Buddhism

Recently I visited a Buddha temple. The one in Layton, it was pretty cool. Then this Monk dude talked to us. We had to take off our shoes when we entered the temple. It has red carpet, there are sofa’s on the left wall, and on the right, there is a platform about three feet high. On the platform there are about a dozen red mats. With what looks like the back of chairs for your back. They are red, with gold around them. By each "seat" there are signs, that tell what rank of monk you are. On the back wall, facing the entrance, is a large golden statue of Buddha. And no, he is not fat. He is wearing like a gold Greek robe looking kind of thing. In front of Buddha, there is a slightly smaller golden statue or his apostle. He is forward, and wearing the same thing. Then there is another apostle facing forward as well. And is slightly smaller than the apostle on the left. He is gold, and wears the same thing, except that he has what looks like an archway of leaves over him. The bigger one is said to have been the one that recorded all of Buddha’s teachings, and is responsible for the Buddhist bibles and records. The other one as far as I could understand, was the welfare man. He was the one who took care of the people with food and stuff like that. On the next level down, there were two more smaller statues facing each other. I’m not sure who they were though. Then they just had a bunch of weird decorations, there were these things that looked like giant eggs wearing necklaces, they were sitting in giant goblets or something. Then just a lot of little statues of men. And a lot of flowers. All kinds, each symbolizing something. There is blue, purple, white, pink and then they have big lanterns where the light bulb is in the middle of the flower pedals. In the middle of the decorations there is the little worship table. With candles and stuff. The ceiling is really curved up. With a bunch of little lantern looking decorations hanging from them.

When we entered the temple there was a monk, siting along the right wall, he had like a rust colored, toga type robe. But he said they usually where white while in the temple. He said that most of the monks there were from Thailand. He told us about the Buddhist religion. Their three main beliefs he said was :one, do no evil, two, do good, for if your just not doing evil, you should do good as well, and finally to purify your mind. One way they do this is meditation. He said that to meditate. They focus on one thing when they breath in, and something else when they breath out. Breath in is number one. Breath out is number two. Then he explained that the human mind is like a monkey, and how it just jumps around to different things. And said that half of us were thinking of something else while listening, and by the guilty laugh from everyone, I suppose he was right. When your mind jumps to something, the goal is to bring it back and tie it up on your two thoughts. It was very interesting. They also believe in the "golden rule." He said that they try to do as much as good as possible, in doing this they said that they are taken care of in return. One thing that surprised me, is how seriously they took their religion. A lot of people these days don’t take anything seriously, even when it comes to their religion, it seems they think that as long as they say they belong to a certain religion they will be saved. Even though they don’t follow any of their church "rules." From six to seven in the morning he said that they all get up and chant. Then spend time meditating to clear their mind for the day. The rest of the day they do more religious stuff. Then from six to seven in the evening they do more chanting. And more meditating. They also do not shake hands. For some reason, they do not touch other people. Instead of shaking hands, they put their hands together as if they were going to pray, and do a slight bow. It’s pretty cool. They also have like a tea, and coffee machine by the front doors. It is surprising how small it is, usually when you think of temples, you would think of a big building with a high ceiling and lots of halls and rooms. This temple on the other hand, was one room, smaller than the school cafeteria. And near the walls the ceiling is so low you almost have to duck to go without bumping your head. They have a separate building kind of in front of it, I think that is where some of the monks stay, but I’m not sure. Like I said, most of the monks that worship there are from Thailand, so it was difficult to understand the man who was talking to us because as far as I understood came here with very little. And is still trying to learn English. In fact he occasionally would stop just to make sure we were following him, and we understood.

I’m glad I had the chance to go and visit the Buddhist temple and learn about their way of life. For pretty much my whole life I just thought Buddhism was a bunch of people who admired a fat man with a bowl of fruit. I think that is one of the problems with to days teens, and not just teenagers but people of all ages, they are so naive. They get an opinion of something and don’t bother to find out wether it is true, or some made up rumor. So if you ever have the chance I would advise visiting the Buddhist monk, because, contrary to what people may think, they are not all a bunch of chubby men. And a lot friendlier than some people would think.

