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Linking assignment 6

Meghan’s emoji story

The title for the show/movie gave it right away for me because of its direct translation (guy walking, skull -> walking dead). I think Meghan took a different approach to the title as hers is much more about directly translating the actions of the emojis into words, and mine was more about what the emojis represented (sun representing summer and an hourglass representing the middle).

She chose to do a show, so instead of summarizing the entire plot, she took the plot of the first episode. I think this was a smart decision as there are many different plot points throughout the show and the first episode is iconic and easy for people to recognize. After looking at Meghan’s assignment, I reflect on my own and realize that mine is a bit messy as the movie I picked also has many events and I tried to include them all. If I could change anything, I probably would go back and pick a popular tv show and do the first episode or the most impactful episode. I would also pick something with an easily identifiable title.

Meghan’s assignment

Meghan’s website

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FINAL PROJECT - CIVILIZATION

The Greek inspired ancient civilization of Brairinth

Ancient Greece – northern Greece, mountains surrounding & protecting 

Macedonia

Mediterranean sea + Mount Olympus surrounding + route to Aegean sea

Weather is hot, during winter/spring (February-march) there is an extreme rainy season which allows for vegetation to flourish but also it is not completely detrimental as it only lasts like 2 months max. Regular rain other months would occur 2-3 times/month

All 4 seasons don’t really differ in temperature, but they are all there

The sea and rivers provide humidity for vegetation to thrive with natural irrigation

sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, and cows. They were used for meat, milk to make cheese, and fertilizer for crops. Sheep were valuable for their wool, which was used to make clothing.

Brairinth is able to thrive because of its trade and many exports from the mountain which the city-state is located, containing minerals like gold, bentonite, magnesite, perlite, and marble.

Its natural irrigation also allows for exports of rich crops such as apples, figs, pears, pomegranates, cucumbers, lettuce, garlic, and onions.

Brairithians have a separate religion from the rest of Ancient Greece, as they worship only one god: Sius. 

worships Sius, a deity that upholds the values of viewing all living things as one, therefore treated with respect and understanding on all grounds. Sius was a god sent to earth, who in result created all living things on earth and treated them all as his children. 

However, one of Sius’s children, Leda, was selfish and committed acts that refrained her from being human; such as refraining from giving birth and still taking pleasure in sex, and going as far as selling her soul (to Hades, god underworld) in exchange for feeling less emotions and experiencing things that made her superior to other humans such as magic.

For this Sius banished Leda from earth as she was an impure being and was not to live somewhere she could corrupt his other children. He took her to a forest where a tree consumed her and brought her into the underworld. This story carried on with Brairinth and corrupted their sense of justice, which caused them to dictate people’s lives over how pure and human they could be.

 Brairithians dictate their day-to-day life with good conduct and pray once a day by leaving their chest and head visible to Sius, letting him see a person’s heart and mind properly. This is so that they may be cleansed of anything “un-human”, un-pure, or magical.

People believe that to successfully be sent to the afterlife unharmed, one must be buried with gifts representing that person’s life so that they do not lose their sense of self after death and their legacy goes with them (eg: craftsman is buried with their creations). Burials should take place immediately to “preserve” the body. 

There is a temple high at the top of mount olympus which people must visit atleast once or twice per year to worship Sius genuinely, but many lower class citizens cannot afford to travel to the top of Brairinth to visit the temple so at home shrines are also an option. 

Brairinth is split into 3 sections: Volice, Milon, and Rookue.

Volice lies at the top parts of mount olympus, this is where all the astounding architecture is and where the more powerful and rich people of the city live. (eg: council, nobles, priests). They are involved in leisurely activities like art and buying goods such as carefully articulated clothing, silverware, and jewelry. 

