Poetry- Sonnets

Sonnets have been in use for many years. The word "sonnet" comes from the Italian word sonetto, meaning "little song" or "little sound". One of the most famous sonnets were written by William Shakespeare who's love sonnets are quite famous. Another type of sonnet is the Italian version which may be one of the most common forms of the sonnet although most people seem to prefer Shakespeare's version. We shall learn about both versions today.

A sonnet is made of up 14 ryhmed lines, called iambic pentameter. Meaning, in each line we have 10 syllables.

The Italian or, the Petrarchan sonnet as it is commonly known as, was named after an Italian poet, Petrarch. His sonnets happen to be divided between the octave (the first eight lines) which happens to be followed by the sestet (the final six lines). This rhyme scheme is abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd.

A Shakespearean Sonnet, has the following rhyme scheme, abab cdcd, efef, gg. Each letter is a line and if you do it right, all the lines ending with the same letter will rhyme. Our example, Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, will show us our to form the lines.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (a)

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: (b)

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, (a)

And summer's lease hath all too short a date: (b)

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, (c)

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;  (d)

And every fair from fair sometime declines, (c)

By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; (d)

But thy eternal summer shall not fade (e)

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; (f)

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, (e)

When in eternal lines to time thou growest: (f)

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, (g)

So long lives this and this gives life to thee. (g)

Resources:
Thinkquest: Poem Forms- Sonnets
Wikipedia: Sonnets
Poet's.org: Sonnets
To learn more: Famous Sonnets

So, have you ever written any sonnets? Do you have a favorite one? What type is it?

Sincerely,
Peony

Aztecs and Incas are More Like Us Than You Know. (Part 1)

So since Jessika can't post today, I decided that I will force you all to learn about Aztecs and Incas. While history books spend maybe a page on each, I think that they are large cultures that are not taught enough about. While we spend whole sections learning about China or Russia, why not Aztecs and Incas? We seem to know plenty about them from what I've seen and they were just as civilized as we are, in a sense.

You see that temple there in the picture? Yeah there's some really cool things about Chichen Itza, and here's a video to show you!

Random video anyways, here in front of this Mayan temple, if you stand in front of the stairs and clap, you will hear the sound of a bird and the rattle of a snake. This bird was very special, it is called the Quetzal and can make over 400 noises. The bird also represented one of the Aztec supreme gods, Quetzalcoatl, The Feathered Serpent. Amusingly, the year the Spaniards came to Central Mexico happened to be the year Quetzalcoatl was suppose to return to earth. So when the Spaniards came, guess who the Aztecs thought they were! Yep, Cortes, they thought, was a god.

Although the Aztecs are famous for their bloody sacrifices, they had some other interesting things that did not involve sacrificing people. But we'll start with their beginning. While the Aztecs get their name from a land called Aztlan, they actually called themselves Mexica. They at first were a wondering tribe that came onto the lands of a great kingdom, when the kind agreed to let them settle down there, they invited his daughter to come to one of their rituals to please their gods. Later, when they invited the king to come, the Mexica priest danced in front of the king in his daughter's flayed skin. Gross right?

Anyways, the kind became very angry and banished them from his land. After searching around, the Mexica were given a vision of a eagle perched on a cactus holding a snake. When the saw the symbol that's where they were to live. And it was on Lake Texcoco on an island that they built their city which would later become the famous floating city of Tenochtitlan.

One of the most interesting things about the Aztecs I think is their slavery (this next part about slaves and stuff is taken from my Inkpop profile). Slaves (called tlacotin) was a personal thing. An Aztec could become a slave because of debt (Some Aztecs were big on gambling), criminal punishment, or as war captives. They could have possessions and sometimes have their own slaves. However, all their animals and money went to their buyer. Slaves could buy their own freedom or become free if they had children with their masters or were married to them (any children a slave might have with their master or without were free). A slave could also earn his freedom if they could prove that they were abused. They could also not be sold without their consent.


If slave could escape from his master in the marketplace, and reach either the temple or the palace before his master he would be set free on the spot. A runaway who also stepped on dung outside the marketplace while escaping would be brought before judges who would determined if they were free. People normally wouldn't help a master catch his slave because anyone not related to the master could be sold into slavery themselves for helping.


