these great experiences without damaging the real artifacts. So let’s not just look through glass in museums. I encourage museums to go this hands-on route. People will love the new museums!

Debates

Today while I was trying to do my blog, my parents and grandparents turned on the TV to watch the New Hampshire Presidential Debates. I tried to write a good blog, I really did, but I love to argue... so when someone's debating......well, I didn't really write much of a blog. But now it's all done and over and I'm away from the TV, so I'll talk (write) about the debates.

Debating is one of my favorite hobbies. I'll debate anything with anyone. Sometimes this gets me in trouble. Sometimes it makes people laugh. I don't care because I have fun whenever I do it, and my opponent usually does too... I think. There's only one problem with my debating. It's that sometimes the nice, kind, compassionate soul that we all know and love becomes somewhat less compassionate, way more uncaring, and overall somewhat mean. But that's a really extreme case and it has to be over something I have a really strong opinion on. I always feel bad about it afterward, too. Like there was this one time where I was arguing and I swear I was going to make my temporary enemy cry.

But back to the way more interesting presidential debates. First off, I'm a Republican and so I will attack Democratic ways. Second, Hillary Clinton is a Democrat and she goes against most of what I believe in. Not to mention she's married to the worst president in all of history. Bill Clinton's mistakes as president number in such large numbers that I won't even get started on him. Well, in the presidential debates she made herself look like even more of a wacko than I previously thought her to be. Not only did she support the wrong things (think universal health care) but her plans for those things made it even worse. Seriously, how can anybody vote for such a monster-person? Then there was Romney, I think that he's OK, and if he gets elected it won't be the end of the world. But there are some issues about him that I think are really weird. For instance, you never know exactly what his views on a matter are because he seems to change them. But that's all I've got against him. Giuliani, so far he's the one that I liked the best. I didn't actually hear much on him but he seems to have thought things out. I think John McCain is the worst Republican because he thinks that open borders and illegal aliens just walking into our country and getting citizenship is all right. Obama, well, he's the only one I didn't really see. But he's so liberal that he doesn't sound like the kind of guy I'd want running my country. And so ends my boring lecture on presidential debates. Oh, and please don't feel bad if I totally insulted your favorite candidate!

Water Horse

For three weeks now my grandparents have been here in Utah. My grandparents are so neat! Things seem to be less stressful and we have a bunch of fun when they're here. So, during the Christmas break, we went to the theater to see a movie called Water Horse. Most people I've talked to haven't seen this movie so I'll TRY not to give anything away, but I won't guarantee anything. But I probably won't try too hard because, being such a great movie, you should have already seen it. Anyway, I loved that movie! If all of the movie ratings came from me this would get five stars, movie of the year, thumbs up, and any synonyms of those phrases. One of the reasons to why I loved this movie so much is because, if you listen, it has a blend of history and fantasy. For those of you who don't know, history is my favorite subject in school and fantasy is my favorite genre for books and movies. This is the reason to why one of my favorite books is Animal Farm, which I highly recommend to everyone. So everyone go out and see Water Horse!