Peace Builder Assignment

Today’s world is full of a lot of things, but if there was one thing that this world is lacking, it would be peace. In the Yearling, there are a lot of examples of peace-builder like qualities. Three of the major peace-builder like qualities I think are found in this book, is for one, they show respect to each other, two, they help each other, and three, they forgive each other.
Respect is a major part of peace, if everyone in this world were to respect each other, we wouldn’t have mor than half the violence we have today. Not only do the characters in this book respect each other, but they respect life as a whole. One example of this is when Penny gets bitten by the rattle snake, and he has to shoot the doe to save his life. He explains to Jody why he did it, and that he was sorry he did it. He tells Jody that life is a valuable thing, and teaches a great lesson. Another example of respect, is shown in the way Penny deals with the Forresters. Although they may not be his favorite people in the world, he treats them with respect, and kindness. Another way of showing respect is by helping each other.
All throughout this book there are examples of people helping others. One of these that I can remember is when Oliver is fighting off about three Forresters by himself. Despite the odds, Penny and Jody join the fight to help him. Now considering the size of Penny and Jody, and the size of the Forresters, it was a pretty big act of kindness. Another is when Buck helps with the Baxter farm when Penny is sick from the rattlesnake. He spent countless hours working and planting when he could be home on his own farm. Another act of kindness. However, without forgiveness, he wouldn’t have been there to help.
Forgiveness, is another major peace builder quality shown in this book. As I said before, if Buck hadn’t forgiven Penny for fighting for Oliver, then he wouldn’t have helped out with their farm. Another example of forgiveness, is when Jody forgives Oliver for leaving. He realizes it is useless to hold a grudge and makes friends again. And probably the biggest example of forgiveness is at the end. After Flag is shot, Jody runs away. He is afraid to go back home, because he fears his parents won’t want him around after what his deer did. When he finally gets home however, he finds that they had missed him terribly and wanted him back.
I think that the world could do with a lot more peace, and peace builders. And just as in the Yearling, we need to show respect, help each other, and probably most important, forgive each other.

Star Wars

I didn't want to use this, but since I don't have time to write 3 more blogs, this has over 1700 words, so hopefully it will count.