Milon is between Volice and Rookue, a middle ground. It is at the bottom of the mountains and outwards to the Aegean sea. This is both a residential area but also a very busy industrial area. Most citizens live here (merchants, craftsmen), but both people from Volice and Rookue travel here to trade and consume merchandise. Shops and businesses are run here, it is an ideal location for travellers who come to do business and trade. More successful shops are located higher up where the air is cleaner and there are better views as well as overall richer surroundings, while less successful shops are located closer to Rookue. 

There is also a mine located in upper Milon in the mountains, allowing for mining jobs and exports of minerals like gold, bentonite, magnesite, perlite, and marble.

Rookue is the surrounding areas of the city-state, towards the sea and the natural borders of the mountain start to flatten. This is where the lower class lives (farmers, menial labourers). This area of Brairinth is very vulnerable to floods during the rainy season and would also be the first to be attacked during an invasion. There are not many advantages to living here and a few revolts have been started over the rights of lower class people in this area. This area is ideal for farming however, at least in the northern parts where there is more protection and natural irrigation because of the Mediterranean sea.

Usually jobs are passed down through class and it's pretty impossible to escape your destined role in society from birth, only people higher up in the hierarchy are able to get educated.

A holiday that takes place in Brairia is the Copiabud, a celebration that takes place every spring on March 20th. It is to celebrate the birth of the very first living creation of Sius, a fir tree. Kind of like Christmas, everyone has a little fir tree in their homes, plants a fir tree, or goes to the heart of the city-state where people gather around a large fir tree and light lanterns like in tangled.

There is also a week of cleansing shortly before the Copiabud to ensure that people are in the right state of mind to pray and celebrate Sius, this week takes place March 1st-7th and includes taking baths infused with oils, singing hymns, wearing sacred clothing, and on the final day not partaking in the consumption of goods/trade/purchasing. 

Brairinth of course also takes part in the olympics every 4 years

Buildings and architecture are dependent on which part of the city is being observed. 

Overall the same building strategies are used, columns/pillars are common (this is ancient Greece). Rectangular buildings are the most common, while cylinders are also used. Roofs are usually triangular, gable roofs. Higher status homes have 2 floors, sometimes 3. Homes were typically built around a courtyard, allowing space for leisure and to plant a fir tree. Wood and mud bricks were typically used in all homes, while marble was saved for the higher status homes in voice or buildings of importance. Vegetation is highly prioritised, vines and trees and gardens are kept in most homes and throughout cities. 

Clothing in brairinth is adapted from other styles in ancient Greece, but the sacred colour is green because of close ties to nature in religion. Many richer people wear jewellery with a tree engraved into it to signify Sius, similar to how christians wear crosses. In fact, trees are symbols present all around Brairinth. It's typically pretty hot all year round so lighter fabric is used. It does get a bit colder in the mountain sometimes as well as windy, so shawls are used for those times.

Brairinth is a democracy built of 7 elected council members who make the laws of the city-state, and 100 government officials who help advise the council members and regulate the laws. The 7 are elected by citizens eligible to vote (old, land-owning dudes). 

The 7 are elected based on different categories to ensure that all parts of the city are being listened to:

Meister: in charge of keeping records of history, being well versed in all different types of knowledge and advice well based on past dilemas. Requires very high education and many years in an academy with other scholars. Typically this role is taken by someone older and wiser.

General: in charge of leading the army of Brairinth but also has a place in the council to share matters of the army and fighting, making sure the army has the right materials and training

Architect: in charge of city-planning and advising on building matters and the needs of the citizens architecture-wise (temples, irrigation, public works). 

scientist/mathematician/philosopher: knowledge in maths, science, philosophy, and astronomy, just like a meister it requires a lot of years in the academy. 

messenger/ traveller/ spy: travels to surrounding areas to gain knowledge to bring back to the council. Kind of like a spy

Agriculture advisor: advises on farming needs and food regulation

Priest: the high priest of the main temple in Brairinth, advises on religious matters/needs

The 100 other government officials also listen and take in the needs of the citizens, citizens may come to the firm on Volice and present their problems for possible solutions (once again unfair to people in Rookue). 

