Journal 10: Science Vs. Religion

Perhaps one of the most major controversial and talked about topics in the science vs religion category is how the Earth was created and the Big Bang Theory. Many people argue the points on how the planet was made, both scientifically and religiously. Scientists believe that a particle of dust just randomly combusted in space and poof! Earth was created. Now, the Big Bang Theory is much more complex than that, but that is the simple, generic version of it. Religious people believe in the story that was in the Bible in that God created the Earth and then created man. However, the only problem is: where is the proof to prove either theory?

Me personally, I believe in the biblical version, but that is because I am following my faith. If there was any proof whatsoever on either side of the story regarding how the Earth came to be, and scientists or religious people could prove it, then I would believe them in a heartbeat. But, because there is not any proof for either idea, no one really knows who or what to believe. Because all we need is proof, and then people will believe whichever they want. They still do, but I think that either theory is possible, they just need to be proven first.

That is one problem and probably the cause of most of the arguments. Both sides think they are correct, but have nothing to prove it. Scientists retaliate with saying religious people do not have any proof but the stories in the Bible. However, in my personal opinion, it is the scientists who do not have as much proof as we do, besides a giant Earth. Therefore, it is going to be one long continuous argument until someone is able to prove how the Earth was created. Scientists and religious people will continue to argue until one is proven wrong. Until then, I guess just believe what you want, and hope that some day this great mystery is solved. Although, it probably won't be for quite some time, probably not in my lifetime.

Puritanism Project

Here is my project on Puritanism. Enjoy! It covers what I learned while studying the Puritan period.

Journal 9: Organized Religion

Although I do not really know what an organized religion is by definition, I can guess that my religion of Catholicism is an organized religion. We have a set plan of how a normal day at church goes, even for holidays. Every mass is almost the same, and same goes for holidays. All of our masses are based on the same sort of structure, which is fairly organized. I mean, I consider Catholicism a fairly organized religion. But that is just because I myself am catholic. I believe we have a good, organized system of the way our church is run. Just because everything stays the same from day to day, and we rarely sway from the normal routine of our catholic/religious schedules. However, because I am only Catholic, I do not know the other routines of the other religions. But a typical mass in my church typically goes like this:

About ten minutes before mass is supposed to start, our family arrives at the church. We go into our pew after making the sign of the cross upon entering the church and genuflecting to get into our pew. Then, we usually say a couple prayers before mass starts as well. As soon as the lights go on and the music starts and we stand up. After the priest walks down the aisle, goes up the steps and to his spot, he welcomes us to mass and we say a couple prayers. Then, the first reading is read by a parishioner, followed by the responsorial psalm. After the second reading is the gospel, which is read by the priest. Following the gospel is the homily, which is the priest telling the congregation what we are supposed to learn from the readings and the gospel. After the homily is the preparation of the gifts, then communion. After communion, mass is almost over. The priest and alter boys/girls help put away everything from communion, and the priest sits down. Then, the priest wishes us a good day and the conclusion of mass. After the closing song, mass is over and we go home and come back the next week and repeat the same process over again.

That is why I think my religion is an organized religion.

Journal 8: "The Impotence of Proofreading"

Well, the video was pretty funny in my opinion. However, he did bring up a lot of good points. Many people today do not proofread their work, and people do make a lot of silly mistakes, especially on important documents such as college entrance exams and resumes. So, I found the video actually somewhat helpful. Because although it was humorous, the guy shows that many of the mistakes people make when writing papers or anything like that are easily avoidable. Because, spell check can be a wonderful thing, but it does not catch everything. Also, spell check can be incorrect sometimes as well. Spell check will make a sentence you wrote in an incorrect tense or something like that, that does not correlate with the rest of your paper. That is why proofreading is such a good thing. It prevents people from making stupid mistakes on important papers or documents, and making an absolute idiot of yourself. Because, I think that after you leave, the boss or whoever you were trying to impress will sit and laugh at your mistakes, if they were stupid ones. I have also heard that if there are misspellings on a resume or college entrance exam, the paper will either get thrown away and not even considered, or it will get moved to the very bottom of the pile. Which, can be quite unfortunate especially if you have worked hard on it. Therefore, proofreading is exceptionally important, no matter what. Because that way you can avoid stupid, comical mistakes, and you do not make a fool of yourself to important officials, or people you are trying to impress to get a good grade for something such as a teacher. If there is one miss placed comma or a space is forgotten, then the paper is not the best it can be, and all because people did not proofread their work, and made stupid mistakes. So, I am going to try and be a better proofreader now, to avoid the silly mistakes.