Whoosh! The great space ship kicks into hyper speed! The stars blur and it disappears faster than a bullet. Giant lasers fly through space, ships explode-sending massive balls of fire into space. This is what awaited millions in May of 1977, this, and a whole lot more. Star Wars was an enormous hit. Variety stated "Star Wars is a magnificent film. George Lucas set out to make the biggest possible adventure-fantasy out of his memories of serials and older action epics, and he has succeeded brilliantly. What Lucas lacks in originality is more than made up by enthralling special effects"(Supershadow). The fans seemed to think so also, opening day alone totaled $254,309 from just 32 theaters. And by the end of its first theatrical run, it was the most successful film in North American history, a gross in excess of $290 million (Supershadow). Where did such a hit come from? It came from the amazing imagination of George Lucas, who took older fantasy movies, and made whole new worlds. Star Wars was is a world famous movie and adventure, and will continue to be for generations to come.
I grew up watching Star Wars, but never was that interested when I was younger. I knew the basic story line of Luke becoming a jedi. I knew about the horrifying moment when Darth Vader reveals that he is Luke’s father. I mean, who doesn’t? But that’s not to say I didn’t like Star Wars from the start. I was still excited when Episode I came out, and I collected a bunch of Star Wars toys. Episode II wasn’t bad, especially since it’s the first time you get to see Yoda actually fight. But it wasn’t until Episode III came out, that I really got into it.
Since it was the very last episode, the one we’ve all been waiting for, who wasn’t excited to see how Anikin becomes Darth Vader? With all the excitement, a lot of things were being shown on TV about the making of Star Wars, the original trilogy. I saw part of one TV special that showed how the different characters were made, how they did the voices, and the hardships George Lucas and the other cast members went through to bring it on the big screen. I learned that the robots have people inside, that control and do things. There is a man inside C3P0, that does the voice himself, and that Star Wars was almost cancelled because of the time it took to make. After seeing that, it really got me interested. When I saw the last episode it was awesome. My little brother and I have been having light-saber battles on the trampoline ever since. We both have light up, sound activated light-sabers. I decided, that if I was going to fight like a Jedi, I had better learn about them too.
After seeing all the TV specials, and light-saber fights, I wanted to learn more about Star Wars and how it came to be. For example, how did they make the space ships fly in space? How did they do the light saber fights? Where did they shoot the scenes for the different planets? How did they make Yoda? These are some of the basic things I wanted to find out. But finding them was another story all together.
Finding information on the making of Star Wars was probably the hardest part. The internet was almost no help at all, which is kind of surprising seeing that when you type in "The Making of Star Wars", into Google or Yahoo, you get about twenty -million results. The only problem is, only about two of the fifty sites I looked at actually gave information. And those both gave the same information, when Star Wars came out, and how much money it made. It wasn’t bad, it was better than nothing, but it didn’t answer the questions I had. I spent the next week or so typing in as many things as I could into Google to find out more, and found maybe one site. This was going to be a lot harder than I thought it was. I then went to the bonus disc on the Episode III DVD. The most interesting thing there was how they choreographed the light-saber fights. This was one of the few bits of actual interesting useful knowledge I had. A few days later I was talking to a friend about it. He had the answers. He told me he had a four-hour bonus disc on the making of Star Wars. Telling how they made pretty much everything in it, where they filmed, had interviews with the actors, and George Lucas, men from the making, and a lot more. I went to his house that night and borrowed it. I watched about and hour and a half of it that night and it had all the information I needed. Man, was there a lot of stuff to learn from that DVD, which ended up being the main source of information for my paper.
I learned a lot of stuff I didn’t know about Star Wars in doing this paper. The movie Flash Gordon, gave Lucas a lot of ideas for Star Wars. George Lucas, had offered Star Wars to Universal Studios, and all the rest of the studios in Hollywood, and was turned down by all except for 20th Century Fox. Lucas was given $10 million for the making of "Star Wars, A New Hope." George Lucas and crew stationed themselves in an old warehouse in California, they later moved to El street, just outside of London. After setting up from scratch, and starting on the making of all the ships and models, it was time to find the actors that would star in this galactic adventure (Lucas 2004).
Lucas did not want widely renown actors to star in his movie, so he spent the next 4 to 6 months auditioning and searching for his stars. Young 24 year old Mark Hamill, tried out and was chosen to be Luke Skywalker (Lucas 2004). Harrison Ford had played in George Lucas’s previous film called American Graffiti, and was working on the set helping auditioning actors by feeding them lines, and eventually was chosen for the part of Han Solo (Supershadow). A young actress by the name of Carrie Fisher was chosen for the part of the beautiful Princess Lea. But because she was a mite large, she had to attend a fat farm and lose 10 pounds for the part. For the evil lord Darth Vader, champion body builder David Prowse was chosen. The commanding general was played by 63 year old Peter Cushing. For the part of Chewbacca, Solo’s trusty companion, 7'3" Peter Mehew was chosen. Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke’s mentor and instructor in the Jedi ways, was Alec Guiness, a more widely known actor. At 3'5" Kenny Baker was chosen to play the mischievous little robot of R2-D2. Actor Anthony Daniels played the part of his partner droit C-3P0(Lucas 2004). But for such important characters the voices had to be just write. Other wise it just didn’t fit.
Daniels (C-3P0) had previously had training as a mime artist, and did his own voice. For the voice of R2-D2, baby noises were recorded, beeps and boops were then put together and put through an electronic synthesizer. Chewbacca’s came from the recordings of different animals, such as bears, walrus’s, and tigers, they were mixed together in different patterns to make it sound like he was talking. Darth Vader’s evil breathing actually came from a microphone attached inside a regulator in a scuba tank. David Prowse fit the body of Darth Vader, but it sounded odd having him as the voice of Darth Vader as well, since he did have a Scottish accent, so instead they had Prowse act, and a stutterer, born in Mississippi ,and raised in Michigan, named James Earl Jones provided the voice of Darth Vader (Lucas 2004). But despite these characters and their unique ways of communication, Star Wars wouldn’t be the same without Yoda.
Yoda, was a two-foot tall puppet, designed by Stuart Freeborn. Yoda’s wise look, came from Freeborn himself, and the face of Einstein. Frank Oz was Yoda’s main operator, but in addition, three other men were needed to fully operate him. Yoda’s swamp, had to be built afive feet above the stage, so that the puppeteer could operate from underneath, the top of the stage was covered with rocks, trees, caves, etc. In order to hear each other, Luke had an ear piece, that would occasionally bleep out and pick up rock bands (Lucas 2004). Yoda became a famous and widely known character in Star Wars, but it was Mark Hamill’s believable performance that made people accept him as a living breathing character. While all of this was taking place in London, ILM was working hard on producing exclusive space battles.
The space ships were miniature models on a string then put on a starry back ground. Everything was a model. Blue screen technology was what mostly brought them to life. Even in the jungle, when they fly around on the speeders in Empire Strikes Back, with all the little furry guys, some of the jungle isn’t even real, it’s just them sitting on the speeder and the computerized jungle moving around them (Lucas 2004). But even so, Empire Strikes Back, had a lot more special effects concerning the space battles.
Even though some of the jungle was computer, the rest was shot in California. In order to create all the different worlds, Lucas had to travel around ours. After setting up in London, the cast went to North Africa to shoot Luke’s home with uncle Ben. Unfortunately within the first days of shooting, it received it’s first major rainfall in 50 years. With rain coming down horizontally they had to cancel shooting. Filming in North Africa created some problems and put the crew behind schedule. The snow scene in Empire Strikes Back, was shot in Norway, again, the crew faced bad luck, it was the worst winter that Scandinavia had had in 50 years, 20 below zero, with 18ft. of snow(Lucas 2004). But despite these difficulties, "Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back" ended up being another huge hit.
Star Wars is a legacy in movie making. It changed the way people think about space. It taught values, while capturing one’s imagination. A billion years in the making, and it came to our galaxy, on that historical day back in May, 1977.

