Saturday, December 31, 2011

GOODBYE 2011, HELLO 2012!

         Happy New Year, everybody! I still can't believe 2011 is over. There will never again be a 2011.  It's been a great year, but like all great things, it must come to an end. What did we do this year, hmmm? We had great fun. I believe that this was the year that Kenneth got us in trouble. Yes...this is the year he did that. We spend an hour in that room, I think. This was also the year that we visited Rock Eagle, for the second time. That was fun. I do recall that we tried to canoe. I can say, honestly, that for me, it failed. It failed for a couple others do. One group, who shall remain anonymous unless they tell me otherwise, didn't even make it two feet. I think they were chased by a goose when they got too close to the shore. My canoe buddy and I got so frustrated that we just said, "You know, this isn't a bad place to die; I think we'll stay here." My canoe buddy got so much water on me while trying to paddle...well, let's just say I got revenge.

         Also at Rock Eagle was at night. One during the campfire. We had a couple of wimps among our group, who know who they are, that got the bajeebers scared out of them. Mr. Sellers was the one who told the story that got them riled up. I was the one who threw a rock in the lake that scared the guts out of them. Lizzy was the one who snuck up behind them and made them just a mile high. Good times. It was when we got to the room, however, that it got interesting. There were four bunk beds, I think, and the four of us on the bottom got onto the top of the bunks. It was two girls on each top bunk. That may not seem interesting. But what is interesting is that fact that each of these girls, with a few exceptions, were spilling their lives' secrets. Not secrets anymore. I'm not going to reveal what the girls who revealed said, and I was not one of them, for what happened in that room stays in that room. That was what we agreed on.

        Unfortunately, my friends do not understand the concept of secrets: You don't reveal them. For when the door opened, and all of us that were supposed to be on the bottom bunk jumped from the top bunk to the bottom, our math teacher came in. She had been listening at the door. Surprise, surprise. That was why I did not reveal my secrets. Lucky for my friends, our math teacher wouldn't reveal the secrets. That's what happened at the end of the year. Kenneth graduated. We miss him. He was something else.
        I don't know what my friends did over the summer, but I visted my family. In Egypt. It'll be another couple years before I get to see them again. And I won't ever see my grandfather again. I'll miss him.

       
       A lot of books came out. The Throne of Fire, The Son of Neptune, The Howling Sphinx, The Emperor of Nihon-Ja, and others. Many people die, Steve Jobs, the man who re-created the world we know, one of them. He'll be missed, as will all the other people who died. Many people were born. A lot fo weddings took place, such as the Royal Wedding.
        It's my last year at my school, and I'll miss everyone. The world may end in 2012, but we'll have to wait and see. We've made a lot of memories, but they are in the past. It is time to create new memories now.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Ta Ta For Now

        I am going to talk professionally, as this is going to be a short blog. You can deal with that, yes? So now is winter break for our school, and I am afraid that I may not be able to update my blog. Of course, I can, if you would like...all you would have to do is give me a comment on what you would like me to teach you about. I will check my blog, of course, to see the comments, and if I find one, I will do it. If there are two comments, or more, which I doubt, for I have no reason to believe that anyone other than the people in my school read this, then I will do the first on my list, and go on. I will try to get to anyone's request as soon as possible, though, as I told you, I doubt any person reads this blog unless forced.

Monday, December 5, 2011

A Lick off Your Dreamsicle....Yum. Dreaming about Dreams.

        Yeah, I've never heard of one of them, either. I mean, seriously...Dreamsicle? Anabel told me, though. Apparently, it's a vanilla ice cream cone, with an orange Popsicle outside layer. It's sorta hard to explain, if you didn't get that. Here:

        Oh, man, I forgot my manners again! What went wrong with my parents raising me? Oh, well. Hi. What's up? Today, I'm going to teach you about dreams. You remember when Martin Luther King told his I Have A Dream speech? If you didn't, then you probably don't live in the U.S., because...seriously...everyone knows MLK. He has his own day for crying out loud! anabel was here. GET OFF MY BLOG!
                                                
       And everyone who's seen or read Harry Potter knows about Harry's odd dreams. But why does he? Why does anyone? Have you ever had a nightmare where you're crying in the dream, and it seems so real, and then you wake up, and you're crying just as you were in the dream? Or have believed that the dream was real until you wake up? When I'm in a dream, I feel just as I do in life. I don't remember if I can taste or feel. In fact, I don't remember a lot of my dreams, especially the good ones. I really believe that some are real. Why? Why do you believe it's real? Why do you remember some dreams and not others? Why do you have nightmares? Why do we have dreams? Why do we daydream? 
                                           
