The Island of Japan

Today we always think of Japan as a place with large cities, robots, and frequent monster attacks from movies, but we never really go into its past. The people of Japan have a unique history that is full of wars, betrail, and strange traditions that date back to the time of the silk road.
One of the intresting things about Japan was the way the leaders interacted. Usually powerful samuri gave their first born son their leader, which was a way to insure loyalty. The child was considerd a "hostage" even though they lived well and recived a good education. Also, the Japaneese royal cort held very little power. In fact, the only real thing they got to do was choose the Shogun, otherwise they would wile away the time with the arts.
That is another difference in culture. The Japaneese valued the arts very highly, next to prestige won in battle. Characteristics such as patience and intelligence were prized among the upperclass, and having an education was important for leaders. That is different from the European culture which we are more used to.

Whistle pig hunting

Whistle pigs, otherwise known as ground hogs, thrive when you make a garden. That is why one crazy whistle pig decided to settle down and make a home under our deck. He ventures out to devour our produce, and even ate some tomatoes of our deck. That is why last weekend we constructed an electric fence that is probably going to keep him out of our vegetables this year.
However, the electric fence is not a fortress. The plastic poles that support the wire bend easily and the the wire does not go down far enough to be completely woodchuck-proof. We don't even have a sophisticated gate! Still we can still be sure that it hurts, because my brother touched both the outputs at once and dropped our 100 dollar power box. He has confirmed that he will not touch it again, to my disappointment
Also, if the fence does not keep the little varmint away from our garden, we plan on trapping him. We plan on getting one of the traps where you bait creature in and then a gate closes, but my mom and I are not above getting one that looks like an ancient execution device (many jokes have been made about his demise, including us shooting him). I am guessing his last thought will be " I ate one tomato too many" or some such thing.

Miles the Great

I have been pondering the title 'Alexander the Great', the name of the general who conquered the Persian Empire. Back then the Persian empire covered the whole known world, and it was quite an achievement to subjugate the whole population to Greek rule. So it is fitting that he should be called "Alexander the Great", right? Yet Alexander the Great was not all that "great" after all. His march across the ancient world was devastating to the cultures and peoples that it met, forcing the Greek yolk on thousands of people. He killed all those who resisted, wiping whole towns off the map, and slaughtered soldiers and citizens alike.

However, wave of destruction was written as a huge success, because history is almost always written by the victors. I still recognize that he did accomplish something stupendous, but the fact is, we all have our different achievements. We may not destroy an ancient civilization, yet we can still do great things for ourselves and the people around us. You can be a Great person by being kind and helping those around you (two things I do not excel  at), and trying to be innovative. Hopefully, we may all achieve something in our life that makes you feel like a great person.

Alexander the great

For the past couple weeks in school, I have been watching a historical documentary. In it, the narrator traces the footsteps of the great Greek general, Alexander the great. It is cool because the film crew ad Michel Wood, the narrator, have to hitch hike, walk on small mountain passes, and get rides with trading caravans on camels. That seems like a fun occupation to me. Also, you get to learn a lot about Alexanders tactics, such as his method of invading Tyre, a small island city. To cross the half mile gap between the two landmasses,  Alexander built a massive dirt walkway 200 miles wide for his army to cross.
Also The documentary helps you realize how big people thought the world was back then. The Greeks thought that you could sail straight from the Black Sea to Britain or India, though today we know it is a land locked sea, and is far from any routes close to northern Europe or India. When Alexander found out that the Black Sea was not the edge of the world that changed his tactics.

Composting

Since the beginning of spring my mom has wanted to make a garden. She drew a map of our small backyard, and decided that if we moved everything around a bit, and made some improvements, we could be having peppers, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes planted just outside our house. She has the plans for it, and now we just need some materials. However, one of the things that she thought would be good to have is some good soil. So, we decided to compost and I was going to be the one to do the research on it.
Not that doing the research is boring, not at all. I have even found some good information about what we should do. I found out that the main ingredients are greens ( grass clippings and kitchen scraps) and browns (No, not dung, but dry leaves, straw, and corn husks. ). If you have one part greens to two parts browns, along with water carbon, and nitrogen, you could get good compost.
Also, my planning of the compost pile has been made easy. We have a compost shelter, and lots of greens and browns. Since I live in a house with 2 hungry teenagers (I don't eat all that much of anything), and a mom who likes to make vegetables, we have no shortage of greens. I am also in possession of enough browns to last a lifetime, since I own a rabbit. Over the three years of his life, I have amassed a dragons hoard of straw and bunny droppings, which I am pretty sure are good for compost.
I still plan on doing more compost research, and may make another entry on this topic. I may even include updates on it, if it does take of.

Spring time, and all that comes with it.

On Sunday, when my family was taking a walk, we went to go see some swans that live in captivity near by. We noticed that they were not swimming in their pond, which is their normal activity, but they were hiding behind a tree. We walked to the other side of the fence to see what they were doing. My family and I were surprised to see that they had a large nest with four eggs in it, and we were just in time to see one of the parents them over. Since that day, my mom decided to walk there every day to see when the swans would hatch. That is going to be a while.
Anyways, as spring has rolled around I started to have mild allergies. I really don't like them, especially because they make my eyes water. Many times have I gone with my family to one of our elderly neighbors house and been asked why I had been crying, when really I had just been having an allergic reaction to pollen floating through the air.
That (the pollen, not the elderly) is a reason that I do not like to go outside in the spring, and prefer to read and play civilization 5 or minecraft. The rain and clouds also make me feel lethargic, and makes me want to sit somewhere warm and read. My latest reading project has been to get through "The Lost City of Z", an book about the race to explore the amazon, and one explorer in particular, Col. Fawcett. It is a good book, yet can be a little dull at times.

Welcome to my blog! For those that are just breifly at my first post, I would like to say that this is going to be sort of like a journal of thoughts and pices of information I gather through rest of the school year. It will also include some things on my pets, which my be helpful to some. Like yesterday, when my dog Gigi at a hot carrot and threw up afterword. I guess she won't be eating anything that falls of the counter for a while.