To Kill A Mockingbird Curriculum Merits

I think that to kill a Mockingbird expresses deep moral lessons, political commentary and a variety of well used literary elements and that it should be used as high school curriculum.

When speaking of the spactacle of such an unfair trial the comment is made: "Watching a poor devil on trial for his life. Look at those folks, it's like a roman carnival"(Miss Maudie).

Like when Scout recounts that "[Bob Ewell] as the only man I ever heard of who was fired from the WPA for laziness".  This is a humorous and sly example of the authors criticisms.

My favorite example of political commentary from the author that I think has grown worse today is when Atticus says "The most ridiculous example I can think of is that the people who run the public education system.  promote the stupid and idle along with the industrious - because all men are created equal, educators will gravely tell you that children left behind suffer from feelings of inferiority." This problem and many others still exist in many public schools.

This feeling from the author is repeated in the parts where the young teacher dicourages reading and later the teacher condemns Hitler while ignoring racism in her own town.

True and lasting lessons are taught in this book.  The greatest of which is that of "killing a mocking bird" That is hurting an innocent person only trying to do good.  Like Tom Robinson and later Boo Radley.

Scout shares a child's perspective on these events and grows throughout the book.  She learns the meaning of service from Miss Dubose, and is given a true example of honor in her father Atticus.

Atticus wants to be an example of integrity and honor to his children; his heroism shows determination against overwhelming odds and charity for all.  He does his best to be an good man.

To kill a mocking bird is a timeless classic worthy of study in our schools.  It demonstrates true christian character and confronts many problems in our history and present society.

World News Assignment

Washington Post Comments

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-capitalism-moral/2013/03/15/a9ed66d4-868b-11e2-999e-5f8e0410cb9d_allComments.html?ctab=all_&
Capitalism, in essence, is the system in which people make deals and exchanges according to what they agree upon.  That is fair.  When governments take it upon themselves to "correct" capitalism, they mess it up.      National Banks, the fractional reserve system,  paper currency, bail outs, and stimulus plans all just hurt the system and/or provide short term relief followed by a worse recession.  Sure, government does have its place, stoping theft and fraud, but it now goes beyond what is practical, necessary or constitutional.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-nra-square-off-over-small-arms-treaty/2013/03/16/ae495dae-8d76-11e2-b63f-f53fb9f2fcb4_allComments.html?ctab=all_&
The right to own a gun is protected in the second amendment.  This, by extension, must mean the right to buy, sell and trade firearms.  General ownership of guns prevents crime rather than encouraging it.  The difference between guns laws or the lack thereof is in the general public not the criminals or the military.  Many nations where the people have guns are much less likely to be invaded or put under martial law.  Plus this would be hard to enforce, and if it was it would require large and unnecessary bureaucracy.

News Comments

Article 1: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/technology/revolution-in-the-resale-of-digital-books-and-music.html?ref=todayspaper
Electronic information, be it book, game or music can be endlessly reproduced no matter what restrictions so long as the user can hack.  This problem is virtually  impossible to stop and is only over come by those of us who are honest or cannot hack.  The limit to book and music in this way may lead to a growth in hacking it, and also other options besides stores but the services like grooveshark and such.

Article 2: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/09/us/south-dakota-gun-law-classrooms.html?hp
Possession of guns are a right of the citizens guaranteed in the Bill of rights.  But it also says that states have the right to have a militia for state defense.  If arming teachers protects children and citizens then by all means let them have guns.  Though instruction on their use is also necessary.

A Self Portrait Poem

Scott

Annoying, Funny, Smart, Loud

Son of Larry and Jeannette

Love of freedom, drama and invention

Who feels the longing to whistle, the joy of cousins and the calling of fantasy novels.

Who needs media for entertainment, homework for dicipline and a car for transportation.

Who gives laughter or annoyance, help or slothfulness and greater sound waves.

Who fears embarrassment, poor grades, and a lack of self-discipline.

Who would like to see a tag on his suit coat, a diploma in his hand and a patent on his idea.

Who lives in the shadow of the Wasatch with solar panels on his roof in a house which is a home.

