Taosim

I learned a lot about Taoism in this last week. For example, I learned that they are more laid back and passive than Christians. I tend to disagree with most of Taoism since as a Christian, I am called to take action and stand up for God. Also, we as Christians are called to convert others rather than sit back and watch the time fly.
I do agree with some aspects though:
I believe we define ourselves [through God], not through actions or people. Also, I believe that we should not fight just to fight; peace is important.
The lack of stress and disruption in Taoism is nice, but I believe it to be a naive thought since everyday we are put into tough, stressful situations and not realizing/accepting this would just be wrong [to me].

The Koran

I learned that Muslims share a lot of the beliefs we Christians do. I have also discovered quite a few differences from the Christianity and Islam. For example, they believe in a single god just as we do, though we believe in God not Allah. A difference I remember is that they believed that they believe you're either a believer or you'll never be one. We believe that you're a believer or not, but in Christianity you can save non-believers, unlike Islam where there hearts are sealed by Allah. Though I found the Koran quite confusing and hard to read, I now feel like I understand the basis of Muslim belief.

Camelot

My initial response to the movie Camelot is that musicals suck...just being honest. Then I realized that I loved Across the Universe and figured I'd give it a chance. Great choice! The movie seemed a bit cheesy but it's forgiven since it is after all a musical...anywho, I really liked how it shows universal values like faith, purity (Lancelot), equality (by showing the different social classes and even sing a song), greed (Arthur's illegitimate son), chivalry and love. Lancelot is a definate symbol relating to christianity and faith in my opinion. The movie shows how all humans sin, all can dream, and how equality is just right...lack of words but it's true. Surprisingly, those all can be christian virtues...

Knights, chivalry...just reminds me of the Christian crusades...coincidence? You decide.

Iliad and Troy comparison

A few differences I found in the movie that were not in the book were that in the fight between Agamemnon and Achilles a god didn't appear to Achilles and stop him like in the Iliad. The movie never describes the gods in depth or even show them to viewers other than a few statues in temples. I think they do this because the Greek gods can be confusing if you have no prior knowledge of who they are and what they do. The movie even combined the characters of Chryseis and Briseis into one. This shows the movie was no doubt shortened from the twenty+ book epic to fit into two and a half hours. The movie was very visual in all the bloodshed and battles. For example, Achilles's chariot glimmered and his black horses brought terror to Trojans. In the movie however, his horses do not talk like in the epic. The movie made Achilles look as if he fought like a god through hours of choreography and practice. To conclude, both the Iliad and the movie did a great job of showing how all the men wanted to be honored and remembered for their courage.

Strategy and Success Blog

1) I really like how we do vocab one day out of the whole week. It seems to work well and I feel I am learning the words better when we discuss during class on Wednesdays.
2) My greatest disappointment in class so far is the lack of participation in discussions from my fellow classmates.
3) The meathod I use for studying for quizzes/tests is just to take a half an hour a night and read through the book for vocab, or just stories and my notes for the other quizzes.
4) I am more of a visual person. I know this from my past experiences with assignments, quizzes and tests. I tend to do fine on these when I just read through the material the task is about. The only time I make notecards or study sheets is when it is required and I still do fine without them.

Archetype Blog

Since I am of German descent, I read a German folktale called Old Woman in the Wood. It is about a girl whose caravan gets slaughtered by theives while she hides helplessly behind a tree. She then wanders the forest alone until visited by a talking dove who feeds and shelters her for three days by using trees. On the third day he asks for the girl's help freeing him of the spell making him a tree (except for 2 hours as a dove each day). She then embarks on an adventure to an old woman/witch's home to retrieve a ring that holds the curse put on the tree/dove. The girl is successful and returns to the forest where the dove had visited her. A tree then speaks to her and becomes a man. This man is actually a king's son. They fall in love and live happily ever after.

The most prominent archetype present in this story is a hero. The girl is not the typical maiden like most unmarried women in folktales, but a hero to the helpless prince who seems to resemble a maiden in almost all aspects, except he is not female. The old woman represents a crone and even a trickster because she tricks people into thinking she is a helpless old woman in the story.

This is a typical german folktale in the sense that there is a crone that is eventually defeated by a hero. Tricksters are also common in German folklore, commonly disguised as women, game animals, trees, lakes and other nature related things. In German culture rings are used to represent many admirable qualities. For example, their armies have used rings along with medals to reward soldiers for outstanding acts in war. Also, another example from modern times is the German automobile company Audi's symbol.

My summer...biology class

This summer I pretty much hung around with my friends and family in Oregon, Cali, and of course WA! I wish i could have hung out with some more people who's scheduals never seemed to match mine though. Anyway, I played a little soccer, skated with some locals, and went wakeboarding quite a bit...thats about it in a nutshell.