Moby Dick

            Moby Dick physically was a story about a captain of a whaling ship that is seeking revenge on a certain white sperm whale they call Moby Dick. The captain convinces his crew to join him in his quest of hunting and killing the great whale and offers gold to who ever kills the animal.

            Morally I think the story is about that it is bad to seek revenge on others. The captain is filled up with hate for the whale that he will risk the lives of his entire crew to kill the whale that tore off his leg. In the end of the story most of the crew including the captain lose their lives in trying to kill the whale for their demented captain. The point that I got out of the story is not to take revenge because nothing good comes out of it.

 

            I thought the excerpt was very good. I have seen the movie that came out a few years ago and it illustrates the adventure and quest of the hunt for the white whale Moby Dick. The passage in our English book is just a glimpse of the whole story and illustrates the main chase and whaling scenes very well. 

3rd story

Vance Zink made his living as a fisherman on lake Superior. He fished for mainly samon on his little boat called the Lilly. One day in the spring of 1952, he went out on the lake for the weekend to catch his weekly amount of fish. After catching a very large amount of fish on his first day out, he prepared for his night on the boat. About 5am the next morning, he was woken by a big jolt. At first his reaction was that he had hit a rock and had put a hole in his boat. After getting out of his cot, he went to the side of his boat to see what he had hit. To his suprise, there was a very large canadian moose swimming next to his boat. Very suprised at what he say, he headed home a day early and told his wife Lillian what had happened on his very eventful fishing trip.

4th story

Riley is nervous about his hurdle race. He runs track at concordia Lutheran High School. The starter calls all the runners to their starting positions. Riley’s heart starts racing and his arms start shaking. “Just relax,” he kept telling himself. A few seconds later the starter shot the gun to start the race. Riley exploded out of the blocks in lane 8. Running relaxed, he and the runner in lane 7 start to pull away from the group. On the final stretch, Riley starts to push himself to the limit. Neck and neck with the other runner they jump over the second to last hurdle. Riley catches his foot and falls to the ground. Laying on the ground, Riley hears the spectators gasp in horror. He sits up on the track and feels a very sharp pain in his elbow. His track coach, Coach Slavans runs over to him from the staff tent. “Are you ok?” he asked. “No”, he replied,” i have a very sharp pain in my elbow.” After saying this the trainer came over and examined his arm. “You should really get an x-ray,” he recommended. After saying this Riley and his mom were sitting in the emergency room waiting for an x-ray. The doctor came in and gave him a shot of very strong pain killers. Five minutes later the doctor took him to the x-ray room. When they arrived there the doctor moved Riley’s arm in different positions for the x-rays. He screamed in pain. “The pain killers aren’t working!” Riley Shouted. But the doctor moved his arm one last time for the final x-ray. After this the nurse wheeled Riley’s bed back to his room and left them there for about an hour. The doctor came in and told him that his elbow was broken. Riley was horrified at this news. “When am i allowed to run track again?” The doctor replied,”you can’t run anymore track until next year, so i’m sorry but your season is over.” Riley and his mother went home after being released from the hospital. The next day he went to see Dr. Jenkinson at ONE. The doctor looked at his x-rays and put him in a cast. The cast was blue and very heavy. It went from his finger tips to his shoulder. After returning to the examination room Riley thought he would ask one last time when he could run track again. The doctor answered,”with the cast you can start running when ever you feel like running again.” Riley was over joyed at this news because he had a big track meet the very next day. At track practice that day he tried to run hurdles with the cast on. It knocked him off balance and it was very hard to run out of blocks with one hand. The coach said it would be up to him tomorrow if he could allow him to run or not. At the meet the next day, Riley was allowed to run the hurdle race. At the starting line, he was very nervous. The last race he ran in he fell and broke elbow. The starter shot the starting gun and the runners were off. Riley stumble out of the blocks and his his first hurdle. Staying on his feet. He ran after the other runners. After running a perfect middle race he was even with the leader and beat him over the last hurdle. Sprinting as fast as he could Riley crossed the finish line and won the race.

2nd story

Martin Koenemann and Christa Korte were seniors in high school and have been dating for five months. Christa went over to Martin’s house to hand out one Saturday afternoon. They were both relaxing watching TV when Christa had to use the bathroom. So she got up and went to the restroom. When she got there, she went in and shut the doot. The bathroom was very aged. Martin’s house was pretty old and needed some repairs. After Christa used the bathroom, she wshed her hands and went to open the bathroom door but it wouldn’t open. At first she laughed because she thought she was suppose to push not pull the door but still it didn’t move. Now Christa started to get worried. She wondered what Martin would think of her after she broke his door and got stuck in his bathroom. After ten minutes of worry and panic, she called for Martin. He came to the door. “What do you need?” Martin asked. Christa replied, ” I think I broke your bathroom door. I’ve tried everything and it still won’t open”. Martin laughed. “This door gets stuck all the time, just jiggle the handle.” Christa jiggled the handle and the door opened with a big creak. When the door opened Martin still there smiling, trying not to laugh. Christa with a very embarrassed look said, “You should really have that door looked at.” After saying this they bother burst out in laughter.