Journal 7: A Superstition Story

So although I do not believe in this superstition, I am going to tell a story about Friday the 13th, and the fact that it can bring bad luck to some people. I do not believe that Friday the 13th and neither do my parents, since they got married on Friday the 13th, and have been married for 17 years now.

Not so long ago there was a girl named Elizabeth who was extremely superstitious. She had been born on Friday the 13th, and because of that, she had very bad luck, in her opinion. Everything was always going wrong in her life, she could never do anything right. She woke up bright and early on Friday the 13th, the day of the Homecoming pep rally. The dance was tomorrow, and Elizabeth was so excited. Her luck had changed somehow, and Leon Michael had asked Elizabeth to the homecoming dance. Since he had asked her the month before, Elizabeth had not had barely anything bad or unlucky happen to her, and was not about to let that change, regardless of the fact that Leon's football number was 66, which add another 6 and it could be considered the sign of the devil. After getting ready for school, Elizabeth walked outside and started walking to her best friend Katie's house. All of a sudden, a black cat walked in front of Elizabeth. She jumped back and said, "Oh, great." Looking closer at the cat, she realized that it had a white left paw, so it was not totally black. As she continued walking, she passed a construction site. Getting distracted by the building the workers were constructing, she did not watch where she was going, and walked under a ladder. "Well this is great" thought Elizabeth. When she arrived at her friend Katie's house, she walked inside, and found Katie's mom throwing salt over her shoulder, trying to aim for the cooking pan. "Uh, what are you doing Mrs. Gill?
"Oh, just practicing for the annual salt throwing competition" she said.
"Ok, well I'm going up to Katie's room, and seeing if she needs any help, then we will be on our way for the pep rally." said Elizabeth."
"Sounds good." replied Mrs. Gill, and she went back to throwing salt over her shoulder.
Elizabeth walked upstairs to find her best friend sitting on the floor, holding a broken mirror.
"Oh my gosh! What happened?" asked Elizabeth
"Well, I was trying to put the face paint on, and accidentally dropped the mirror, so it broke."
"Ok, well we need to get going, we've got a pep rally today!"
They left the house, leaving Mrs. Gill to throwing salt into a pan.

Journal 6: Repercussions from Blaming Someone Else

There can be many repercussions and consequences for blaming someone else for something you have done. There is always going to be guilt within yourself knowing that you blamed someone else, especially if you get away with it. Then you have to live with the guilt of that for the rest of your life, or until you admit to whatever it is that you blamed your friend or whoever it is you are blaming in the first place. In addition, you will more than likely lose your friend, as they will not want to be friends with someone who will blame everything on them, regardless of it being their fault or not. Lets say for example, Jake, Casey, and Katie all decide to go to the mall. After walking around the mall for some time, all three of them get bored, and decide to go back to Katie's house. When they get home, they all decide that they are still bored, and go for a walk. As they are walking around, Jake and Katie get the idea to teepee a house, since it is almost Halloween. Casey just sort of goes along with it, but again decides that ok, what is the harm in it? So they go back to Katie's house, get the necessary supplies and head out trying to decide which house to teepee. They decide on a retired couple, who Katie knows has gone out for the weekend. Katie and Jake start throwing the toilet paper at the tree, and Casey is telling them where they are missing spots on the tree. They are just about done, when all of sudden, there are car lights heading up the driveway. Throwing the toilet paper down, and running into the trees, Katie, Jake, and Casey look at each other in a panic. Then, they hear a car door slam, and footsteps go up the front steps and into the house. Thinking the coast is clear, all three sneak back in front of the house, only to find Mr. Richards, the neighbor standing there. Looking quite calm, he asks, "Who's idea was this?"
Katie and Casey look around, only to find that Jake has run off.
"Well, it was all Casey's idea Mr. Richards." I tried to tell him no, but he insisted on it."
Casey begins to argue, but Mr. Richards holds up his hand for silence.
"Well, Casey, I have known Katie for a lot longer than I have known you, so I am going to ask if you could please clean up this mess you have made, and I will let you go, with just a warning."
Looking deflated, Casey heads toward the tree and begins cleaning up, not speaking to Katie.
In the end, Katie and Casey's friendship diminishes, all because of being blamed for something he did not have an idea for.