        First, let's see what people thought way back then. There are a couple of myths that cover dreams. The Greeks and Romans though it was a god that caused it, a god named Morpheus. He was the the leader of the Oneiroi, the god or spirits of dreams, who were his brothers. Morpheus is the son of Hypnos, the god of sleep. The Greeks believed that Morpheus shaped or formed the dreams of all human beings, and that he could change his appearance and go into dreams. Morpheus's name literally means 'he who shapes', and the drug morphine is named after him. 
        His brothers, it is said, each had a job. Icelus concentrated on the dreams that reflected reality. Phobetor focused on the scary dreams, or nightmares, which is where the name phobia came from. Phantasus created tricky, unreal dreams. This is where the word fantasy came from. Morpheus was said to be responsible for the dreams of heroes and gods, which is why he is said to be the most important one of his brothers. Phobetor and Phantasus were said to make the dreams of animals and inanimate objects as well.
        Now, let's come back to modern times, though you have to admit myths are just plain awesome. Really, how did these people come up with them? Just plain awesome, yeah? It must have taken a lot of imagination. I don't think I could've done that.                   
      Okay, so scientists don't know for sure why we dream, how the brain makes dreams, what dreams are, or whether they have a purpose or meaning at all. The technology for studying the brain while it dreams has only been around for a couple decades. The technology really doesn't give us even close to the whole story, anyway. It was only in 1953 that REM (Rapid Eye Movement in sleep) was discovered. REM is a type of sleep that happens to us four to six times a night. During this, your eyes sort of jump around in your a lot. Each REM period can last for only ten minutes, or up to an hour. It's basically during the REM time that you have most of your dreams.

        Dreams are...strange. But you knew that. Dreams can combine images, people, story lines, and other stuff that usually don't make a bundle of sense. Dreams tend to bring out strong emotions in people, such as crying. As I said before, scientists don't know whether dreams have any purpose or meaning. But there are people who do think that dreams have meanings, and these people think that they know what dreams mean. These are called dream interpreters. I'll put links up so you can learn about them. For now, let's take another trip to the past.
        
        Way back then, people thought that the dream world was an actual place that our spirits traveled to when we slept, and, ultimately, dreamed. I know it doesn't sound all that realistic now, but this is what people truly believed. It was commonly believed that dreams were omens, coming to people about the future, and you may have experienced a sense of déjà vu, where you just know that yo've been in a scene before, and that you've had a dream about it. It wasn't until the twentieth century that scientific attention was given to the subject of dreams.  

Travelling into the spirit world
 It all started with the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams in 1899. An Austrian psychiatrist by the name of Sigmund Freud wrote it. Smart man. Freud called dreams the "royal road to unconsciousness". He said that dreams are a form of wish-fulfillment, representing desires that we hide, even from ourselves, such as...world domination. This basically dominated the dream research for decades. A lot of great thinkers claim that they have gone to sleep with a problem and woken up with a solution. Apparently. Again, like the dude said, it could just be their subconscious speaking. Maybe they knew the solution, but it was in the subconscious.
        A lot of experts today agree that dreams have a 'psychological origin'. However, according to research which is still growing, our dreams may not have any meaning at all. One similar theory, called activation-synthesis theory, says that our dreams are caused  by random electrical signals pulsing through our brain. The theory also says that dreams have absolutely no plot, that instead, our minds create a storyline to make sense of the random images. Personally, I don't exactly think this is true. I just don't.

        Other researchers say that dreams may serve as an important physical function in the brain. Like, Francis Crick (the guy who discovered DNA's structure) thought that dreams are a way for the brain to rid itself, or clean out, unnecessary memories. And still others think that it's something in between all those: that dreams may be random, and they may be an important physical function of the brain as well. Either way, it's up to you to decide, after this blog is over, of course. 
        Now, let's talk about the five stages of sleep. 
  • Stage one is a light sleep. Your muscles start to relax, and you have an occasional muscle twitch.
  • Stage two is when your breathing pattern and your heart rate start to slow down, and you have a slight decrease in your body temperature. 
  • Stage three is when the deep sleep begins. Your brain begins to generate slow delta waves.
  • Stage four is a very deep sleep. You hvae a rythmic sleep, and you have limited muscle activity. Your brain produces delta waves.
  • Stage five is the rapid eye movement sleep. Your brainwaves speed up, and the dreaming occurs. Your muscles relax, and your heart rate increases. Your breathing is rapid and shallow.
         Personally, I think this is really interesting. Who knew sleeping had stages? Not me, for one. Anyway, like I said before, you dream about four to six times a night. No one really remembers a lot of their dreams. Most just know if they had a good or bad one. The reason you don't remember you four to six dreams is because when you start a dream sleeping, and finish the dream still sleeping, chances are that you won't remember the dream at all. But if you start a dream sleeping and are interrupted before you have a chance to finish, odds are that you'll remember some, if not most, of that dream. Of course, sometimes, when you try to remember the dream, focus on it, it usually slips out of your memories faster than water running out of a cupped hand.