Criminals are prosecuted by guards and sent to the firm upon a group of judges and a priest (for Sius’s word on the matter) to decide their fate. Any major offences that are deemed a threat to the entirety of the city-state send the criminals straight to the council of 7 to decide. 

Because of the complicated up/down mountain geography, transportation has been made faster with the introduction of pedals and pedaling powered transportation (bikes, really prototype ones). Horses have also become more common for people to ride around. 

There is a giant conveyor belt-like system from Milon all the way to Volice made to transport goods (like a mail system), which is powered by pedaling. A new job at Milon requires some strong men to pedal for their lives as they send goods up to Milon. A few have tried to mail themselves to Volice but most failed. Imagine the calves on these guys.

The Hunglepicorina is a common instrument used. It is basically like an ocarina just with a few strings attached to the sides that play similarly to a harp.

Brairinth also introduced an organised prison system, by that I mean they kept criminals in dungeons inside the mountain higher in Volice in order to not intrude with mining. Cages were made to not face one-another so that criminals could not face each other and feel any sort of human connection. Criminals deemed of the highest offences, or threats, were publicly killed. Some criminals were publicly humiliated, made to walk the streets naked and sometimes stuffed in a barrel and rolled down the less steep parts of mount olympus, where everyone was invited to watch. There is not much crime in Brairinth because of fear of the harsh punishments.

Writing is made through engraving or painting tablets of all sorts of materials. Main language used is Appocreon, similar to Greek and Latin. 

A common word used for endearment in this language translates to “donkey-head” (Kefasinus-capourion). In Brairinth calling others donkey heads was a friendly way of saying hello, like “hey bud” or “hi dear friend”, as the donkey is a sacred animal (basically calling somebody wise). However, a war was once almost started over the exchange of this term with a higher up from another city as they mistook the light-hearted phrase for an insult (ass).

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Emoji Story

The process of translating the movie into a combination of emojis was difficult as there are many different events throughout the movie. It is a psychological horror, which basically means the movie is very weird, which allowed me to use emojis that would be specific to this movie (such as the bear, Swedish flag, and “brain -> washing”). I used a combination of symbolism, wordplay, and plain description of events through emojis. The leaf emoji along with the cigarette signifies weed, which the leaf emoji is universally known among teenagers to signify doing weed. I thought that was a neat combination of this assignment along with the conversation we had a while back in the class about communication and how it differs generation to generation.

The title was more difficult as there was not a great selection of emojis to convey the meaning. Without giving the movie title away, I will say that the hourglass is meant to be “half” (as it is half full/empty on both sides), and not time.

I chose the movie because it is one that sticks in my mind a lot due to the disturbing themes and conversation the movie sparks. I think anyone who has seen the movie will get it right away because of the same idea, that themes of the movie are not easily forgotten.

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Linking assignment 3

Egyptian Hieroglyphics

Ander’s Hieroglyphic Sentence & Website

I thought Ander’s hieroglyphic sentence was very interesting because he decided to choose a quote to translate, the quote being “no one is more hated than he who speaks the truth”. I was able to observe the process of the hieroglyphics being translated as we sat next to each other during the time of the seating plan.

Something we did similarly was changing certain words and removing letters to make it more translatable according to the Egyptian alphabet. In Ander’s reflection he expresses that it was difficult to find correct translations for certain sounds made in English, and I related to that because in my sentence I also struggled to find direct translations. We both struggled with changing our sentences multiple times to finally come to a good, finalized version.

I also found it interesting that he compared Spanish to Egyptian as they are both phonetic languages where everything is sounded out how it is written. I also speak Spanish, so I can see the connection, but it unfortunately did not make the project easier, and I only really made the connection when I read his reflection.