Hilton

10 Things I need to Post

10 things I know to be true:

1. Penguins are cute
2. The Book of Mormon is true
3. Men landed on the moon 
4. BYU is awesome
5. I like to read
6. Computers are complicated
7. America is the best country
8. Singing is fun
9. My testimony
10. My parents are the BEST

10 things I can't live without:

1. Pretzels
2. Chat
3. Sciptures
4. Drama
5. Ballroom
6. Video Games
7. Food
8. Books
9. My family
10. The Gospel

10 things I should have learned by now:

1. Too much time can be wasted on youtube
2. I need to work on Duty to God
3. How to Program
4. What to do
5. Reading prevents me from posting blogs on time
6. How to be quiet
7. When to and when not to whistle
8. Don't procrastinate
9. Don't act immature around cars near my mom
10. How to write a list

10 of my greatest fears:

1. A member of my family will die
2. An "-A" or lower
3. The ACT (as opposed to the SAT)
4. Losing my testimony
5. I will make a fool of myself (in a greater way than usual)
6. French (the language)
7. Heights (when really high or dangerous)
8. Claustrophobia
9. Excercise
10. Pain

The 10 things, places, people etc, that make me the most happy:

1. My Family
2. Disneyland
3. Cousins
4. Ian (specific cousin)
5. A good book
6. Singing
7. Dancing 
8. Acting
9. The Computer
10. Friends

10 places I will visit before I die:

1. Zion
2. Disneyland (again)
3. Martinez
4. Lake Tahoe
5. Hang Time
6. BYU
7. Pixar Animation Studios
8. A tall building 
9. A tall mountain
10. The temple

How to Go to space in Kerbal Space Program Part 2

This is "How to go to space in Kerbal Space Program part 2" If you want to know the whole process please look at part 1.

So,

You've mad a  rocket in the VAB and you are ready to go to space.  Press the launch button near the top right corner.

Now you'll be on the launch pad.  Wait for things to load then press the shift key to increase your thrust to max. (P.S. shift increases throttle control decreases it)  Press the "t" key to turn on the SAS.


Then Press space bar (to activate the foremost stage) and ...  Liftoff!

Continue up till you reach 10,000 meters,

Then start moving along the 90 degree mark by first toggling  the SAS with the "T" key and then pressing the "D" key or (depending on your rotation) any combination of the"w,a,s,d" turn the ball to 45 degrees or the half way point on the 90 degree line. Rotation can be controlled with "q" and "e".

Don't forget to re-engage the SAS controls to maintain your course.

You are almost there!  Follow the green pro-grade marker till you reach a horizontal attitude. When you run out of fuel while pressing space bar to detach the old stage and then again to start the next stage.

Go to the map by pressing "M".  Keep burning horizontal till your apoapsis says 100,000 meters.  then press "X" to cut the throttle.

About 15 to 30 seconds from apoapsis burn horizontal till your periapsis first exists then is about 100,000 meters. And you should have an orbit around the planet Kerbin.

Now enjoy the scenery.

To return home find the retro-grade marker and burn till your map shows a collision course with Kerbin or at most a periapsis of 25,000. That should get you deep enough into the atmosphere to slow down.

How to go space in Kerbal Space Program Part 1

If you don't know what Kerbal Space program is please refer to the previous blog post of mine. 

Kerbal space program is a technical and challenging game and if you don't know how to construct a proper space ship, you will experience many explosions and failures.  Constructing a sturdy rocket is imperative.  A simplistic rocket is the way to go for begginers but more complicated rockets can produce better efficiency if done right.

Achieving an orbital flight can be difficult if you don't know what your doing so here are my steps to Kerbin Orbit.
                                                        (Screen Shot edited to show the parts of the VAB)

1. First you must get and download the game or demo and install it.  Following which, enter a saved file or create a new one.  Enter the VAB to begin.
2. Navigating the VAB is difficult here are several important things to know the parts are on the left and separated into various categories  symmetry and other tools located below that.  Staging settings on the right and a menu  with new, load, save, launch and exit functions on the top right.
3. To rotate your rocket click and hold right click while moving the mouse.  And the Vertical view can be changed with the scroll wheel.
4. To create a rocket you need a capsule.  The small one man capsule will do and is the easiest.  Next, find and attach in this order below the capsule. 
1.  A decoupler of the appropriate size to separate the capsule, advanced SAS, a medium fuel tank, and a small rocket motor to complete the orbital stage.  
2. Below that another decoupler, two double length fuel tanks and a the larger vectoring engine.  
3. To get off the ground add a tricoupler and then turn on three way symmetry in the bottom left corner.  Add  two double length fuel tanks and the same vectoring engines that you used on the previous stage.
4. A very important thing to note is struts, struts, struts.  Struts are found under the structural tab and are important to keep ships together and stop wobbling.  Use these to tie together the three columns.  
5. To provide greater control add winglets to the bottom of your rocket.  
6. Add a parachute to the top of the capsule to prevent your kerbal from experiencing a high g death upon return to earth.
7. Staging is important.  Insure the bottom three rockets fire first (the lowest stage or highest number). Then the decoupler and next rocket, then the next decoupler and appropriate engine.  Followed by the decoupler that separates the capsule from the service module.  The last stage should be the parachute.

This concludes my first part of "How to go space in Kerbal Space Program Part 1"

Blogs

Blogs are an important topic, as I am posting to one.  These are several blogs I have seen and am interested in.

