St. Nicholas

He was born 271. A.D. St. Nicholas was one of the most popular Saints in Christianity. They do not know when he died but people say that he died at around the 6 December, 342 A.D.  He went to Asia Minor near now known as Turkey. St.Nicholas especially helped the poor and homeless people. He cared much about them. People thought that he was able to calm the stormy seas if wants. He started off as a bishop in Asia Minor. Later he became popular all over the Roman Empire. People also say that he saved children's life helped sailors that did not have a place to sleep and he especially helped the poor.
When I read this article then I believe that he was a great man. A lot of bishops are often not like that. They learn a lot about the bible but they do not really think of helping poor and giving them food. They know that they should do it but they are too scared. I think that St. Nicholas was not scared at all and went around the Empire and helped and taught people. Like Jesus once taught people and helped the poor. Now it is all different. There is no bishop going to the poor and teaching them. The world needs people like this. Therefore I picked St. Nicholas.

Blog post #3

The meaning of my mosaic symbol:


I chose the anchor for my symbol. I thought that it is challenging to make but not too hard and it looks good and interesting. Therefore I chose the symbol. The anchor symbol was found in the catacombs. It is interesting that these mosaics survive so  long. The anchor in Christianity for Christian Hope in Christ. When you look at the anchor careful then you can see a cross. It also says that it brings together fish, boat and a dolphin.

Reflect on the process of making a mosaic:


First of all you have to find a symbol which also makes sense to use. Then you look at the paper and guess how tall your symbol will be. Then you draw with pencil the frame and then the symbol. After that you just have to find out which colors would catch someone's attention and which colors match together. Then you start to cut out the pieces for the frame and you go from the outside of the paper to the inside. At the end my symbol was the only white part. The symbol was the last thing that it glued the pieces on.

Imagination of making a real scale mosaic in a church over 1500 years ago: 
I think that it must be much harder because you have to make the pieces much smaller and they are harder to cut. If you make a mistake then you can't just fix it. It also takes much longer because it needs to look better and it is much larger. I think I would not be able to do that.

The Fall Of Rome

Rome fell? Yes, Rome's fall was 476 A.D. and it happened because of many reasons. Most of the people would think that it just was not strong enough to stand against the Barbarians but that is not specific enough. Not only the army was weak. The Barbarians weakened the army a lot because of their continuous attacks on the roman empire but that is not the only reason why the army was weak. I believe that there were many small mistakes that were made in Rome but on big mistake was the Economy that they had. Rome fell because the economy was a disaster, the wealthy people did not pay their taxes, the value of money decreased and the prices of supplies rose. How does that work? When you look at this system you can already see that it is a chaos. Rome did not fall because of its army, it fell because of the state not being able to feed, control and pay the army. There were also some little civil wars between roman emperors which harmed the army as well. The Barbarians used their chance and completely destroyed Rome. A.D. 476 the Romans finally realized what has happen      ed.  

Movie review

Philipp Grassl, 8A

Humanities, Ms. Moore

The son of god or just a normal man?

Jesus Christ Superstar is a movie which is not understandable and completely crazy. The movie does not make sense at all because there are too many things that could not have happened at the time Jesus lived .In the movie they all had machine guns which did not exist at that time. The movie also misses a lot of important parts that happen in the bible and some parts in the movie never happened in the bible. Therefore true Christians will not enjoy the movie like others. In the movie there were some funny parts but most of it was not that good. The beginning of the movie is the worst part of it and it is very confusing. If I would watch the movie again then I would skip the beginning. From time to time the movie starts getting better but still not as good as a lot of people say, but you can’t just grade a movie on the ending because without the beginning you would not understand the ending.