Hate

Hate, probably the root of all evil doings, and crimes ever committed. It all starts with anger toward someone, or something, it starts to grow, and become stronger, eventually turning into a resolve to get rid of that person or thing. When that can’t be accomplished, their resolve gets stronger, their anger builds within them, it consumes them, until that is all that matters. They can think of nothing else, but to quench that unquenchable desire inside. And eventually, they quench it. Or at least they think they do. They do what they have been yearning to do for so long, and rid the world of that someone or thing. Only then do they realize what they have done. Then the guilt kicks in. They don’t know what to do with themselves. They’ll go to prison if caught. So, they run. Become an outlaw, and end up throwing their life away. One thing leads to another and sooner or later they end up on America’s most wanted. Eventually they get caught, and are put to death by law.
Now, not all hate leads to such happy endings. Sometimes, they just go crazy and commit suicide, or something like that. This is probably why people restrain from using the word hate, because it is a strong word, no matter what context, hate, is a strong word, because it describes a strong feeling. Probably more than half the people who use the word hate, have never actually experienced actually feeling it. The closest I have ever come to feeling that strongly is when my brother and I tried to fight to the death with rakes, although luckily it didn’t end in death. Although I may have been extremely mad, or upset at the time, I highly doubt I felt true hatred. As I doubt a lot of people have. The only people I think have actually felt hate, are in prison. Those who took it so far, they didn’t care what happened next. Or, they just got a rush of adrenaline and anger and did something really rash. That would count for more than a few of them. Or, they just have no heart, no compassion, or pity, and just take pleasure in watching others die. As sick minded as that sounds, there are people like that, so that would probably take care of a few others as well. So in reality, only about half or less of the people behind bars have actually felt it either. Another reason so little of the people, eve those in jail, have felt true hatred, is because, a lot of the ones who have, have already been put to death by one way or another. I would have to say that the best example of hate would be Ankikin Skywalker. Fear, to anger, to hate, to suffering. And boy did he cause some suffering. Yep, Anikin has probably felt some hate in his time. The only problem is, he isn’t real. But if ever a man was to feel true hatred, I would be willing to bet he would turn out like him. So wether hate, or just a strong surge of anger, be wary, for the devil spares no man.

The Last Days

Have you said your good-byes? It’s the end of the world as we know it. Hope will not save us now. The end is upon us, and with it, comes death. For centuries people have talked about the end of the world. Yellow Stone erupting and ending the life of all mankind. The only problem is, nothing has happened. But it’s happening now. The past year of 2005, the year of the natural disasters. Hundreds and thousands of people injured, killed, or left without a home. And that is just in the US. The war in Iraq. People dying everyday. It has long been prophesied, by ancient bible prophets that there will be wars, and rumors of wars, then the end. In fact, it will end with a war. A war known as Armageddon. The biggest, bloodiest war that will ever be. More will die in this war than ever before, and it is said, that the world will be cleansed in fire. Maybe this is why so many people expect Yellow Stone to erupt, cover the world with fire and brimstone. What ever the reason, I’m sure it won’t be long. And I’m sure that until that ugly last battle, their will be wars until then. It seems that the world we live in can’t get by without killing each other one way or another. Violence is the answer. Everyone speaks of talking through problems, calmly and rationally. But when it comes down to it, how hard to we really try to get around things without force or violence? This world is full of evil. Even the US is full of evil. Sometimes I wish I could live somewhere outside of Utah, just so I could know what the world is really like. But then there is always the fear that I might not be able to handle it. The world is a dangerous place. Made that way only by the people in it. Just as a situation is only as good as you make it out to be, the world can only be as evil as the people living in it, make it. I find it odd, that people are saying that this generation will change the future, and the future looks brighter than ever, but with every generation, we just get worse and worse. So obviously either that motivational speaker over looked something. Or nobody was really listening. Because that’s not how it’s turning out.
As Robert Frost said, nothing gold can stay. And if you were optimistic enough to call this world gold, and if not, no worries, it won’t last much longer anyway. The world is a bitter place, wether you like it or not. And wether you make it gold for you, in your current situation, is your business. So the next time someone starts talking about the last days drawing near, or the end of the world, you can tell them to relax, and take a break. The last days aren’t coming, they’re already here.