Sometimes slaves who had attempted to escape multiple times or were dangerous became incorrigible. This means that they could be sold without their consent, their buyer had to be told how many times they were sold, and they were forced to wear a wooden collar. This collar was not only a symbol of shame, but it was to make it harder to escape because of two handles on either side of the collar. If a slave was sold four or more times they could be sold to the temple as sacrifices.


An Oracle's Book of Days (called the tonalamatl) is true to Aztec culture. Mothers were honored as warriors after given birth and many speeches, gifts, and parties were held in honor of a newborn. After the baptism (yes they had one) older children really would run through the streets shouting the name of the new born. The Book of Days was not considered a book of fate, but more of a guide telling them family good days and bad days for their children.


The Aztecs had many gods and goddesses. One was their goddess of filth, Tlazoteotl, meaning Sacred Filth Eater. If one committed something very bad that they would probably be killed for, they could go to the temple and ask forgiveness. Because this forgiveness wiped their slate clean of all past crimes, they could never use it again. Because of this, most Aztecs tried to never use it unless they had to.


Unlike our centuries which are one hundred years, the Aztec century was 52 years. Every Aztec century they would hold a special ceremony called the New Fire Rites or Binding of Years (Toxiuhmolpilia in their language, Nahuatl. Did you know that Nahuatl is still taught and spoken? Yep!). During this ceremony all activities would cease, all fires put out, old clothing and utensils thrown out, and quietness and fasting occurred. If there was any pregnant women, they would be locked up in grain houses because the Aztecs believed that if the Binding of the Years failed or didn't occurs, the pregnant women would turn into monsters. 


Anyways, this ceremony was on Uixachtlan Hill, where there would be a giant bonfire. And at midnight, they would sacrifice someone by throwing him in. After that, runners would take torches lit by this fire and run to every major city and light fires with the now "sacred" flames. If this ceremony didn't occur, not only would the world end, but evil monsters would be released and kill everyone. 


Aztecs believed that this world is the "fifth age". According to their belief there was four other "worlds" before this one. In each world something went wrong and so the gods destroyed it. In this fifth one, the gods said that we needed a moon and a sun. So two gods volunteered themselves. After fasting for a certain number of days, when the first one tried to throw himself into the fire, the fire was so strong that he turned back. But the other one threw himself in fearlessly. After he did so, the second did then. The gods waited a while afraid that something had gone wrong, but then suddenly, the first god to throw himself in came as the moon, the second god came as the sun. 


Well this is kinda long now, so I'll stop. But if you'd like to know anything else, please contact me on the About page! Anyways, next time, we'll talk about Incas. 


Learn more:
Crystalinks: Aztec
History.com: Aztecs, Pyramids in Latin America

So, did you learn anything from this? What do you think is the most interesting part about Aztecs, Incas, and Mayans? Do you think they're cool or they don't get enough recognition?   


Sincerely,
Peony

Writing Tips- Stories With a Love Triangle.

Note: Sorry about the past couple of weeks with messed up posting on Saturdays. We're taking care of it this week. And I'm posting this Saturday tip on today because I saw that no writing tip was posted yesterday. Jessika if you see this, post your post today anyways. Thanks everyone!


In this post I''m going to talk about something that Im sure all of us have noticed by now: love triangles. And for those of us who have noticed them, I'm sure it is driving us nuts because there is just so many in books these days. Especially YA books.

I could list many books with love triangles (Twilight saga, Prophecy of the Sisters series, The Summoning books, The Iron Fey [maybe, we all know Meghan loves Ash but Puck is still in love with her anyways], The Hunger Games, The Infernal Devices series, Eona: The Last Dragoneye, Matched, etc).

Now while I'll say that writers love to use love triangles because for a couple reasons, 1) it adds to the story because while there may be something bigger going on we know that in most cases the MC will have to end up with one of the characters and 2) the writers might have their own reasons. And if you're going to add a love triangle to your story, I dearly hope that it's not just because you think there needs to be something more exciting.

And if there has to be a love triangle in the story I think there has to be a certain way to pull it off (at least in my point of view) I think that no matter who the MC or whoever ends up with whoever, that you cannot just randomly kill off a character or make them disappear so that the girl/boy ends up with the one you liked most or even the one they're suppose to be with. (I.e What happened to Gale in the Hunger Games?)

