The Iliad - Personal Response

English 1DE Period 2B

The Iliad, translated by Richard Lattimore, book 6 line 130:(Hektor speaking to Andromache before he faces Achilleus

“When some bronze-armored

Achaian leads you off, taking away your day of liberty,

in tears; and in Argos you must work at the loom of another,”

The author’s idea is family and heroism. Andromache begs of Hektor to not fight Achilleus. She begs of him to not let her become a widow. He explained that he wasn't just to fight for his city, but also for her. So was Hektor a hero for facing Achilleus?

Hektor’s strength is his bravery, which is a must have quality in all ancient heroes. Other desirable qualities included taking a stand for others and being noble. Someone who is altruistic could also be a hero. Through the Ottawa Food Bank ordinary people donate food and money for those who who don’t have the good fortune of having enough food. But, there’s more to being a hero than altruism.

The activists at Standing Rock were ready to battle against one of the biggest dangers to the environment in transnational corporations who exploit natural resources.  Many fought to protect the local community of Standing Rock and the Earth. But still they don’t fit the criteria.

While Hektor was an activist, he didn’t fight for social change. He defended his values, his city, and his family against Achilleus. While likely to die, he was more than willing to fight. His protest and resistance was a very physical one, just like the Standing Rock protesters; both activists were brave and held their ground against brutal conquest. Hence, both share some of today’s standards of heroic qualities. As greek mythology required more that just good qualities for heroism, Hektor lacked a quest or a companion to accompany. His death was not for the greater good, though the Iliad is confusing when it comes to who is actually righteous. In the end, history is written by the victors, in this case the Greeks.

Other Hektor’s throughout history also died taking a stand,such as Malcolm X, who was murdered for his beliefs, and for protecting the rights of others. Though many disagreed with what he preached, he is regarded as a hero by some, and a racist by others depending on perspective. Perspective is the domain of Greeks in the Iliad, therefore the enemy wouldn’t be the hero of a Greek story.

In conclusion, Hektor isn’t a hero in this story but has many of the characteristics to be one.

2016-2017 IB Application

December 2015

Q: What activities are you currently involved in at your school or in your community? Please describe your role in these activities. Please write a minimum of 1000 characters.

A:  Over the past four years I been volunteering as well as participating in organized activities. My involvement in competitive hockey has proved quite valuable as it requires me to demonstrate focus, discipline and self-regulation. This past summer I attended a soccer refereeing course which gave me the opportunity to referee competitive and house soccer for players aged 8 to 12. I was required to explain the rules of game to the younger players while refereeing as most did not understand the calls. I also was able to improve my communication and leadership skills as I had to deal with coaches and parents who could get easily upset over calls. Later on in the summer, my 6-year-old cousin was a part of a small skating camp within our community. My uncle had asked me if I would like to help out and I took the chance to teach a number of other young kids to skate as they were getting ready for hockey sort-outs. In order to teach skating, I had to be able to demonstrate the basics in a way they could follow – mostly it was demonstrate, have them try it, and them show the correct techniques again while showing what they needed to improve.

My three years in competitive hockey has helped me in a number of other ways due to the fast pace and quick thinking it requires – the game requires you to observe, process, and then react at high speed while maintaining your balance and thinking ahead to what you have to do next – it’s a lot like chess.

I also was a school monitor for a couple of years.

I found that participating in sports as well as refereeing and volunteering requires a lot of the same skills and it also teaches why it is important to be responsible and respectful of everyone – players, coaches, and referees – especially since I had the opportunity to do all three.

Q: What talents or skills would you bring to Colonel By? How do you see yourself being involved at the school? Please write a minimum of 1000 characters.

A: At Colonel By I can see myself involved with a variety of things including clubs, sports, and maybe even joining the student government. This past year I ran for class representative but was not successful so I’d definitely like to try again.

I want to get involved with many things that may peak my interest, and I would gladly take any challenges and opportunities available to me. As for what I can bring to Colonel By, I am a very curious person and I always try to find an explanation about the why and how of things. I consider that as an advantage as it’s always driving me forward to acquire new skills and knowledge. I have played competitive hockey for the past three years. During last year’s International Silverstick hockey tournament final I was named to the tournament all-star-team as one of only two defensemen. I would be glad to join school sports teams. In past years I have also been on the school track and field team and won numerous events in the regional finals.

Academically speaking, I am a voracious reader and feel I am capable of picking things up quickly and applying them efficiently. Other skills I have acquired over the years are my musical talents; I've played the piano up to Grade 9 in RCM; I played the tuba for the past two years in Senior Band - my music teacher, Mr. Kerry Steiner, has recommended me for the all-star band and feels certain I would make it; This year I also started playing bass guitar for school Jazz band.

2014-1015 Silverstick International Finals PeeWee B All-star team

2015 OCDSB Track and Field Board Finals. 

1st in 200m, 4th in 100m, ? in relay

Q: Choose one activity from your first response; explain why it is important to you and what personal growth you have experienced while partaking in the activity. Please write a minimum of 1000 characters.

