What I Learned (Rant)

While I was walking around the Righetti vs. Saint Joe's game (WHAT THE FUDGE HOW DID WE GET MAULED LIKE THAT??), I came to thinking about Israeli/Iranian/Saudi/Pakistani/Jordanian/Yemeni/ ETC. apartheid. Some of you may be familiar with South African apartheid, but most of you are not aware that the practice of racial/religious preferential treatment is alive and well in the Middle East. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (most of you don't even know that Saudi Arabia is a kingdom) employs a national religion, and discriminates against other faiths besides Islam. Israel employs a national religion, and discriminates against other faiths besides Judaism. As a Jew myself, this is a stain in my pride. Iran (Islamic Republic of Iran) has a few genocidal opinions against Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians (the ORIGINAL monotheistic religion[ around 500 BC, the King of Israel rewrote the Torah to include only Yahweh, the God of his people, putting in Yahweh's name in place of other gods, thus creating the modern monotheistic religion of Judaism, thus dispelling the popular notion that Judaism is the oldest Monotheistic religion]), declaring that it should wipe Israel "off the face of the earth". The point of the matter is Religious/ Racial Apartheid is alive and well in the Middle East.

The reason why the mainstream media does not cover any of this, is the fear of being not politically correct. If the mainstream media were to cover Israel's preferential treatment of Jews, or Iran's preferential treatments of Muslims, then there would be calls for an apology, riots in support of and against the station, and all out defamation of religions, a big no-no on television.

Book Choice

I have come to the conclusion that I am in love with the feelings the genre of Science Fiction gives me. I absolutely love the worlds that Science Fiction can give me, and the alien races, laser beams, and star ships only enhance my enjoyment in the reading. I have also come to the conclusion in the looking for a Fiction book. I enjoy the Ender's Saga (SUCH AN AMAZING SAGA, IF YOU EVER LISTEN TO ME, LISTEN NOW - GO AND PICK UP A COPY AT THE LIBRARY, AMAZON IT, READ IT ONLINE, PIRATE IT, I DON'T CARE, JUST READ IT[Sorry for the CAPS, I heard people listen when I hold down SHIFT]), and I haven't read the final book in the saga yet, because of lack of time. But now that  reading is mandatory, I will pick it up, and read it! Thanks Dr. Preston, for encouraging me (with a gun to my head no less) to read!

I know it's not the "FINAL" book, but it is in the DIRECT saga, the book series extremely long, rivaling the "Game of Thrones" saga...

Vocabulary List #5

allude
DEF: To refer to casually or indirectly; to make an allusion to something.
 clairvoyant
DEF: To have the power of seeing objects or actions beyond the range of natural vision.
 conclusive
DEF:  Determining, definitive.
disreputable
DEF: Disgraceful, objectionable.
 endemic
DEF: Natural or characteristic of a specific people or place.
 exemplary
DEF: Worthy of imitation
 fathom
DEF: Nautical depth measurement; to understand.
 guile
DEF: Crafty or artful deception
 integrity
DEF: Adherence to moral and ethical principles.
 itinerary
DEF: A detailed plan for a journey.
 misconstrue
DEF: To misunderstand the meaning of, to take in a wrong sense.
 obnoxious
DEF: Offensive.
 placate
DEF: To calm, appease
 placid
DEF: Pleasant, calm, peaceful.
 plagiarism
DEF: To act or instance using closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without permission.
 potent
DEF: Strong, powerful.
 pretext
DEF: Something that is put forward to conceal a true purpose or object.
 protrude
DEF:  To stick out, extend one's self.
 stark
DEF: Sheer, utter, downright, or complete
 superficial
DEF: Shallow, not profound or thorough.

My AHA!

My AHA! has nothing to do with anything I've learned from a teacher, but more from watching the masses at school. The most popular person to the largest percentage of people at school, are the ones who are least likely to succeed later in life. The "cool guy" who gets a sub-2.0 grade average, and who gets all the chicks, will most likely become jobless, couch surfing. Makes me feel good.

An Apology, and A Promise

First of all, people who know me also know that I've been going through a pretty big move, and have been growing a couple fields of interest, and all of those things have been pretty time-consuming. It's pretty tough to take time to blog, and it REALLY does NOT help to have no internet (Thanks, Comcast! When I'm Emperor, I'll have you banned for putting caps on downloads, and blacklisting servers!... Read after the Page-Jump to hear the full story)... But, here comes the second part of the title, the PROMISE. I solemnly vow to stay up to date on this blog, devote more time to school, and also to keep up with my interests and to also hone my skills in those areas.

Vocab - A Day Late, Who Wadda' Thunk?

 encomium:  A speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly.
 coherent:  Logical and consisten 
 belabor:  Argue or elaborate/ Attack or assault 
 eschew: Deliberately avoid using; abstain from 
 acquisitive: Excessively interested in acquiring money or material things 
 emulate: Match or surpass 
 arrogate: Take or claim 
 banal: So lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring 
 excoriation: abrasion: an abraded area where the skin is torn or worn off. 
 congeal: Solidify or coagulate
 carping: Difficult to please 
 substantiate: Provide evidence to support or prove the truth of
 temporize:Avoid making a decision or committing oneself in order to gain time
 largesse: Generosity in bestowing money or gifts upon others 
 tenable: Able to be maintained or defended against attack or objection 
 insatiable: Impossible to satisfy 
 reconnaissance: Preliminary surveying or research: 
 germane: Relevant to a subject under consideration 
 ramify: Cause to branch or spread out 
 intransigent: Unwilling or refusing to change one's views or to agree about something 
 taciturn: Reserved or uncommunicative in speech; saying little. 
 invidious: Likely to arouse or incur resentment or anger in others

Notes for Socratic Seminar

I literally had no notes. But, I did walk away from class with some knowledge. Many people put forth good ideas on how to genuinely LEARN in class. From putting opinions in a box, outside of their "safe zone" , open to critiques and other's thoughts, was one of my favorites. There were many others who contributed to great ideas. Some however just "passed" themselves to the next participant. "Kudos" to who all talked yesterday.