Plus then there's the thought, if you're trying to display a character realistically, how many of us actually have been or are in a love triangle? Not many girls I know have been loved or whatever by two different guys. Okay well one of my cousins once kinda was but it was complicated.

If you're going to have a girl be loved by two guys (or a guy loved by two girls) remember that you can't throw in some perfect, gary-sue character to be a love interest because we'll know. Make sure that both love interests actually have something to do with the plot. And make sure there's a reason the girl may be in love with both, and not just because one of them is super hot and the other is the sweetest guy ever.

Meeting random guys/girls and almost instantly falling in love with them is bogus, at least I don't like it at all. Like in Guardian of the Gate, Lia just seems to randomly fall in love with Dimitri even though they just met. And "I feel like I've known you forever" is not a good excuse unless there's a really good reason and not "I've been watching you or guarding you secretly". That's just borderline creepy and stalker-ish. 


But meeting a guy (or another guy/girl) and having them learn about the character first and then having them say that they may or may not be in love with them is a way to do it. And if you have to have two guys/girls in the story, they don't always have to be in love with the same person. One can be a friend, brother, sibling, or in love with another person. 


So let's sum this all up, shall we? 

• Don't add a love triangle to your story just because you think there needs to be something else to make it interesting. 
• If you have a love triangle, don't randomly kill off one of the love interests so the MC or whoever ends with the the one you want. 
• Make sure each love interest actually has something to do with the story.
• Don't embody one of them as your version of the perfect man; save those for your daydreams and not your books. 
• Try to change it up; try not to have one of them be the bad guy and the other the good guy. 
• Don't have an instant "love". If you can, gradually have the character fall in love with them or have a good reason for the character to love them when we meet the love interests. 
• You don't always have to have a love triangle if there's two leading guys/girls and the MC. One can be friends or be in love with another while the other guy/girl is in love with the MC or whoever. 
• If you're going for realistic or somewhat believable, remember how many people actually have ever been in a love triangle. 
• Also, not that I've seen this done, but try to not have more than two love interests. Then it tends to get confusing and messy. Just saying.

So, do you hate it when there's a love triangle or do you not mind them? Is there a reason why you do or do not like them? What's the best love triangle you've ever seen and the worst? Did a MC or character ever end up with the person you didn't think they should have? Why or why not?  

Sincerely,
Peony

Classes that might be fun.

So I meant to post yesterday but I got caught up in packing for my trip today. Well since I'm all settled in pretty much, I'll try to find something interesting to make up for yesterday.

I've decided that since school is coming up or some of you may have already started school, I'm going to talk about some cool classes. At my school, you can take a bunch of neat ones but really only once you're an upperclassman. Some of ours include:

• Creative Writing- Yep, I'm sure most if not all of us, would really enjoy this class. I really want to do this class this year but I got put into British Literature. 
• Law and Justice- Here the teachers makes you watch Criminal Minds the whole time and then stops the show have way through and you have to guess what will happen. Afterwards you talk about the outcome.
• Comparative Religions- Here we learn about a whole bunch of different religions besides the different kinds of Christians (Lutherans, Catholics, Baptists, etc). Religions like Wicca, satanists, paganism, and voodoo are some of the examples. 
• Digital Photography- Here we learn about all the different stuff you can do with a camera and kinds of photo editing programs you can use. 
• Ceramics I and II: Pottery! Whoo! I really wanted to take the first class this year but instead they put me into Foundations of Art. 
• Pseo Classes- These are online classes you can take. The homework is stuff you have to do on your own and not only do you earn a high school credit for this but you earn a college one too. There's a bunch of stuff like American Sign Language and psychology (which my school also offers). 
• Christian Family and Life- From what I've heard this class is where we learn about how to raise families and live ours lives in a good Christian way. 
• Earth and Space science- Here we learn about space and where we have stargazing sessions too. We also study rocks and learn how to identify them.

