Semester Academic Goals (Humanities)

Goal: Turn completed work in on time and use ownership toward my work.
First Step: Make sure I know all the work that needs to be turned in and do it right away.

Goal: Keep binder more organized by actually using the tabs in it.
First Step: Make sure to put everything in the correct tab and if I don't know, ask Charlotte.

Goal: Be more serious with wex entries.
First Step: Take all prompts seriously and write at least a page each time.

Semester Academic Goals (Mysics)

Goal: Turning work in on time and completed.
First Step:Doing homework right when I get home.

Goal: Don't get distracted in class.
First Step: Don't sit next to friends.

Goal: Write better and more organized notes.
First Step: Write EVERYTHING that Mele writes

Time Travelers Essay

Project Description: For this assignment we had to write and support a thesis based around the success or failure of one specific "pillar" in an ancient civilization. These "pillars" represented 4 of the most important parts of a civilization. This consisted of the following: Science and technology, religion, art and architecture, and government. The requirements for this project were: 3-5 pages double spaced, footnotes in MLA format, bibliography in MLA format, and the paper had to be based around your central thesis.

Process: First we were assigned a civilization (mine was the ancient mayan civilization), then we had to choose which pillar we wanted to study (I chose religion). After that we had to start researching our pillar and getting as much information on it as possible, looking for both the ups and downs of that pillar. After creating our rough draft we went through several drafts while learning and adding in footnotes and a bibliography.

Reflection: Through this project I learned many things such as using footnotes and bibliographies, Using a thesis to persuade your opinion, how to make a professional thesis paper, and how to use a concessive to make your thesis stronger. The main challenge that I encountered through this project was turning my paper in on time. This was very hard for me because i procrastinated the first few drafts and had to catch up by the last few. One thing i would change in this project would be that maybe Charlotte could teach us bigger words so we sound allot smarter while explaining our thesis. Learning how to make a strong research paper will definitely help me in college because you have to research and write alot in college.

Finished Draft

Mayan Religion

Civilization is what makes up the world. Without it we would be nothing but savage beasts. But different parts of civilizations are what mold us into what we are now, and every part of a civilization is important. For example: religion, arguably the biggest maker/ breaker in a civilization. Although the Mayan civilization was prosperous and strived for a long time, they’re religion ultimately lead to their downfall.

The Mayans were a Mesoamerican civilization, located roughly next to the Yucatan peninsula. The Mayans where known for their large temples and sacrificial rituals. They were around from about 2000 BC to 900 AD when the Spaniards invaded them. The Mayan religion was polytheistic, meaning many gods, mainly based around the sun god: Kinich Ahau and the “creator” (as in creator of the world) being Itzamna.

The biggest strength of the Mayan religion was probably the creation of the Mayan calendar. The Mayan calendar was a celestial calendar, which means it follows the stars. The Mayan calendar was based on different cycles, following the same seasonal cycles such as winter, summer, fall, and spring. Another success about the Mayan religion was their purification and divination process¹. The purification process involved fasting, sexual abstention and exorcism of evil spirits. These rituals could lead to better lifestyles of a regular person therefore improving the lifestyle of the entire community. Plus I think fasting it gets rid of obesity.

The main downfall to the Mayan religion was that it was very sacrificial. Their main sacrifices included mostly small animals like turkey, quails, deer and fish. But later on adopted the ritual of human sacrifice and sometimes anthropophagy (cannibalism) ¹. Some say that sacrifice was the core of Mayan religion. This was bad because the sacrifice of so many animals drained their stock and made for less to eat. Especially since they sacrificed and offered food to the gods the most during a drought. The sacrifice of human beings is also very bad because it lowers the population, especially in big rituals where up to 10 people could be sacrificed. Another downfall of the Mayan religion could be social division. Since the government was mainly wrapped around religion so all the hierarchies were based on priests and deities. Social division is bad in any civilization because it causes separation in the community in general. One of the rites of the Mayan religion is that at the age of three months, you would be presented with different items depending on your gender (i.e. for males it might be a set of tools or a religious artifact, or with females it might be cloth or a sewing needle). This would be bad because by doing this your job was pre- determined when you were only three months old, causing unhappiness as adults making for a more unhealthy lifestyle.

The Mayan religion is closely related to many other Mesoamerican religions, much like the Incan religion. Both religions celebrated and worshiped mostly the sun god and the main creator. Also both religions were very sacrificial and devoted most of their time and resources to their gods. There are also many other similarities, like their purification rituals, and they also ended up being conquered by the Spanish Conquistadors. Though the Mayans were more advanced than the Incans in one way, the Mayans had a calendar, while the Incans just followed the stars.

All in all I think that the Mayan religion was a failure and helped lead to the downfall of the Mayan civilization. The reason behind this being that the Mayans had an over dependence on their religion. But not only their over dependence on religion, the fact that they sacrificed so much to the gods drained their resources, plus a lot of their rituals drained the time of the day and people ended up not doing any work at all.

With the evidence shown I think it is safe to say that the Mayan religion was overall a failure and lead to their downfall. Some important evidence that could be restated would be although the Mayans were very spiritual and “pure” they were also very sacrificial which potentially could reduce population and is overall an unhealthy practice. So although the Mayans were overall a very successful nation their religion ultimately lead to their downfall and failure as a nation.

Hero Project Reflection

1. I think a hero is defined by the person they are effected by, therefore creating a one perspective that that person was a hero, even tho someone else may perceive someones "good deeds" as bad.

