Week 4 Review

I thought the Breathing Recalibration Station would be very beneficial for many people. I try to take deep breaths to calm myself down, but sometimes I just end up freaking out and hyperventilating. Especially during this time of stress and uncertainty, it's much more difficult to stay calm, but doing breathing recalibration can be helpful. 

Breathing Recalibration Station, from Thursday's Course Announcements

The video of kids learning to use a typewriter was so cute! I personally have a general idea of how a typewriter works, but I too have never used one, and the video got me interesting in trying to use a typewriter myself. I watch FBE videos fairly often; I usually watch Teens React more than I watch Kids React, but I noticed one of the kids, Troy, in the video is also commonly seen in Teens React now. I actually found out as I was watching the video and looked him up on Wikipedia, but apparently he was also a contestant on MasterChef Junior when he was 12! I remember seeing a couple episodes of his season, but I never made that connection when I saw him on FBE.

"Kids React to Typewriters" via YouTube

Extra Credit Reading Notes: Nursery Rhymes

-Songs, Part 1
“1. I AM a gold lock.
2. I am a gold key.
1. I am a silver lock.
2. I am a silver key.
1. I am a brass lock.
2. I am a brass key.
1. I am a lead lock.
2. I am a lead key.
1. I am a monk lock.
2. I am a monk key!”
-Played in call-and-response
-#1 claims “I am” various things
-#2 says the same, but is the complement to the #1’s object (lock/key)
-#1 continues, changing the adjective, eventually using one that will make #2 look silly
-#2 falls for it, looking silly
-Can write something similar to make #2 say something else funny

-Tales
“(Wikipedia: TOM, Tom, the piper's son,
Stole a pig, and away he run!
The pig was eat, and Tom was beat,
And Tom went roaring down the street.”
-Short and sweet rhyme
-Tom (the piper’s son) steals something 
-Can be modernized by changing the son’s name, the father’s job, and what the son steals

Source: The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897)

"Assorted Book in Book Shelf" via Unsplash

Week 4 Lab

"What is Myth?", via YouTube

I was interested in the working definition of the word “myth”. Today, myths are considered to be straight up lies. However, by the word origin of a myth, myths are simply stories. Myths get a negative connotation due to today’s common definition, but they can actually be very fun and teach important morals to those who read them. Another aspect I was interested in was the argued “requirements” for a story to be considered a myth. Some people claim that myths have to contain some sort of religious aspect to it. Others claim that the main characters in a myth must be Gods. In my opinion, myths shouldn’t be restricted to religion or some kind of “unbelievable” occurrence that only happened through some kind of otherworldly power. 

"Theories of Myth", via YouTube

The idea that Greek and Roman myths being influenced by demons was pretty crazy to me. However, I found myths affecting today’s societies very interesting. Bronislaw Malinowski’s work was fascinating. Myth, while seeming like symbolism, actually informs today’s cultures. Myths explain and solidify certain beliefs in people. Those beliefs then form the basis for the religion and the social norms that are prevalent throughout different cultures and societies. 

"The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth", via YouTube

The Monomyth was pretty interested to hear. Just like in every normal story, with an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution, myths also follow their own basic timeline. Psychological struggles, in my opinion, would be more difficult than physical struggles. Physical struggles, like being injured or not being muscular enough, could be conquered relatively quicker than mental struggles. 

"Black and Red Typewriter" via Pexels

Week 4 Reading Notes: Noah and the Ark Part B

 The Inmates of the Ark

• Noah gathered the animals, God made the animals repair the Ark

• God only allowed Noah to let animals lay down (not stand) into the Ark

• Seven days later, flood lets loose

• Bunch of people beg to be let on the Ark

• Noah criticizes them for previously claiming there’s no God, but now they want to believe

• Sinners try to get into the Ark; the beasts surrounding the Ark attack, many die (either by beasts or by flood)

• Before flood, sinners claimed the floodwater wouldn’t reach to their necks, and that if water came from the ground, they could clog it with their feet

• The floodwater came from Gehenna (demon world), which made the water incredibly hot, thus burning the sinners

