George Orwell's 1984 Reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu

George Orwell and H.P. Lovecraft created hopeless worlds in their stories.  These hopeless worlds were led by totalitarian rulers who are very similar in nature.  

1984 which was written by George Orwell is a story about an oppressive totalitarian society in Oceania led by an unseen entity named Big Brother. Big brother is basically an overlord who always has an eye on you no matter what.  Big Brother uses spies, recorders, children who will spy and tell on adults, they rewrite history and use the thought police, which spies on people via their thoughts through telecasts which are in every room of every house and apartment.  These methods take away all freedoms from its citizens.  The main character in this book is Winston. This protagonist is obsessed with the idea of overthrowing the government but is at the same time knows in his heart he is doomed.  He does things that will sabotage his idea of rebellion.  He buys a diary and writes down with Big Brother in it, knowing that will bring really bad consequences.  He gets involved with Julia, another free thinker, and starts a relationship with her, having an affair that is illegal.  He reads a book written by Goldstein, the leader of the rebels, even though he knows that reading it would get him in big trouble. Then he gets involved with O'Brien who he likes only because he has a welcoming face.  It turns out O'Brien is an agent with the Thought Police.  Ultimately, Winston and Julia are entrapped and are arrested by the Thought Police.  They are tortured  and forced to meet with their worst fears in Room 101 and they ultimately betray each other.  While Winston is being tortured, he's begging for forgiveness for all his crimes, O'Brien says, "We are not interested in those stupid crimes that you have committed.  The Party is not interested in the overt act:  the thought is all we care about." Then when Winston left room 101 he was utterly broken.  He becomes a lover of everything Big Brother is to continue to survive even though he is a simple shell of a person.  

The short story of The Call of Cthulhu and the series that followed it explains that Cthulu is a octopus/dragon like god and he's one of the Great Old Ones, living in the darkest and most remote place.  He is responsible for the humans.  He can control them.  He has his own army but he doesn't' even need it because he has all the control and power.  He watches every move. Humans have no option to rebel because he's all powerful. If you think ill of him, he will know.  You have to obey him without question; be a slave or be killed.  He is everlasting and can regenerate.  He is inadvertently awakened by some investigators and is released onto the earth to enslave and control mankind.

Though Big Brother is obviously not a monster, both it and Cthulhu exhibit the same personality.  They both rule the world of humans with an iron fist.  They use different methods but with the same result.  In the same way that Cthulhu is everlasting, so is Big Brother.  Big Brother has set up a government where free thinking and any other freedom cannot exist.  Big Brother is then creating an environment where only it can truly exist. They ultimately both create a hopeless world where a person can do nothing but wait and hope for death.  A world where it is literally futile to fight back.  

    
These stories both show the danger of a world in which the government or a ruler has too much control. The rulers in these stories control all the people,  killing everyone's individuality.  Living means nothing since the people are not enjoying anything. 

Homeschool Tracker 2014-2016

Neo-Xel Padron 2014-2016 Homeschool Tracker
BASE CURRICULUM
o   Kumon Math		o   P.E. [FLVS HOPE]	o   Social Studies[what your child should know]
o   Science Experiments[happyscientist.com]		o   P.E. [CANINO'S BOXING STUDIO 2 x wk]	o   Writing and Spelling [blog, drills]
o   Reading [what your child should know]		o   P.E. [Swimming classes Driftwood]	o   Art Appreciation (museums, projects]
FIELD TRIPS
o   Miami Science Museum	o   Everglades National Park		o   Statue of Liberty NY
o   South Beach Art Coop	o   Big Cypress National Preserve		o   Turtle Release Anne Kolb Center
o   Wynwood Walls	o   Ocala National Forest		o   Key Biscayne Lighthouse
PROJECTS
o   Photography Portofolio (Instagram)	o   Personal Fitness Assessment		o   Nature Field Study Everglades
o   Blog	o   Art Field Studies (Co-op and Wynwood)		o   Mazes
o   Bike Construction	o   Virtual Pen Pal		o   Marble Run
SPECIAL OUTINGS
o   NYC/NJ/ PA Road Trip	o   Utah Comic Con		o   Sandusky, OH Unschoolers Waterpark Gathering
o   Cuba	o   Mexico inland (Isla Holbox, Quintana Roo)
EXTRA ACTIVITIES
o   Star and Eclipse watching	o   Babysitting			o   CPR certification
o   Cooking	o   Camping			o   Gun Safety Class

My first visit to Cuba 2011

I went to Cuba with my dad for the first time when I was 11 years old.  It was the first time back for him in over 30 years.  He was excited about visiting his father who is my grandfather.  He hadn't seen him or spoken to him in all that time.  That was strange to me because my father has always been around.

I remember Cuba was very different. There was a lot of things missing- like internet, air conditioning, water heaters, no green vegetables.  My father is big on healthy foods so not having a lot of green vegetables and a variety of fruits was hard.  The no internet and air conditioning was a big problem for me.  But we were there for like 16 days.  The first few days it was so boring and hot.  I was really mad I was there.  I mean I was glad to meet my family in Cuba but I don't speak spanish so I could hardly talk to anyone but my dad and I was bored.  Every day I took two baths.  I had to stand in this room with a drain in the middle and my grandmother heated the water with a hand held electric heater.  It took forever just to get one bucket full.  Then I had to use the bucket to wash.  Electricity would come and go and the food was strange to me except for fried fish and spagetti.

