Hello, Mr. McDonnell. For this week’s blog post, I am going to talk about the introduction to our Judaism and Christianity unit. Before that,  I would say that I am semi-religious. My cousins and extended family are more religious than my immediate family and me. I celebrate most of the Jewish holidays, but only with my relatives, and even then it is more of a family gathering than a religious ceremony or anything like that. I also celebrate Christmas and Easter and some Christian holidays, but again, not super religiously. I also do not go to Church or Synagogue. So even though my family is slightly religious, I still did not know anything about Judaism and Christianity, surprisingly. I knew bits of pieces of things, like Jesus being crucified, and big things like that, but I didn’t even really know the story of Jesus, so it was pretty interesting to hear the bits and pieces of stories that I have heard finally come together. One thing that surprised me was that Christianity stemmed from Judaism, as well as Islam. It is also surprising how much more Christianity took off than Judaism. Christianity now makes up 31% of the world, whereas Judaism only makes up 0.2%. This is a very, very significant difference and to think that the larger of the two stemmed from the smaller is wild. I was also very intrigued as to the reason many people, men, in particular, converted to Christianity. They were not willing to be circumcised, which is a Jewish tradition you could say. Obviously, it makes sense that they wouldn’t want to be circumcised if they didn’t have to, but making this the driving factor as to why you change religions is surprising to me. Compared to some of the things that some other people do for their religion, I’m surprised these ancient people didn’t think the same way. People today will still not do any work every sabbath, every week for their religion. I am not trying to be disrespectful, but this seems like a big burden or at least just an inconvenience. And to do this for your entire life? This seems like a lot to give up. Maybe not equilivant to a painful procedure in which you have your foreskin removed, especially as a grown man, not even a baby, but still. A question I have, and this may be a dumb question, is whether Jesus was a god or not. I am sure this has been explained in one of our readings, but I’m still confused. I know he rose from the dead three days after being killed from our reading last night, and this seems pretty godly to be, but he also just led a human life, not really doing anything god-like until his famous resurrection. I also remember you saying in class that he was a man, but also a god, and you just have to accept that he was both but also one person. If you ask me, the whole thing is pretty confusing and hard to follow, but still very interesting.

Hello, Mr. Mcdonnell. For this week’s blog post, I want to talk about my finished Silk Road project and how it felt to complete it. after finishing the project, I feel pretty good about how it came out. I think my partner and I put a lot of time and effort into the presentation, and hopefully, it shows. I also think me and Hillary did a good job pacing ourselves and keeping up with the work. Because of this, we didn’t have to cram a bunch of hours in on Sunday night, we were able to basically just turn it in after a few things. We were able to do this because we did a little bit each day and did not let it pile up, which worked very well. My partner and I split up the work to do, so we both did the same amount. If I had to rate this project out of ten on how much I enjoyed it, I would rate it a 7 out of 10. The fact that it could have possibly replaced a big unit test, like the one that the other blocks had, brings it up to maybe an 8 or 9 out of ten. If I put aside and look past the big project and stress aspect of this project, I actually really enjoyed learning about the Silk Road. The silk road is one of those things that I have always heard about, but never really knew what it was until this unit. It is a very interesting topic and there was plenty to write about after I found my sources. the site that you recommended and the one Hillary and I used to make our presentation, Emaze, was a little difficult to use. For one, it is kind of laggy. There also isn’t that much flexibility with the formatting as another site, such as google slides or google earth. I feel like our end presentation is not that much different from google slides, and we could have done the same project on google slides. Emaze also is not great because both partners can’t work on the project at the same time. I understand that is just how the site works, but it was a little inefficient. We were still able to make it all work on Emaze, although I am not sure if our promo video works. When I was editing the assignment, it said there was an error every time you tried to open the video, so I deleted it out of the presentation and re-embedded it in, but the same thing happened. If it still does not work when you try and open it, I will just email it to you separately. This was another thing with Emaze, a few of the features did not work as intended which was not ideal but again, we just worked around them. All and all, I think Hillary and I did well and I’m happy with our project. That’s it, Thanks!

