Today I am going to talk about my favorite birthday present, which was a card shuffler. This also happens to be the earliest birthday present I can remember. I was probably about six or seven years old, but I cannot remember exactly when. We were at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (the biggest children’s museum in the world) with Nana and Papaw and maybe our cousins (that was 6 years ago I can’t remember). For my birthday gift, Nana and Papaw gave me a red and black card shuffler. You divide the deck of cards into two and place them on the two card trays. All you have to do then is pop in the crank and turn it, and it deposits the cards in a third tray. The crank is stored in the bottom, and used to get lost frequently. The shuffler has chips in the corners as well from long use. The tray that slides into the bottom is broken as well. In short, the card shuffler takes the cake for my favorite birthday present, simply because it is the most practical and lasted the longest.
S8#25: Playlists on YouTube
Playlists are a very important tool for content creators on YouTube. They allow you to chain together episodes or videos about a certain topic, a little like a Netflix series. Playlists are very useful, both for the the creator and the viewer.
A playlist is a list of videos in order. It begins with a certain video, then plays the next video after that, the next video after that, and so on. Typically they are about a certain topic or a series in chronological order. Playlists are one of the things you can link at the end of a video as well, and is quite convenient. Let’s take a theoretical example. I have uploaded 20 videos of me playing Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild. Those episodes are organized into a playlist with an introduction video at the beginning and a conclusion video at the end. They are in order. Say somebody wants to binge watch my videos, or be able to access all of the videos of a certain type easily. All they have to do is go to the playlist and select the video they want to watch. No hassle of seeing other videos that are about different topics that get in the way of finding the video I want. If I know I want to watch episode 13, all I have to do is go to the playlist and scroll down until I see episode 13. It’s that simple.
The other benefit playlists have is that the next video in the playlist automatically plays. Not only does that mean that it is much more convenient for binge-watchers, it also means that your viewer is more likely to not click off of your playlist and watch something else. They don’t even need to choose the next video manually!
In short, playlists are a very useful tool to have in your YouTube toolbox. You should probably use a playlist for every series or topic you cover. For example, I might have a playlist for Breath of the Wild challenge runs, and a separate playlist for my BOTW Let’s Play *cough cough* go watch my videos *cough cough*. I am definitely going to use playlists, and I think you should too.
PF#25: The Morality of Work and Wealth
For this assignment, I am asked to write about if it is moral to be wealthy, and related topics. There is nothing immoral about being wealthy, nor is it unjust that some have more money than others. However, there are certainly moral limits to the ways that wealth can be gained.
I am quite sure that there is nothing immoral about being wealthy. There are several reasons why. Being wealthy yourself does not have any negative effect on how wealthy others can become; rather, it can even make easier for others to gain wealth. Whenever any transaction occurs, both parties should be gaining wealth. Wealth is gained by making transactions; hence, when you make wise transactions with others, those that make transactions with you gain as well. Taking that into account, we can show that there is nothing immoral about gaining wealth, as whenever you make a transaction, the other party is gaining as well. The only problem with this is that when you gain by immoral ways (eg. stealing, cheating, etc), your ill-gotten wealth is not moral.
It is perfectly just to have more wealth than others. Simply put, the free market economy makes you and the work you put in the deciding factor in whether you are wealthy or not. There are men in this world who have gone from complete poverty to fairly wealthy through hard work. You cannot do that in a communist environment. How is it just to make some impoverished people a little better off, but drag everybody else down with them?
(This data was generated by chat gpt, and is not actual real data, but purely for demonstration purposes)
In conclusion, there is nothing unjust about being wealthy unless it is wealth that is obtained unjustly, for example, via stealing or cheating. A communist environment is also very unjust, as it drags everybody that would succeed in a capitalist environment down with the very few people that it pulls up from complete poverty.
E8#16: My Favorite Color
I don’t really have a favorite color. There are simply colors I like more than others. I like dark red and black, particularly when they are nearby and compliment each other. I also like dark green and deep blue more than most other colors, particularly for clothing items. Beige is also a nice color, a sort of light brown or light tan. If I had to pick a favorite it would probably be black, because it’s just simple and common.