We approached the assignment differently when it came to presentation, he spaced his words out a lot more and used up the entire page. I can see that he put a lot of thought into properly using his space to fit the words in, as I ended up having a lot of free space, so I drew in an owl. The illustrations themselves look very accurate to those on the website he used and were easy to translate and understand.

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Maison Carrée

My re-creation of the ancient roman temple, the Maison Carrée (and my script). 

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Persephone’s facebook profile

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LINKING ASSIGNMENT #4

Elishia and Ryan’s Athens and Sparta playlists

Elishia and Ryan’s playlists for Athens and Sparta demonstrated a great level of understanding and amazing attention to detail. They did not rush certain components of the assignment and took their time perfecting everything, such as making the number of likes represent the population of the city-states. I chose their playlist because I loved their song choices, specifically “fight song”, I also liked that they were very creative in changing the names of the artists for the original songs.

 When I listened to their presentation, I also reflected on my own national anthem. I feel as though the bloodthirsty, intense energy they created through their Spartan playlist is similar to how I wrote my Spartan anthem. I believe that my national anthem would have a place in their playlist, and that makes me feel very welcomed.

Elishia’s website

Ryan’s website

Their playlist

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Sparta and Athens National Anthems (reflection)

From this assignment, I learned that Sparta is a cut-throat, militaristic, and powerful city-state. Sparta earned its power through countless battles and implemented training for men and women from an early age. Although women did not fight, they were still trained to raise strong warrior men. There was also a disconnect between mothers and their sons because of separation from an early age, hence the line in the anthem “we don’t know our mothers”. Although that line may seem insensitive from our modern point of view, I did not hold back because I know the Spartans could have handled it.

 The most difficult part of the assignment was syncing up the lyrics I wrote to a track, specifically the Russian national anthem (instrumental). I had to sing the lyrics a specific way to make them flow better and had to change some parts. It was especially challenging nearing the last few lines because not only did I have to sing in beat with the song, but I also had to sing in Greek.

 An easier aspect of the assignment was encompassing the strong, powerful energy from Sparta into a song. I feel as though Kimia and I did a great job creating a contrast between Athens and Sparta in the way that they were both sung. While Sparta contained more intense music and lyrics about “protecting till death” and “discipline and war”, Athens contained a more energetic positive tune and lyrics about loving the land.

 Considering I am a woman, I would have preferred to live in Sparta due to having a bit more rights than Athens (inherit property, own land, make business transactions, better education than other Greek women). If I was a man, I would live in Athens because I am not about the training from seven years old to be a soldier life.

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The Spartan National Anthem

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Cuneiform vs Hieroglyphics (Egypt part 3|12)

So… which form of writing was more difficult?

Going into this project, I was certain that hieroglyphics were harder. It made sense to me that larger, more precise images would cost more effort. However, after experimenting with both forms of writing, I can confidently say that I would choose hieroglyphics over cuneiform any day. What I did not take into consideration before was which form of writing was easier to translate and remember. Although it is physically less straining to write out in cuneiform, I found myself forgetting the letters and having to look back at the alphabet for every translation I did.

Once I wrote my sentence in hieroglyphics a couple of times, I actually retained the information. I could confidently write out a sentence with hieroglyphics (despite it not being completely accurate), but I cannot remember a single letter for cuneiform except for “U”. Not only are hieroglyphics more memorable, but they also get easier to draw over time.

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My hieroglyphic sentence (Egypt part 3|10)

What was the most difficult part of this process?

The most difficult part of writing in hieroglyphics was correctly translating my sentence. There were many moments where I had to go back and correct what I had written because I had new information to adapt my sentence. What I think helped most with this issue was just checking every single website and going over my sentence multiple times. Although it was a lengthy process, that is what I had to do to ensure that I had the most accurate version possible. As for drawing the hieroglyphics themselves, that came easily to me as I like to draw in my free time. I actually found the process to be very fun and relaxing and I did not have to do any critical thinking once I had my sentence translated. I thought spacing out the sentence would be more of a problem, but that actually went pretty smoothly as well.