Popular authors have large fan bases and some deem it important to communicate with them.  What is better than a blog to share news and progress.

Brandon Sanderson, author of The Way of Kings, one of my favorite books, posts regularly on a blog (http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog).

He gives links to a podcast he does, talks about upcoming releases, events he'll be signing books at and distant projects he wishes to reveal information on.  He even has used it to show videos (which are actually on youtube) of him writing and his process in tackling a chapter.
 
Video games are among some of the most popular topics on the internet.  An Indie game called Kerbal Space Program has been going through heavy development and is in a public alpha state (not a full game but still playable). 

The game is a space travel simulator.  Like being in charge of a NASA like program.  Your job is to construct, fly and and return your space vehicle filled with adorable aliens called Kebals (those that live on the planet Kerbin).

The development team has a blog easily accessible from their main site, on which they post news, updates and space related events.  This is the Blog: http://kerbaldevteam.tumblr.com

There are among the many Blogs on the internet a large portion which have only one or no posts these are either new blogs or forgotten, lost in the sea of information and never to be touched again.

Pizza Pie Cafe has, on their website, a blog. I looked it up just to see if a blog could exist on a website such as that and indeed it does among the options for the menus and and opening and closing hours lies a blog with one post either new or forgotten, or not useful, its only post consists of an announcement for a new website. http://www.pizzapiecafe.co/category/blog/

BYU is still of course the best.  There were, nevertheless, many things I learned of my trips to the other campuses, namely UVU and U of U, I visited the week before last.  My week began, as always, with sunday which preceded monday.  Monday lacked school and was thus spent goofing off and being lazy at home.  

Tuesday was "The Best"( see sentence 1).  BYU was lots of fun. I got to spend much of the trip shadowing a college student.  I was with Benjamin a grad student studying acoustics.  I had the privilege of attending a high level class in which the professor explained the ways to mathematically model the waves and output made by a sphere with a pulsating cap expanding radially and axially.  Much of this information blew way over my head but it was neat to see the possibilities of high math and science.  After that he showed me the sound chambers rigged with various experiments showing off the more hands on science of acoustics rather than the theoretical aspects.  Both of which I found highly interesting.

  

I went to the devotional, and walked around campus most of the rest of the day with other people from the school.  It was fun.

Utah Valley University was interesting because I have hardly ever seen it before compared to BYU.  It was smaller and much more compact.  I recognized many similarities between them (Apple/ tech store, library, bookstore, pendulum.) that, I assume, are common in other universities.  But is had different architecture, layout, size, and seemed more layed back.

University of Utah was more impressive than UVU if not in size (which it definitly was) then in history. It has been around since Brigham Young helped founded it and has many older building on and around it. 

This week helped me not only learn about these colleges more but what I what out of my college experience and what I want to study.  My Ambition still remains to go to BYU and I hope to prepare well now for my higher education experience and options. 

Joining the conversation

The internet has grown substantially since the pioneering days with massive machines that have less than the modern laptop.  People are talking all the time over its wires through mediums such as email, Facebook, instant messaging and blogs.  I can use this to talk about not only about my interests and hobbies but also the gospel.  I can write my testimony in blogs and answer questions in chat columns
about the church.

Remarks concerning "Sharing the Gospel using the Internet"

Elder Russell M. Nelson in a his talk, Sharing the Gospel using the Internet,  taught about the power of words and the use of them in the internet.  "There is truth in the old adage that "the pen is mightier than the sword." In many cases it is the with words that you will accomplish the great things that you set out to do." Superior force can only hold people for as long as they retain that superior force.  But powerful words can change people for as long as they believe it.  Teaching and explaining the truth is the best way to change people and consequently change the world.

Agency is the reason we came to this earth and, consequently there is choice as to how to use what we are given be it simple tools or the most advanced technology. "Social networks on the web can be used to expand healthy friendships  as  easily as they can be used by predators trying to trap the unwary." (Russell M. Nelson)  The internet is one of these tools.  It is a constantly growing and evolving medium.  The information and communication possible can convey messages of the truth if only we use them to do so.

My Perfect Day

On My perfect day, I would wake up around 7:30 and leap out of bed full of energy.  Then a nice bowl of oatmeal or Plate of pancakes would make a good breakfast.  Throughout the morning I would probably read a good book.  Later that day, some activity could  facilitate  fun would be nice like Ice skating, hiking, skiing or going to Disneyland. Preferably with family or friends.  Then the early evening would have boardgames or something of the like. My perfect day would end with attending a play, participating in a play, going to a party or, even better, going to a dance.  And that is My perfect day.  (Note: This is just a compilation of favorite activities and an actual or possible day many would not be good to do in one day.) (i.e. going to Disneyland would be more of an all day thing and many other parts wouldn't fit in the day)