IRJ #22

What one year can do to a 14 year old kid

Ask anyone of my classmates from eighth grade about my views on life, and they will tell you that I was a Christian narrow-minded staunch conservative. Surprisingly, they were right. Our eighth grade patio during the election for president was a verbal battle-zone, and I was the leader of the pack. At this time, I was very narrow-minded, meaning I was not open to new ideas/opinions. I simply thought I was right, all the time. I talked about war as if it were a strategy board game, and I pretended to know what I was speaking of when the argument turned to our healthcare system and economy as a whole.  Recently I have found that I have changed completely. I am now a centrist Atheist, (I’m still pretty conservative though…). It is quite amazing how much one year can change somebody. I noticed this huge change after my views on war were completely altered by two things. The first thing is that I listened to a song by the name of “Where is the love?” by the Black Eyed Peas. This song alone made me emotionally aware of what war really is. Not only that, but the U.S. fatalities level in Afghanistan reached 1,000. I then started to explore the meaning of human life, as well as the value. I found a quote that represents what my old mentality was: “War is peaceful for those who don’t experience it.” I took this quote and analyzed it for hours on end. I realized that all my views of complete obliteration of the enemy and such were not humane, nor were they plausible. To this day I still believe war is necessary, but I view it in a completely different light. I yearn for the day when I can say, “Finally, my country is no longer at war.” My entire life has been surrounded by war and I want it to either end, or at least let me particpate. After my graduation of Poly, I am hoping to attend West Point Military Academy, with the fallback of enlisting as a Marine if I am not accepted. My hope is that we will no longer be at war, but I will be involved if conflict should arise once more. The basic synopsis of this is I would rather be there fighting, than hear about soldiers dying from CNN or Fox News. I would go into more depth about why I am now an atheist, but that would be another 300 words. Basically, the book of Genesis made me an Atheist. As well as the overwhelming scientific evidence that fuels the speculation as to why God made things so complicated, if he did exist. All of this commotion proves one thing: One year really can change somebody completely.

IRJ Reflection #20

In Genesis 12:13, Abraham tells his wife, Sarah, to say that she is Abraham’s sister, so that he is not killed and have Sarah taken. A very similar reoccurrence of  this happens in Genesis 26:6. Abraham’s son, Isaac, tells his wife Rebekah to say that she is his sister, for the same reason as his father. I found this reoccurrence to be odd, because it is hard to understand why they both would do something like this. Is it because God saw Abraham do it, and knew it was a good action for Isaac to take part in? Or, was it a extreme coincidence? Although their actions were the same, the outcome was slightly different. When Abraham committed this action, the outcome was the King of Egypt told Abraham to leave because God had cursed them, and they believed that if Abraham left, the curse would go away. The outcome of Isaac’s action resulted in King Abimelech saying “You are too powerful for us.” It is hard to wrap your mind around this because you cannot tell if there is some deeper meaning or allegoric sense because these two men are related. Something to think about is that the men are indirectly using their wives as their “protectors.” This is ironic, because women at this time did not usually have much power or rights. In fact, many women were not even named because they were so low in society. The women must’ve felt pressured, because they are not used to the man’s power depending on themselves. The main confusion is whether or not this was a coincidentally ironic or imposed by the Lord. My belief is that the Lord imposed this on Isaac, because the Lord had seen this action have a good outcome. Although this is my belief, it can be debated that it was an extreme coincident. It may be argued that it is just an ironic event that happen to be very similar to the prior one.

IRJ-CP 18

And God said, let there be light.

God said, let there be light. Or did he? Genesis states that God created the Earth and all matter and life in six days. Does science agree? Well, many people argue that when the Hebrews wrote Genesis, they did not mean six days as literally six days. People argue that it is metaphoric, figurative speech, and an allegoric passage. Many claim that the Earth’s creation came from complete coincidence, and that the event of the Sun and Earth being placed so precisely for life is a scientifically extraordinary event. It is hard for anyone to know or understand why we came to be such advanced life, or even life at all. Science makes sense at times, and religion makes sense at times as well. Personally I believe that God created evolution. This is a confusing statement, but it basically combines the scientific and religious beliefs. Evolution is the believe that all modern day animals and creatures of all sorts evolved from something that lived many thousands of years ago. Religion, and Genesis, basically state that all life was created by some powerful being such as God, or for example Allah in Islam. I simply believe that God, or some high power, initiated Evolution. I do not really have any evidence to back it up, but it is what I would like to believe..

IRJ#16

 

Darth Vader’s true thoughts.

[[Speaking as Darth Vader…]]

 

 

When I cut off Luke’s hand, everything went downward from there. I did not mean to do it! I simply was attempting to entice him to the dark side by swinging my lightsaber at him. Unfortunately, the lightsaber struck his hand and cut it off. Now, I could not tell him that I did not mean to because that would make me seem a sensitive person; which I am not! I had to keep my reputation in mind and so I continued on with my enticing of Luke. When I gave him the news that I was his father and I saw his reaction, my feelings were hurt. I mean yes I know that I am an evil person and stuff but he could have had some respect! I spent so much time and money to protect him and in return he yells with despair. When he jumped off the ledge, my heart sank. I completely believed that he had died and that he committed suicide right there in front of me. Obviously…I was wrong. Luke was smart like his old man and he decided to jump into one of the tunnels at the bottom of The Death Star. When I realized that he was smart enough to do such a thing, I forgave him in my mind for treating me with disrespect. I am dead now, so I cannot be his father on Earth but I will definitely be his father in heaven.