A: Hockey probably had the biggest effect on me. Eight years ago I took my first steps on the ice and it has shaped my life, teaching me many life skills while being a great physical and mental challenge for me every time I’m out there flying around on the ice.

One thing it has taught me is time management; getting my work done and planning a schedule every day in my head so I can go to practice or a game. Secondly it has taught me teamwork. Thirdly, is the importance of collaboration and communication as a very useful and important skill to have both on the ice and off the ice. Fourth is synergy, the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. The ability to work with other people can achieve so many more things than we do things alone. Finally, hockey has taught me to work under pressure and make quick correct decisions or deal immediately with the results. It is a very fast and competitive game, especially at my level, and you have to plan ahead and in the moment. You have to apply different skills simultaneously and be able to make quick, correct decisions while under pressure, which is something I find has many correlations with life outside of hockey. Overall hockey has been and still is being a great lesson and teacher to me and aside from it being my main hobby I always learn from it and I hope one day opportunities will arise from it whether I am playing or not.

Where The Fox Got His Big Bushy Tail

    
Foxes used to be very small, and lived in a very warm place so they wouldn't need a very bushy tail. They were sharing a home with many other creatures, in which they had built a great big kingdom.

    In this kingdom every unique animal had selected a leader to represent their species. Felix The Fox had demonstrated all the qualities every fox should have, therefore he had been selected.  He had been everyone's favorite, foxes and others;everyone but the coyotes.

    Once a year the kingdom holds a massive festival and in this festival there was a massive competition where every leader is pitted against each and every other in many skill tests, the prize was that the winners may choose to rule the kingdom until the next festival.

    Every year for the past century the coyotes always won and because they had the power, the foxes were always the first chosen for any job nobody else wanted to do. Everybody knew the coyotes were going to win it again for sure this year.

Felix was going to make sure that this year would be the year of the foxes, but he knew beating the coyotes was the only way; before every festival there was a massive feast, and because no other animal wanted to prepare the food it had been the foxes job to prepare the food once again. Felix figured he had to poison Craig The Coyote, the champion of the coyotes’ food in order to make sure he couldn’t participate in the competition this year, so Felix used his unique sly ability to convince one of his fellow foxes to put poisonous berries into Craig’s food without realising it had been poison.

The day of the competition the news had struck and had been everywhere: COYOTE CHAMPION POISONED. The news had reached every animal, and everyone pointed the blame at the foxes, specifically at the chef of Craig’s food.

The kingdom tried every single trick to get the truth out of the fox chef but nothing worked. Everyone realised he was not the culprit, and so the punishment was carried out on every single fox in the kingdom. They were all banished to the North, where the cold would freeze the foxes. There are however a few months every year where the cold takes a break and give the foxes a break as well.

Felix had to lead the rest of the foxes up to the North where they would spend the rest of their lives, or until they lost all of their bad qualities (especially their unique slyness). Felix couldn’t bear the idea of losing his slyness, so to this day, all foxes live in the North.

The cold was horrid and froze many foxes, but Felix figured out a way to beat this: They all must grow fur to make their tails the biggest, brightest, bushiest tails in the world to keep them warm. This was a great idea and once the idea was spread throughout the remainder of the foxes, they all listened to their leader and so to this day, foxes have big, bright orange and white, bushy tails to keep them warm in the winter.

Zhangsanity

Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, Michael Jordan, David Hailu Zhang, Jeremy lin, Lebron James, Steve Nash, Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Durant; what do they all have in common? They all share a love for basketball. But seriously, which one of these stand out? King James? Kobe? How about David H. Zhang. What do the rest of these famous basketballers have in common? They all started somewhere, and that somewhere is where we find David today.

David is an avid basketballer, and he takes after his idols like any young kid should. He’s certainly energetic, funny, modest, but above all he is the humblest guy you will meet. Seriously. It gets annoying at times when one of the most skilled basketballers in the school says he won’t make the school team, but he always knows he isn’t the best and will always do whatever to help me or you out whenever we ask for help.

As opposed to what most of you probably think, David didn’t start playing at a very young age, he only started recently. About 4 years ago he started to play basketball at an organized level, he also made the highest level, for an older age group. To sum it all up, he was very good at basketball to start with but where did that love for basketball come from?  David was a part of a big following called “Linsanity”. Jeremy Lin is an Asian American basketballer who took the NBA by storm and created this large following which inspired David to finally take up organized basketball.

That year was the year I met David Zhang, well, actually 2. Grade 4 was the start of middle French immersion and kids from all around the area went to W.E.J to take part in the program. One thing so many people were surprised about was there were 2 David Zhangs, it was also confusing. We decided This David will be known by his middle name: Hailu. The next year he surprisingly went to a new school: Broadview. He enrolled in the gifted program there and spent grades 5 through 7 at his new school.