Well that's all I can really think off the top of my head, but I know that this year my school is going to try something new. We're trying something called the J-turn. Here after Christmas break, instead of cramming finals and extra lessons in before the quarter ends, for a whole week, our teachers will be able to teach something special. Like one teacher might have a cooking class or another might have us carve a boat out of a tree. 

Plus then the seniors and juniors get first pick. So if you're a freshman and one of the special classes you want to take are full, you'll have to suck it up and take something else. Also, we'll only be able to take one or two classes the whole week. I hope it'll be fun! 

And apparently this year, my school is also making all of the freshmen take a new semester class called Freshmen Ordination, where they'll learn stuff like organizational skills.  We'll also have this new program every other Wednesdays where we'll get out of school an extra twenty minutes. But if you get a pass to a teacher's, you have to go in and work on that stuff until either the bell rings or you get your stuff done. 

So I think this year will turn out interesting. I think most of my classes are okay, although I want to switch out of Foundations of Art and British Literature. What cool classes does your school offer? Have you ever gotten to do any of them? What are the worst classes in your opinion? Does your school have any interesting programs? 

Sincerely,

Peony

Book Review- The Last Days

Strange things are happening: old friends disappearing, angels (or devils) clambering on the fire escapes of New York City. But for Pearl, Moz, and Zahler, all that matters is the band. As the city reels under a mysterious epidemic, the three combine their talents with a vampire lead singer and a drummer whose fractured mind can glimpse the coming darkness. Will their music stave off the end? Or summon it?

Set against the gritty apocalypse that began in Peeps, The Last Days is about five teenagers who find themselves creating the soundtrack for the end of the world.

In the next book after Peeps, we meet five kids who want to start a band. Pearl and Moz meet when they save a rare guitar and then Moz introduces her to his best friend. The two boys have been playing guitars together for six years and considered themselves a too person band.

Pearl then brings her friend, Minerva, to their band practices as the singer. Min has been getting over the sickness that turns you into a vampire. That's one of the things I liked about this book, while they turn into vampires through getting bitten, I enjoyed this book partly because vampires isn't actually said. Plus they still eat people, hate light, love meat, and are pretty much normal vampires. They don't sparkle.

I thought that all of the characters were relateable to in somehow shape and form. Plus since this was written in first person and there was five different point of views, I thought that Mr. Westerfeld did a very good job keeping them straight and moving the story along. I loved learning about the characters and seeing the sickness that was affecting New York through many different eyes. Minerva was probably my favorite character. 

While I didn't think much happened in this book, it was still interesting to see how Moz and his new friends turned into vampires and into a great band. I loved the way the music was described when the played and how everything went good. I loved the part where they were trying to come up with a name for their band and how Minerva talked to her cat and how the cat acted. 

My favorite part was probably when the characters from the last book, Peeps, appeared. I was happy to see them show up and explain to Moz's band what was happening. Plus I love how vampires are good things in these stories rather than dark evil creatures. 

Overall, it was a good book although at times it was boring, so more could have happened. Some of the characters were funny and amusing and so I enjoyed the book. Would I recommend it? Maybe, if you like this kind of stuff.

On Goodreads: The Last Days
Website: Scott Westerfeld

So, have you ever read a book that take a new meaning or look at an old species or an idea? Did you like this new apporch or not? 

Sincerely,

Peony

In 1988....

Something happened, I'm sure of it but we are not going to talk about that.
We are talking about names! Yes names, leave now if you don't care. I was inspired to do this because of a podcast I listen to from Mom Stuff Never Told You from How Stuff Works (search on itunes if you want to listen to them). Now I don't remeber much from the podcast but hear are some highlights.
*Most popular female CEO name was Debra (both spellings)
*When written on a resumes people with more black sounding names (like Reshawda [sorry if that is spelt wrong]) have a higher chance of being looked over or ignored than a more white/american name like Molly.
*Boys with names that could be both girl and boy (like Taylor) are more likely to act out in class.
              --I second this! I know a dude named Taylor and he is not...well nice

Yep that's all I remember! Fascinating isn't it. Just look up the Stuff Mom Never Told Me podcast and search for the one about names to learn more.

Sorry this is so short, I completely forgot I was suppose to post today.

In The News- Is Obesity Really a Case for Child Abuse?

