Medieval Simulation blogpost

I am Sir Gérard de Ridefort, Earl of Desmond. I am known as a Knight Templar's Leader or the Grand Master. My duties are to the King and my country. Knights during the Medieval ages were considered an elite group of soldiers who were important. Thus, they rode on horseback and held a lance and a sword. Knights were very important during a battle and they were usually the first to be attacked during a war. However, due to the fact that Knights rode on horses, they were able to where a lot of heavy armor to protect them. A Knight's inventory would include a lance, a double-edged sword, about 25 kg of armor and about three to five horses. Usually out of the five horses only two or three would be a warhorse. A knight also traveled with a squire and a groom. The squire was a like the Knights' servant and would clean the Knights armor and polish his weapons. Before a battle, the squire would also help to put on the Knight's armor. The groom was the man or boy, who would clean and take care of the horse. If the horse got any major injury, then the groom would look after a horse. Usually the quality and fitness of the horse depended on the groom. This gave the Knights a huge advantage over foot soldiers. The Knights could rest before a battle as the squire and groom would make sure that everything was ready for the Knight. The other advantage, was that because the Knights rode on horse back, they had more stamina and they could wear extra armor for added protection. This is why Knights were considered a major part of the military during the Medieval times. 

Bullfights

Are bullfights humane. Well this blog post will describe what happens in a bullfights and what are the dangers. Bullfights originated from the 700s when there was a celebration for the crowning of the new king of Spain. Ever since then it has become one of the most celebrated sports of the modern day Spain. Before a bullfight, the bull is starved for several days. This makes it extremely touchy and irritated. The bull is then released into the ring facing the bullfighter. Then the bullfighter does a faena around the bull dodging and then missing the bull while waving a red cape in front of it. However in bullfights things rarely go smoothly. There have been many cases of bullfighters dying or losing a limb because of an accident. Sometimes even the crowd is in danger as an angry bull can charge at them and attack them. However if you think that is bad, look at it from the bull's point of view. After the faena the bullfighter takes out a sword and kills the bull mercilessly. The crowd would then applause the matador for how fast he killed the bull. The faster the better. So now that I have given you my view on bullfighting it is up to you to decide whether bullfighting is a humane sport or not.

Humanities Medieval

This blog post is to describe two of the characters from the Blood Red Horse and explain what I have learned about the life of the Medieval people during the 1100s. The two characters that I will explain about are William and Gavin. Both of them are sons to Sir Thomas De Granville. Gavin was the oldest son, 4 years older than William. Gavin seems to be a bully and uses his power and wealth to make other people obey what he wanted them to do. Since he was also the eldest son of Sir Thomas De Granville, he inherited all of the wealth and fortunes that the De Granville family had. It also means that he gets to marry Ellie. However after Gavin comes back from the first crusade, he became a much more dark person. He did not care about any one but himself. He proves this by using Hosanna till she is almost dead. Will is the younger son of the De Granville family. He is kind and likable. However he is very strong willed and once he made up his mind to do something, he would not be stopped by anyone. He also has a special bond with Hosanna the horse that he had gotten as hiss first warhorse. At times they would seem to be together matching each other with exact thoughts.

The 1100s was the when the crusaders had lost Jerusalem back to the muslims and were launching a second crusade to take the country back into control. The Crusader army at that time consisted of the Holy Roman army, England, Germany, France. The Crusaders attacked Jerusalem several times after the first Crusade to regain the Holy City( Jerusalem ) back into the Christian hands. The Pope had also just claimed that the people who died fighting for the cause of the Christian Empire would be sent to heaven immediately. However they believed that animals had no souls so they would not go to heaven. 

LA 8

The Clock Of Life

"The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power 
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.

To lose one's wealth is sad indeed. 
Too lose one's health is more. 
To lose one's soul is such a loss 
That no man can restore."

Today, only is our own.
So live, love and toil with a will.
Place no faith in tommorrow,
For the clock may soon be still.                                                                                                                     By Robert H Smith

The meaning of this poem is a very deep one which explains the roots of life and what we should do with our lives. The sentence " The clock of life is wound but once," means that we only have one chance to live our life. We will not get another chance to live our lives. The next sentence" And no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop" means that no one knows when they will die. "At late or early hour" means that it you can die young or old. 

"To lose one's wealth is sad indeed, To lose one's health is much more" means that even though wealth is important, health is much more important. " To lose one's soul is such a loss that no man can restore" means that if you lose the will and health to survive then no one can help you. "Today is your own means that you only own today and must do whatever you want to finish today now.

Summarine Smash day reflection

Smash Day was really fun. We had to make a periscope to use so that we could see the items in a box that was on the table. The items that were given to us were 10 pieces of paper and 6 pieces of cardboard. 4 mirrors were also given. My advice to anyone who is trying to make a periscope is never cut anything. You should bend or twist but never bend. If you were to bend or twist you could still change it. But if you cut it you cannot change it. You should also go for the simplest easiest method. I saw a team who made it so complicated and in the end because of a small piece of miscalculation the entire periscope was useless. Duke, Me and Alex Wu used the simplest method where we did not reflect anything but just saw straight through the mirror. You should use the simple method and then make neccesssary changes to the periscope.

Blog #1

I think Duke is an effective communicator. Even though he is Korean, he can speak relatively well. However that is not what makes Duke such a good communicator. He is able to explain almost anything even if he doesn't know the word in english. He also uses hand signs to explain his actions.  He also has a way of making you be able his ideas even if they seem absurd at first. I think this is what makes Duke such an effective communicator. He can explain anything and will not give up till you understand what he is saying or explaining. He is determined to make sure that everyone understands what he is saying. He can also communicate in other ways. We can communicate through head nods and understand what the other person is saying. Through this way we can even pass jokes to each other.