grandparents story

     Jack and Jerry Korte were not the average American brothers, they were identical twins. In there junior year of high school, the Korte brothers were leaving the football game on a friday night and decided to race each other home. Jerry drove a white chevy two door and Jack was driving his brand new red Ford pickup. The squealed their tires and sped out the school parking lot. With Jack in the lead they sped down stellhorn road twenty miles over the speed limit. A police officer was sitting in a parking lot of an old church. As Jack came speeding by the officer joined the chase. Jack stopped right away. As the officer walked up to the car, his heart was racing and started to sweat. “Can i see your drivers license and registration please?” asked the officer. Jack nervously handed him his license. As the police man inspected his papers, Jerry can racing by in his white Chevy. The officer suprised asked, ” do you have any idea who that was in that white car?” Jack trying to keep a straight face ” I have no idea who that could be”. With that the officer let Jack off with a warning and speed after Jerry. Jack, still in shock after what just happened headed home. When he got home his heart stopped. He noticed that Jerry’s car was not in the garage. Jack ran inside the house to his room to think things over. When he entered his room, he saw Jerry sitting on his bed staring into space. “What happened to you?”Jack asked,” and where’s your car” Jerry answered in a quiet voice,”I got home as quick as i could and i parked my car behind the garage”.

Fiery sermon

            The fiery, damnation sermon we read in English class in my opinion worked. The preacher went around back in colonial days and preached about how people need to turn from their evil ways or the wrath of god would be upon them. He told straying puritans and all colonial subjects that if they don’t follow what god has commanded more closely then they will all be cast into the fiery depths of hell for eternity. He preached this message all over the colonies for one reason, to turn their religious views in the right direction. When many heard this they were terrified and changed their ways immediately. The way they understood it was that god his holding them over the abyss of hell and damnation and if they sin and not follow his teachings, he will become angry and let them go and fall into hell and eternal punishment.

 

            I believe the sermon to some degree. I believe that if we don’t believe in god and stray from his teachings that we will be thrown into hell after we die. However, he is not holding us over hell and just waiting for us to screw up and throw us into hell. He sent his one and only son to earth to die for us and secure our salvation after he had done nothing wrong. To me that sounds like god wants us in heaven with him and he made the ultimate sacrifice to get us there. The sermon has some right ideas and put in people’s minds by fear that if they don’t do exactly what god wants you to do, you are going to hell. He just wants you to believe that he sent his son to die for you when he had done nothing wrong. That in my opinion is the greatest sacrifice anyone could make for another. 

Schedule of a champion

            Hi, I’m Michael Phelps, United States Olympic swimmer. If you watched the 2008 Beijing Olympics, you would know that I won eight gold medals in that Olympic Games. In being a gold medal swimmer my life is full of training for future Olympics and being a normal person like every body else. My daily schedule is not the typical everyday American day, its full of pain and gain in the swimming pool. I wake up every morning at six AM. I eat a huge breakfast full of calories and carbs so I can stay health and work off all the calories when I swim. At seven thirty I begin my stretches and weight training. To be a successful Olympic athlete, especially swimmers you must lift weights and work hard to gain maximum body and muscle strength. At nine, I jump in the pool and start my morning workout that my swimming coach has planned for me. At noon, I get out of the pool and eat lunch. Again, my meals are full of healthy carbs and energies that I need to keep my body in the best shape in can be. After lunch I take a nap. The morning workouts and be very difficult on your body so rest in the fastest and most efficient way of recuperation. At two, I go back to the pool to do another workout. The second swim isn’t as hard as the first but it’s still pretty challenging. I finish my second swim around four. I go home and relax and do whatever I want for the rest of the day. I go to bed at a decent hour so I can get up and do the same thing the very next day.

Iroquois Constitution

            The Iroquois Constitution was a very interesting piece of literature. It was translated from a native language to English. The way it was translated makes some parts hard to understand. The passage gives you a very clear picture of why nature and the world is they way they are in the beliefs of the Iroquois. This passage gave me mixed feelings about the Iroquois.

 

            First, the Iroquois leaders only wanted what was best for their Indian nation. Their leaders were selected by past leaders that look for certain traits that are vital to a successful leader. They looked for traits like confidence, no self interest. Everything you do you do for a reason for the good of the confederation not for yourself. They also needed to be able to block out negativity and criticism from their tribes. The tribal leaders had to be strong in will, spirit, and their surroundings. They needed to be of peaceful nature in order to form alliances with other nations and make just decisions for crimes.