This was a paragraph assignment and not an essay, hence the short length
H8#10: The History of North America (I guess)
Before Columbus’ discovery, North America (and South America as well for that matter) were inhabited mostly by tribal nations. Columbus came, and with him, the Europeans. They flooded to the New World, mostly for religious reasons, be it protestants trying to escape the tyranny of Catholic monarchs and popes, or people simply looking for a fresh start in the New World where they could begin their own little subset of Christianity. Eventually this would lead to the creation of the United States of America, the most powerful country to this day.
Columbus discovered America in 1492. Before then, only one group of Europeans had set foot in the New World, and that was the Vikings during the time of Erik the Red. Their settlements didn’t last, and it is doubtful if they even knew of the giant continent they had set foot upon. However, this land was still inhabited by the native peoples, the largest group of which are the Hopewell and Anasazi tribes. These native Americans were eventually driven off their own land by the Europeans when they claimed the land.
After Columbus arrived, the floodgates opened wide. Europeans came flooding in from several different nations to take the land for themselves, establish colonies, and eventually, seek great wealth from the treasures they assumed the land held for them. The British colonies were the most famous ones by far. Eventually they gained independence from Britain and became the United States of America, the most powerful nation in the world today.
E8#15: Top Three Moments in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
The first book of this English year was Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. There were some really good moments in this book, and, overall, I really enjoyed reading it. My top three moments were as follows: When Captain Nemo showed the crater to the Professor, Conseil, and Ned; when Nemo took them under the Suez isthmus; and when Captain Nemo showed them the large pearl he was farming.
When Nemo showed the passengers of the Nautalis the crater where he mines coal, he went in through a small hidden passageway underwater. I found this to be really interesting, as it makes it so the only vessels that can get in are submarines and maybe airplanes (but they never come or they haven’t been invented during the time of the book). I also found Captain Nemo’s explanation of the crater’s origin to be quite intriguing as well, including how he believes it was filled with water. Nemo also explained that he got all of his coal from subterranean mines in this crater. Another part that I found was entertaining was the shot Ned Land made on the bird in the crater. For whatever reason, that portion of it really appeals to me, although I can’t really explain why. Perhaps it is just the skill that Verne has pictured this character to have.
The next part that I enjoyed is when Nemo piloted the Nautalis through the a subterranean passage underneath the Suez Isthmus, letting them pass from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. On the way there, there was a place where the bed of the sea was raised above the rest of the sea, forming a strip across the sea. Nemo said that this was the place where the children of Jacob passed when they fled from Egypt led by Moses. He states that there were likely chariots and weaponry under that sand that could be unearthed in the future.
Finally, I enjoyed the part where Nemo showed the passengers the giant pearl he was farming. They were all wearing diving dresses, which means they couldn’t communicate verbally, which added to the complexity of the moment. I also found it really funny that the professor’s first impulse was to reach out and try to grab the pearl from the clam. Nemo had been waiting years for that thing to grow, and wasn’t about to let it get removed. On their way out of the cave that the pearl was in, a native fisherman was attacked by sharks. Nemo went to the rescue, and, not only did he save this man’s life, he also gave him a bag of gold ingots into the bargain! Nemo is normally isolated from all other men of the world, but this time it was a fellow countrymen (this man was from India, like Nemo himself). Nemo’s goal was to gather money from wrecks at the bottom of the sea and take the money and give it to the poor, so this was a really wholesome moment.
There you have it! Those were my top three favorite moments from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. I enjoyed the parts about the Suez Passage, the volcano crater, and when Nemo displayed the large pearl. I really enjoyed this book, and, honestly, I wish I had read it sooner. I would definitely recommend this book, particularly to technically minded people who like details.
Grade 7 Categories
H8#5: Oceania
Oceania is one of the 5 continents, although it is referred to as simply Australia a lot of the time. Oceania is a group of islands southeast of Asia and west of the Americas. It consists of Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Hawaii (geographically located in Oceania despite being governed by the United States of America and treated as a part of North America).