That movie was probably very hard to create. It must be very hard to make all these crazy dances and singing. The actors must have had a lot of practice for this dancing. I saw that the dancing was incredibly hard for the actors but that does not make the movie better, it only makes the actors suffer dancing lesson. I would not like to be an actor in that movie. Jesus (Tim Neeley) and Judas (Carl Anderson) do not have to dance but they have to sing a lot. I really like Judas, how he moves, runs, and how he is always worried. He plays his role very well. I do not like Jesus in that movie; he does not play his parts as well as Judas. Judas shows much more emotions then Jesus. Judas is the real star of the movie.

The movie is basically about Judas who wants to tell Jesus that he needs a plan and don’t become too popular so that they don’t get killed, but Jesus ignores him. Judas is scared and expresses all his feelings by singing. They don’t speak a single word in that movie.  All the followers of Jesus sing and look up at him like a king but that is not what Jesus wants. Jesus is very stressed and always nervous and exhausted.  Jesus can’t handle everything.

As it already says in the name, Jesus Christ Superstar, must be a musical or Rock Opera. When I watched the movie I found out that it is not a musical but a rock opera, which is where the characters don’t speak at all. I did not like the songs except one where King Herod starts singing. I really like that because I think that the actor, Josh Mostel, made a very good job on acting and also singing. The song is not special but the way they dance is really funny. The songs in total where not good at all, they did not have any style of music, they where all different. The dances where sometimes boring but there were about two which were funny.

In total, I did not like the movie that much therefore I would give it 2 out of 5 stars. The beginning was very boring but it got better because there was some blood which made the movie a bit more exciting. I would recommend this movie to adults and not for children, not because it is too brutal but it is really hard to understand if nobody tells you what is happening. Also I never heard a child talk positive about the movie but all the adults loved it. An adult would not like to watch SpongeBob and children don’t want to watch Jesus Christ Superstar because it is just not interesting for them. Children do not like singing that much so they do not like the movie. It also says it in the name, Rock Opera, it is like an opera and no child would ever go there without being forced to go. This is the reason why Jesus Christ Superstar only has 2 out of 5 stars.

Works Cited

Imdb. “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Imdb.com. IMDB, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/‌title/‌tt0070239/>.

Blog post #3

Was Caesar a dictator or a reformer?




There are many points that Caesar was a good Reformer of the city state Rome but there were also a lot of bad things which describe Caesar as an ambitious dictator. I believe that Caesar was an ambitious dictator. Here is a quote from an article, "He kept hidden any facts that did not make him look brave or intelligent." In this quote you can see that Caesar must have had a lot of bad sites and that he wasn't as good as it says in all the books that we read today. The books that we are using today only show the good things about him. Also Caesar lowered the senate to make sure he alone is the ruler of Rome. He thinks that he can handle it and shows how much he believes in himself and how he treats others. Caesar would never give someone the glory. As you can see, the popularity of Caesar did not make a good person out of him. Caesar is an ambitious Dictator. 

Blog post #2

 Explain in detail how the geography and climate of the Italian peninsula affected the development of ancient Rome.

Ancient Rome was build on seven hills. That was good because when someone attacked Rome that had to climb up the hills. Rome's hills where mostly flat on the top and so that was perfect for farming or building something on there. Therefore Italians where better farmers than Greek. Also there were Mountains around Italy so if someone tried to attack they had to cross the mountains first. Rome was built so far away from the sea so that the pirates would not come that far, but Rome was able to trade over the sea. The climate of Rome was also very good for farming. It was very hot. Rome was the perfect city for farming. 

Legends of Rome

First Legend:
Once there were two brother called Remus and Romulus. Both were raised by a wolf. Romulus loved built so he decided to built a city. That was 1000 years ago. Remus made fun of his brother and so Romulus killed him. After he spent a lot of time building the city he decided to call it after him, "Rome." Later the Latins came and made the city better.

Second Legend:
Virgil was a poet who wrote about a hero called Aeneas. Aeneas and his followers sailed over the Mediterranean sea after they lost the battle in Sparta. They came to Rome and married the King's daughter. Aeneas and his friends brought the Latins. That is how the second legend goes.