Butterly Project 3-31-15

"We got used to standing in line at seven o'clock in the morning, twelve noon, and again at seven o'clock in the evening. We stood in a long queue with a plate in our hand, into which they ladled a little warmed up water with a salty or coffee flavor. Or else they gave us a few potatoes. We got used to sleeping without a bed, to saluting every uniform, not to walk on sidewalks and then again to walk on the sidewalks. We got used to undeserved slaps, blows, and executions. We got accustomed to seeing people die in their own excrement, to seeing piled-up coffins full of corpses, to seeing the sick amid dirt and filth and to seeing the helpless doctors. We got used to it that from time to time, one thousand unhappy souls would come ere and that, from time to time, another thousand unhappy souls would go away...."
Journal entry by Petr Fischl, born September 9, 1929, died in Auschwitz 1944.


Commented on Amelia Abdiel Athziry Jenna

Night 3-26-15

So something I noticed in the beginning of the book was how everyone in Elies town is so optimistic. It kind of makes me wonder if they were just blissfully ignoring the fact that they were going to get overrun by Nazis or if they genuinely thought that everything was going to end before it got to them. Sure, the Nazis were nice to them at first when they became occupied but I'm pretty sure that if I had been there I would still have doubts....

The other thing that I thought was interesting was that the woman knew there would be fire awaiting them wherever they were going to be taken. Seerly premonition?

Something else that got me thinking on a more personal level was at the end, when Akiba the Drummer says "God is testing us. He wants to find out whether we can dominate our base instincts and kill the satan within us. And if he punishes us relentlessly, it's a sign that He loves us all the more." To be honest as far as relationships and love go thats a red flag for abuse if you ask me. Like, if this God is supposed to be all loving, then why do you have to go through all of these tests of hardship? If they are all loving, then they would care about us and not want us to go through all of these horrible things. There probably wouldn't even be a hell to speak of because with unconditional love comes acceptance and forgiveness, and so they'd forgive whatever bad things or 'sins' we had, and let us move on. Or else explain why the thing we did was bad if we don't understand, and then let us move on once we do come to an understanding. It's just so contradictory to me. I'm not trying to put down anyone who agrees with what Abkiba said, it just doesn't add up to the unconditional love thing this God has been said to have for everyone in my opinion.
If you guys would like to comment on this please do, I want to see what everyone else thinks about this.

AOW Impressions Holocaust

One of the things I found really shocking during the gallery walk was Bella's article about one of the experiments that a Nazi doctor did. He thought that if he could get twins who were close to Aryan to have twins with an Aryan person, and then continue that cycle, he'd perfect the bloodline. If the child wasn't born a twin he'd just kill them. It was just sickenning.

The other really interesting things was what Stanley's article was about. According to his article, the children of people who experianced the holocaust have altered stress hormones, causing them to survive longer without nutrients. It also however causes them to be more suseptable to trauma. This was really interesting, because it made me wonder what other kind of things could produce a change like that in offspring.

Berlin Memorial Reflection

To be honest, up until today we've never really ever gone in depth with what exactly the Nazi's took away from the Jews in this sense, which is odd now that we have because it's a huge thing. It all went down kind of like a tsunami does. The decrees came in a large wave when it began and took away a lot of political, judicial and teaching stances from the Jewish. Then the wave receded, and only a few were made each year. Then the mid 1940's came and the tsunami wave hit. You couldn't fix your places of worship after they were destroyed, you couldn't keep your pets, you couldn't immigrate with any valuable belongings, you couldn't own your own business, you were forced into labor, you couldn't get clothing rations. It was not a good time.

This monument was built as a constant reminder of the unimaginable struggle it had to have been to be living as a Jew in Nazi controlled land. Sure, the German people alive now had nothing to do with it, but it's a dark part of their history that cannot be forgotten or swept aside. It's a dark part of history for most of that region of Europe!

I sort of went into this in my first paragraph, but in the mid/late 1930's they let the initial ones sink in and only added a couple of new ones per year. Then in the 1940's+ everything just sort of went boom and suddenly no one could really do anything. Sort of a false sense of security. Like, 'oh, well, they've already put a bunch of restrictions on our daily lives they're probably done now' but then the Nazis were like 'psych, now you can't do anything' and it was actually quite strategic. I'm not saying it was okay but you have to say they at least planned.

The most immediate one I can think of is the pets. The most physical and emotional one would be the loss of sports/outdoor activities because I literally need to get rid of my energy or else I can't sleep or concentrate or anything and it's really not a good situation. The other thing would probably be the radio and typewriter being taken away because that's probably what I would have written on. I would have just moved on to pen though so it may not have been that big of a deal. But pets man. You don't take away peoples pets. Seriously what is wrong with you.

