Ay, I am feeling stressed right now. I just learned from my brother that we have a reflection on "The Great Divorce" due on wednesday, (It's monday night.) I have to finish reading "Descent into Hell," (Not nearly as good as Lewis' books...) do my Logic homework, memorize my Direct Examination answers, study for the PSAT's on Saturday, and Blitz is limping!! I feel so bad for the little guy. He keeps looking at me like, "Why does my foot hurt so bad??" And I'm not big in the vet department, so all I can do is wait for the vet to call back.
To give you an idea of what a reflection essay is, here's one I did last week on Mere Christianity. The paragraph at the top is the reflection question, and below is the answer. The word count has to be under five hundred words, which is alot harder to do than it sounds. (Torrey is actually for tenth and eleventh graders, but I'm doing it this year...)
Kasey Nash
Miss Romero
Thousand Oaks II
Inklings
Reflection Essay
17 October 2007
Word Count: 486
Mere Christianity
What is the difference between learned conventions and learned truths? How can we tell them apart? Is Chivalry a convention or a truth? Family roles/gender roles? Manners? Prohibition? Dancing?
A learned convention is something that could have been learned different, depending on our ancestors, such as grammar and spelling. It might just as well have been that we spell the word “Ball” with one L, but as it turns out, in school, we learn to spell it with two. A learned truth, however, is something that could not have turned out any other way, such as the Moral Law. We may have had small differences in the Moral Law throughout the years, but the main idea of it has remained the same. As Lewis says in Mere Christianity, we have disagreed whether or not a man should have one wife or four, but we have always agreed that he should not have just any woman he wants (6).
Chivalry is a truth. Some logic behind this statement is that chivalry is an instinct, an instinct we don’t encourage often, because the instinct to protect ourselves is stronger. Chivalry is a very small instinct that tells us to protect other people, and to put those people before yourself. What we learn in our life about chivalry is when we ought to encourage it. We should not always be chivalrous, because that would get us into plenty of trouble, if we used it at the wrong time and for the wrong reason. Lewis gives the example of a man who is in trouble. Of course we want to protect ourselves more than we want to be Chivalrous and help the man, but we have learned that we ought to encourage the small instinct to help (10).
Family roles and gender roles are truths. The father is always the authoritative figure in the family, and families who do not have fathers are incomplete. Given enough time, I do not believe that this fact could change, that God placed fathers to be the head of the family, and mothers to be the caregivers. As for the gender roles, these have much to do with the family roles. The man is the one who instinctively provides for his family, idealistically following the role of his father.
Manners are a convention. In some places in the world, it is considered polite to slurp your food, burp at the table, or stand very close to the person to whom you are talking, though in our culture, we consider these things as very rude and impolite. Prohibition is a convention. It is evident that it is not in our human nature to prohibit someone from stealing a piece of candy from a store, but we learn from our parents, school teachers, pastors and other people of influence to us, that we should stop that person from stealing. I would say that dancing is a little harder to tell whether it is a convention or truth. We have always danced, no matter what the culture, but we have differed on our styles of dancing.
Anyway, I've got alot to do. Just a quick update.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Of Mock Trial, Torrey and floods.
So my life's a little crazy right now. I have seriously never had my life be any more crazy. I used to check the computer about twice a day, now I'm lucky if I can once every few days. Sometimes, as some of you can see, (Haha, Lisa and Peter...) I am able to get on fast enough to check, but I take a few days to reply to any messages.