Journal 5: 21st Century Unfair and Fair Punishments

An appropriate 21st century punishment depends on the circumstances that caused the punishment to happen to begin with. If a person does something small, and does not cause much harm, then I believe the punishment should not be all that extreme. If the "crime" is small, then the appropriate punishment, in my opinion, would be lose certain privileges for a week or so. For example, someone I know just got grounded for two weeks for throwing water balloons at a friend's house. He is not able to go out with friends and has to do the dishes for the next two weeks. That to me, is an appropriate punishment. However, if my friend would have been grounded for a month, and was not allowed to leave the house, plus no video games and stuff like that, then that punishment is a bit too extreme.

I think that whatever is causing the problem should be removed. If a person's grades are slipping due to spending too much time on the phone or computer, then the phone should be removed for a certain period of time. However, if the grades are slipping due to other reasons besides over use of the phone, then the phone should not be removed in my opinion. I think that video games or other distractions should be removed, but once again, it depends on the circumstances upon which the punishment is being given.

To avoid punishment all together, I try to avoid getting in trouble at all. Because, if I am not doing anything wrong, then there is no way for me to be punished, which means I can keep my phone and friend privileges. So, if I happen to do something wrong, I have an understanding for the most part about why I am being punished. Plus, it cannot last forever, and I know that if I do get punished, whatever it is, then sooner or later I will get those privileges back. So, I just won't do anything to get myself into trouble.

Journal 4: Traveling & Long Car Trips

My family is big into traveling as a family. Over the past couple of years, we have taken long driving vacations. We do not spend all of our time in the car, but the longest time we have ever been in a car has been about 17 hours when we drove straight to Florida. I must say, they do have an impact on our family, but in a positive way. During all of the trips we have taken, my parents do not let us watch movies, or anything like that. All we have that is electronic is our Ipods, and a GPS. Us three kids also read a lot of books during the course of our vacations because of being in the car so much. I must say it has affected me, as it makes me and my family closer. We all share random stories and laugh, and have a good time.

My parents are constantly amazed that us three kids never get into fights during the course of our car trips. We can get slightly crabby, but that comes with any trip in my opinion. However, my dad has never had to once say, "If you kids do not knock it out, then I am going to turn this car around." We joke about it, but we never have made our parents mad during a car trip, no matter how long the trip.

Because of this positive atmosphere, I actually enjoy car trips with my parents and family. However, because our family itself is so different, I do not particularly enjoy when I have to travel with extended family, including my cousins. They come from a family where they constantly get what they want, and even if they are in the car for only an hour, they have to have a movie or their handheld games. Because of that, we tend to not travel with them, as they do not like to communicate with us or just look out the window. I actually enjoy looking out the window depending on where I am traveling to, because I see so much more.

So, I enjoy car trips and being in the car, which some may find weird, but my family is big into spending time together, and while we are in the car, we spend a lot of time together.

Journal 3: Being Held Hostage

If I were to be held hostage, I would no doubt be very scared. Given the circumstances and the situation, I would try to escape. However, it would all depend on who is holding me hostage. If it were a family member, I have no idea how I would react. However, since most of us all possess some form of common sense, being kidnapped and held hostage is not typical. In my opinion, the people who are held hostage or kidnapped are the ones who approach strangers completely unaware to the danger around them. Although, some family members can turn psycho and have a sudden urge to take their grandchildren or nieces and nephews and hold them hostage.

So back to the original topic, if I would be held hostage, the first thing I would do is calm down and assess where I am at. I would not panic or totally freak out, as that would make me not able to think straight. Then I would determine who exactly it was that kidnapped me. If I was handcuffed or tied to something, I would make up some sort of excuse such as having to use the bathroom or something like that to get the handcuffs taken off. However, I would also attempt to use some form of self defense moves, which I learned about a year ago. Although, like I said, I would try and use some common sense and not get myself kidnapped in the first place. Because then, I can totally avoid the whole getting kidnapped scenario in the first place. I would not have to worry about yelling for help or using any form of self defense moves or anything like that. I basically know to avoid anyone who looks creepy, or even someone I do not know. Of course a creepy dude asking me if I want candy or he lost his dog is always a good indication of someone who is wanting to kidnap me...that is kind of a giveaway of a potential kidnapper.