In one of the most recent cases to try and stop obesity, one doctor proposes that if a child is having health problems due to obesity, that the child protective services should intervene and take the child away from his/her parents until the child has lost weight. 


Dr. David Ludwig, who's an obesity specialist at Children's Hospital in Boston, claims that the point isn't to blame parents, but to help children and get them help. According to one Yahoo! article on the subject:

State intervention "ideally will support not just the child but the whole family, with the goal of reuniting child and family as soon as possible. That may require instruction on parenting," said Ludwig, who wrote the article with Lindsey Murtagh, a lawyer and a researcher at Harvard's School of Public Health.

Roughly 2 million U.S. children are extremely obese. Most are not in imminent danger, Ludwig said. But some have obesity-related conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties and liver problems that could kill them by age 30. It is these kids for whom state intervention, including education, parent training, and temporary protective custody in the most extreme cases, should be considered, Ludwig said. 

 But while the news media is screaming "obese kids taken away from parents" Dr. Ludwig says that kids who's obesity is life-threatening should be considered to be taken away from parents until the child is healthier. From the same Yahoo article:

Ludwig said he starting thinking about the issue after a 90-pound 3-year-old girl came to his obesity clinic several years ago. Her parents had physical disabilities, little money and difficulty controlling her weight. Last year, at age 12, she weighed 400 pounds and had developed diabetes, cholesterol problems, high blood pressure and sleep apnea.

"Out of medical concern, the state placed this girl in foster care, where she simply received three balanced meals a day and a snack or two and moderate physical activity," he said. After a year, she lost 130 pounds. Though she is still obese, her diabetes and apnea disappeared; she remains in foster care, he said.

And from the Globe and Mail:

Another case that has attracted a lot of media attention is that of Alex Draper, a 14-year-old South Carolina boy who tipped the scales at 555 lbs. before child-protection services intervened.

His mother, Jerri Gray, lost custody of the boy (foster care placed him with an aunt) and she was charged with child neglect. In the subsequent year, Alex lost more than 200 lbs.

 Cases like these reminds me of this one Dr. Phil show I watched once, or at least, I think it was Dr. Phil, I can't remember. Anyways, there was this one girl who by the age of 2 I think she weighted over 100 lbs and that the main cause was that while her mother went out and worked, the child's grandmother would feed the girl at least two hamburgers when she was hungry and other foods in excessive amounts. 


Another boy who came onto the show was three, I think, and he weighted over 100 lbs too. I can't remember  his reason why, but I remember that his parents were fairly big too. So it could have been something to do with genetics.

If you ask me, I think that while something needs to be done with kids who's obesity is life threatening, I do think that parents should take a more active role in their child's lives. Especially if the parent has weight problems too. Now, I'm not saying that going onto The Biggest Loser, but all I'm saying is that maybe going for a walk for fifteen to thirty minutes could help and if you take your child with you, you could talk with him or her. You could also take your dog for a walk if you have one and of course, eating less junk food and watching what you eat will help.

Did you know that you burn 10 calories for every half an hour you sit down, 20 for walking, and I think it was fifty or something like that for running? Yep, you burn calories even by sitting. Of course, it's better to go out and do something else besides sitting, but I thought that was interesting.

My brother happens to be a health nut, meaning he rarely ever eats junk food (my friend's accomplishment last year was getting him to eat one spoonful of fried ice cream), he drinks V-8 all the time, hates eating out, and he works out every other day because apparently you burn more fat by working out than running. Of course, if he wants to be a health nut that's fine with me. but he loves to tell the rest of my family that we should be more like him.

I just give him a look and tell him that I'm good. Well I could get more exercise, I'm not big at all. Seriously, I'm in high school and I weight less than ninety pounds. I'm not anorexic or anything like that, but I actually have trouble gaining weight. I'm also very short which bugs me a lot sometimes. When I was little, my doctor told me that I should eat ice cream before bed every night. While most kids would be happy to do that, I never did because I didn't like eating right before bed. Actually...when I was little I didn't like eating at all. And don't worry, my doctor says I'm surprisingly not under weight. Go figure.

So, what do you think about this?

Resources:
Yahoo!- Should Parents lose Costody of Super Obese Kids?
Losing costody of obese kids.

Sincerely,
Peony