A Day in the Life of Sir Beorn, Knight of the Round Table: English Lesson #145

Sir Beorn woketh in his bedchamber one bright summer morning, and the palace of King Arthur was already wide awake. Sir Beorn slid out of his bed and remarked “tis a beautiful morn, it tis”. He called for his page, who helped him dress and prepare himself for breakfast. He was not eating with the king, and was, rather, eating in his own apartments with a few close friends. He sat down to his meal and began to converse with the others at his table. Sir Beorn spake, “methinks I fancy a good ride over the countryside this fine morn. Doth any other man here fancy such a ride as I spake of?” Sir Beorn’s good friend answered “marry, I wouldst enjoy such a ride much”. That morning, they set out on their horses, each with their own page accompanying them. They rode away from the palace of Camelot, over hill and dale, for five hours until the sun was straight overhead. Sir Beorn quoth, “Let us give our horses a rest at that inn over yonder. I feel as though I could drink 5 casks of ale”. So Sir Beorn and his page and his friend and his page rode to the inn and purchased three casks of ale and some meat. At the inn they met a bard who sang a song of treasure, of danger, but of honor, should any knight be willing to risk their life on such a quest.

Quoth Sir Beorn, “How does one navigate to such riches as thou speakest of?”.

Quoth the bard, “head due north for one-thousand cubits from here, and you will come to a large lake. Then, turn your path towards the setting sun and walk 30 cubits. You will then come to a small castle. In it lives a hermit who guards untold riches from everybody and lives for nothing but his treasure. You must slay this man and take his treasure from him.”

Sir Beorn replied, “but it is just one man; how has nobody else succeed in looting this rich hermit’s wealth? And why doth he guard it so closely beyond all else?”

The bard answered, “this hermit possesses supernatural powers. He can control the weather and the lightning, and can speak to animals. Why he guardeth it so closely, that I knowest not. But be wary, Sir Beorn, or he may slay thee as he hath slain others who tried to obtain his wealth”

Sir Beorn turned to his friend and his page and quoth “Dear friend, I should like to undertake this journey without thou aid. Thou art tired, I can see it on your eyes. Thou shouldst rest here a while. You have good men to keep you company and plenty of ale.”

His friend then quoth, “yay, I do fancy a good nap about now. I bid ye good luck, dear Beorn”

Sir Beorn followed the bard’s instructions, and, before long, came upon the lake. He turned west and marched until he reached the dwelling place of the hermit. He first slunk into the shadow of a tree, and watched the hermit guard his fortification. He knew he would need to be wary to avoid this man’s power. Sir Beorn examined the fortress, and determined to climb up the back, into one of the turrets. From there he could pull out his bow and shoot the man off the wall. Sir Beorn climbed up the wall carefully, making it into the turret. From the turret, he waited for the hermit’s back to be to him, and shot. But Sir Beorn missed his arrow, just scraping the hermit’s leg. The hermit turned around and immediately the heavens thundered as dark clouds rolled across the sky. The hermit shouted “WHO ART THOU, THOU SWINE”. Sir Beorn immediately jumped into action, shooting three arrows in rapid succession. Lightning bolted out of the sky, burning two of the three arrows, and setting the third one aflame on its feather. The arrow lodged into the hermit’s left shoulder, but it continued to burn. Sir Beorn rushed forward, as the hermit was stung by the pain, and slashed with his sword, wounding him beyond help. Leaving the hermit, Sir Beorn made his way into the heart of the fortress and found the treasure. Such riches he had never seen, except in possession of Arthur. He called his page from outside the fortress to help him carry as much gold as he could. He left the rest for whomever might journey there next. Sir Beorn journeyed back to the inn and stayed the night. He and his friend rode back in the morning to Camelot, and lived happily ever after. The End.

A Knight of the White Cross pt2: English Lesson #50

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT ⚠️

Today we are going to be talking about the character development and plot of A Knight of the White Cross.

Gervaise’s father is Sir Tresham of the English Army. When Gervaise is nine years old, his father falls in battle. His mother, Dame Tresham, brings him to one of the “outposts” of the Order, and has him sent to the palace at Rhodes to become a Knight of the White Cross there. This is where the true beginning of the character development begins. Gervaise begins his training. He is shown to be a smart, quick-witted lad when he sails the galleys to raid pirate ships, and succeeds in gaining his secular knighthood by a cunning plan to deceive the pirates (secular knighthood is a promotion from the base knighthood any knight of the Order acquires upon joining). Gervaise is then shown to be smart so as to learn Turkish, the language of the enemy. None of the other knights of his age are willing to spend the nine months necessary to do this. Gervaise then stops a slave revolt, again proving his cunning. As a reward for this, he is given command of a ship manned by young knights, and sets out. After being captured during a battle with an enemy galley, Gervaise is a slave for several month before escaping, and returned with less than a mile between them and the Turks that arrived to lay siege to Rhodes. The focus is less on Gervaise when the attack on Rhodes begins. The story then winds down quickly after the conclusion of the siege, Gervaise leaving the Order of St. John to become a noble of Italy and marry.

