Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Leonardo Da Vinci a true Renaissance Man?



The all time famous Leonardo Da Vinci was not just an ordinary painter, but he was also a architect and an inventor. Leonardo Da Vinci can be characterized as a true Renaissance man for he could architect, invent and paint with perfection. He characterization was well known for his hard-core, ruthless, hard to get along with, perfectionist, and many more. The Renaissance was all about inquiry, new ideas, and exploring for themselves. Leonardo Da Vinci inquired himself and he thought of new ideas such as, his "Beastly Madness", where he created "new ideas" for a "new world". After working for Andrea del Verrochio at the age of 14, he was indulged in anatomical work. His 450+ pages of sketches and notes are in depth and mostly all of the sketches showed anatomical accuracy. After studying anatomical structures, he made the fantastic "proportional man", which shows anatomical accuracy and the proportions are just right. He was the first one to say that, when a human raises their arms, their muscle strengthens and then the arm goes bigger, and when they open their legs wider, they grow shorter. This sounds like common sense but back in the Renaissance, no one thought hard about it. This shows that Leonardo Da Vinci is a true Renaissance man. He thought of things more carefully and detailed whilst others just ignore it. Not just did he think more, in his paintings, he used many art techniques such as sfumato, not just did he used art techniques, he invented one himself! It is called chiaroscuro and it is when you can see the strong contrasts of light and dark. In his architects and inventions, he thought creatively, he didn't know if it would even work or not but he tried it anyways. I believe that he is an amazing man, a true Renaissance man.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Brunelleschi and his bravery.


I think that Brunelleschi was brave building a dome without imagining what would happen. Others thought he was just simply mad to make a dome on a tall building. Everyone thought that they were pretty sure that the dome would topple over and crumble down as soon as it was built, or maybe even before that! He wasn't pretty sure if the dome would stand, for it wasn't just like an egg. He didn't have much confidence but looked on the bright side of the situation and tried it, even if it might have been a failure. Cosimo's deep friendship with Brunelleschi worked out well and Cosimo probably thought it was a great thing to patronize Brunelleschi or I wouldn't have such a great friend nor any money.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Where do new ideas come from?



I believe that new ideas can come from you past experiences or your thoughts about you future or even about a dream you had. I believe that new ideas just pop up in your mind when you are thinking about a subject. I think that you can try to think of an idea but can't force yourself to get an idea. Thinking about your life may give you hints to a new idea and gather all the little hints (so it makes sense) than there is your "idea"! Or you look at something and get inspired by it and your mind starts working it's engines and will produce a lovely new idea. Well, that's what I think my ideas come from.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

My Favorite Story- Lamb to the Slaughter


What makes a good story?


As I reflected over our short story unit, my most favorite story was 'Lamb to the Slaughter'. 'Lamb to the slaughter' was written by the all time famous Roald Dahl. He wrote many children (as well as adults) stories. I was drawn to this particular story because the characters were very interrogating. Such as Mrs. Mary Maloney, who kills his husband Mr. Patrick Maloney after he says that he was going to leave her for good. I enjoyed this crime scene setting, a nice, calm and peaceful house with a lovely old couple and one sudden day Mr. Maloney gets killed by his own wife. The setting makes you wonder why Mrs. Maloney would kill his own husband when it is described that she loves him so dearly. The theme of the story interests me deeply. The theme of this story is betrayal and finding her identity.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

This I believe... :) draft

This picture shows a pair of dirty shoes and it represents how you would feel in these shoes (being in someone else's shoes).

Nobody Is Perfect

Some people think that they are perfect and have everything that they want and need, but they aren't actually perfect. In a lifetime, people like me learn such things as nobody can be perfect, life is never fair and also that words can hurt people. Their want for perfection is so high that when they get something as they wanted, they aim for higher things and their "want" also grows within them. Well, I want perfect grades and perfect of everything. It’s probably not just me but everyone else in the world, some who are devastated, obsessive and even timid people. In the "Korean" social group, what matters the most is "grades". If you don't have much of a good grade, you are not really welcome into the society. I don't think that's fair. When a person from a group says things such things as "Oh, did you hear that girl over their has 4 B's... She has such an awful grade..." and then glances at you, it can really hurt people just like me. They should try to be in the other person's shoes and see how they feel, because I have felt it too once in my life, which was not very long time ago. Everyone should have self confidence in their selves and strive for their best.

Life was never fair for anyone. As much as they want to fit in, they get left out. Life has two sides. One is the fair and joyful side when the other is fury and devastation. I feel these emotions every time. Then I ask myself, "Is it like this to everyone?" but the answer is yes, because wants "something" but in my point of view, many people are perfect. When you see popular kids hanging out with their "cool group" and gossiping, sometimes it makes them look all nice and cool without us realizing that there are many people being left out or having made rumors about or being called mean names. They make us feel as if we are an empty void, or nerds, geeks or showoffs.The group should feel bad for making others feel like this. I'm not saying everyone is like that but I feel there are people out there feeling this. I believe that nobody can ever be perfect and you are just cool they way you already are. This I believe.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Matilda Bone- Paragraph :)


The Newbury winner, Karen Cushman writes a stupendous historical fiction novel based on the medieval times using a point of view of a teenage girl who lived in the manor and suddenly moved to a bone-setters house, which she doesn't get used to soon. Later on, she becomes the apprentice of Red Peg the bone-setter. In this novel, you go through a journey of different moods such as, anger, frustration, relieved and confused and many more. The book demonstrates religious value, lack of hygiene and basic medical knowledge.

For she used to live in a manor, which is a country house owned by a wealthy person, and the person called Father Leufredus made Matilda learn his religion(, which was Christianity. The manor was very religious and thats where Matilda learnt her religious ways of living. She is made to pray 7 times a day, learning Latin and Greek, memorizing all the devils there were(, and all the saints too). She talks to saints time to time and she thinks about how they would feel her loneliness and pain. They reply her with an advice, which helps her throughout her journey. How much lack of hygiene? Well in the medieval ages, people showered once a year, not once a week nor once a month. They didn't know that when they got ill because of a disease caught by the filth on their body. Nowdays, people shower every day to keep themselves from catching disgusting diseases. I wonder how people survived in the medieval ages.

Another thing was their lack of medical knowledge. Their medical knowledge was VERY basic and in the book many had illnesses and had problems, but the main problem was that there were no-one who could cure them. The "physician", Master Theobald, reads stars and reads Latin and gives cures that "magically" seems to work, but not for Nathaniel with his poor eyesight. Master Theobald tries his urine, reads the stars but nothing could help him. This shows that they don't have much knowledge on curing people in the medieval ages.

Battle of Hastings 1066, the game! :D




This game called 1066 is based on the Battle of Hastings which took in 1066. The Battle of Hastings held place during the medieval ages. The battle was very brutal and a horrid. The battle was between Harold Godwinson, earl of Wessex and Duke William of Normandy. The battle is explained at the beginning of the game, the intro.

I think that the game relates a lot into the main battle such as, the bloody and the brutality, horror, many taunts and what kind of army they had. The game includes lots of blood and taunts. The battle in 1066 was very cruel and nasty. The game had the same attacks such as archery, (foot soldiers) attacking, calvary and many more.

This helps us understand the story more and can feel and visualize something like the battle. For me it was a survive or die kind of game. Cruel much? I never realized that there was a game like this... :)