AnyTime2Learn

Lord of the rings: the Fellowship of the Ring book review

In The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein, the reader is taken into Middle Earth where they meet a hobbit named Frodo. Frodo is given a ring by Bilbo that he later learns needs to be destroyed. The rest of this book is the first part of their eventful and difficult journey to destroy the ring. Along this journey we meet dwarves, elves, trolls and more, all with their own languages and dialects. The author even includes maps to help the reader see better where everything takes place. The creatures, languages and maps are part of what made me want to learn everything I could about The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

One of the main characters is a Hobbit, and his friends are hobbits except for Gandalf. Gandalf is a powerful wizard that helps Frodo and his friends on their adventure. Hobbits are very short and they have big feet. Hobbits are relatively unimportant to Sauron until Frodo and his friends go to destroy the ring. The hobbits speak English and all mostly live in the Shire.

The Shire is my favorite place because it is beautiful, with green grasses and sunny fields. The Shire is where we meet our main characters, and where the hobbits live. We also meet theNazgûl here when they come up to a hobbit and ask where Frodo lives.

The Nazgûl are the creatures that are hunting the main characters for a long time. Nazgûl are humans who were corrupted by rings that were given to them by Sauron. There are nine Nazgûl in total. They are the size of a human but have long black cloaks on them and they do not really have a visible face. They can only die by a magical sword. They ride on dark horses; that’s why they are also known as The Black Riders.

After the characters leave the Shire they go to a town called Bree. The people in Bree are mostly brown-haired and rather short. Bree has a tavern called The Prancing Pony, and that’s where the characters meet Strider. Strider is a human who befriends Frodo and his friends, and comes with them on their quest.

Before they get to Rivendell, they meet the Nazgûl again. This time the Nazgûl manage to stab Frodo. They fight off the Nazgûl then have to rush to Rivendell to save Frodo from dying. Rivendell is an elven city and according to the map Rivendell is right in between a split in the Loudwater river. In Rivendell the party meets more members that will go with them, they are: Legolas (elf), Aragorn/Strider (human), Boromir (human), and Gimli (dwarf).

I’m going to give you a bit of information about elves.There are many kinds of elves, tree elves, high elves, and many more. Elves all have pointy ears. They also have very elaborate architecture and very nice clothes. Elves are usually extremely acrobatic and are quite good fighters. Legolas is my favorite character because he is super cool and has even better skills than other elves.

The dwarves are short creatures that look like humans. Dwarves are very good at stoneworking. They make cities inside of mountains and are skilled miners. Sometimes they mine too much, though, and accumulate too much gold, or go too deep so monsters (like dragons and balrogs) destroy their home. You could say the dwarves are like hobbits, but more rough, and their feet are not as big as hobbits. Dwarves are my favorite race in Lord of the Rings.

Moria used to be a dwarven city inside of a mountain, but the dwarves dug too deep and found a balrog. The Balrog killed most of them and drove the dwarves out of Moria. As time passed, orks, trolls, and goblins started to go to Moria.

The Orcs are the soldiers that the dark lord Sauron uses throughout the whole story and throughout the entire series. Orcs come in many sizes and types. There are the Uruk-hai, the orcs of Mordor, and not to list too many, the orcs of Isengard and Moria. Orks all speak the same language, which is The Dark language of Mordor. The Nazgûl also speak this language too.

We first see a troll in Moria when it attacks the party. Trolls are also used by Sauron; they are big and ugly. Trolls are almost like orcs but bigger. Trolls can not be in the light of day because if they do they will turn into stone. Trolls speak English and they also speak The Dark Language. Trolls are also used to pull or push giant things.

Goblins also get added in when the party goes to Moria and the goblins attack them and chase them through Moria.Goblins are really just smaller orcs. In the book, we find that they live in an old Dorvin city called Moria.Goblins aren’t really used that much by Sauron. They are about the size of a Hobbit, but they are much uglier like most of the things that Sauron uses. Goblins can climb very steep walls; these walls can be up to 90°.