After a bunch of time, I finally made some friends in my grandfather's neighborhood.  I saw they were happy and had a lot of fun just making their own games.  I played kickball and baseball with them.  They taught me how to make a Chivichana (check out the video my father made of us all making the chivichana) which is like a wooden cart you roll down a hill with.  They just grabbed some tools and some wood from the street and someone had wheels and they started building it.  It's my second favorite memory. My first favorite memory is when my father rented a bus and took me and all the family and the kids in the neighborhood to a carnival with rides.  It was so much fun.

When we left, those boys in the neighborhood that had so little gathered a box of their favorite things and gave it to me.  I still have that box.

Fitness Assessment Results Document

One of my goals this year is to become more active.  I really have to increase my activity level.  I started taking the FLVS Hope fitness class.  I am almost done with segment 1.  I like it.  It's forcing me to be more active and by logging all my physical activities and what I eat I can see where I'm not doign things right.  This is one of the assessments the class made me do.  

Fitness Activity	Lesson 1.03 Baseline Results
Mile Run/Walk	9. 39 min
Body Composition/BMI	19.37
Aerobic Capacity	46.11
Sit and Reach	RL 2 inches LL 1 inch
Curl-Ups	13reps
Trunk Lift	7.5 inches
Push-ups	10 reps

Reflection Questions:

1.      How do you feel about your fitness assessment results? Did any areas surprise you? Explain your answers.

I feel good about my results. I was surprised that I didn't do that well with my flexibility. 

2.      This course will give you the opportunity to plan fitness routines and participate in regular physical activity. You will complete these same fitness assessments at the end of each module to help measure your progress in each fitness area. Describe the accomplishments you expect to see in your fitness assessment results as you move through this course and its related activities.

Increased stamina speed and flexibility.

Experiment- Fingerprints

I did a fingerprint experiment the other day with my sister.  The idea is to copy our fingerprints.

We needed these ingredients:

- fine corn starch
- brush
-paper
- tape
-fingerprint development pad  (came inside the kitchen detective pad)

Steps-

You press the finger on the development pad

Then powder the finger with the brush and fine corn starch in a circle

Tap the brush and remove the starch off the finger

Put the tape on the finger and press

Lift and apply to paper

After this you should be able to see the patterns in the fingerprint.  

There are four patterns:

The whorl, arches, loop and accidental.  Both my sister and I have arches.  We looked at our mom's fingerprints and she has it too.  But everyone has unique fingerprints.  No ones is the same.  That's why they use fingerprints in identifying people.

Field Study Everglades February 2016

AOI (Areas of Interactions)- Nature

We took a field study trip to the Florida Everglades "The Loop". We chose to go in the winter season here in Florida to try to avoid the rain and the mosquitoes.  

Description of Environment:  The Everglades National Park is made up of 1.5 million acres of wet sawgrass prairie land, dry hardwood hammocks, pinelands and mangrove swamps.  There are also estuaries (partly enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it).  This environment provides shelter and food for many species like manatees, crocodile, dolphin, panther, alligator, turtles, birds and many other animals.  

Journal Notes: 

There are many options to visit the Everglades National Park to enjoy all it offers. You can walk on the Anhinga Trail if you want a short hiking experience.  You can climb to the observation tower at Shark Valley to see the everything from high up and take the tram tour after.  You can go canoeing or kayaking in Nine Mile Pond. There are even free ranger led tours during the winter months. 

We left the house at 7 am.  It was a long drive.  I slept most of the way but woke up when we got to alligator alley which is a long road that leads into the everglades.  Its plain and slow going.  I saw a dead alligator on the side of the road. We arrived to Shark Valley at almost 9am.  We stopped at the visitor center.  I saw this sign and there were vultures everywhere.  Big black birds sitting high up on palm trees, sitting on cars, walking on the ground. My mom was worried about our car.    

It was already so hot we decide to drive instead on the loop.    That was about 10 minutes away so it wasn't too bad to get there.  

The loop is about 20 miles of gravel road. It's not a smooth ride so the whole way felt like we were going over bumps.  It cuts through in a loop all past the different types of environments in the everglades Big Cypress preserve.  

It was very dusty and loud.  We lowered our windows to hear the birds, bird songs and the insects.  It got hot pretty fast.  Since we could only go about 15 mph there wasn't a breeze.  My mom brought a 24 pack of water.  We drank a lot of water.  

I was beautiful though. And we saw so many alligators.  We saw one crossing the road ahead and we stopped to watch.  Well we had to stop or we would have run it over, 

There was water on both sides a lot of the way so we saw several alligator.  We get out to see them better.  

I wanted to walk around but my mom said no because she was afraid too many alligators and maybe panthers around.  I wasn't afraid.  We only saw one other car and it was parked so that a guy could go fishing.  I counted seven turtles.  There were too many birds to count.  

After almost three hours we stopped at a rest stop.  There were lot of alligators just waiting there for food it seemed.  They swam right up to where we were standing on a bridge. My mom says a lot of people feed the alligators and that's dangerous.  

I could not believe I saw houses there. People live there.  There were a lot of houses along the road. I would love to live there! My mom said I wouldn't like it because eventually the mosquitoes would be too much.  

When we reached the end there was a vulture eating a coconut.  

It was a good day.  We finished just in time for lunch.  When we stopped to eat I had alligator bites.  They tasted like chicken.  

 

 

My Family

My family is my little sister, mom, dad, stepdad and our pets.  We are an unconventional family because even though my parents are divorced they are very caring and good to each other.  They are still each others family.  My dad and stepdad are friends too.  We even took a long vacation together to Mexico all together. It was fun.  I am lucky to have them.  And even though my sister is still little I do spend a lot of time with her.  I like teaching her stuff too.