In the story "Work- The Rule of St. Benedict" by Dee Masters, Benedict tries to reach out to God many times. When Benedict was young, he was said to have made many miracles happen. People would ask him to make miracles happen for them, but whenever he did, he felt that he had failed to reach out to God. He tried many different things, and finally thought to build a monastery. He wrote The Rule, a guidebook for monks that was used throughout his monastery. Benedict now felt that he had finally succeeded in what he had always wanted to do. He had finally reached out to God.
      I think learning about St. Benedict was interesting because he created the first Benedictine monastery, and he followed all of the harsh rules he wrote about in his guidebook. One of the rules he made was that no Benedictine monk was allowed to own anything except the thing needed to live, which were given to him by the abbot. I don't think I could stand to be a Benedictine monk.                                
 
      Today in P.E., I learned how to play lacrosse. I kind of suck at the whole catching concept. I'm not too bad at throwing, though. My team is pretty good, so I don't have to do much. My team tied the team we played zero to zero. I need to practice catching, but that will be difficult because I don't have the materials to practice at home, or the time to practice at school.
      So I guess I'll just have to practice by doing. Maybe if I play lacrosse long enough, I'll eventually learn how to catch. The only problem with that solution is that we are only doing this unit for another two weeks. Even though I don't have much time, maybe it will be enough time for me to improve a little bit.
 
       I think I would live in Northern Europe out of the three regions in Europe (Southern Europe, Northern Europe, and Scandinavia) because of the climate and the vegetation. The climate is cool, but rarely freezing. I would prefer this over the heat in Southern Europe or the freezing temperatures of Scandinavia. 
      In Southern Europe, only plants that can withstand heat and little water live there. In Scandinavia, no plants can survive. But in Northern Europe, many crops are grown on the flat land, with the help of nice temperatures. So, in conclusion, Northern Europe would be the best place for me to live.

The Middle Ages

1/24/2012

 
    Today I learned about the Middle Ages and how horrible a time it was in history. Since most of the people in the Middle Ages were Christian, they were all afraid of the pope and other religious figures because, according to the people, could excommunicate anyone who defied them or made them angry in any way. The people lived in fear, especially the poor people who couldn't give money to the church.
    The rich people thought they were fine and didn't have to worry about being excommunicated because they gave a lot of money to help the church. But the pope didn't care how much money anyone gave to the church, if you made the pope mad, you were excommunicated. One pope even excommunicated a king! So throughot the Middle Ages, people were terrified of their religion, but they were also scared not to have a religion. So either way, the Middle Ages were not a fun time for the people who lived there.    
 
    Every year I make a New Year's resolution, but usually break it by January second. But this year is going to be different. I still haven't broken it, but then again, I can't break it until the third quarter of school is over because my resolution is to get 4.0's for the remaining two quarters of this school year. I really need to make a step-by-step plan on how to do this, because it's not going to come easily.
    I really need to focus on computers and science. Even though I do pretty well in science, it takes a lot of focus and studying. But I can't forget about the easy subjects, either. I still have to work to keep those up. I have already analyzed what I've been doing wrong in each class and here's how I'm going to fix each one.
Core: I won't change anything, because what I'm doing is working.
French: Same thing as core.
Math: Though I do well in math, I really do need to study more than I do.
Leadership: I need to talk more to my classmates and contribute my ideas.
P.E.: I need to participate much more than I do now.
Computers: I need to turn everything in on time and ask questions when I don't understand a concept.
Science: I need to continue to study like crazy.
 

The Big Wave

1/20/2012

 
    In core we're reading a book called The Big Wave. It's about two boys, Kino and Jiya, living in Japan. They are best friends but their lives are very different. Kino lives on a terraced mountain where his family grows rice and vegetables. Whereas Jiya lives by the sea, where his family can fish. In both of their situations, they face great dangers. Kino faces the danger of volcanoes, and Jiya worries about tsunamis. When a tsunami comes, wiping out Jiya's entire village, many children are left orphaned. Including Jiya.
    Old Gentleman, a wealthy and respected man who takes care of the orphaned children, wants Jiya to keep as his son. But Jiya wishes to stay with Kino and be in their family. Jiya chose being loved over being respected. He chose working with his best friend at the farm instead of getting a high quality education. Of course, Kino and his family are overjoyed that he decided to stay with them, but Jiya still has much more grieving to do before he moves on from the devastating loss of his family. In the end, all is well and Jiya's life gets much happier. 
 
    The geography and nature of Japan definitely have a big impact on the people who live there. Since Japan is really small, there very little space to live. To add to the problem of close to no living space, most of the places available to live in are faced with many large natural disasters. Such as tsunami's and earthquakes. Most of Japan's land is mountainous- in fact, only 20% of Japan'as land is flat. So the Japanese developed terrace farming, which is where they cut out part of the mountain like stair steps so they can farm on it.
    The people who live on the terraced mountain usually farm rice and vegetables. Both of which are crucial parts of a Japanese diet, but those farmers are faced with the constant threat of volcanoes. Those of which do not live on the mountains usually live by the sea to catch fish- another important food in Japan. But the fisherman are no safer from natural disasters than the farmers are. These Japanese who live by the ocean live in fear that someday the sea will "be angry" and a tsunami will destroy where they live. So, as you can see, the geography and nature of Japan majorly effect the lives of  the people who live there.
 
      Last quarter my grades weren't as high as I would've liked for them to be. I had two B's- one in computers and one in P.E. I don't understand how anyone could get a B in P.E., but somehow I managed it. But this quarter, I'm going to get straight A's. I'm going to really concentrate on doing well in computers and try my hardest to participate more in P.E. But even though I got A+'s in most of the other subjects, I got just a regular A in math. I was close to getting an A+, but I didn't, so I also need to fix that grade in the third quarter. I don't really need to worry about the rest of my classes because I've gotten A+'s in all of them both quarters. But I'm still going to really concentrate and work hard on all of them to make sure they don't drop down.
      There's a lot I have to remember to do and fix this quarter, so I'm going to make a plan. What I did wrong in computers last quarter is that when I figured out an assignment was late or due soon, I rushed through it and got a worse grade than I would have gotten if it was late. So I have to really focus on all of my assignments- but not just in computers. In all of my classes, that's my problem and that's how I'll fix it.