Guns Germs and Steel

Today in Western Civ we continued watching Guns Germs and Steel. Today we watched a lot about how they domesticate animals. It is very difficult to domesticate land mammals that eat plants and weigh 100+ pounds. Out of 148 of those animals only 14 of them have been able to be domesticated. Also many of the New guineans made their own sako which is food. They actually sell sako on amazon so if everyone in the class pitches in 2 dollars we can get 9 bags of sako. I think it would be fun to try some so we can expierience the new guniean culture.

Video

Today in Western Civ class we watched a video called Guns Germs and Roses. It was about these people that moved to Africa to make a living and they're very poor so they have trouble surviving and are constantly working.I had trouble watching the video because I don't bring headphones to school so I had to turn on closed captioning to understand what was going on but it was still difficult. Also we moved seats today. I don't really like my new seat because before I liked Sean and he was behind me and now Sydneys cool but I dont really know her that well. Also, I dont like the back that much. Just my personal prefrence.

Exam Essays

Today in Human Geo class we got our essays for the exams back. I got an 81 because I did not accurately describe the situations in the 3 nations that I chose to do. I really don'y know many situations around the world so it was difficult for me. On my other exam I did not say what each stage meant. If I did that I would've got around a 85-86. My total exam grade was an 86 which means that I need a 91+ average for the 2 quarters to keep an A. That would mean I need a 96 this quarter which is not going to happen since I have a 91 right now. Right now in class we are doing silent work and I'm working on my blog while Mr. Schick grades the last 2 essays. 

Reviewing Religions

Today we got into human geo class and started talking about the paragraphs that we wrote last night. I feel like mine was too short but I did answer a lot of the questions. After that we talked about Buddhism. They have all these zen quotes which are very strange to me. They're all very calming quotes that show great meaning to them. Mr Schick also told a funny joke. He said what did the buddhist say to the hot dog vendor? Make me one with everything. That was a good one. Also, we have a test on friday and if I to horrible I get a B but if not then ill keep my A. Finally I got an 86 on my exam which I wish I did better but it's alright.

Paragraph on religions

Christianity- It is the biggest religion in the world having 2.2 billion followers. Christians follow the Bible as their holy book. The leader of a christian community is called the pope or clergy. Christians believe that Christ came down to Earth to save them from sins and they will go to heaven because Jesus died on the cross.
Islamic- It is the 2nd biggest religion in the world with 1.6 billion followers. These people are called Muslims. They are found mainly in the Middle East and Asia. They follow the Quran as their holy book. They believe that Allah or God is the leader of the Earth.
Hinduism- It is the 3rd largest religion in the world with 1.1 billion followers. Hindus are found mainly in Asia. A big thing that hindus believe in is reincarnation. This means that when you die you will become something else. Hindus don't believe in a leader but they do have many of their own beliefs.
Buddhism-  It is the 4th largest religion in the world but no one knows the amount of Buddhists there actually are. They are mainly found in Asia. The believe in the four truths and the eightfold path as a way of living. They also worship a statue of Buddha.
Judaism- It is around the 10th biggest religion in the world. Their beliefs are very similar to those of a Christian. They believe that Jesus came down to save them from sins and that they will go to heaven. The read a holy book called the Torah. They are mainly found in the US and Isreal. There are about 16 million jews in the world.

Review and Test Grades

Today in class we went over a lot of things we need to know for the test next week. We learned that Christianity and Islamic dominate most countries. There are some exceptions though. For example Chinas main religion is Hindu and Israels main religion is Judaism. The biggest part of the day was getting the multiple choice portion of our exams back. I got an 88 on that portion which I'm not mad about. that was about the class average so that's fine. I wish I got an A though. I honestly thought I did better so I want to see which ones I got wrong. The esssays were the hardest part for me though so I'm definetly scared for that to come.

Reviewing Blogs

Today in Human Geo class we reviewed the blogs that we had last night about Islamic cultures and their ways of living. Right now we are talking about how the Sacraments are not coming up in religion class and how religion classes are getting much less strict with what they are teaching kids. When Mr. Schick was young they pounded with info when but now they don't do that. Now we are talking about Mecca where Muslims go because it is the holy city. A long time ago Muslims actually had to walk to Mecca. Also Mr. Schick cuddled a 4 pound baby last night which is super small and scary. Just thought I should include that. 

Blog Assignment about Hinduism

1. The four Verdic text in the Hindu religion are the...
 Rigveda-  It is the oldest text in the Veda and has 1,028 hymns. It also contains many questions about the universe and gods,
Yajurveda- It contains 1,875 verses. The verses are about things to do during worship.

Sama-veda- It has 1,549 verses. It has songs and phrases in symbolic and numerical form. Melodies in the Sama-Veda are likely the world's oldest surviving melodies.

Athavaveda- Has 730 hymns. Contains magic and daily rituals for people about funerals and marriage.

2. Indulgences are used in the Catholic Church. Someone asks for indulgences from a religious leader so they can go to heaven. Martin Luther did not like indulgences because he felt that it was wrong to make sure people get to heaven based on an indulgence.

3.  To perform Hajj muslims go to a holy city in Saudi Arabia called Mecca and worship God. To be considered good muslim you had to go to Mecca for Hajj.

Sporcle Quiz

We got into class and Mr. Schick had a Sporcle quiz up. It was different quotes from either the Quran or the Bible. We had to get 18/20 or higher to move on in class. It must have took at least 15 attempts for us to move on. It was very difficult to tell the difference. At the end we figured out that the bible is more harsh especially in the old testament before the birth of Jesus. It was shocking to figure out how much we couldn't tell the difference and how similar they are to each other. After that we moved on to talk about Judaism. I was surprised to find it as the 9th most popular religion. I thought it was 3rd or 4th. 

Religion Unit

Today in human geo we started a new unit on religion. This is the last unit on Human Geo before we move to Western Civilization. We started it off by talking about how Mr. Schick's new dog was too aggressive so that was pretty sad. Then we got into Christianity. Christianity is celebrated by 2.2 billion people around the world mainly in Europe, the Americas, and southern Africa.  The people the celebrate this religion refer to themselves as Christians. There are many denominations such as Catholic, Protestant, and Lutheran. Christians read the Bible and their main belief is that Jesus is the Son of God and God himself. The clergy of Christians is the Pope.