For a long time, Oceania was not very developed at all, and large portions of it were not even inhabited, particularly Australia. There were still people there, but there was no sort of centralized government. They would use stone and bone tools, rather than the iron and steel weapons of Europe. Spears and boomerangs were used for hunting. Their houses were built of simple wood. The diets of the people of Oceania consisted of kangaroos, grubs (like worms and insects), moths, turtle eggs, and fruit bats.
Eventually, Europeans found Oceania during the age of exploration and began to colonize it. Britain began to colonize parts of Australia around 1750, along with the other nations of Europe like the Netherlands and France. In the world tour we did not cover much about the colonies, but said that they existed at the time of starting this course.
Oceania was very primitive until the Europeans came. Their tools and diets and buildings were very basic. There was little to no government. However, Oceania would go on to become some of the most important European colonies in the future.
E8#10: Cooper
*Note: For the lesson 7 mind map, mom gave me permission to write about Cooper instead of our house. For lesson 10, I chose to use the mind map about Cooper*
Cooper is our indoor cat. In this descriptive essay I am going to describe Cooper, the things he does, and, most interestingly, how he came to live with us.
One day, Dad went to the chicken coop to lock up the chickens as usual. When he came back, he had a little tiny fuzzball of a kitten in his arms. The kitten had a wound on his paw that the rooster had administered to him. How he got into the chicken coop we could never know. This was in Autumn. Also, Mom has cat allergies. We decided to name him Cooper because we found him in the chicken coop. We wanted him to be an outside cat, but it was too cold. What were we to do next? Mom decided that she would give Cooper a trial run inside for the wintertime so that he wouldn’t be cold outside. We got out one of our little cages. At first, we put the cage in the kitchen for a little while, then we moved it to our bedroom. For a while, he would live in his cage and during certain times of the day we would let him out. Eventually, we gave him free reign of the bedroom at night. Cooper would always come and sleep in my bed, the top bunk, as soon as he had the confidence to climb up there. I miss when he would do that. Eventually, we started letting him out of the bedroom and putting him back at night. Finally, he was given free range of the house all day and all night.
Let me describe Cooper’s body next. He is actually a fairly large cat now, although he used to be a tiny kitten. People see his fur color as one of these two: gray or brown. It is really quite odd how sometimes he looks like both at the same time. His paws are black and soft, and his claws are fairly sharp. He is a tabby cat, meaning that he has the M shape on his forehead in black.
Cooper does the normal cat stuff, but he also has a few quirks of his own. Let me describe his behavior. Like all cats, he sleeps a lot. His favorite spots to take a nap are his cat tower in the living room, the back of my desk chair, Mom’s desk chair, and Dad’s lap. Cooper also eats a decent amount. His food bowl is on my brothers’ dresser and we feed him dry kibble. He his a water snob, just like our dog. Cooper will only drink from his special water fountain and the running sink. I also half-intentionally taught him that when I climb up into my bed, he can come up there and I will pet him, which is a win-win for both of us. He gets pet, and I get to pet him. He is also always begging to go outside so that he can fight our outdoor cat named Flynn. Cooper’s free trial has been expired for a while now, but we still can’t let him go outside because of Flynn.
E8#6: My Best Friend
My best friend is my cousin Caleb. Now, the competition for my best friend is not hard at all. I literally have three friends in total, so to be my best friend you only have to surpass two people. But Caleb is my best friend for good reason. He and I just naturally work and think in similar ways. Not only do we like to do stuff most friends do (I think, I wouldn’t know) like video games, board games and the like; Caleb and I also like designing board games and other practical items.
Caleb also likes to play video games, play board games, and make board games. His favorite game is also Minecraft. See the connection? Caleb is really good at coming up with ideas, and he’s also good at telling me exactly how he wants his board games made. I have lots of skill with 3D modeling, so I’m probably one of the best guys to help him make games. We also communicate really well. There’s none of this grammar stuff in our text messages.
Caleb, like myself, has been homeschooled his whole life; however, he started going to a private school this year, his senior year of high school. Hence, for the past couple of years, both of our schedules were really flexible so we could do stuff together a lot. We also play on a Minecraft server together, and, with a couple of other people, we are the most powerful team on it.
Quite simply, Caleb and I make a great team in almost everything we do together. That is why we are best friends.