Third Quarter Blog 3-13-15

The only book I actually finished this quarter was Looking for Alaska, because I was only reading the other books because I had to be reading something. Looking for Alaska however, was something that I had actually been sort of wanting to read, so I actually finished it. First book I've finished this year. Woohoo. (That is a sarcastically celebratory "woohoo", mind you)

I've probably read eight books, counting the ones for L.A. and Social Studies. I'm not counting the ones I haven't finished though. The five books I did like though were the All Souls Trilogy because I ship Diana and Mathew almost to the same level as I do Persephone and Hades, Blood of Olympus because Nico and Reyna got POV's and that was bomb, and Looking For Alaska because Alaska was cool even though the main character is kind of like, really self-centered and annoying at the end. A thing I'd like to remind you guys about myself regarding the 40 book challenge though is that I don't do it. I'll read what I read. You can't make me read stuff I don't want to. If I want to read a book of poetry it'll be because A- it's for a class and I have no choice, or B- I fricking want to. I'm not going to do it because of a challenge. I read things because I find them interesting. If I did the 40 book challenge I'd probably have to read things that I don't find interesting and it'd end up this horrible thing I have to slog through.
I'm not doing that.
It's not worth it.

To be honest I write the same as I always do. This year though there's way more posts in my "other" tag than last year, and less in actual "book blogs". I'm not even counting the ones for Passion Project either just the ones in this actual class. Since we started doing the AOW impressions and an AOW had to be posted on here one week so it's mostly miscellaneous. However my blog it's self has gone through different theme changes and stuff so that was fun to do.

Things I've learned about the world

• Climate change is screwing up most things
• There are like four really bad things going on globally (ISIS, North Korea, Russia/Ukraine, Boko Haram) and everyone is fighting all over the place and eventually they're all going to end up this one big fight like how WW1 started and it'll be WW3 and then we're gonna have to deal with all of it and that just really sucks.
• America really needs to start focusing on the injustice within it's boarders instead of distracting it's self with things over-seas. Like, stopping terrorism is nice but that's protecting us from afar when there's literally problems hurting us right here that need to be delt with.

I know how to properly cite things like an adult. I research things the same way but putting them in the thing they need to be put into has improved. Now I can truly be an adult. I may not know how to do taxes or get a job but atleast I can do in-text citations!

Book Blog Poem, Looking for Alaska 3/11/15

Miles Halter

Impressionable, easy going and Lovestruck

Lover of Alaska Young, Cigarettes and Last Words

Who Notices Moods, Habits and Quirks

Who Feels Guilt, Love, Understanding and Pain

Who Learns that the ache of being left behind is comparable to the pain of death

Who Says "No, not past tense."

Who used to wonder how he'd get out of the labyrnth, but now knows to go strait and fast

Majior Character in Looking For Alaska

A Book that is light-hearted until it isn't

Article Impressions 3-6-15

One thing I noticed this week in juxtaposition to last week was that there were far fewer articles about the ISIS crisis. However, there were articles about how girls are going over to marry into ISIS, and how ISIS defaced a lot of valued historical artifacts.

Since we focused on a lot of the negative last week, I'd like to talk about the more positive articles I saw this time around. According to Nadrian Canadian scientists have found a cure for Ebola! In monkeys at least. However, since monkey's are closely/ish related to humans, this could bridge the way to a cure for us, which would make that particular virus being a global pandemic less of a threat.

 Another article is from Gabe, with good news about a lagoon cited power plant in the U.K. somewhere. Since lagoons are by the sea, they have tides, which is precisely what this power plant derives it's energy from. The lagoon is circled by a large wall, and when it comes to high and low tide, a gate opens and the water comes rushing in or out. This movement is how 8% of the U.K.'s clean energy is generated. Cool right?

The third and final article with good news in it was Stanley's about Bangladesh's vertical roof gardens. Because Bangladesh has a huge flooding problem they have really inadequate soil that is pretty useless for growing crops in. How do you fix that? Cheap, affordable vertical standing plant pots. Totally something large cities could use for community gardens on top of apartment complexes.

So thoes are the more positive articles I saw this week. Hope to see more next time.

AOW impressions 2/20/15

The main event people focused on was the Egypt's reaction to the beheading of 21 of their christian citizens, done by the terror group ISIS. Egypt bombed ISIS controled sections in Libya in retaliation. I think a lot of people focussed on this because it's kind of a big thing. This is the first time, I have heard of, that ISIS has killed so many people at once. There are also posibilities of a war between the two.

Another ISIS related thing was that Europe is becomming slightly more worried that the group will begin to move more north. Italy has reportedly began defense in case such threat becomes more prominant. Since ISIS is a terrorist group, being afraid of them just sort of gives them more power, however if we don't defend against what they can actually do we're just being foolish and making it easier for them to spread territory. Seeing Italy doing something in advanced is somewhat reassuring, because if they're prepared for what may happen, there's a better chance ISIS will lose if they try something.