Balrogs first get added to the story when they chase the characters in Moria just like most of the creatures I have listed above. A Balrog is a gigantic demon that was created by sauron. In the book they are described as human-like, but have horns and look more devilish. Balrogs are about the size of a four-story building,they are very large.

When the company leaves Moria, they come out with one less member, and that is Gandalf. Gandalf has supposedly died according to them.Everybody is very sad that Gandolf died, and their morale gets very low. So, after Moria they ride with the river and stop at a bank on the side of the river where they fight orcs.

Our journey in this book finishes with Frodo and Sam leaving the company that they were in and trying to go to Mordor by themselves. Will they succeed? Well, that’s another book, but as of right now, they want to do it themselves.

What I would do if I was forced to invent something useful out of a strange itemsomething useful out of a strange item

There are many objects that exist in the world, so in this lesson, I chose to make a wind speed measurer (anemometer). I would make it out of sticks and cut in half avocados.

Let’s make a scenario for this first. Let’s say I was stuck on an island and I hade to make an anemometer to make sure the wind would not knock down a telescope that I built out of materials that were not that strong to see if anyone was coming. First I would go out and gather 100 sticks, then I would scavenge for avocados.

When I find all these things I would bundle up 30 sticks and use the rest for the wind catchers. I would now cut the avocados in half with a knife then poke the sticks through them. I would make four half avocado wind catchers. I would attach two avocados to one stick on each side, then do this again. To re-enforce the sticks I would bundle them up to make them thicker and stronger. I do this to all the sticks. Now I have completed my anemometer.

Thank you for reading this session, I hope you enjoyed. What would you build that is important out of random objects? Anyway bye and see you next time.

The founding of Carthage

Carthage was founded 814BC when a group of Phoenicians had a bunch of goods and decided to take them across the Mediterranean. They established a number of colonies, and one of those colonies was a place called Carthage. Technically the Carthaginians were actually Phoenicians. At first Carthage started as trade colony.

Carthage was in northern africa in modern day Tunisia. It was in a perfect spot because it was in a safe spot and had an abundant supply of fish. It had access to the Mediterranean but was also shielded from many bad storms. It was an easily defendable position and it also was a strategic in east west Mediterranean trade. Since Carthage was a trade colony they made a lot of money from their trade and exploiting silver mines from North Africa. Then they were able to make a powerful navy. Carthage then was able to expand because they had a very powerful navy and they explored land and conquered it.

This is how carthage became such a powerful empire and controlled the mediterranean. I hope you enjoyed, bye and se you next time.

Resources: oversimplified (history channel on YouTube) and wikipedia

How does the Greek’s worldview influence the stories and myths they told

We know that the Greeks believed that their Gods influenced the life all around them, but how do we see that in their stories? Let’s find out now.

We can see that in Greek stories the main character is usually fighting mythical creatures that the Greeks believed in. We also know that the main characters receipt help from the Gods. The Greeks, believe that the gods manipulated things around them, so in their stories, the gods must do the same. In the stories that I have read, the main character is usually trying to get back his rightful place as a king, or save someone from a bad king, and they get helps from the Gods.

In Greek stories, like Pandora’s box, we see that the writers try to give an explanation for why there are diseases in the world, except that they try to do stories like this with Gods, and very strong humans.

In the story of Hercules, Hercules meets Atlas, the God, who is holding up the world. You can clearly see how the Greeks thought that a God was holding up the world. We know that the Greeks thought that Gods controlled the world around them, so that’s probably why they put Atlas in their story. We can certainly see that their worldview influenced their stories and myths.

Thank you for reading this essay. What do you think about the Greek’s worldview and how it influenced their stories and myths? Anyway bye and see you next time.

Romulus

In a few words, Romulus was the first king of Rome, he was the one who initially founded Rome. In this essay, I will be summarizing his life.

As you know from the introduction, Romulus was the first king of Rome, but how did he become the first king of Rome?

Romulus used to have a brother called Remus, and one day they wanted to found a kingdom, but they both had disagreements on where they wanted to make the capital city. So in their disagreement, Romulus and Remus fought against each other, physically. In the end Remus was killed by Romulus, and Romulus founded the city of Rome on the Palestine hill.

