My Name

My name, like most chinese names has three characters (李毅凱). The first character is my family name which is Lee (李). It is made up of two other chinese characters, that is, wood（木） on son（子). It doesn't really have a meaning. But this surname was a royal surname from the Tang Dynasty. The middle character which is Yi, meaning perseverence in everything I do. The third character is Khai（凱), which means victory. This word is taken from a chinese noun: kai xuan（凱旋). Kai xuan are songs which was sung after a victorious war. In chinese names, besides the surname, the next most important name is the third name. My second name Khai was actually taken from my grandfather's second name. This is to create a relationship between us. My grandmother and parents also put in a lot of effort to give me this name. Why do I say that? This is because they have to calculate every strokes and make sure it matches my birth date. The chinese believe that this name would bring me luck for the rest of my life. So far, my name seems to be working as I'm feeling really happy and lucky.

Common Elements in Creation Myths

Myths come from all around the world. Although they emerged from different cultures, they all leave the same common factors which makes creation myths so great. The mythical supreme being forms the land, from nothing to something. For example in the Chinese myth, it speaks of a dragon called Pan Gu who molded the land with his bare hands. He died 18,000 years later but the world was still incomplete. There was no life. But following his death, the half dron goddess came to the world that Pan Gu created. Picking up the clay, she molded a creature with a pair of arms and a pair of legs. Thus began the human race. Another myth that emerged from a different culture is the native American myth which mentioned about Skywoman falling through a hole caused by the uprooted tree in heaven. She landed on a giant turtle that formed the land and there she gave birth to the first human. Thus besides common factors about a supreme being and creation of earth from nothing to something, another common factor is mentioning of an animal and human being. Although there is a difference in culture, however, in the myths, we can still see common factors in the creation myths which speaks of the beginning of the world.

The Departure of Ceyx

probably

about 1502-7, Vittore Carpaccio

“Those that live must die, passing through nature to eternity.” – William Shakespeare

This panel, which appears to have been cut down, illustrates the story of Alcyone from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' (XI: 410-748). Ceyx's departure to consult the oracle of the god at Claros was delayed by his devoted wife Alcyone, who had foreseen a stormy sea and winds. A companion panel in the Philadelphia Museum of Art shows the body of Ceyx (who reluctantly set off despite his wife's protestations and whose ship was destroyed in a storm as predicted) being carried back to Alcyone upon the waves. When she recognised her husband's body, Alcyone hurled herself into the sea. The unfortunate pair were transformed by a pitying god into birds, which are shown on the left of the Philadelphia panel.

For homework, we did research on china's one child policy. I have learnt that china established the one child policy in 1979 because china was over populated. At that time, China's population was 1/4 of the world's population and their arable land was only 7% of the world's. This policy has prevented more than 300 million births. If it weren't for this policy, China's estimated population today would be more than 300 billion people. Now china's population is more than 1.3 billion people.

Even though this policy has helped control  the population growth, it has created new problems for China. Problems such as the people preferring boys to girls which leads to people abandoning female babies. Also, many children are sibling less. Poor couples have to give up their hope for a second child because they do not have the money to pay the fine.

Laws

Every civilization have laws and without them the civilization would be uncontrollable. Thats why we have laws, but different countries have different laws and are more strict about them. We have laws so that people don't do the wrong things such as murder, steeling drunk trafficking, drugs, etc. Hammurabi's Code has many of the strictest laws I've ever seen, yet for some of them I agree.

You know when people steal, we almost always just send them of to jail. But in Hammurabi's Code, they execute you. The laws maybe very strict, but that was in the past. The thing about almost of the laws is that they all  have an execution in them. 

Gun,Germs and Steel

On Monday we watched a video based on the book Guns, Germs and Steel. It was about people who lived life sort of like ape men, and as time swept by the people changed their lifestyle from hunting to farming. But before they went to farming, they ate barley from wheat and other things for protein, but there wasn't enough protein in those resources so they ate giant spiders that were three inches large. They woke up early in the morning to farm everyday. Just like my uncle Mun, he got up early every morning to take care of his orchard. He had to work in the the hot sun with a few other people. But for the people in Papuanew Guinea they worked with almost everybody in the civilization.

Life Evolving Around Technology

People's lives have been evolving around technology as it has been improving from the radio to the Black and white screened TV to the colored screened TVs. In the past we would use sticks and fire to microwave food. But now with just one touch of a button, we can microwave our food with barely any effort. Since technology is ever improving, we'll have airplanes thats as fast as lightning and can make a full circle around the earth without ever having to stop 80-200 years from now.