Failure

A wise man once said "if you never try, you never fail." The fear of failure is what keeps many a people from trying to excel. After all the journey of a thousand miles sometimes end very, very badly. But just because you don’t succeed doesn’t mean you’re a complete failure. If an olympian is set on the gold medal, but comes out with the silver, is he a failure? Or just because someone wins 500,000 dollars on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, are they failure? Well it depends on who you ask really. Everyone has their own definition of failure, for some it’s not succeeding, no matter how close you come to achieving something, for others, close counts, and failure is only when you fail to try.
But for many the fear of failure, is what keeps them from trying. The harder you try, the dumber you look, is their motto. They feel dreams are like rainbows, only idiots chase them. It’s pointless to go chasing after some goal and dream, just to fall and fail, and make a fool of yourself while your at it. Not all pain is gain. And who wants to suffer for nothing? What they need to remember is that you can do anything you set your mind to when you have vision, determination, and an endless supply of expendable labor.
But the fear of failure, usually only keeps those who don’t have confidence in their dreams or in themselves, from trying. If you don’t believe in your dreams enough to go for them, you’re probably better off not going for them. If someone has the dream of becoming an olympian ice skater, but they never get off the couch and try, they don’t deserve it. And at that rate they’ll never get anywhere. Anyways, the point being, you have to be willing to get off your rear, and make some serious sacrifices in order to achieve anything. Obviously you are never going to reach the top of Mt. Everest, if you are sitting on your couch eating potato chips.
But, apart from all those who sit on their couch and accomplish nothing, you’ll run into those who are the over achievers. The ones that try and make up for everyone else’s lack of effort. They do everything needed to succeed at something and more. The only problem with these kinds of people is that they over do themselves. They get a reputation for being good at something and it gets to their head. Then, they get cocky, they fail to remember that the tallest blade of grass, is the first to be cut by the lawn mower. It’s good to be good at something, and to really push and do your best, but nobody likes to be around someone who’s cocky. So as long as they keep their head, the ones who excel, are the ones who succeed.
For every winner, there are dozens of losers, odds are, your one of them. But unless you get up and get going, you’ll never know for sure. So like I said, for every winner there are dozens of losers, but that’s what makes winning all the more enjoyable. The harder the battle, the bigger the triumph. So don’t be afraid to follow your dreams, and who knows, they may just come true.

Sorrow

Sorrow is a powerful feeling. A person can feel sorrow over almost anything. Sometimes sorrow makes you cry, other times, sorrow causes people to take their life, or the life of another. Sorrow can also lead to a state of depression. Many people go into depression after the death of a loved one, or a serious accident. Depression can often time leads to suicide. Sorrow is also in a way contagious, it’s like a bad apple in a bushel, it is almost impossible to be happy when someone around you is down or depressed. Sometimes people can go crazy when they are depressed, when they feel sorrow, they feel self pity, then they start to think of all the stupid, dumb stuff they have done. Thinking of these things causes them to feel guilt, then they either get sadder, or get angry with themselves or with someone else, then feel sad again. It’s like a never ending cycle that once you get into, it’s hard to get out of. They fall into a pit, and instead of climbing out, dig it deeper and deeper. Until finally they feel there is no hope at all to get out, that they are so far down it seems impossible. This is usually when they start thinking about suicide. You can tell someone’s not thinking when they start talking about suicide. They have been in that train of thought so long that’s all they can think about. If they really did think, and truly think of suicide, and get their head out of the ground and look around, they wouldn’t even consider it. But most people in that state of mind can’t think that much. But then again, sorrow can lead to just the opposite, instead going into a hole, they excel. See, there are two kinds of people, those that feel sorrow and anger and suffer from it, or those who use it. Something gets them down, and it just gives them a stronger resolution to do better, and make sure nothing like that happens like that again. They use their failure to make them stronger. That, is what makes the difference between a successful person, and what we would call a failure. It’s like they say on batman "why do we fall?" "To pick ourselves back up" we don’t lay on the ground and get trampled on when we fall, we get back up, and get back to life. Laying on the ground does nothing for us but cause more damage. It doesn’t matter how hard the fall. It is always possible to stand on your own two feet again. Overcoming bad incidents, and experiences is what will make you a success. To get up, move on and forget if necessary. Dwelling on the past does nothing for your future. Concentrate on life now, and if it’s not the way you want it, then change it. Then focus on the road ahead. Life is a long road, full of pits and bumps, so get in, sit down, shut up and hang on. Your in for a wild ride.