IRJ: OP#15

Democrats and Republicans

The Democrat and Republican political parties of the United States have been around since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The two parties both have an ongoing rivalry of politics. There are two things that can be easily observed from the two parties. Republicans are often referred to as Conservatives and Democrats are often referred to as Liberals. It is easy to observe that young Republicans are usually very radical in the sense that they talk about war strategies etc as if war is a game. An observation that is easy to draw from Democrats is that they are usually not very intelligent in their governmental propositions and ideas. Hence the quote from Winston Churchill: “If you’re young and Conservative you don’t have a heart and if you’re old and Liberal you don’t have a brain.”

Republican History

Democrat History

Throughout the existence of the United States, Republicans have shown logic in many of their ideals for domestic and foreign issues. Democrats have shown logic in their ideals as well, but mainly only for domestic issues. Many young Republicans are in support in the ongoing War-On-Terror, which was mainly initiated in 2001, because of the September 11th attacks on America. However, many of these young Republicans talk about war as if it is a strategy game. That can be supported by this quote, “War is delightful for those who haven’t experienced it.” Old Democrats, have been known for not knowing very much, or that they “don’t have a brain”. Of course nobody, including me, is trying to imply that Democrats are stupid, but they have had their days. For example, Barack Hussein Obama initiated a “Stimulus Package” to help heal the recessing economy. Did it do anything? Yes, it gave companies and state governments money. Did those companies and state governments commit productive actions with that money? No.

Proposition: Republicans do not have hearts, and Democrats do not have brains, because of Republican talking of war as if it were a game and because Democrats ideals are not very productive.

 

IRJ CP #14

Jackson Allan Seriously Injured at Chadwick Game

 

Jackson Allan, a sophomore at Poly, was seriously injured on Saturday, October 31st in a game against varsity football game against Chadwick. Jackson suffered from a severe brain clot and was taken the UCLA Harbour hospital. We all know Jackson as a stout person and we know that the pinnacle of his recovery is on its way. When he first arrived at the hospital, his condition could be considered deplorable. Everyone at Poly has been in a very somber/solemn mood, and people have sauntered in between each class. People believe that I created Jackson’s Facebook support page in an ostentatious manner, when in truth I was trying to build awareness for Jackson as well as make him feel really lofty when he is shown the copious amounts of people that joined the group to support him. We all are praying for Jackson and we hope he is out of his torpid state of being as soon as possible. Keep fighting Jackson.

IRJ-CP #12

Character’s Room

 

The character is a boy, who lives in a scary and dangerous neighborhood. In his room, a picture of David Beckham playing on the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team hangs on the wall. His room also consists of the items that depict who the character is as a person. Also in his room is a box with pictures of his favorite soccer player cards. When you look through the doorway of his room, you feel the eeriness emitting from all that you see. The cool breeze through the shattered window emitted through the room as if it were depicting his life. His chair the creaking back and forth represented the eeriness of his household perfectly.

IRJ: QR #11

Hypocrisy in Chapters 6-9 of Haroun.

The character named Blabbermouth is a hypocrite. What does that mean, exactly? Blabbermouth acting hypocritical means that he says not to do something, yet he does that very thing. “You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover,” is what Blabbermouth said to Haroun on page 114. The apparent reason as to why Blabbermouth said such a thing is because Haroun had said, “It doesn’t seem like a very disciplined army to me,” on the same page.  Although Blabbermouth was correct in saying not to judge a book by its cover, he did the exact same thing when Haroun first arrived at Gup city. Near the beginning of Chapter 6, Blabbermouth says that Rashid and Haroun are spies, based on the fact that they are from Earth, or their “cover.” This scenario shows the hypocrisy of Blabbermouth and therefore means that hypocrisy can also exist in other places than the Earth in the story of Haroun.

Proposition:  It is an excellent suggestion to not judge people by their covers, but if you practice what you preach against, then your beliefs are overridden with logic.

IRJ CP #10

Solemn

Today was a solemn day for the Wookies. The rebels turned against them and pillaged their cities! Although the Wookies were thought to have been weakened by these attacks, they seem to have contended and retaliated towards the rebels. The battle for survival went on for days and days and didn’t seem like it was possible for it to end. When out of the blue, the leader of the wookies named Chewbacca, ingratiated to the rebel generals and surrendered his forces and cities to the rebels! Thousands of Wookie soldiers had been lost, and the survivors looked languid. They were mortified and weak from the battle. The rebels put the Wookies into work camps, and caused severe physiological pain to the Wookies. Wookies nowadays walk with an austerely tone, as they walk through their burned cities. One day, Chewbacca decided he had had enough! He became disposed to ‘cut off the head of the snake’ and kill the rebels leader. He immediately carried out his desire to kill the rebel’s leader, and is now looked at as a venerable leader. He is now looked as one who committed usurpation and many Wookies and other races respect him deeply. Although he had ‘cut off the head of the snake,’ many Wookies wrangled over how they should rebuild their cities. Some believed complete reconstruction, and others believed they needed help from other cities nearby. The moral of the story is, if you ever commit an appalling offence against the Wookies, they will retaliate with extreme vengeance and eventually win.

IRJ-QR #8

The Fifty-First Dragon

This was an interesting short story. One aspect of the story that I noticed was that children are often deceived in the story. “Deceived,” meaning, lied to by adults. The headmaster tells Gawaine that he has a “magic word” in which Gawaine could become extremely lucky and he would win all of his battles against evil dragons. The reason the headmaster did this was to boost Gawaine’s confidence. Although the goal of doing so was positive, it had a very bad outcome. Gawaine simply still could not fight dragons and was killed by a wimpy little dragon. I believe it was wrong for the headmaster to lie to Gawaine, in respects to…respect. He should have let Gawaine do what he wanted rather than lie to him and try to make him have a better personality/character.