Anita's Land: Random Rules

I really liked the Gathering of the Gods. It was a great social opportunity and the food was really good (thank you Kathleen!).

Things I learned from 5 Gods:

1. It is very disappointing that you were posing as Isis and had an affair with Osiris, Nepthys. I am glad that you helped Isis put together her husband in the end, though.

2. Horus, I heard from your mother that you were hidden away so that one day you might avenge Osiris when he was cut into pieces. Is this true?

3. Sehkmet, were you really made to kill people? It seems sad that you had no more purpose at first. I am glad Re had a change of heart so that you could come to this gathering without danger.

4. Isis, it was so clever of you to set a poisonous snake on Re so he would give you magical powers. Getting his true name was a bonus too. Would you mind telling me it?

5. Ammut, I do hope that you are having fun. Was it nice to come out of the underworld for a while to see the living universe? I do hope you are enjoying your job, although I hope it doesn’t get lonely.

This is my Dream House. In  this project we were supposed to design our own dream house with a monochromatic color scheme. It also had to have at least 5 special, viewable attributes. The inspiration behind my dream house is … my name… I guess. I also really like to swim, read, and interact with nature, so I have a garden, a swimming pool, and a book room. I need to stay fit (I’m desperately in need of exercise), so I have an outdoor gym and a basket ball court. If I was allowed to build my dream house, I would probably build it near a beach, or at the edge of a savannah. I want to do that because the beach would be a great view, but I also like animals, so it would be cool to see the savannah animals every day.

Mummification seems to be pretty cool. I hope that my body is preserved like that. It would be nice to know (or at least think I know) that the people way after me would know of me and the things I did. The process does seem to be a bit disgusting, though, so I pity the ancient priests that had to do it without protection. I heard that they had a stench of death around them, so they must not have been very popular to hang out with, even though their ranking was high in the social ladder. All in all, I think it will be really cool to mummify our own frogs.

Okay… This is for the 5-day weekend… on mummies…Yeah.

The Steps of Embalming:

First the Embalmers wash the body with good-smelling palm wine and water from the Nile. They then make a cut in the left side of the body to remove the internal organs to be dried out in natron salt. They then poke out the brain by sticking a hook through the nose. After that they stuff the whole body with natron salt and cover it too so that it will dry out completely and not decompose. It is then washed in water from the Nile river again after 40 days, and covered in oils to keep the skin elastic. It is stuffed in dry materials like sawdust to make it look lifelike, and soaked in good smelling oils.

The Opening of the Mouth Ceremony:

The Opening of the Mouth Ceremony is when a priest touches the mouth, ears, eyes, hands and nose with a special rod so that they can use their senses in the afterlife to enjoy themselves. It happens on the day of the burial.

Neith:

Goddess of Hunting, War and Weaving

Responsibilities include:

Guide to the Underworld, female Anubis. Greeks saw her as Athena, Goddess of wisdom. Appealed to for her wisdom as and arbitrator during the great quarrel of Horus and Seth.

Symbols:

Neith’s cult sign was a shield and crossed arrows. She was also sometimes portrayed holding an ankh of a scepter.

Describe appearance:

Neith was often pictured wearing the red crown of lower Egypt and holding a bow and crossed arrows. She would sometimes hold and ankh of a scepter, and was also sometimes wearing a loom of some sort on her head. (sounds weird, I know)

Related Mythology:

Some sources say that she was self created. She came into existence just by the sheer force of her will. They also say that she can be any gender she choses, but I prefer the goddess. She was sought out for her wisdom when Seth and Horus were having and argument over the throne of Egypt. In the end Horus received the throne, and Seth got two Semetic Goddesses as compensation. All the Gods were satisfied with this except Seth (for obvious reasons).

Image:

How I made my costume:

My costume is ready! I have a red crown of lower Egypt made of construction paper. I decided to go with wearing a long read “skirt” (it’s a sash/blanket wraparound), and a thin pinkish red sash. I have a woven poncho thats colors match, so I’m wearing that on top of a white t-shirt. It’s cool, and it’s really easy to get together. I made a bow from a stick and a string, and I made arrows from some toy swords I have. I’ll show it to the class on Thursday. Bye!

This is a graph of our trial runs for both our speedster and our limmo:

The speed, distance, and trials were hard to put together, because there were only 2 axles. My mom helped me with this by suggesting I put the speed and distance on separate paths. The shapes change if it is speed of distance. You can see that the limmo improved a lot in the first two trials, and then improved a lot more slowly. The speedster was a lot faster at it’s last trial, and it traveled a lot farther too. Bye!

Here is an acrostic, spelling out THE JOURNEY OF RAMOSE. It is for our humanities book, Ramose and the Tomb Robbers.

T  he story begins with a prince in hiding

H e’s in disguise as an apprentice scribe

E ach day until he can emerge.

J ust now he is eating the lavish foods that are spread

O ut near his work place.

U ntil suddenly a rain storm pounds down, gouging ruts deep in the ground

R amose saves Hapu, his friend, by pushing him into a crevice in the cliff.

N ext he climbs on a tall rock with Mery the cat to escape.

E veryone is sent to Tombos by the Vizier, including Ramose, Hapu, and Karoya

Y et the group escapes form the tedious work and decide to travel to Memphis.

O n the way Ramose and Hapu are captured by tomb robbers in Hardai

F or Ramose’s reading skills to rob two tombs of royalty.

