In my Boy Scout troop, I have been a patrol leader and a senior patrol leader, and I understand the dilemma of getting people to pay attention to the subject at hand. My current patrol leader does this very well, and I admire him for it. I think that his trick for getting people to pay attention is to not try to be anyone's friend while doing it; he is harsher than I am inclined to be - and was, during my tenure - and it works.
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On Monday, we are planning a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance. I have been there before, in seventh grade, and can attest that it is a very moving experience. The part that I thought was the most interesting was when the tour guides brought us into a large, square room with tiles on the walls. After letting us look around for a bit, they explained that the room was a replica of one of the gas chambers used to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust. The memory of that part has never left me, and probably never will. One can only imagine the terror one must feel when trapped in a room slowly filling up with deadly gas, stuck in a corner, and knowing that you can't hold your breath forever. The entire purpose of the Museum of Tolerance is to provide guests with these thoughts, so that the memories of those killed during the Holocaust is never forgotten.
Hiki uke is a circular block in the style of Karate that I do (Okinawan GoJu Ryu). I am at a reasonably advanced belt (1st Kyu), but I am not yet a black belt. I work hard at Karate, and am constantly learning. Recently, I learned that I was doing something right; in a style with almost infinite complexities in every little motion, that's hard to do. Naturally, my Hiki uke could be improved, but it really felt right when I was doing it; I was pulling people off-balance, including senior belts and black belts. My reaction to this: one down, only about 57 more blocks and attacks to go. Naturally, I am going to try to improve my Hiki uke as much as possible, but knowing that I was doing something really well has inspired me to work even harder
"A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave." -Benjamin Franklin This philosophy is slightly flawed, in that you actually need sleep in order to take advantage of opportunity. I can say what it is like living by this philosophy; you can get pretty tired sometimes (or most of the time). I manage to enroll myself in every opportunity that crosses my path: Physics Club, Student Ambassadors, Boy Scouts, Karate, school (which is actually required), robotics. I do think that doing many things is good for you. It gives you experiences that you wouldn't get otherwise, and makes you, a) happier, and b) a well-rounded person. I strongly recommend taking advantage of opportunities; you will be busier, but you can get used to it. The problem with this quote that I can see is that it encourages you to overdo it. Take my advice: don't.
"God helps those who help themselves." -Benjamin Franklin There was once a devoutly religious man who lived in a small town by a large lake. One day, the dam holding the water back fractured, and the town was flooded. As the water rose, the man prayed to his God to save him. Just then, a motorboat sped past, and someone inside called to him, "Get inside! We'll take you to safely!"
"No," the man replied. "My God will save me." The motorboat drove off. The water level rose, and the man was forced to climb onto the roof of his house. He was desperately praying to God, and a helicopter came and stopped over his house. A ladder was flung down. Someone inside called to him, "Get inside! We'll take you to safety!" "No," the man replied. "My God will save me." So, the helicopter flew off, and as time went by, the water level continued to rise, until the man's house was completely submerged, and the man drowned. As he stood before the pearly gates, he asked God, "I prayed and prayed for you to save me. Why didn't you help me?" God responded, "I sent you a boat and a helicopter! What more do you want from me?" Although this quote, and the above story, are specific to monotheistic religions, the message Benjamin Franklin is trying to give in his quote is this: when an opportunity arises, don't wait for a better one; it might never come. “Those 99 failed experiments were not a waste of time; they taught me what didn’t work, and brought me closer to the answer.” -Thomas Edison This was what Thomas Edison, owner of over 1,000 patents, replied to the question, "When working on an invention, you will do 100 experiments before you get it right. Do you consider those 99 failed experiments a waste of time?" This wasn't his exact statement, but it was essentially what he said. I like this quote because it makes sense to me. It teaches a valuable lesson that we learn in Dr. Vernon's class as well: it's okay to make mistakes, because we learn more from them than we do from getting the right answer. Think about it: if you get it right, you already know what to do. If you get it wrong, though, it means that there's still something you don't know, or don't understand, and this is an opportunity to make your brain grow. So, don't be afraid to make mistakes, if not because you want to learn more, than because Thomas Edison, owner of 1,000 successes and 100,000 failures, tells you to.
One of the 9th grade classes went on a camping trip to Anza Borrego recently. If you are from that class, you'll enjoy this story. If not, I hope you enjoy it anyway! There is a place in Anza Borrego known as Sheep's canyon. It's a very nice place, very open, very serene . . . usually. The one exception just so happened to occur while I was - you guessed it - backpacking there with my Boy Scout troop. Unfortunately, that day happened to be windy. Very windy. I'm talking 50 miles per hour winds. Even more unfortunately, the wind was not at our backs, but rather blowing towards us, making forward progress difficult. Probably most unfortunately of all, we were in the desert, and for those of you who don't know the implications of strong winds in a desert, the wind picks up sand and flings it, in my case, right at my face, and the faces of everyone else in my troop. (click below to read more)
"“The person in my art piece is looking for the light. He is so close; he’s just facing the wrong way, but eventually he will find it.” -Zoha Rashid, Day Art Piece I would like to give credit to Zoha Rashid for the deep meaning in her Day art piece; not only did she connect it to the memoir Night, but she made it relevant to today's world . . . and the world of tomorrow, and the world of the 18th Century, and the world of the Roman Empire. Ever since mankind began to form civilizations that weren't comprised of a small group of neanderthals taking shelter in a cave, we have been looking for three things: survival, power, and happiness. That search continues today, and will probably continue tomorrow, and until such time as the world ends in the sun's fiery supernova. Her Day theme really stood out to me because it is so deep, and because it is relevant to me; there are many ways to find happiness, and I may have discovered one. (click below to read more)
"Well, everybody has a neighbor, everybody has a friend; everybody has a reason to begin again." - Bruce Springsteen, Long Walk Home This is one of my favorite songs, because of the power of the lyrics. You can tell what the song is about from the first two lines alone: "Last night I stood at your doorstep, trying to figure out what went wrong." Enough about that, though. Unlike Elie, from Night, by Elie Wiesel, I was able to recover in a couple of days from Autumn's death. I did have a reason to begin again: I had two guinea pigs. My other guinea pig is Toffee, and taking care of her (guinea pigs get lonely, too) helped to rehabilitate me. We're hoping to get another guinea pig about her age so that she can have her herd of two back again, but until then my family and I need to fill in as her herd.
"Since you're gone, nights are getting strange. Since you're gone, nothing's making sense." - The Cars, Since You're Gone My guinea pig, Autumn, passed away recently, so I'm doing both of my Moral Compass quotes for this week in memory of her. My first quote is from one of my favorite songs by The Cars, an 80's band who favors the synthesizer. It also depicts my emotions after her death quite accurately: a sense of a hole opening inside of myself, a constant feeling like something is missing in my life. Through this experience, I can connect to the narrator of Night, by Elie Wiesel. It is a memoir, so Elie himself is the narrator. Elie is a Jewish boy of 15 when he and his town are taken by the Nazi Empire and made to live in concentration camps for 1 - 2 years. He feels this sense of a great hole opening up inside of himself twice: once when his faith in a God of absolute justice is killed by the unheeded suffering around him, and once when his father is murdered by an SS officer with a club. The only difference between Elie and me at those times was that Elie was numb to pain, emotional or physical, due to all that he had been through.
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Author My name is Peter Fisher. I am a freshman at High Tech High North County, and this page is for the Moral Compass project that we are currently working on in my Humanities class. Archives
April 2014
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