2. Project Description: In this project we were required to pick someone (locally) that we considered a hero in our eyes. We then had to learn what a character sketch was and create one describing how this person is a hero or showing them in their heroic moment.

3.The first step of this project was to pick the person we were going to honor and describe why we were honoring them, after that we had to learn how to write a character sketch. Then we had to write our first draft, have it peer reviewed by Diana's class, then write a second draft. After we wrote our second draft we had to turn it into Charlotte, then she reviewed it, then write our final draft. During all of this we also had to take two different pictures of our hero, one of them in their heroic moment and the second a portrait of them. After we were all finished we pu all of this information into an Adobe InDesign template and turn it into Charlotte.

4. Definetly one thing I learned was how to create a character sketch, and us Adobe InDesign. Really the only challenge I met was meeting deadlines.

5. One of the habits of mind I used was evidence. I had to do alot of research about H1N1 disease and find out alot about it to write my character sketch.

6. This is my Final Character Sketch

Hero Sketch

A hero can mean many different things to different people. To me the definition of a hero is my mom, Rhea Ann Simpson. My mom is the nursing lead (the supervisor of all the nurses in urgent care at SDSU, also a nurse).

“Ok, who’s here?” My mom says as she arrives at work, tired as usual.

“We have two nurses missing in the screening room,” said one of her coworkers.

“Ok well I will fill in for them when I’m done in my office,” she said disappointed as usual that people were absent.

When she was finally done in her office she walked out and saw the patient that she had to screen. He was coughing the whole time he was there and was pale as a ghost, it smelled of death.

“So what’s wrong?” she said already inspecting the patient, going through every procedure like she had done it a million times before (and she has). “Fever and tensed muscles,” she thought to herself.

“Well,” said the patient, “ I have a sore throat, I’ve been coughing up a storm, and my muscles have been tensing quite a bit.” My mom made a slight grin then quickly put it away.

“Do you have asthma?” My mom said like his life depended on it.

“No.”

“Ok,” said my mom, almost looking disappointed. “looks like you’ve got the flu.”

“ But not the swine flu right?” said the patient with fear in his eyes.

“ No,” said my mom feeling guilty “ fluids and rest ok?” she said in a very motherly tone

“Ok thank you nurse.” Said the patient as he left the door.

“Ugh.” grunted my mom as she walked into a hallway where all the nurses were. ”We have another case of swine flu.”

“Wow, did you tell him?” asked one of the nurses for some reason surprised.

“ About 99 percent of the people we screen for the flu have it,” She said, without a hint of sarcasm or humor in her voice. “ I f we told all the students they had swine flu, there would be mass hysteria on the campus, and we cant let that happen. Besides it’s just as easily treatable as the regular flu, we have to keep that from happening.”

Catching the signal from one of her friends, Angela brushed her skirt, took a deep breath and walked towards where he was sitting. He was a tall skinny man, hair like a lion's mayne (smilie). She shrugged, with a look on her face like she wanted to huddle up in a corner and just stay there forever. She thought back to the last time she tried to talk to him.
" Hey whats up?" she said to him
" Who are you?" He asked. She then ran away, face in her arms, crying because he didnt know who she was.(flashback)
"No i wont let that happen again!" She thought to herself, " I'm not going to humiliate myself again!"
She was suddenly a fierce creature, ready to pounce on her pray. (metaphor)
" H-hey whats up?" She said with a bit of confidence in her tone.
" Hey, have I seen you before?" He said without a care in the world.
" Nope, wanna go out sometime?"
" Sure" He said with surprise in his eyes.
" Okay, awesome" She said, about to explode with joy.
"So where do you wanna go?" He asked.
"Ummmmmmmmmmm" She said, as all her confidence seemd to flush down the toilet. She then ran away scared. ( Irony)

Life as a High Schooler

My heart races faster than normal as I sat down while the graduation started. As I wait for the other team to finish I think about all the good times I had throughout middle school. I think of the time when we were all goofing off in class and Mr. Elizondo just plain joined in. This thought suddenly brought a burst of happiness straight into my heart. As each name gets called the line gets shorter and shorter, my heart beats faster and faster.

When the Hetrick/ Eggleston team finished giving out their “diplomas” (which I later found out were just rolled pieces of paper), I knew it was my teams turn, the Staff/ Holmes team. I remember how we practiced this specific moment for over an hour trying to get it right. “This is almost monotonous” I thought to myself. As they introduce our team we all stand up, and get in line in an abecedarian fashion.

“Smile!” says my friend’s mom as she takes a picture of me from the side of the line. As the camera flashes my eyes are suddenly blinded, but only for a few seconds. As the vision in my eyes comes back, my vision is flooded with black dots. I rub my eyes and open them again to see everything as clear as ever.

“Eric Simpson” Mr. Holmes calls from the podium.

Adrenaline rushes into my veins and I jump up on the stage, almost running towards Mr. Holmes to grab my “diploma”. He throws out his arm to give me a good hand shaking. I respectfully deny it and instead give him a big hug. As I start walking off he gives me a nice pat on the back. As I am walking back to my seat I see my parents, giving me a congratulatory nod. I sit back down feeling good. At that moment I realize that as I pass into high school, my life will never be the same again. Emotions swell up in my brain, overpowering every muscle in my face and my eyes suddenly tear up with the fact that all of these people, all of my friends, will all be going in different directions, off to different high schools and their life as young adults. Although I take comfort in the fact that a lot of my friends will be going to the same high school as me, the infamous High Tech High Media Arts.