Sick

Today I wasn't in school because I'm sick.  I might not be in school tomorrow either.  I went to the doctor and she said I had tonsilitis.  I'll be back Thursday.

Cyberday #6 - Philosophers

Plato

Plato was born around 428 B.C. in Athens.  His birth name was Aristocles.  He gain his nickname, Platon, meaning broad because of his broad build. He studied music and poetry when he was young, and, according to Aristotle, developed the foundations of his metaphysics ("the branch of philosophy that is concerned with the fundamental nature of reality") and epistemology ("a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity") by studying the doctrines of Cratylus, and the works of Pythagoras and Parmenides.  From 409-404 B.C, he was in military service.  Plato joined the Athenian oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants after the Peloponnesian War ended in 404 B.C, but the violence of this group quickly caused him to leave it.  When democracy was restored in Athens, he tried following his first goal of a political career.  In 399 BC, Socrates's death had a huge effect on Plato, so he left Athens with some of Socrates's friends and traveled for 12 years to places like Cyrene, Italy, and Egypt.  This is where Plato began to write a lot, but it is still debated whether he started writing before or after Socrates's death.  The order of his writing is also unknown.  Most scholars have divided Plato's work into three groups: Socratic Dialogues, which include texts such as Crito, Laches, Lysis, Charmides, Euthyphro, Hippias Minor and Major, and Apology.  The second group is called Plato's "middle" or "transitional" period.  He may have written the Meno, Euthydemus, Menexenus, Cratylus, Rebulgic, Phaedrus, Syposium, and Phaedo.  His final group is called the "Later" dialogues, which include the Parmenides,  Theatetus, Sophist, Statesmas, Timaeus, Critias, Philebus, and Laws.  Plato is still important to this day because he taught that every human soul has the impulse to reach for a higher, purer, and more spiritual truth that will light up our lives and change our world.

Citations:

• "Plato - Biography." Plato. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2015. <http://www.egs.edu/library/plato/biography/>.
• "Epistemology." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2015. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epistemology>.
• "Metaphysics." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2015. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metaphysics>.
• "5 Reasons Why Plato and Aristotle Still Matter Today." PublishersWeekly.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2015. <http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/60264-5-reasons-why-plato-and-aristotle-still-matter-today.html>.

CYBERDAY #5

This is now cyberday #5, cool.  Today we have to find 3 examples of Greek architecture, post a picture of it, and write "when and where they were built, what style they were built in, what materials were used to build them, what architectural details were included, and why the Greeks built these particular structures," according to Mr. Schick.

1. Parthenon

The Parthenon was built in 447 B.C. in Athens, Greece after the Persians destroyed by the Persians. It became the model of Classical architecture and its style has affected architecture for many centuries after it was built.  This temple was built of ivory and gold.  The Parthenon is a Doric peripteral temple, meaning that it is made up of a rectangular floor plan with a sequence of low steps on every side and a row of Doric columns extending around the edge of the entire structure.

2. Erechtheum

The Erechtheum was built in 421 B.C. on the north side of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.  It was built to house the ancient wooden cult statue of Athena and generally glorify the great city at the height of its power and influence.  This temple, considered the holiest of all temples in Greece, is also Classical architectural, but instead it is Ionic order.  The ionic shafts were taller than Doric ones, which made them look thinner.  Ionic order shafts also had flutes (lines carved into the shafts from top to bottom), entasis (a little bulge in the columns to make them look straight), a frieze, bases, and capitals that looked like scrolls above the staff.  It is the representative of the special features of the Ionic Order at its finest.  The temple was made of pentalic marble, terracotta, wood, and Eleusinian.

3. The Temple of Zeus

Built around 456 B.C, it is Classical agricultural and Doric order, like the Parthenon.  It is located in Olympia, Greece, on the western coast of Greece.  The main structure of the building was made out of a somewhat bad standard limestone that was coated with a thin layer of stucco, which gave the temple an appearance of being made of marble.  All of the sculptural decoration on the temple was made of Parian marble.  It was built to honor the chief of the gods, Zeus.  Unfortunately, only remains of the Temple of survived.

Day of Nothing

Today we hardly did anything.  Mr. Schick said that we're probably not going to be in school tomorrow, so he told us what we might be doing for cyberday tomorrow.  We also might not be in school on Friday, considering the ice we have now, plus the ice we're going to get tomorrow and the seven to ten inches of snow we're supposed to get.  Mr. Schick said tomorrow we're probably going to be doing a blog about architecture of the Greeks.  He also said we might do something about the Greek philosophers if we have a cyberday on Friday.  Then he said he might find inspiration and do a Greek recipe and you get extra credit if you make it.  I will so do that Mr. Schick.  I think you should consider it!

Ancient Greece

Today we looked at a PowerPoint on Ancient Greece.  Here are the notes I wrote:

• Great Civilizations/Key River
• Mesopotamia/Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
• Egypt/Nile River
• India/Indus River
• China/Huang He River
• 1400 islands off coast of Greece
• peninsula
• Mediterranean - "middle of the earth"**
• mountainous
• Adriatic Sea - west sea; Aegan Sea - east sea
• Crete
• Athens and Sparta
• into city-states; no Greek flag to unite
• Athens on water; Sparta in land

Since this is a short blog, I wanted to talk about what else happened in class besides the PowerPoint. Before class and before Mr. Schick walked in, I cut a little piece of my hair off that was longer than the rest.  I asked Mrs. Zurkowski if I could use her scissors to do so, and she surprisingly said yes.  I also found out that Mr. Schick LOVES Greece.  He said a lot about Greece that I didn't know whether to write down or not, so I didn't.  We'll probably get there (hopefully).  I also found out that we weren't focusing a lot on Greek mythology.  I find Greek mythology interesting, so it's upsetting we're not doing it.  My whole day was really great today!

Cyberday Makeup

SO right now I doing the cyberday assignment from February 26.  You had to write questions that you thought would be on the test.  I already took the test, so I'll try my best.

1. On the pyramid challenge, what was the right angle for setting the walls of the pyramid?
      A. 60 degrees
      B. 32 degrees
      C. 52 degrees
      D. 90 degrees
      E. 45 degrees

2. Egyptians relied a harmony and balance of the world, which is called what?
     A. Music
     B. Maat
     C. Cleopatra
     D. Ra
     E. Seshet

3. Who was a female pharaoh?
     A. Seshet
     B. Beyonce
     C. Veronica
     D. Cleopatra
     E. Ra

4. The earliest Egyptian writing was formed when?
     A. 3100 B.C.
     B. 4500 B.C.
     C. 1000 B.C.
     D. 8140 B.C.
     E. 1023 B.C.

5.  Which was NOT a invention from the Egyptians?
     A. sails
     B. calendar
     C. ox-drawn plow
     D. papyrus
     E. granary
 
   
   

Test

The reason I'm writing my blog on Sunday when it was due Saturday at midnight is because my blog wasn't letting me log in all weekend.  It just let me.  I hope you'll give me the points.

Now that I got that out of the way, on Friday we had a test on Egypt.  It was pretty easy.  I'm proud of the grade I got.  I got a 88%.  Since Mr. Schick saw so many of those, he did a little half ding with his bell if someone got that, so I got a half ding.  One of the questions said "Who was a female Pharaoh" and one of the options was Beyonce.  I almost started cracking up in the middle of a test.  It was great.  Before class ended, Mr. Schick let me ring the bell.  It is honestly one of the happiest noises ever, especially in Western Civ.  It was a good class.