Monday, June 23, 2008

Thursday, June 19, 2008

sea man

The Sea Devil

At the end of the story, the main character vows to never fish again.
He accidentally caught a devil ray and the rope was stuck around his arm so then he was dragged around and almost killed if it weren't for a dolphin that came to the rescue. So he got pretty lucky. So pretty much he will never go fishing again because he was all ripped up by this thing and I know I probably wound not go in the water again either.
Mountain biking is the more risky thing I do because there a possibility I could fall or get attacked by a bear and that would be bad. So yeah, I would never go mountain biking again if that happened.

Friday, June 13, 2008

The Sea Devil

I think that the main character made the wrong decision because I fell off my bike a few months ago and I still ride my bike alot. Just because he was acting like a little boy over a fish doesn't mean that he should never fish again. I mean I would be scared, but not enough to make me not do it again. Just because it happend one time doesn't mean that it is going to happen again. He got scared because a big fish attacked him and he couldn't get away from him. I do a lot of risky things like BMX. I have also gone kayaking before and that is pretty risky because you could drown. BMX is risky because you can fall like I did and brake your face. I have done that too. But yeah I think that he is a wimp for being scared of a fish.

The Sea Devil

In the "Sea Devil" the main character goes fishing and accidentally catches a huge sea ray and almost dies. He chose to never fish again because of what happened to him. I think the main character made the right decision. An enormous sea devil attacked him and he almost didnt live. I would have done the same thing that he did. He risked his life and he barely lived and im not surprised he quit fishing. I think that he did it because not only did he almost die but he maybe had felt bad for the sea devil as well. He found out what it is like to be hunted all the time just like the sea devil. The other reason is obviously because he almost died. He saw his life flash before his eyes and it really mad him stop and think what he wants more, To live or to die. Things I do in my life that are risky is kayaking. I normaly dont kayak but we went with the bike shop. It was risky because I could have drowned.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Stave Deccabon Drum

For Newfound Challenge I decided to do my project on drums. I decided to make drums because I am a drummer and making drums is very fun and challenging as well. The teacher taught me how to make a certain type of drum called a “stave” drum. A Stave drum is a drum that has shaved down sides so they are at an angle. It has 16 boards(all shaved down) and they all connect and make a perfect circle for a drum. It is called a Stave Deccabon because a Deccabon is a drum that is about 24 inches deep and 8 inches around. Give or take a couple inches in depth or width, you can make it however you want I just decided to make my drum 24 inches deep by 8 inches wide.
To make the drum this is what you do. First, once you have shaved down the sides at an angle of the 16 boards you take any kind of strong tape and tape the boards. You take all the boards and lay them flat on the ground. Then you tape the boards together and lift up the boards and bend them and they will all be connected by the tape. Once you do that, You take wood glue and fill in the cracks (that will be there because the boards aren't connected). Once all of the cracks are filled in with wood glue you take a rope and tie it around the drum to create pressure. After you do that step you wait for the wood to dry. Once it is completely dry you take off the tape and the tie and shave down the sides with a plane to make the drum rounded. Once it is pretty close to a good circle you can take sandpaper and sand it down to make it a nice smooth circular drum.
Once all of those steps are finished you have yourself a nice drum for playing. Once you put the drum head on the top you have to make a stress hole about a quarter inch in diameter. That has to be on the drum somewhere in the middle so when you hit the drum the air has somewhere to go. If there was no hole then the drum would eventually crack because of all the pressure! Those are the simple steps you will need to make a stave drum. Hopefully after reading this you will have the knowledge to know how to make a drum and the ability to make a drum.
For me, this project was challenging because I have never made this type of drum before. It is a very big challenge to me, making this type of drum takes a lot of precision and hard work and patience. The one problem I had with it was when we made the drum we had to glue it very quickly before it dried and unfortunately we did not do it fast enough. We solved the problem by making a completely new drum and using the one we messed up on for practice. Ryan McMahon was a big help as well because he showed me the basics of making it so I could complete it properly. Him and I worked together really well on shaving the drum and shaping it into a perfect circle. Without Ryan, I could not have made the drum as well as I did.

Risk

Risk- Exposure to the chance of injury or loss; a hazard or dangerous chance

During our Kayak Trekking Unit we took many risks. By exposing you to risky situations we wanted you to learn more about yourself and how you deal with stress and difficult situations. By learning to deal well with difficulty and risk on the water you can improve how you deal with tough situations in regular life.
This is one of the main reasons why we went kayaking.

In a blog entry please answer the following:
1. Identify one risk that you took during the Kayak Trekking Unit.
2. How did you overcome this risk, what was the outcome? Did you "loose" anything or even get hurt?
3. Identify one risk that have taken in everyday life.
4. If you had to take this risk again, how might you approach this risk differently now that you have been through the Kayak Unit?

English Entry 3:

"The Sea Devil"

At the end of the story, the main character vows to never fish again. Given the circumstances, it is safe to assume that the fight with the Sea Devil scared him. One might assume that fear is the reason he wont fish. Another thought that was brought up in class is that the main character could now empathize with a trapped fish and thus would never hunt one again. What do you think?

Write an essay explaining the main character's reasons for vowing to never fish again. Appropriately cite evidence from the story that supports your argument. Also relate this story to your own life and the risks that you take. What would stop you from doing something you love? Was he right to give up fishing?