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Tablet reflection (2)

My tablet “Brujita Musa”

Constructing this tablet was much more difficult than I expected. I went into the assignment very confident in my abilities as I have worked with clay before and I consider myself a good artist, but I was surprised. The most difficult part was carving out every little character as the clay kept drying and became crumbly and was overall just very hard to carve out. The easiest part was making the actual tablet but it kind of ended up cracking after it dried.

Breanna’s tablet “My family is important”

I reviewed Breanna’s tablet, and in my opinion it was pretty easy to translate. It might be because I got a little bit of experience writing my own tablet, or because I had a guide of all the different cuneiform letters. I think it could have been a little bit easier to translate if it didn’t crack in the middle but I think that pretty much happened to everybody’s tablets. She wrote “my family is important”.

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2nd linking assignment

“My family is important” -Breanna’s tablet

I decided to do my second linking assignment on Breanna’s reflection for her cuneiform tablet.

Was it difficult to translate this?

I was able to translate the entirety of the sentence into my family is important, but it was a bit difficult to identify “F” and the letters that were unfortunately messed up by the crack that went along the tablet. Overall, it was surprisingly easy to read and translate, especially since the direct translation was right under the picture of the tablet (I promise I translated it myself).

How were our tablets similar/different?

Our tablets were very similar in our choice of topic. We both decided to write some sort of family, she included her entire family, and I included my dog’s name. I think we both value our relationship with our family a lot and we are both loyal individuals. The tablets are different in length, as she decided to write an entire sentence and I only wrote my dog’s name and my last name. This might show that I am lazier.

Breanna’s website

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Mesopotamian cuneiform

“Brujita Musa”

Why did I write this?

This is the name of my dog, Brujita, and she means a lot to me. There are a lot of stray dogs in Argentina, and me and my mom would typically take care of them and give them homes to friends and family afterwards. One day, my mom found Brujita at the park and she followed my mom all of the way home. She looked very frail and often times would flinch, which made us think that she might have been abused. We took her under our wing and Brujita has grown up with me. She is now 15-16 years old (we think).

Did I change the sentence based on how hard it was to write it with the alphabet?

I actually made my sentence longer, making it “Brujita Musa”. I ended up having a lot of free space on my tablet, so I filled it up. Originally when the assignment was first introduced, I chose “self-expression” as something that is really important to me, but then I realized that would be too difficult to fit in.

How did this form of writing affect communication between people in person and through writing?

Writing introduced a stable system to record and solidify information. It was probably a lot easier to communicate with those who lived far away, and a message needed to be carried since the message could be written down.

How did this version of text affect people’s lives?

Writing changed the way many things worked in society, but it greatly affected the law system. People now had written law to reference instead of spoken law, which meant things couldn’t be easily shifted to avoid punishment. Citizens had rules to live by, especially with Hammurabi’s code and all.

What form of text is significant in my life?

Obviously, the law is still a huge piece of text that dictates part of mine and other’s lives. More specifically to myself and other students, a form of text that is important in our lives is the use of computers. I use my laptop every day to complete homework, play games, and work on my own personal projects. I also access my email and social media accounts through my laptop, so it is truly a versatile piece of text in my life.

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Kimia’s bag... my first linking assignment

For my first linking assignment, I will be diving into the contents of Kimia’s bag. I already know Kimia quite well, so it will be interesting to see how her bag compares to her as a person, and how much I can get from her personality out of what she has in there. 

Firstly, the bag:

The bag she carries around is a kilim backpack, which is a popular type of woven tapestry from Iran, the Balkans, and Turkic countries. This tells me a bit about Kimia’s culture/ethnicity, and also that she has great taste in fashion.

When we look inside the bag, we can see that she has 2 books of classic literature. Not only that, but one of the books (by Ryunosuke Akutagawa) is heavily annotated, which makes me think that Kimia is someone who likes to analyze the texts they read. 