Overall, Gervaise has quite the complex and (I believe) well rounded character development. He began the story as an inexperienced young child, and ended it as a competent young man. The plot of the book is also quite interesting, and I really enjoyed the story. I also enjoy books that take place in that time period a lot.

Science 7 #62: Sleep

It is very important to get enough sleep at night. If you don’t get enough sleep often enough, you can develop diseases. Having high quality sleep is also really important, because if you’re sleeping lightly for 10 hours, you’re not in deep sleep as long as you should be. Sleep deprivation can have other bad effects, especially on your mood and your productivity. You will probably get up in the morning tired and grumpy, and have to rely on caffeine to keep you awake at all.

Make sure you go to sleep at a reasonable time, so that you can make sure that you get enough sleep. You should also try and turn off your devices 20-30 minutes before you go to bed. You also need to remember that nobody can force you to go to sleep, not even yourself. So the best you can do is make your sleeping environment the best it can be. Don’t drink caffeine before bed. A hot shower before bed helps make one (or at least me) fall asleep more quickly.

Depending on how old you are, you should be sleeping for different amounts of time. Teenagers should be getting 8-10 hours of sleep at night, but if they are expected to go to bed too early (for example, 8 o’clock pm) and expected to get up at a specific time (7:00 am), that means that they are expected to get 11 hours of sleep total, which is an hour over the maximum recommended time. That means they are going to be awake in bed for several hours, which is really quite pointless. It is also quite frustrating for the unfortunate victim, should anybody be so unlucky as to have the bedtime rules stated above.

Science 7 #73: Vegetables

Quick Note: I am using the culinary definition of vegetable, so tomatoes, peppers, and other foods that are technically fruits but are widely considered vegetables will be considered vegetables, not fruit.

Before we get to the true assignment, which is to talk about the health benefits of vegetables, I’d like to first state which vegetables I like to eat, rather than only eat when I have to.

I really like broccoli, but only when it is raw and dipped in ranch dressing, or in soup. Carrots fall into a similar category, as I like them raw with ranch and in soup, but I also like them cooked in pot roast. I also like salads occasionally, but I only really like a certain combination of ingredients. I like mixed salad greens with croutons, raisins, apple, small tomatoes, and ranch dressing. Occasionally I’ll swap the ranch dressing for feta cheese, or add cucumbers, or some shredded carrots. Tomatoes are really good as ingredients for tomato sauce and paste, as well as being great toppings for burgers and salads. Sweet potatoes are also really good when they are baked with brown sugar. My favorite vegetable is probably the humble potato. It can be prepared in so many different ways, from the many forms of french fries, to mashed and baked potatoes. Like carrots, they also taste really good in soup and pot roast.

Now onto the real assignment which is to talk about some health benefits of vegetables.

We covered four key vegetables that are good for health. They are carrots, broccoli, kale, and “dark leafy greens” (Lettuce, Arugula, bok choy, spinach, etc).

Kale helps you fight cancer. It can help you improve your blood circulation. It can also improve help respiratory system and breathing. It contains lots of healthy minerals as well. However, most people (myself included) don’t enjoy the taste of kale at all.

Carrots help to fix and prevent a lot of eye problems, for example, eye failure due to age, and cataracts. They also taste pretty good, and are great for juicing, and they go well with apple juice.

Broccoli has a lot of protein, rivaling that of meat. Like kale, it can help prevent cancer. Also like kale, it has lots of healthy vitamins and minerals inside it.

I’m quickly going to mention “dark leafy greens” because they mostly provide the same advantages as kale but with a few exceptions. They help fight diseases in general, as well as helping the skeletal system. These do not apply to all “dark leafy greens”, but it does apply to several of them.

Science 7 #140: Signaling and Lighting Systems for Backpacking and Camping

Lighting systems are important for several reasons. You need to be able to see at night, or even in a dense wood or a backpack. There are three main types of flashlight that makes any sense to use during camping, so I’m going to quickly cover those in this essay.

The first one is the handheld flashlight. It is a great multipurpose tool for most lighting situations. It is probably the one you will use most, and is good for getting a strong concentrated beam of light.

Next we have the headlamp. Headlamps are great if you are going to be doing anything at night, like hiking. They are also good because they don’t take up any of your hands. They are especially good for climbing, caving, and being outside at night for extended periods of time. They do not really concentrate the light that they produce, so they are best for lighting up most of your field of vision, at the cost of not being as bright as a flashlight.