Hello, Mr. McDonnell. For this week’s blog post, I am going to talk a little bit about how the research is going for the silk road project. So far, I have had some difficulty with the research but my partner and I did find enough sources, and we have one solid site that we can use the rest of the 10 artifacts on. I was a little bit bummed that the Emaze site was not operational because the whole virtual museum idea seemed pretty fun, but the business plan seems fun, too. If we have to, my partner and I can also do the same project, except on google earth. That option also seems fun, so no matter what we will be able to do something. When I was younger, maybe early middle school, I dreaded making bibliographies for projects so much. It was by far my least favorite part, but they do not really bother me anymore. Noodle tool also seems super easy to use, so that is good. That class period where we went into the library with Mrs. Torpey was also very helpful. Before that, I felt a little confused about what I was doing and did not even have a project in mind, but now I have a project all picked out and even have some progress on it. Gale ebooks was kind of hard for me to use. I think it was hard for me to use because there were a lot of steps to reach it, and also because I am not great with technology as I mentioned in my last blog post. I think it will still be useful after I get the hang of it, so I am not too worried. If I remember from that class period, there might have been something wrong with it, like it was discontinued or something like that. I can’t remember specifically what it was that was wrong with the site, and I could be totally be making this up in my mind but I just wanted to let you know in case you wanted to check. I think we also have plenty of time for this project. I see on canvas that it is due on the 1st of November, so that gives us a week. Hopefully, I get most of it done in class with my partner, but I assume there will be a solid portion of it that has to be done at home. If I budget my time and plan out when I am going to do what, and use your step-by-step sheet, I won’t have a problem with getting it done. I’ll just do it bit by bit. The project seems very big and intimidating, but in reality, after you find all of your information, it is not very hard at all. All we have to do is turn it into a project with the online program, and that shouldn’t be too hard. And with that, I will end my post there. Thanks!

For this week’s blog post, I am going to write about what I think of the upcoming project about the Silk Route/ Silk road and what I think about it. Me and my partner, Hillary, decided that we wanted to do the second option where you make a virtual museum exhibit with 10 ancient artifacts. So far, we have only done a little bit of research and collected some sources and things like that just to get ready to start the project since we’re still early in it. It was not difficult to find information on the silk road, but it was a little harder to find information specifically on ancient artifacts from the silk road, but I did find some stuff. I also plan on using some of the artifacts provided by you, Mr. McDonnell on your example assignment and just doing my own research on them and getting more information. I think this is a pretty cool assignment and I would much rather do a project like this than have a big unit test. This is our first big project in this class and so far things are manageable. I also appreciate how you made the step-by-step sheet to help walk us through what we should be doing on what days. That helps us a lot and takes off some of the pressure of the big project, at least in my opinion. I have never really been a techy person, so I was a little bit nervous when I found out this project required a lot of tech and computer savviness, but so far, things are going ok. I haven’t really used the program for the virtual museum yet, so I guess there is still time for me to not understand it still. The google earth project also seemed a little hard to use after playing around with it a little bit, but it does not seem too hard that I wouldn’t be able to manage it. I know this is a big change, but now I’ll talk a little bit about Isidasi and the promise of Buddhism. I didn’t really understand the story that well and even after the discussion I was still confused. All in all, it was not one of my favorite stories that we’ve read in this class, because I didn’t understand the meaning. Isidasi getds treated poorly by her husbands because she gets old? it just doesn’t really resonate with me, which is ok. I also didn’t get how her being reincarnated as a man and sleeping with anothr man’s wife had any relevance to the ending of the story where she became a monk and found inner peace, but I am ok with not fully understanding it in the end.

Hello, Mr. McDonnell. For this week’s blog post, I think I am gonna talk a little bit about the story, “The Tiger and the Strawberry”. First of all, this story caught me off guard, if that is the right way to put it. It surprised me. The ending specifically surprised me, but I was also surprised at how deep the meaning could be interpreted even though it is a very quick story. The ending is surprising for obvious reasons. It just cuts off. There is no closure. We don’t know what happens to our protagonist. But the point of the story is not to know what happens to the protagonist, the point is, in my opinion, that life is short and you should take pleasure in the little things. The less positive outlook on the story would be that you can’t be distracted by small simple pleasures in life and need to focus on the important stuff, but I disagree with this. I disagree because the two lions, the mouse, the vine, all of this represents a situation with no escape. There is no escape, and that is what the author is trying to convey. To say that you can’t be distracted by simple pleasures, like the strawberry, and need to focus on a solution, like escaping the lions. I think this is a poor interpretation of the story because the lions and all of the obstacles in the story are supposed to represent an inescapable situation like I said. Why try and escape an inescapable situation if it is impossible? you may as well enjoy your last few moments of life. I am not saying give up, but why try and escape if your odds of surviving are low? No matter what your take on this story is, you can not deny that it is a dark story. Even though it is a dark story, I still like it and think it brings up good questions.

 

Recently in class, I have really been enjoying the types of projects we have been doing. I liked the Asia map quiz a lot. I thought it was a lot of fun. I also really like the Spotify assignment. It makes the work feel less difficult and annoying when we are still learning the material. I am not saying anything about your other assignments in the past, but these recent ones have been very good. I think I have covered everything that I want to talk about in this post, so I think that’s it. Thanks.