There's also been a lot of speculation on if you dream in black and white, or if you dream in color. Though scientific studies indicate that we dream in color, that doesn't mean it's not possible to dream in black and white. In fact, depending on the information and imagery the brain uses for the visual part of the dream, humans are capable of dreaming in any combination of colors. Certain drugs or medication may alter the sleeper's view on the colorization. On the other hand, researchers say that out of thousands of dream laboratory studies, there hasn't been one instance in which a sleeper has reported their dream to be in black and white. In fact, the sleeper ususally describes the color in a lot of detail. Of course, this could be because when you dream about, say, an apple, you know the apple is red. Maybe you do dream in black and white, but when you wake up, you say the apple is red, because you automatically know the apple is red. This is just my theory, mind you. I actually don't think we dream in black and white. I think we dream in color, though I don't dismiss the statement that some dream in black and white, and that we are capable of dreaming in black and white. 
  
        Now let's talk about nightmares. Ever wondered why you don't always have a good dream? Why you sometimes have bad dreams, more commonly known as nighmares? While a lot of people believe that it's caused because of something you heard or watched, most nighmares aren't caused by movies or stories. But it's also important to know the difference between night terrors and nighmares. Night terrors don't occur during REM sleep, and they usually cause screaming and thrashing. Night terrors are rarely remembered.
       Nightmares do occur during REM sleep, and they cause fear, but most of the time, they do not cause the screaming and other affects of night terrors. Nightmares can be remember just as well as any other dream, which, when you think of how many dreams you remember, isn't very much. Some people remember the sensations, but not the pictures. Nightmares are just nightmares, though that doesn't mean they shouldn't be taken seriously. During a nightmare, your pulse and body sweat may rise, which are the causes of real fear, and while some people think that only children have nightmares, then I'm sorry to crush their beliefs so badly, because adults do have nightmares, and some can have pretty bad ones. Children may have more nightmares, yes, but most adults do ave nightmares. The difference, however, between a child having a nightmare and an adult having one is that the adult seems to be better at forgetting the nighmare, or at pushing it out of their mind.

          But what causes nightmares? Oh, well, there's a lot of reasons. Nightmares don't have one single cause, so there's no single solution of stopping them. Sometimes physical factors are involved, like an illness or medication. Sometimes it's something to do with some sort of stress that you've been having. It could be trauma, too. Other times it could be some small worry that has been ignored for a long time. Nighmares don't usually cause any physical harm, other than interupting your sleep, and I don't know about you, but that's enough harm for me. I hate anything interrupting my sleep. But just because they don't cause phsical harm, doesn't mean that it can't have an impact on your life. Sometimes, after a nightmare, you go through the day irritable, moody, and/or depressed. Wow. Then I must have a lot of nightmares.....


        Well, that's it for this blog. Sorry it was so long, but I'm interested in this topic. Oops. Maybe I rambled....like I am now. I really hope you learned something here today. I know I learned a lot. Now, my classmates aren't doing the same thing as I am....SuperSara's doing the Loch Ness Monster, Logan's doing dolphins, and Katie is science and pseudoscience. Don't know what they are? Read the blogs! For now, sweet dreams!


Monday, November 14, 2011

Why are the leaves FALLING?