A really small key chain light is the other flashlight that is practical for a camping trip. It is really just good for looking inside a bag or for when you need a very quick and accessible light source. This one is a very weak and also fairly spread out light source, but it is always available, as your keys will always be around your neck or in your pocket.

If I had to pick one flashlight to use on a backpacking trip, I would pick the handheld flashlight, as it is the best multi-purpose tool on this list.

Radio Report: Science #25

I really did not like the radio project at all, as it was very time consuming to create and I did not really enjoy the process of building it. The tutorials were not very high quality, and some the parts assigned to use were outright absurd. I really do not want to cut up a paint can to use as a tuner. It also cost a decent amount of money to build, and just takes up space on my shelf now. Nobody else on the forums posted about success with the radio, so I believe that the project should be substituted for another one that is a little bit easier for beginners. The most challenging part of the project was really the troubleshooting, because I could not figure out what the problem with the radio was. I was getting static, but I could not tune in to any radio stations and hear them. Honestly, the radio project makes me not want to work with electronics as much, because I failed to make the radio work. I really didn’t enjoy the assignment at all because of all the poor instructions and failed attempts of others. I doubt if any other students have succeeded at this project.

History 7 Final Essay: #180

My favorite lesson in Grade 7 History has probably got to be one during week 12 when we talked about Marco Polo, Kublai Khan, and the Mongolian Empire. I chose these lessons specifically because I’ve read a couple of books about the topics and so it was really interesting to learn more of the context behind that time.

Marco Polo was one of the most famous travelers in history. He was born in the town of Venice, Italy in 1254 A.D., and he was the first man from Europe to visit China in a very, very long time. He recorded nearly all of his travels in his book, The Travels of Marco Polo and that book influenced several explorers yet to come, including Christopher Columbus.

Marco Polo’s father and uncle had been away in China for fifteen years since Marco had been born, therefore Marco was 15 years old when he first met his father and his uncle. When they went back to China, they decided to take Marco Polo with them on their next trip.

Marco Polo did not just write about where he traveled to; rather, he wrote about nearly everything he saw, experienced, and learned about. He also wrote about all the customs of many of the tribes he visited. Again, he wrote about his long, long stay in the east and about his position in the court of Kublai Khan.

Marco Polo was the chief ambassador to Kublai Khan, so he got to travel all over the Orient communicating with the other tribe leaders, and witness the lives of all the people who lived under Kublai Khan in his great empire.

Marco Polo also got to learn a lot about the history of the new Mongolian Empire. He also learned how Genghis Khan began to unite the Mongols for the first time, before he started expanding the newly united Mongol Empire.

When Genghis Khan had passed away, Kublai, his grandson, took his place as the Khan of the Mongol Empire. Whereas Genghis Khan had been a warlike general, Kublai Khan was a peaceful ruler. He lived in his capital and Marco said that it was the most glorious palace in the world, outshining everything in Europe. It is also interesting to note that Kublai was tolerant of other religions.

I did not really like history a lot this year, but that is quite simply because I’ve been spoiled a lot by Mr. Livingston from the fourth and fifth grade history courses, as I believe that, other than the sixth grade math, those have been my favorite courses.

I would definitely recommend this course to anybody who would enjoy a much more traditional style history class, but it is no more than that. If I had to change one thing, I would definitely make the essays be assigned a lot less often, as the weekly essays can become quite taxing and stressful for the student at times, seeing as they also have at least 3 other classes to cope with.

Final English 7 Essay: #180

In this course, I really enjoyed all of the prose reading, but the new topics for me were the drama and poetry, and I had a difficult time reading them, but overall, I still enjoyed the course more than others. Again, my favorite part of the course were the reading assignments for prose literature, as that is my favorite of the three. I disliked some of the essay assignments, and also the frequency of said assignments, so if I had to change something about the course, it would be the writing assignments. I’d make them a little bit farther apart then they are currently so that it doesn’t feel as taxing on the student. Overall, I would recommend this course to anybody who wanted to learn about literature analysis, but probably not writing.

History Lesson #175: Egypt

Africa’s most famous continent is Egypt, and was one of the strongest ancient forces. It had two time periods: Kingdom periods, which was when the kingdom was well organized and prospered, and the Intermediate period, which was a period when Egypt was on its decline. There were 6 stages of Ancient Egypt before it became part of the Roman Empire, those being the Old Kingdom, 1st Intermediate, Middle Kingdom, 2nd Intermediate Kingdom, New Kingdom (or the Golden Age of Egypt), and then it finally fell to Alexander the Great. After Alexander the Ptolemaic dynasty ruled Egypt until it became part of the steadily growing Roman Empire. Also, the old Kingdom was when most of the pyramids were built. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Egypt came under Islam control, and became one of the Islamic territories.