At first, Rome had more men than women, so Romulus decided to kidnap women from a nearby city. After he did this the city that he stole the woman from, got very angry, and decided to go to war with Rome. But the woman ran in between the battle, and told the men not to fight, because in fact, the women were happy with their new husbands.

To help Romulus rule, he created the Senate which were people that were elected to him help rule. There were 100 of them.

The people of Rome thought of Romulus as a God. When Romulus died, there were two different accounts of his death. The senate said that a cloud formed around him, and when it disappeared, he was dead. The non-ruling people said that a cloud had appeared around him, and when it went away, he was not there. These are two contradicting stories, but which one is true we don’t know. After hi death, the people thought that Romulus had been called up by the Gods to become a God himself.

We can see that Romulus was very much liked by his people, and when he died, they thought he was a God even more than they already did. Romulus was a good king and the founder of Rome.

What do you think about Romulus, which one of the stories of his death do you think it’s true? Bye and see you next time.

A Greek mith that I made myself

Personally I really enjoy making my own stories that are not happening in modern times but in a time where the main weapons were swords and knives. So when I saw that I could write my own “Greek myth”, I was very happy. The name of this myth is The Ancient Shadow Dragon.

A man named Galroth Shortsteel was a farmer who lived in the outskirts of Athens; and one day as he was working he saw a black blur in the sky. He wondered what it was but continued working, as the fields were not going to plow themselves.

One day as he was in the city he noticed that some people were talking about a dragon that has been terrorizing a little island out in the ocean. After hearing this, he went up to those people and asked, “What kind of dragon? Is it big? Or is it just a little small dragon?” The people looked at him and started to tease him. One man said, “No, the dragon is the size of an ant and it’s destroying the city.” And another said, “What are you going to do to stop it? Who even cares if it’s big! We shouldn’t be bothered what kind of dragon it is either!” The farmer simply walked away to his house after that, wondering who would stop the dragon.

That night, as he was sleeping, he had a dream that Zeus was telling him to stand up, go outside and yell, “Shazam!” He woke up from this dream instantly and thought to himself, “Was that just my imagination or was that really Zeus!?” He ran outside and yelled, “Shazam!”

And at that very moment he received armor that was so strong that not even the sharpest sword and the most powerful man could break, and a sword that was so sharp it could easily cut through brick! At this moment he was wondering to himself, “Why me? This is amazing! Zeus Almighty, thank you.” And then, a thought instantly came to his head, he was the one to kill the dragon.

The next morning he got in a little rowboat he owned and started paddling towards the island. A few long hours had passed and he finally made it to the island. He saw a small village that was on fire, the fire so hot it would melt the skin of anything, and anyone that came close to it. Luckily he wasn’t close to the fire, so he looked around to see if he could find the dragon, but there was nothing. So he continued to walk around the fire and over a small hill that was there, and he saw a gigantic ancient shadow dragon sleeping.

He approached it slowly and quietly, but then the dragon spoke, “I can smell you, I know the scent of a human who is approaching. I also know the taste of human. Good thing I didn’t have lunch today!”

The dragon stood up, he was mighty, he was strong, and he had no fear on his face. Before the dragon could do anything Galroth said with slight fear in his voice, “What is your name? And why have you come to torture these people?” The dragon quickly answered, “I am Shanzatar the mighty destroyer of realms, the Black Shadow in the sky, and most famous of all, the Shadows Death!” As he said that last word it seemed to echo around the air and last for minutes.

Galroth immediately knew who this dragon was, he was the dragon who had destroyed his old village, he was the dragon who had killed his family. He began to get angry and finally struck his sword into the neck of the dragon, the dragon yelled but then swiped him with his mighty claws and he flew 10 feet and landed on the ground with a very loud thump!