        Ha ha, get it? Falling in the fall. You have to love corny jokes. They're just awesome. Oh, dang, where are my manners? Hi there. What's up? Today we're going to learn about the leaves changing. Oh, man, it's so cool. I mean, just the different colors and shapes, and then when they fall, sometimes they get crunchy, and then you step on them...ah, memories.
        And don't forget making leaf piles and jumping in 'em! Of course, SuperSara hasn't done this, so what we're gonna do is make on for her! Okay, so have you ever wondered why your pretty tree in your backyard that has your tire swing is looking like it's sick because its poor leaves are falling off?
        And if you think how much that tree helps you, you could get really worried. But there's no need! The tree isn't dying. The leaves are...which is better, but not by much. The leaves are dying, not because the earth is moving away from the sun, like some people think, or because the weather gets colder, like other people think, but because there's less sunlight. And, no, that still has nothing to do with the earth moving away from the sun or the cold. Stop interrupting me! It has to do with season, which we'll get into later, all right? Good.
        So why would leaves need sunlight, you ask? Well, it has something to do with a thing called photosynthesis. Plants can't go into McDonald's and ask for a double cheese burger with large fries. It doesn't happen that way with them. Plants have to make their own food, which is where photosynthesis comes in. The plants, which obviously includes leaves, take in the sunlight and, well, create food. It's a longer process than that, but that's not what we're learning about. I kind of feel bad for the plants, because they get no variety, just the same old boring food every day.
        Anyway, I think you can see where I'm going with this. If leaves need sunlight for food, and there's less sunlight during the fall and winter, can't you guess why the leaves die? They can't get enough food, in case you can't guess. It's actually pretty sad when you think about it: leaves only live for two seasons.
         
        Okay, so now you know why leaves fall off the trees. Now you have to know why leaves change colors. What some people don't know is that leaves already started out with the red, orange, and yellow that you see during the fall. But chlorophyll, which helps get energy from the sun for photosynthesis and gets rid of waste that the tree can't use, is green, and that green overpowers the other colors. And when the days get shorter, the chlorophyll sort of dies, and the other colors start to show through.
        Now it is time for the season changes! Whoop whoop! I love spring, fall, winter, and summer. But I like the cold more than the summer, and I'd like the cold to stay a bit longer! Maybe, if I find out what makes it like that, I can persuade the earth to stay a bit longer in winter, and a bit shorter during the summer. Of course, everybody's probably gonna kill me, because there's no school during summer. 
        Okay, so like I told you before, seasons don't depend on the earth moving away from the sun. While that would be easier to explain, it is not possible. You see, the the earth moving from....and I'm getting off topic. Sorry about that. So you know how a globe is never strait? How it's always tilted? Have you ever wondered why that is? Just in case you don't know, it's because that real earth is tilted. It's tilted on its axis. The axis is tilted at about 23.5 degrees. 
 
        The earth rotates on its axis, and that causes the days and nights.
        But the earth spinning on the path around the sun, the path that takes a year, or 365 earth days, to complete, is what causes the seasons. Without the tilt, however, the seasons wouldn't change, and it would probably be the same temperature all year where you live. Can you imagine that? Anyway, when the sun hits the northern hemisphere directly, the days get longer and hotter. That's summer.
        While that's happening, the sunlight is hitting the southern hemisphere at an angle, which make the days shorter and colder. That's winter.
        When the earth is on the other side of the sun, the northern hemisphere has winter, and the southern hemisphere has summer. But the tropical place are on the equator, which is the border between the northern and southern hemisphere. The poor tropics are hit by the sun for the whole year, so their seasons don't change much. Poor them. The north and south poles are different. It's winter, then summer, and there's no fall or spring. Summer there means it's always light, even during the night. Winter there means it's always dark, even during the afternoon and morning. 
       
        Here's when the seasons are supposed to start in the northern hemisphere: spring starts with the vernal equinox on March 20th, or 21st.
        Summer starts at the summer solstice, which begins on June 21st.
        Fall falls on the autumnal equinox, on September 22nd, or 23rd.
        Winter starts on the winter solstice, on December 22nd or 23rd.
        Together, of course, these create the seasons!


        Of course, the southern hemisphere would start spring when the northern hemisphere stars fall, vice versa. The southern hemisphere would start winter when the northen hemisphere starts summer, and vice versa again.


        And that's basically it for this! Yeah, I know there was a lot of pictures, and I'm sorry for that, but you can't blame me. Seasons are beautiful. Okay, so if you want to learn more, I'll put some links below, and as always, my classmates' blogs are going to be there, too. I hope you guys have a great day. I have to leaf now...haha, get it? Peace out!
Fountain of Seasons Animation: Really Cool but Not Very Informative
Science Made Simple: Why Are The Leaves Changing?
Why Leaves Change Color
How Stuff Works: Changing Seasons
When Do The Seasons Change?
SuperSara's Blog
Katie's Blog
Logan's Blog


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