The best thing about high school so far is the freedom that I have. I am no longer told write like this, sit like that and stop chewing your gum in class. Its not that the teachers care less about order and dispiline its just that they know that we are individuals who like to express ourselves in different ways. In taking all honors classes being on the debate team and playing tennis I find my work starting to pile up without end. I haven't gone to sleep before 11:30 since the first week of school. For some that isn't that late and they prefer to be up until one or two in the morning. However for me 9:30 is time to start heading to sleep. This is no longer an option for me.  The other thing I'm having trouble with is that tests, quizzes and assignments are much harder then I have ever had. Last year only earth science, spanish and math counted for college so I could prorotize those classes over others. This year all my classes are important and its hard to pick what test to study more for.

Well at least now I know that G-d is...

During the last two classes we spent time on the characterization of G-d. Before this I never saw G-d as a character more as something a being just set in stone.  I felt a little uncomfortable with reading this because I felt that it was wrong to what feels like judge G-d. However after the first day I realized that we are learning about G-d. I learned that he lives through humans and this is proven because in every page there is at least one time where they state that humans are made in G-ds image. G-d also set expectations for humans when humans did not meet this expectation G-d regrets creating the humans so he destroys them. Being that humans are created in G-ds image he should have known that humans would become violent. This is where I think religion has a disconnect if G-d is all knowing how would he not see this coming. I enjoyed doing this because I looked at something the seemed obvious in a new way.

Adam and his partner Eve against temptation

Today we read Genesis which actually is not as confusing as I thought it would be. I think the it's G-d's  doing that Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden. G-d makes the fruit " good for food and pleasing to the eye." Along with this he tempts them by telling Adam and Eve no, since he created them he would know that part of human nature is the need to rebel against power.  He also created the serpent knowing that in the future he would lead them to the tree. If g-d is all powerful as he is described he must have known all the possibilities and wanted Adam and Eve to be kicked out.

after looking through 200 flood myth websites...

In the short flood story I read created by the native Americans the earth was flooded because a man named Nanabozho tried to receive his cousin from the river serpent. He angered the river serpent, which caused him to flood the earth, everyone who ran to the top of the mountains survived by making boats and some animals survived too. The river serpent however did not survive because he was shot in the heart. A main similarity between this flood story and the one told in Gilgamesh is that the flood was given as a punishment. This also brings a big difference because the native American flood story was given as a punishment to only one person which was Nanabozho, in Uta- napishtis story the flood was given to kill everyone because they made too much noise.  Another difference is in the native American flood story the flood time line is based on when the water covers the mountains that they people were on, in Uta-napishtis the time line for the flood was a specific 200 hundred days. Another similarity is that after the flood everything went back to normal, the native American flood story ends bt saying that the water disappeared from the land and those who survived returned home. In both cases the flood didn’t have lasting effects on the earth itself on the people on it. In Uta-Nepishtis story everyone died however the earth did recover to its normal form as well. Lastly both were started because of angry g-ds and both were saved because of g-ds who weren’t quite on the same path as the angry g-ds. Meaning that each had g-ds that helped them survive.

Source: http://www.native-languages.org/

Introduction

     Hi, My name is Makenzie not Mackenzie even though auto correct would like the second option better. I go to Roslyn High school and I am a freshman. I play tennis and lacrosse and I am also on the debate team here. I am writing this blog for my English class, this project totally indimidates me. I'm not really sure how but my name is Selena in my google account which just shows you how lost and confused I am on technology. Personally not looking foward to doing everything on the iPads and creating this blog. I'm thinking if maybe I learn what I am doing it will be easier. So wish me luck.