Hey, Mr. McDonnell. For my blog post this week, I want to talk about the Hindu Caste system and what I think about it. After reading the text about Caste, I was left very confused. First of all, there are no real absolutes in the Caste system. You can be the highest caste, and be poor, or be the lowest caste, and be rich. It all depends on how pure your soul is, and how you acted and treated people in your last life, and the life before that, and the life before that. And this brings us to reincarnation, which plays a big part in the caste system. As I mentioned before, whatever caste you were born into is dependent on how you acted in your past life. I’m not saying this is what I believe in, or that it is true, but it seems like this whole caste system is a way to get people to be their very best selves, and if so, it is working. People will act their best in hopes that in their next life, they can be reincarnated into a higher caste, become a cow, or even become one with Brahman. This could be totally random, but the highest rank in the caste system is brahmin, which sounds a lot like Brahman. Maybe this is because they are the closest to him? I am not sure. Another thing I noticed was how the author wrote part of the text, in the form of a conversation between an American and a Hindu. I really liked this because it brought the caste system to life for me. Before it just seemed like an idea, but now I can imagine it being a real thing. The Hindu answered many of the American’s questions about the caste system with “yes and no”, which shows how complicated it is. It’s not as black and white as, say, Christianity, where there’s a bible and strict rules about a lot of things. The closest thing in Christianity to the Caste system would be different branches of Christianity, such as catholicism, presbyterian, protestant, Episcopalian, and Lutheran, although these do not really have any authority or ranking above one another the way that the castes do. all in all, I enjoyed the reading and would like to learn more about the caste system. I am sure we have only dipped our toes in the deep pool of what there is to know, and I am sure there’s a lot I am missing that could influence what I think. I am a few words short for this post, but I think it is ok for just this one.

Hello, Mr. McDonnell and whoever else may read this. This week for my blog post number 2, I am going to be writing about my reaction to the Hindu story, Ramayana. After reading Ramayana, A few things came to mind. First of all, the story has to do with dignity and respect a lot. Rama, the prince/ king/ hero of the story, overcomes many obstacles throughout the writing. He helps a townsperson fight off demons, he accepts his banishment and leaves town for 13 years, and on his last year, he must save his wife, Sita, from another demon who kidnapped her. Hanuman, a Monkey who helps Rama search for Sita, successfully finds her, but Sita refuses to be saved by him, saying that her husband must save her. She is putting her safety below her husband’s honor, which was a dangerous gamble. This is a good representation of how women are viewed and used in this story, and in many stories. The wives and daughters and any other women in the story are supposed to have unwavering loyalty to their husbands, staying by their side, supporting them, and doing whatever else they have to do to make sure their husband’s reach success. They are also like possessions to many of the men in the story. The demon kidnaps Sita because of her beauty, and she is like a prize to him. This reminds me of the story of Persephone. Persephone is kidnapped by Hades and kept as a trophy. Getting back to Ramayana, I am wondering why Sita would not even try to escape before her husband arrived to save her. Even if there wasn’t much of a chance she would escape, she may as well try. Sitting and waiting clearly didn’t do her any good. Another thing that I want to mention is how the King’s wife was not even an option for succeeding the crown. I assume this story takes place thousands of years ago, and back then (even in much earlier years, like the late 1900s) women weren’t given any positions of power. The throne goes right to the son of the king, and that is that. Another thing I noticed about the story is an evil stepmother. So many stories have an evil stepmother, like cinderella. I wonder why stepmothers are the targets of so much hate and pinned down as a bad guys in all the movies? Not only this but it’s not usually the stepdad, just the stepmom. I can’t think of a direct correlation to anything as to why it would always be the step mom, but it certainly is strange. In Ramayana, the evil stepmom is power-hungry and sees Rama as a threat that she needs to eliminate. Her way of eliminating him is exiling him. This backfires on her because Rama’s brother, Lakshmana,  keeps the throne empty until he returns, saving it for him. Rama returns home after his 14-year exile and is surprised to see that his brother has waited for him all this time. After that, they all live happily ever after. The end.

For my first blog post, I’m just gonna write about my general thoughts on the class so far. Right now, I think Religions and Revolutions is one of my favorite classes. I have always been a humanities guy, so English and history were my preferred subjects over the sciences, so that’s why I find this class so interesting. I also really like how we do a lot of open discussions, where everyone can share their thoughts, instead of everyone doing individual work all class. The assignment where we thought of words that associate with Religion, systems, and belief was especially engaging to me. Although I didn’t talk all too much, I really liked how it was structured. Everyone shouting out answers, giving their insight and opinions captured everything that I put down in the past assignment where we were asked to write what makes a strong community. Right now, the homework load is not too much and feels very appropriate. I know that it will definitely pick up more as the year progresses, and that’s expected. I think I’ll be able to handle it and I feel comfortable asking you questions if I need to. As of right now, I don’t really have any suggestions for the class. I am enjoying the class and am excited to do some bigger projects. If given the opportunity to work on a larger project with a group or by myself, I would choose the group, even if it’s just one more person. I know we can’t do all group projects but I do like them more. I also really like our class. Most of the kids I didn’t even know before last week, but they’re all super nice and everyone seems fun. Compared to my history class last year, I think I like this one a little more so far because we get to focus on specific things throughout history, instead of a broader look at historical events. And while we look at specific things in this class, we still cover different types of things if that makes sense. Like the cosmic calendar and the cave writing. They’re not really related, but it was still interesting to go over them.

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