The armor seem to have protected him, it was very strong armor, but the the skin of the dragon seemed to be the same way. The dragon opened his mouth and Galroth saw the color red flowing through the dragons stomach and finally reached the neck and then! Fire came out of the dragons mouth, but this wasn’t any normal fire, this was a fire that had hints of red and black inside of it. Galroth lifted his shield and the fire bounced off of it, apparently his armor was also fire resistant, so he didn’t melt the second it touched him. The dragon now had its eyes fixed on Galroth, he was impressed with the armor, and he said, “Your armor proves very strong, but would it be strong enough to face this!?” The dragon lift it up from the ground with his mighty wings, the wind was so strong Galroth nearly fell, but he held his ground and the dragon flew up to the sky and started to dive down.

Galroth knew what the dragon was about to do, so he tried to leap to the side but it was too late, the dragon had caught him with its mighty claws, it felt like a horse had hit him straight in the chest and lifted him up into the sky. Then the dragon said with a powerful voice, “If anymore of you pesky humans dare to challenge me you will all die just like you will today!”

As the dragon was about to throw him down to the ground Galroth lifted his sword and struck the dragon three times in the heart. The dragon yelled and spit fire out of his mouth and started to come crashing down to the earth. If Galroth did not jump out of the dragon’s claws he would be killed. But then he realized he was above land, above the city he lived in. So he yelled down below for the people to grab all the cushions they possibly could and to be prepared for him to fall to the ground with the dragon.

At the last moment he leapt from the dragons hand, which was very difficult because the dragon’s claws were slowly moving in the air as the dragon fell, but nevertheless he did it and he landed in the cushions while the dragon landed with a giant crash and boom. With his last breath it spat fire into the sky and died.

Everybody cheered as Galroth stepped up and said, “The dragon is slain!”

Thank you for reading this essay, I hope you enjoyed my story. What did you think of the dragon? Do you think it should have been more wise and more careful then it was? Well anyway, by and see you next time.

The Persian wars

In the time of the persian wars there were three major empires: Egypt, Greece, and Persia, who was the strongest of them all. Persia was about to have the greatest challenge of all time. First the Greeks would start the war with the Ionian revolt, then the battles of Marathon and Thermopylae, and finally they would go on the offensive for revenge.

Ionia, which was a Persian controlled city in Greece, revolted. This took place in 499-493 BCE, and started the Persian wars. As you know the Persian were, at that time, the strongest empire, and Greece was still big but not as big and strong as the Persian empire. So this must have seemed like a certain victory for Persia. In the battle of Marathon, the Athenians and the Persians clashed, it was a successful battle for the Greeks, which essentially marked the decline of Persia and the rise of the Greek empire. This also shows that even the strongest can lose.

The Battle of Thermopylae took place in 480 BC and was a very interesting battle. A much bigger Persian empire went through the mountain pass of Thermopylae, and confronted Greek forces, which were mostly the spartan forces that were led by Leonidas. After three days of holding their ground from the Persians, king Xerxes the first out flanked the spartan army. In the end the Spartans were defeated but some managed to escape before the other army had arrived to flank them.

In 478 BC the Greeks took the offensive, but Sparta pulled out of the alliance. The Delian League was formed by Athens afterwards. The states in the Delian league could contribute with men or taxes. In the end the Persians surrendered and the Greeks had one. The Persians were not to sail inside of Greek waters anymore.

This war clearly showed that the most powerful army can be destroyed by a supposedly weaker one. Also the Greeks benefited a lot from this war, yes they did have losses, but in the end they had a pretty good bargain with the Persians.

The layers of the atmosphere

There are many layers of the Earth’s atmosphere: the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere. Each layer has its own characteristics and temperature. One has birds, some have planes, a couple even have satellites. It is almost like five different worlds sitting on top of each other.

The troposphere is the lowest layer of the atmosphere; it is 10 miles high at the equator, and 80% of the atmospheric mass and most water vapor is there. Temperatures decrease as the altitude increases. This is quite low compared to some of the other layers of the earth. It is also where we live.

The stratosphere is the second layer of the atmosphere; it begins 6 to 8 miles (10-13 km) above sea level and ends 31 to 34 miles (approximately 50-55 km) above sea level. Jet- powered airplanes can fly in the stratosphere; on the other hand propeller powered airplanes cannot. In this layer of the atmosphere temperatures increase as the altitude increases.