Kimia also has many notebooks, textbooks, and pens, which anyone can infer are items that a student carries around. 

Something that gives me a bit of insight on how Kimia presents herself is that she has a lot of makeup in her bag. This makes me think that she likes to take care of her appearance and touch up her makeup when she has the chance. 

Kimia’s laptop says something very important about her... and it is not the information inside of it, rather the stickers she displays on the front. The stickers of a witch and Halloween decorations tells me that she loves Halloween and gothic/dark things.

Kimia’s bag is truly a wonder! and so is she...…

Kimia’s Blog

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10 important events in human history

These are quite important events in human history 

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What’s in my bag?

What’s in my bag? And how much does it say about me...

Let’s say that 100 years in the future, my grade 12 Pinetree Secondary school bag will magically be uncovered as it is now, and somebody will have to deduct what kind of person I was just from the contents inside of the bag. They might be able to tell the obvious: I am a student in my teens who is a little bit messy and likes to read; But let’s dig deeper.

~

POV (point of view) you’re an archeologist/detective in the future:

This is our biggest discovery yet! An entire bag of contents in pristine condition! We hypothesize that this bag was used around 100 years ago.

Firstly, we are able to see that the things the student carries in their bag are mostly to be used at school or work. By opening the notebook, it is clear that the things written down are notes taken in class and assignments. Looking at what is written, we are able to get a confirmed grade, name, and gender by the type of content being written.

We can also see 2 keys, one a house key and the other could be inferred to be for work. By putting everything together, we might be able to put together a rough schedule of Isa’s day to day life. We could say that she wakes up and take the bus to school with her orange compass card (also confirming that she is indeed a high school student by the colour). She then attends her classes for the day, and afterwards goes either home or to work.

With all of the information attainable from the bag, we could also infer that any free time in the day could be taken up by reading the book: “The Wise Man’s Fear”, by Patrick Rothfuss. By the looks of it, the book is the second in the series, so that might tell us that Isa is a fan of the series, or maybe she is a fan of fantasy books. This could also tell us that she is a bit of a nerd, or maybe the fact that she only reads fantasy tells us that she is an escapist and a dreamer.

But wait, what is this? A phone! If we are able to charge and unlock the phone all of our questions can be easily answered. The model of the phone itself can give us a glimpse of Isa’s financial situation. Once we unlock the phone, all of Isa’s interests, personal information, and secrets are revealed… and we can confirm that she is pretty much an ordinary teenager with nerdy interests.

We can also get some insight on Isa’s school life by unlocking the tablet in her bag and seeing her classes and assignments. English, script writing, and… comparative cultures! What is this? “What is in my bag assignment”, she got 100% on it! We can speculate that Isa is a grade A student and probably did really well in this class.

 ~

So how exactly are all of the items inside of my bag considered “texts”? Well... If we think back on any of the first forms of texts in history, we don’t have to strictly think about written text. We have been able to gather information from how our ancestors lived years ago from before writing even existed.

If I had to categorize what exactly a “text” is, I would say it is anything that TELLS us something; it is able to tell us a history. So even if we are just looking at my pencil case, we can still gather some type of information about myself based on the model, colour, maybe even size. Even if some archeologist in the future could only examine a single pencil in my bag, they would still be able to gather some sort of information about myself from the way that the end of the pencil is chewed or how much the pencil has been used.

~

How do the contents in my bag represent my personality?

I would say that the things in my bag reflect a lot about who I am as a person, or how I project myself to others. There is nothing really private inside of my bag that would shock many people based on how they see me.

However,

If someone were to unlock my phone and go through it, they would probably see some embarrassing pictures and journal entries that might change their outlook on me. I also keep a dream journal, and some of my dreams are so questionable that I even I wake up confused.

~

What would my bag have looked like 5-10 years ago?