ANYWAY!! It is late at night, but I told you guys I would update about the Mock Trial case, and I want to keep my promise!! So, it is a hollywood murder, the victim being a big shot producer that nobody liked. (That's what gets you killed!!) He was found with a bullet in his back. Anyway, here's how the story goes. Jes Markson, (The victim) was accused a few years back of killing someone. After a highly publicized trial, the verdict was not-guilty, but Jes was still infamous. His very popular show was cancelled, all his friends were skeptical of him, and he fell into a depression, and locked himself up in his mansion. The only person he was in contact with was Alex Palmer, who lived in Markson's pool house. While Alex was staying there, he decided to try his hand at writing, so he wrote a script for a show. All of a sudden, Jes snapped out of the depression, and started having all sorts of meetings regarding a brilliant idea he had for a new tv show. During all this, he met a girl named London Desmond, and they started dating. One day as Alex was passing through the living room, he saw the script for the show. He realized that it was his that he had wrote a few months earlier, and he confronted Jes about it. Jes denied stealing the script, and Alex moved out. A few months later, Alex saw a newspaper singing praises for Jes' new TV show, and Alex, enraged, went back to the mansion and argued with Jes again. Jes again denied it, and Alex went over to his friend, Stevies, (Markson's neighbor)to rant about it. Stevie told Alex to forget about it, because there was no way to prove that the script was even Alex's. That day Markson was having a party to celebrate the new show, and after all the guests had left, London came over to give him a gift, and Markson showed her the new theme song for the show. Jes died that night. Alex claims that he left Stevies at about ten o'clock, and arrived home about midnight. Prosecution claims that he hung around until London left, (eleven thirty) then went into the mansion, they had another argument, and then Alex took out the gun and shot him. The next day, Carter Cravin, (The person catering the party) came back to get some of her stuff, and found Markson dead on the floor. She called 911, and Detective Dana Brown (That's who I'm playing) came and examined the body, searched the premesis, questioned Carter, questioned Stevie, questioned Alex, questioned London, questioned Adrian, (Ya, a guy I haven't mentioned yet...sorry) pretty much questioned every witness except for one of the expert witnesses.
Here's a few details I left out, that are of VITAL importance!!! One, Detective Brown, when searching Alex's apartment, found a black jacket, blue shirt, and jeans (What Carter testified to seeing a guy wearing at eleven o'clock on the night of Markson's death) with gunpowder on them. The gun that Markson was killed with was an antique gun, that would have deposited gunpowder right where it was found on Alex's shirt. The defense is arguing that it is not gunpowder, but gardening chemicals on Alex's shirt, because Alex is a part time gardner. (So, I shouldn't say they found gunpowder, but that they found the chemical compounds of gunpowder) Also, (hehe) it is obvious to us all that it is not Alex who is the killer, but London!! Okay, so it says that there were rumors going around about Jes cheating on London for a Dakota James, and on the scene of the crime there was found an instant message from the screen name "DJ112233" (DJ, Dakota James) that said "I can't wait for LD to be out of the picture." (LD, London Desmond!!) So I say that when London went in there, she saw the IM, asked Jes what it was, realized who it was from and what they were talking about, and on sudden rage, took the pistol (Someone testifies that Jes has alot of props laying around his mansion) and shot Jes. Ok, so that sounds pretty weak. But surely, if I wasn't so tired, I could think of more info to prove to you it was London. But she IS guilty. Thing is, she's not the one on trial, and we can't do any more than HINT that London MAY have killed him. Sorry this whole explanation was so vague. If you read the whole case packet, it would definately make more sense!! Meanwhile, I've got alot to memorize. My witness statement is three pages long, while most of the others are one to two.
Torrey....Is hard. I got my reflection Essay back, got 69%. And believe me, that is actually pretty good. Someone else got a fifty something. I have yet to get my precis rewrite back, but it doesn't sound good, because a few people got theirs back, and their grade only went up a point of a percent. (Like instead of 69.2% grade, someone got a 69.3% grade.) This week I am reading "Decent into Hell," and doing my reflection rewrite, as well as doing RC V, (About three hours worth of work,) and tutorial G. (Only about half an hour.) Logic I am doing the exercises for chapters six and seven, and reading eight and nine. So, let's see...I've got about six or seven hours of work for Mock Trial, (Due monday) twelve hours of Inklings, three hours for Logic...And I've got to study for the PSAT's which are in two weeks. (Mostly math...I am not doing any math this semester, (Like I have the time) so I have to work very hard to get at least average in the math portion of the PSAT) We are scrimmaging next wednesday with Mock Trial, and I am nowhere near ready. I need to study that MUCH more.