R amose takes vases of alabaster and amulets of lapis lazuli

A nd then they are trapped in a princesses tomb,

M any things are looking down grimly.

O nly Ramose keeps his calm and leads them through with the help of Mery and Karoya

S uddenly they are charged by the villagers in belief that they are the robbers.

E veryone escapes to the desert, where they continue to walk to Memphis.

We are working on a mousetrap car project in science class. This is a quick reflection on what other improvements we can make (we’re not done yet).

What are the main changes I need to make in order to maximize the distance that my car will travel in a straight line?

The main changes I need to make is to replace the Kevlar string with a new one because the old one is really worn. It is affecting how far the mousetrap can snap. I think the wooden side rails were a bit tilted, and if we were to make it again I would fix this but nothing can be done now, as it is already glued down. We could also try to adjust the wheels and the axles so that they match up perfectly, otherwise it might not go in a straight line.

Why is working with my partner important in making sure that our car will perform to its best capabilities? How is this done?

Working with my partners are important because that way we can get as much done as possible. If we are both doing the same thing, it’s pointless. Also, we can have more opinions and more ideas to try.

What details will we need to be careful of in making our next car (little Mo!) this week?

We will need to be careful to get the rails perfectly straight, as well as with no length differences in the side rails. We also need to make sure that our axles are working, because one of them had a wider edge, meaning we couldn’t get things on without stretching it so much it was useless.

Were there any details in the Instruction Guide that were left out when you were building your cars?  (in other words, could you have built your car by reading and following the instructions completely?) Explain.

The only details left out of the Instruction Guide were the ones we could have figured out ourselves, because it was common sense. Like try not to let the side boards get tilted, or don’t loose the materials, or the way we glued it on, or to not damage the material. We didn’t leave anything out of the instructions, so we only had difficulties out of tilted edges and such, which no amount of reading the instructions will fix.

Dear Toreg,

I have reached my clan safely and I hope your clan is all right. First and foremost, I would like to thank you for trading with me and teaching me how to use the spear-thrower. It has benefited my clan enormously. Has the sunstone helped you? Mora had a huge shock when I told her that Seelan was alive.  I also met Kenok in the forest, and we had a discussion about my dad. Now our relationship has improved a lot.

When I demonstrated the spear thrower in action, the hunters of my clan were shocked speechless. Then, the cheering began. Only the youngest of the hunters did not understand the significance of this new tool. It has helped us in so many ways. We now sustain fewer injuries when hunting the massive wooly mammoths and bulky bison; we also have much faster and cleaner hunts. Now I doubt that food will be much of a problem anymore. Our storage pit is now quite full, with extra food to last. I am glad that we traded and I hope the sunstone has helped you as well.

On the journey back, I was surprised to meet Kenok in the forest. At first, we were ready to strangle each other, but as soon as we started talking about Father, we calmed down. I now realize that Kenok had been caring for me, even if he was a bit harsh. He has also realized that you do not need to hunt or gather to make a living, and there are some things that you can do that may seem insignificant, yet can earn you an honored place in a community. I explained to him the dagger-tooth cat, but he did not believe me at first. The next morning, there was a dagger-tooth cat sunning itself on the rocks nearby! Now Kenok is eased, knowing that it was not his fault that Father died. We are now partners in hunt, and close confiders in each other.

Mora’s face was a myriad of expressions when I told her that her brother Seelan was still alive. There were so many expressions together; shocked, relieved, stunned, surprised, ecstatic, and thankful. She was shocked and ecstatic, because she expected her brother to be dead; relieved, because it was not so; stunned and surprised, because the other clan helped him so much; and last but not least, thankful for the other clan, his wellbeing, and for the beautiful bracelet Seelan made her. She is now no longer sick, and has a lively spring in her step I have never seen before.

All in all, everything is going very well. We have enough food to last for many ages, and a tight group of hunters. I join them every night at the campfire sharing stories. My relationships in the clan have improved, and I now walk with more confidence. Mora is extremely glad that I brought the healing plant back to camp, and a bit is disappointed that she had not thought of growing the plant herself before. We have been having a prosperous time here, and I hope your clan is too.

Sincerely,

Dar

My Reflection:

In my Dar Essay I used my imagination to my fullest extent, trying my hardest to picture Mora, Kenok, and the hunters. I think that all in all I did very well, with few, if not none, mistakes. My sentence fluency was very good, I think because I read so many books. Most of my word choice comes from books too. I think that the main reason why my conventions are correct was that it was drummed into me from a young age to always do things properly, be it quick fast scrawl, e-mail, or important college document. I’m really not sure of what to reflect on, so I’ll leave it there. Bye!

This is just a brief description of the two playing techniques, Marcato and Legato.

Legato:

Legato is played smoothly, and the breaks between the notes are not supposed to be noticeable. Legato may be indicated either by the use of a phrase mark over a passage or by placing the word legato at the beginning of it. Although smooth, legato does not imply an absence of articulation. Legato literally means tied together.

Marcato:

Marcato is a form of staccato. It means that the notes are emphasized,  indicating that the melody should be given prominence. Marcato entails performing the note with a lot of force (sforzando) but only sustaining two-thirds (occasionally three-quarters) of the original written length at same or increased volume. An audible rest should follow, even though it may not have been written in the music.

The two articulations are actually the opposite of each other. The two groups they belong to are legato and staccato, which are antonyms. Basically, Legato playing has no breaks, and marcato bowing has very short, sharp notes, with quick breaks in between. I hope this helps you if you need musical help. Bye!