The mesosphere is the third layer of the atmosphere; it begins 31 miles (50 km) above sea level and ends at 50 to 53 miles (approximately 80-85 km) above sea level. Planes cannot fly in the mesosphere because the air in the mesosphere is so thin that the airplane cannot produce lift. The average temperature in the mesosphere is -120°F or -85°C. Here the temperature decreases as altitude increases. TLE (trans luminous event) happens in the mesosphere; this happens way above lightning and thunderstorms. It happens very fast though, so in order to actually catch it happening you have to have a camera that is capable of taking pictures very fast.

The thermosphere is the fourth layer of the atmosphere, and it begins 50 miles or 80 km above sea level and ends at 310 to 620 miles (approximately 230 to 380 km above sea level. The ISS orbits here at 200 to 240 miles above sea level, in other words 320 to 380 km above sea level. Here temperature increases as altitude increases. The temperature can be at 2700°F, which is 1500°C, but due to low atmospheric pressure and relatively few molecules it would feel very cold.

The exosphere is the outer layer of the atmosphere; it begins 700 km above sea level and disappears into space at 10,000 km above sea level which is approximately 6200 miles above sea level. The majority of satellites orbit here. Atmospheric pressure is extremely low.

In summary, the layers of the atmosphere start low but get very high and very cold as you get farther away from the surface of the earth. We are so lucky that the layer of the atmosphere lowest to the earth is the one we can live in and is just right for us. What do you think about the layers of the atmosphere?

References: Quora

Archimedes and Greek Architecture

Both Archimedes and Greek architecture are very interesting things to learn about; that is exactly what I learned in history this week.

Greek architecture. The Greeks had three types of pillars, the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian pillars.

The Doric pillars are plane and thick, and the more common of all the pillars; used in most buildings.

The Ionic pillars are more elegant and slender; they were used them in the Parthenon.

The Corinthian pillar is extremely decorated! Though it was mostly used by the Romans not the Greeks, most likely for very elegant buildings.

There is a clear distinction in the architecture of buildings inhabited by the rich citizens and the poor. For more rich citizens they used more pillars and made many things out of marble. For the poor citizens they just made simple houses with a small courtyard.

Archimedes, Archimedes lived from 287-212 BC, and he accomplished many many things in his time. He was a great Greek mathematician and scientist. He was born in Syracuse, Sicily. Archimedes did many amazing things, he measured how many grains of sand it would take to fill up the entire universe at his time, he made a water screw, that helps gardeners, he also made cranes for war that would drop boulders on enemy ships! He was super duper smart and amazing. Many people call him the most influential man in history. I think so, I really think he is one of a kind, and had a brilliant mind. One other important discovery of Archimedes was that if you have a plank large enough and you put it underneath some thing and then balance the plank on another object you could lift the object then you put the plank underneath. Archimedes even said that if he had a plank big enough he could lift the earth. He also discovered the mass of some things like gold and silver. Overall he was a very amazing man.

My fictional ad

My fictional ad is going to be on a product called Forrli. I will now start the ad.

You’re probably wondering what this product does. If you are, then I’m gonna tell you about it. This product can make you feel like your house is spot clean, because it is when you use this product. We extracted the most special minerals and the most healthy things on the planet and mixed them all together (with some scientific experimentation, it wasn’t just mixing for no reason) and Bam! You get Forrli! This product removes all the germs on the surface you sprayed on, and if it accidentally gets into your eyes, well it’s OK, because it won’t hurt you. We made it people friendly, so you don’t get hurt. You can use it on windows, walls, mirrors, anything! Well maybe not everything like a pile of poop or something like that but……. mostly everything in your house! Buy this product today for $25! You can find it at any general store near you.

That was my fictional ad, I hope you liked it. It’s obviously fake, but it almost sounds like what somebody would say in real life, I think. Do you have any products that you think you would want to make a fictional ad for? Anyway, by and see you next time.