Meanwhile, hotel life is okay!! I'm sure I'll get sick of it in another month, (Yes, we've had to extend our stay from a month to three months.) but right now, I'm getting to know everyone, their names, what shifts they work on, etc. I walk into the lobby, and I'll know who to expect.
Anywho, that's my life. It's pretty crazy.
ANYWAY!! It is late at night, but I told you guys I would update about the Mock Trial case, and I want to keep my promise!! So, it is a hollywood murder, the victim being a big shot producer that nobody liked. (That's what gets you killed!!) He was found with a bullet in his back. Anyway, here's how the story goes. Jes Markson, (The victim) was accused a few years back of killing someone. After a highly publicized trial, the verdict was not-guilty, but Jes was still infamous. His very popular show was cancelled, all his friends were skeptical of him, and he fell into a depression, and locked himself up in his mansion. The only person he was in contact with was Alex Palmer, who lived in Markson's pool house. While Alex was staying there, he decided to try his hand at writing, so he wrote a script for a show. All of a sudden, Jes snapped out of the depression, and started having all sorts of meetings regarding a brilliant idea he had for a new tv show. During all this, he met a girl named London Desmond, and they started dating. One day as Alex was passing through the living room, he saw the script for the show. He realized that it was his that he had wrote a few months earlier, and he confronted Jes about it. Jes denied stealing the script, and Alex moved out. A few months later, Alex saw a newspaper singing praises for Jes' new TV show, and Alex, enraged, went back to the mansion and argued with Jes again. Jes again denied it, and Alex went over to his friend, Stevies, (Markson's neighbor)to rant about it. Stevie told Alex to forget about it, because there was no way to prove that the script was even Alex's. That day Markson was having a party to celebrate the new show, and after all the guests had left, London came over to give him a gift, and Markson showed her the new theme song for the show. Jes died that night. Alex claims that he left Stevies at about ten o'clock, and arrived home about midnight. Prosecution claims that he hung around until London left, (eleven thirty) then went into the mansion, they had another argument, and then Alex took out the gun and shot him. The next day, Carter Cravin, (The person catering the party) came back to get some of her stuff, and found Markson dead on the floor. She called 911, and Detective Dana Brown (That's who I'm playing) came and examined the body, searched the premesis, questioned Carter, questioned Stevie, questioned Alex, questioned London, questioned Adrian, (Ya, a guy I haven't mentioned yet...sorry) pretty much questioned every witness except for one of the expert witnesses.
Here's a few details I left out, that are of VITAL importance!!! One, Detective Brown, when searching Alex's apartment, found a black jacket, blue shirt, and jeans (What Carter testified to seeing a guy wearing at eleven o'clock on the night of Markson's death) with gunpowder on them. The gun that Markson was killed with was an antique gun, that would have deposited gunpowder right where it was found on Alex's shirt. The defense is arguing that it is not gunpowder, but gardening chemicals on Alex's shirt, because Alex is a part time gardner. (So, I shouldn't say they found gunpowder, but that they found the chemical compounds of gunpowder) Also, (hehe) it is obvious to us all that it is not Alex who is the killer, but London!! Okay, so it says that there were rumors going around about Jes cheating on London for a Dakota James, and on the scene of the crime there was found an instant message from the screen name "DJ112233" (DJ, Dakota James) that said "I can't wait for LD to be out of the picture." (LD, London Desmond!!) So I say that when London went in there, she saw the IM, asked Jes what it was, realized who it was from and what they were talking about, and on sudden rage, took the pistol (Someone testifies that Jes has alot of props laying around his mansion) and shot Jes. Ok, so that sounds pretty weak. But surely, if I wasn't so tired, I could think of more info to prove to you it was London. But she IS guilty. Thing is, she's not the one on trial, and we can't do any more than HINT that London MAY have killed him. Sorry this whole explanation was so vague. If you read the whole case packet, it would definately make more sense!! Meanwhile, I've got alot to memorize. My witness statement is three pages long, while most of the others are one to two.