 

            The Iroquois to me were a misleading people. They made up their own religious ceremonies and told following tribes and peoples that the spirits of the earth told them to do them to keep them satisfied. They also tried to explain things like direction with stories of a tree of peace and its roots pointing to the four general directions north, south, east, and west. I understand that they weren’t educated but just the fact that the very first natives made up rituals and ceremonies to honor made up spirits and gods

 

            The Iroquois constitution shows the thinking of native people before colonial times. The imagery they used to explained natural occurrences in nature to explain their ways of thinking and logic in selecting their leaders is a very wise way to do it.

The Ocean

Have you ever wondered how many animal species live in the oceans of the world? I don’t know if that question will ever be answered because we are still discovering more and more about the worlds oceans and its inhabitance every day.

 No one really knows the answer to that question of how many animal species live in the worlds oceans because scientists are discovering new species of animals like sharks, whales, and thousands of kinds of fish every year. Some of the species being discovered are mixes of animal species we already know about but, still others are brand new species we didn’t even know existed. Species of animals have been evolving over time. For example, Lake Nicaragua in Nicaragua was once part of the Pacific Ocean. Ocean dwelling animals like sharks called this place home but over time the lake closed itself off from the ocean trapping the sharks in the land locked lake. Over time the salt in the water evaporated and became a freshwater lake. The sharks adapted to their environment and formed a new species of freshwater sharks found only in Lake Nicaragua.

The worlds oceans interest me because if their size and depth. I live in the Midwest and all I see is land. I have been to the ocean a couple times on vacation but I’ve never seen its true size. The earth is seventy-five percent water and only twenty-five percent land. My family drives to Florida every year for vacation and the drive is extremely long. When we got there, I got on a computer to look at the route we took to get to our destination. I then looked and a world map and saw how small of a distance we had traveled. Then I looked and realized how enormous the oceans actually are. I went to a website to see how deep the ocean could get and found out that in some parts of the world it can reach depths of over six miles down.

Another reason the world’s oceans interest me is how it can give and take life so easily. In countries that border the ocean, they catch most of their food in the ocean. Foods like fish, lobster, clams, and many other animals are used for food. These countries also sell the animals they catch to other countries for a profit. This benefits them tremendously because, it doesn’t cost them much to fish for food but they can charge high prices to other countries for the food that they catch. The sea can also take life very easily. Back in the 1600’s when European countries crossed the Atlantic Ocean to get to the new world, many of their ships were claimed by the sea in violent storms. Even today there are ships that set out to cross the oceans of the world and never are heard from again, this doesn’t happen as much as it did in the past but it still happens.

The world’s Oceans are interesting in so many different ways. Their great size and animal species makes it one of the greatest natural treasures on our planet.

Olympic Games

Do you know what the biggest sporting event in the world is? The 2008 summer Olympic Games held in China include teams from all over the world that come to compete in several different events to win gold medals for their countries.

The Olympic Games are very interesting to me because it brings athletes from all over the world to compete in friendly competition. Some countries competing in the Olympics may be at war with other countries at the Olympics but, they show kindness to one another that proves we can all live together in harmony. When I was watching the opening ceremonies on television, the Iraqis Olympic team enters the stadium and was welcomed with great applause from the United States and other countries. Iraq and the United States are currently at war but, they welcomed each other with open arms at the start of the 2008 Olympic Games in China.

It really amazes me how the athletes have to work to compete in the Olympics. The athletes train for several years for seventeen days of competition. In China, the athletes are chosen at a very young age and train their whole lives away from their families. Michael Phelps, United States swimmer, swam extremely hard workouts everyday for four years to achieve his Olympic success. Dara Torras, swam in the 2008 Olympic games and prove that a forty one year old woman could compete successfully in the Olympics by winning a silver metal in the fifty meter freestyle. I run hurdles in high school and sometimes I think my workouts are extremely difficult. I went online to see what the average Olympic hurdler work out was and I discovered that my practices were nothing compared to what they go through. Some athletes train for years and get to the Olympics and get injured or make a terrible mistake in their event and walk away with nothing. I have a lot of respect for all the athletes that participate in the Olympic Games.

I believe that every athlete in the world has dreamed about themselves winning a gold medal at least once in their life. Since I’ve started running track, I always dream about winning the Olympic finals in the 110 meter high hurdles and winning an Olympic gold medal. Last year I won a medal at the Indiana indoor state meet and at that moment I know that anything was possible if you put your mind to it. Take United States swimmer Michael Phelps for example; he won an all time high of eight gold medals in a single Olympic games. I wish I could just win one while he won eight gold medals in less than two weeks. Along with that gold medal comes the title of the best athlete in the world for that particular event. I don’t know about you but that seems pretty impressive to me.

The Olympic Games are one of the most interesting things in the world to me because so many different things could happen. It’s a once in a lifetime experience for the athletes that participate in it. I wish one day I would participate in the Olympic Games.