• Noah, his wife, his three sons, their wives, and all animals were only ones on Ark

• Ties Reem (huge animal that looks like unicorn) to the back of the Ark (he was too big to fit into Ark), and lets giant (Og) ride him and they are pulled along by the Ark

Noah Leaves the Ark

• Earth returned to normal at the end of the year

• However, Noah refused to leave the Ark until God tells him to

• God tells him he can leave, but Noah still refuses (he’s afraid of another flood)

• God swears to never bring another flood

• Noah sees the destruction/death, starts crying and claims God should have had mercy on the others

• God gets mad at Noah for only listening to him if God had something good to say

• Noah apologizes; Shem performs sacrifices as an offering to God (offers an ox, a sheep, a goat, two turtle doves, two pigeons)

• God blesses Noah/sons for sacrifice; gives them same task as Adam/Eve (be fruitful and multiply the Earth)

• Ham, a dog, and a raven get punished for no doing so (Ham’s punishment was having dark-skinned descendants)

• God sends rainbow into the sky as proof that he will not destroy the Earth again

• God allows Noah/descendants to kill animals for food (Adam was never allowed to do that)

• He still maintains that man may not kill another man, or he too will be punished with death

The Tower of Babel

• Nimrod was king, but his acts were very sinister. He was very full of himself, and made men turn away from God

• Begin building Tower of Babel as a rebellion against God

• 600,000 men in charge of building it, wanting to wage warfare with God, worship idols, and shoot at the heavens with bows/spears

• Tower was so tall that it took a year to get to the top- bricks became more important than man because of how long it took to get a brick to the top

• Men would shoot arrows to Heaven, they would come back covered in blood- they believed everything in Heaven was now dead

• God cursed them so that no one could understand what each other was saying

• Workers started miscommunicating (like handing one a brick when they wanted mortar)

• Workers would get mad at each other and kill one another

• Many people were cursed; people turned into apes/phantoms, people turned against each other

• Tower falls apart; one part sinks into Earth, another part destroyed by fire

• Anyone who passes by the Tower forgets all he knows

Source: The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909)

“Noah’s Sacrifice” by J.A. Koch, via the Untextbook

Week 4 Reading Notes: Noah and the Ark Part A

 The Flood (Genesis)

• Noah puts two of every animal into the Ark (one male/one female)

• Noah, Noah’s wife, Sons (Sham, Ham, and Japheth), and sons’ wives go into the Ark, Lord shut them in

• The flood raged for forty days (what’d they do for forty days?)

• Everything was covered in water; mountains were covered

• All man and animals that weren’t in the Ark perished

Source: The King James Bible (1611)

The Birth of Noah

• Lamech and his wife had a child (Noah); he was a beautiful baby with white hair

• Noah’s eyes lit up a whole room, and he would praise the Lord when he talked

• Lamech was afraid of Noah, went to his father Methuselah and asks him to go to Enoch to find out why Noah is so strange

• Enoch explains to Methuselah the coming of the flood in the future

• Noah’s birth changed everything; originally, oats would sprout when wheat was planted. Now everything grew properly

• Noah invented plough, scythe and hoe as gardening tools (people usually used their hands)

• Noah’s birth now prevented the waves from flooding the land twice a day

• Noah’s birth also ended the Second Great Famine

Source: The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909)

Noah’s Sons (Genesis)

• God tells Noah and his sons to go and replenish the Earth

• God vows that all animals that move along the Earth and all fishes in the sea will provide them meat

• He also states that men should not kill one another; anyone who kills a man will be killed himself

• God tells them to be fruitful and multiply

• God promises Noah there will not be another flood

• God puts his bow in the cloud as a token of his promise; God/Noah may look upon it to remind themselves of their promise

• Noah and his sons replenish the Earth

• Noah gets drunk, sons find him naked; sons cover him up

• Noah curses Ham’s son, Canaan, to be a servant to Sham and Japheth

• Noah dies 350 years after the flood (lives to be an age of 950)

Source: The King James Bible (1611)

Noah’s Ark, via the Untextbook