Torrey....Is hard. I got my reflection Essay back, got 69%. And believe me, that is actually pretty good. Someone else got a fifty something. I have yet to get my precis rewrite back, but it doesn't sound good, because a few people got theirs back, and their grade only went up a point of a percent. (Like instead of 69.2% grade, someone got a 69.3% grade.) This week I am reading "Decent into Hell," and doing my reflection rewrite, as well as doing RC V, (About three hours worth of work,) and tutorial G. (Only about half an hour.) Logic I am doing the exercises for chapters six and seven, and reading eight and nine. So, let's see...I've got about six or seven hours of work for Mock Trial, (Due monday) twelve hours of Inklings, three hours for Logic...And I've got to study for the PSAT's which are in two weeks. (Mostly math...I am not doing any math this semester, (Like I have the time) so I have to work very hard to get at least average in the math portion of the PSAT) We are scrimmaging next wednesday with Mock Trial, and I am nowhere near ready. I need to study that MUCH more.
Meanwhile, hotel life is okay!! I'm sure I'll get sick of it in another month, (Yes, we've had to extend our stay from a month to three months.) but right now, I'm getting to know everyone, their names, what shifts they work on, etc. I walk into the lobby, and I'll know who to expect.
Anywho, that's my life. It's pretty crazy.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
QUICK update!
So, I'm about to leave for church, so I have to type fast, but I just had to update. The flood was worse than we thought, and we're having to leave our house for the next few weeks. So, we're staying in a hotel right now. This is Blitz's first time staying in a hotel, and I'm pretty sure he likes it!! We've been here about four days now, and everyone knows Blitz...The housekeepers, concierges, desk clerks, everyone!! People wonder where he is if I don't have him for any reason. At first, he wasn't sure how to ask to be taken out to go to the bathroom, so he went and stood directly in front of the wall, and gave me "The Look." Now, he stands in front of the window, (Opposite side from where we exit.) since it looks like the sliding glass door we have at home. He's already learned that he can't wait 'til the last minute to ask...The first few times his legs were literally together the whole way down. (We're on the fourth floor.)
Anyway, pray for us while we're all in this hotel room! We've got eight people in our family, two of which who are under the age of six, so it's a bit hard. But, we're fine so far!! Schoolwork is getting done, because I do it down in the lobby, rather than in the room with the kids.
So ya, just an update!!
Anyway, pray for us while we're all in this hotel room! We've got eight people in our family, two of which who are under the age of six, so it's a bit hard. But, we're fine so far!! Schoolwork is getting done, because I do it down in the lobby, rather than in the room with the kids.
So ya, just an update!!
Monday, October 1, 2007
Peopleness....