September of 2015, David changed schools once again, finally ending up at the Earl of March secondary school for grade 8 and is in my class. Some day he may start up the “Zhangsanity” but for now, he’s still David Hailu Zhang playing AAA baskeball and going to grade school

Gun Control Laws In The United State of America

An ever so rising problem in the U.S.A: gun violence. Every day you will see news headlines stating “Mass Shooting” or something of the sort. The solution proposed by many is just to bring in more guns! Where will this help? We’ve all heard the expression fight fire with fire but at some point the blaze will just be out of control. Take for example the rising terror problem in the middle east, when the U.S.S.R went to Afghanistan to create a new Communist state the U.S tried to combat this by arming militant groups opposed to the Russian rule. The end result? A: endless wars and terror throughout the Middle East ever since, and B:  the rise of Al-Qaeda and ISIS. My solution and that of many other’s as well? Just take away almost all of the guns; it’s that simple.

“Give us more guns so if someone attacks, we can defend ourselves!” This argument is almost automatic for most gun supporters, but why don’t we see everyday on the headlines “Hero stops shooting!” or similar? That’s because of multiple reasons. When a shooting starts the local law enforcement will always be sent to check it out, but they don’t know who or what the shooter looks like. The police only know its a person with a gun and a bunch of people hiding from them, and nobody wants to be mistaken for the shooter. Secondly, not everyone carries their guns around! If something happened at a school for example, nobody will have a gun. What's the point of giving everyone guns including potential criminals if the targeted market sometimes can’t even use it for protection!

Taking away people's guns is proven to work! After a gruesome shooting many years back at the Port Arthur massacre, the Australian government finally clamped down aggressively on gun rights. Hundreds of thousands of weapons were destroyed, and the outcome? The first decade saw an almost 60% drop of gun deaths whilst non-gun related deaths stayed the same. Most of the time deaths and murders aren’t pre-meditated but caused by emotions in the moment and simply taking away the quickest way of death brought down the numbers drastically. The number of mass shootings in Australia went from 11 between 1986-1996 to none from 1997-present day.

Finally, I’m not completely opposed to ownership of guns but some gun owner positions are way too extreme. The main reason for weapons in the first place (i.e the 2nd amendment) was the right for militia to bear arms in case of an unsteady or corrupt government. Back in the colonial days no state had any trust in each other or in a collective government therefore if anything went haywire, the people would have means to defend themselves. Today there's almost no way for the government to go haywire or against the people. I believe if it makes people feel safer knowing that they have perhaps a semi-automatic 6 round pistol or rifle to protect themselves or their family, then they should have a right to own it. If someone wanted to purchase a hunting rifle and go hunting with their father for a father-son moment that doesn’t affect me. What I don’t believe in is people owning 50 round, automatic rifles or machine guns. As Stephen King said, “If you can’t kill an intruder with 10 rounds, you need to go back to the shooting range.”

The amount of guns in the U.S is outrageously higher than any other country in the world, countries like the Congo, Russia, Iraq etc.. Compared to the rest of the world the U.S has more gun violence than most countries added up together and it has become a major problem concerning the safety of their children, their people, and their future.

Brooklyn 9-9

Brooklyn 9-9

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a police comedy, is in it’s first season on Netflix. The series has it’s own unique aspect in the way it introduces multiple plots into a single episode while also being able to tie them all together makes the show very intriguing from start to finish.

So let’s start th episode review off with a bang, seriously. Boyle returns to the force after his heroics and getting shot, Holt tries to give away two absolutely adorable puppies, and Jake goes up against his arch nemesis, the “Pontiac Bandit” with Rosa. Just another day in this comedy called “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.”

Boyle’s needs due to his tempoary disability from his wounds starts to get on everyone's nerves at the station. So when Holt needs to find a home for two puppies because “Chedder had relations with the neighbor dog, Karate,” the solution was to simply give Boyle the two small dogs giving them a new home and Boyle some new companions and responsibility.

Rosa arrest a man who claims to have communication with the Pontiac Bandit, Jake’s nemesis of 8 years. Jake breaks his long time trust pact with Rosa in desperation to capture his nemesis only to realise in the end the irony that the man they arrested in the first place was the Pontiac Bandit, ultimately resulting in Jake doing 2000 pushups as a part of the pact.

Andy Samberg, personally one of my favorite comedians, stars as Jake Peralta. Andy brings his great comedic touch to the series with his body language and impeccable delivery. He brings a lot of experience to his role in this show and the show itself and it’s great to see how his performance really brings out the personality of his character. His other work includes: The Lonely Island, Hot Rod, That’s My Boy (all very successful). His unique acting ability is displayed during this series.

All in all, the show peaked my interest and I would definitely watch more of it. The introduction of the “Pontiac Bandit” really hooked me into the show and I cannot wait to see where he will show up next and how his story will unfold.