Sorry, couldn't think of a title for this post! So much has happened in the past week. Especially with Mock Trial. So, we had the Garage Sale...It was SOO awesome! You only had to work for six hours, but I ended up working about thirteen or fourteen hours. I started at four o'clock on Friday, went home at ten, then came back at five the next morning, and stayed 'til three. (The reason I said only thirteen or fourteen hours, rather than the sixteen I was there, was because I probably had about an hour or two worth of break time...Everything from eating pizza for dinner/lunch/dinner again to playing with the cool stuff they had there. There was a TON of stuff! It took seven suburban filled trips, and then three u-haul truck loads to get it all there. But by the time it was over, it only took two truck loads to get the remaining stuff. I think not only we made alot of money, but seeing as we were spending so much time together, we really grew as a team. I barely knew alot of the people on the team before, but now I know them alot better. We couldn't hang up our signs because of city ordinances, so we went paired up to different street corners to advertise. I went twice...Once with just Hannah Coyle, and once with both Hannah and Audrey Witt. When Hannah, Audrey and I went, we had a BLAST, and we were SO animated out there. We got several honks...A LOT of waves, (Like, more than half the people waved at us.) and also a few glares. We were doing everything from the can-can to singing "In The Jungle" and dancing along. Ya, we got a few stares. But good thing...Mrs. Austin came driving by and saw us being so animated, and she approved!! Yay. It's a good thing to get Mrs. Austin's approval!! Haha. And there was alot of cool stuff there...There were a bunch of things that we did NOT know what they were, so we stuck 'em together, and made this really weird thing...I don't even know what to call it. The base was like an old fashioned iron, but it was plastic, and there was a really thick bowl-type thing with two holes coming out of it, (glass) and then some weird metal thing, and a bunch of other things I don't even know HOW to describe! So we made that, (Bradley Krebs, Brandon Snow, Shane Mitchell and I) and then we were trying to figure out how much we should price it for, so I finally just put a "Make Offer" sticker on it. Sadly, nobody offered any money for it. I saw quite a few people looking at it though...I don't think they knew what it was either. There were a bunch of OLD things though! There was this electric massager that was still in it's box, and we looked at the guarentee, and it said, "Guarenteed to last until June, 1949!" Stephen Page ended up buying that! There was a "Fuzz remover!" It said on the box, "State of the art! M odel # 1809!!" We thought that was...entertaining. After we finished clean up, Mrs. Austin took all of us that stuck through it 'til the end, (Or else, those of us that were there at the end, and helped clean up) out to Dairy Queen for Ice Cream, courtesy of the proceeds of the Mock Trial garage sale!! Okay, so, now for our grand total! We got...
2000.17!! That is AFTER paying for EVERYTHING...The u-haul, the price for Goodwill to pick alot of the stuff up, the ice cream, EVERYTHING! Mrs. Austin said at the beginning, that if we got 1500 she'd be VERY happy, and if we got 2000 she would be ECSTATIC!! Well, she's very ecstatic right now!! Lol. That takes about 120 off of each of our tickets up to Sacramento. (it's 300 dollars a ticket.) That is terrific!! I'm so happy.
I'm very busy with school right now, so I can't update about the Mock Trial case packet right now, but I can tell you it's SOO exciting!! We've already come up with an obvious conspiracy theory...I'll tell you about it later!!
We had a flood yesterday. Our washing machine was leaking all night apparently, and not just"drip, drip," leaking, but "WOOOSH" leaking. The water was two inches deep out in our living room, which is the farthest place away from the washing machine in the house. So, we were busy most of the day with that. But you will not believe how clean our floors are!! Just the day before my mom was complaining about how much dog hair we had on the floor...Well, she got her wish! Haha.
I'm very confident with my precis this go-round. I think I'm doing a TON better than I was with my first one. I really learned alot from Miss Romero's notes. I'll update you later, when I don't have as much to do!!
2000.17!! That is AFTER paying for EVERYTHING...The u-haul, the price for Goodwill to pick alot of the stuff up, the ice cream, EVERYTHING! Mrs. Austin said at the beginning, that if we got 1500 she'd be VERY happy, and if we got 2000 she would be ECSTATIC!! Well, she's very ecstatic right now!! Lol. That takes about 120 off of each of our tickets up to Sacramento. (it's 300 dollars a ticket.) That is terrific!! I'm so happy.
I'm very busy with school right now, so I can't update about the Mock Trial case packet right now, but I can tell you it's SOO exciting!! We've already come up with an obvious conspiracy theory...I'll tell you about it later!!
We had a flood yesterday. Our washing machine was leaking all night apparently, and not just"drip, drip," leaking, but "WOOOSH" leaking. The water was two inches deep out in our living room, which is the farthest place away from the washing machine in the house. So, we were busy most of the day with that. But you will not believe how clean our floors are!! Just the day before my mom was complaining about how much dog hair we had on the floor...Well, she got her wish! Haha.
I'm very confident with my precis this go-round. I think I'm doing a TON better than I was with my first one. I really learned alot from Miss Romero's notes. I'll update you later, when I don't have as much to do!!
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