The Story of Theseus and the Minotaur

Theseus and the Minotaur - written by James Ford and illustrated by Gary Andrews.

Crete and Athens, two Greek cities, went to war. Afterwards, Athens had to make a sacrifice so that they wouldn't get totally destroyed. Every nine years, they would have to send in seven girls and seven boys to be the Minotaur's lunch.

Theseus, the son of the King of Athens, volunteered to take the place of one of the people that was being sacrificed. Theseus went into a maze to kill the Minotaur, who is half bull and half human. Before he went into the maze, he found a girl that gave him some yarn. He used the yarn to navigate his way through the maze. In the end, he found his way through and killed the Minotaur.

On his way back home, he forgot to switch the colors of the sail, so when his father saw that it was still black, he thought his son had died, so he jumped off a cliff. When Theseus returned, he was made king because his father died.

I like this version of the story because of its gruesome but funny pictures.

My Review of Spore

Spore is a game about evolution. Every time you start a new game from the very beginning, it goes from when an asteroid crashes on a planet until your species develops to the point of a space age with a UFO.

This game rocks. It is very complex.

In it, you will design an alien and make choices that will affect the future of your alien. You can choose whether it will be a carnivore or herbivore. You can choose what body parts to give it. You can choose to befriend or attack other species. Each choice affects your other choices. For example, if you choose that your alien will be a herbivore, this affects what kind of mouth it can have.

In this complex game, it isn't easy to get your alien race to the space age. Will you be successful? Will your alien get to the space age?

Here is a link for the official Spore Website: spore

Review of The Phantom Tollbooth

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, was a really good book. I was so engrossed in reading it that I read it in one long morning. I recommend it for all ages.

It's about a kid named Milo who gets sent a tollbooth that leads to another world. The main characters' names are Tock, Milo, and Humbug. The whole book is basically a pun on words.

At one point in the book, when Milo has just gone through the tollbooth, he met this man called "the whether man." Milo asked him whether it was going to be sunny or rainy. The Whether Man answered, "How should I know?" Then, Milo said, "Well, you're the weather man." "I'm not the Weather Man, I'm the Whether Man. Don't you think it's a lot more important to know whether there is weather, rather than what kind of weather it is?"

 
Then, Milo asked him, "Is this the right road to Dictionapolis?" The Whether Man said, "I don't know if there are any wrong ways to Dictionopolis. If it's not the right road to Dictionapolis, then it's the right road to somewhere else."

I love this book because the verbal puns made me laugh.

Pictures On Poverty

Feel the sarcasm in the music?

Act now.  Do something about Poverty at Dosomething.org.

 

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This post is part of Blog Action Day 08 - Poverty

A Famous Philosopher: Aristotle

A philosopher is a person who asks a lot of questions and studies things.  They ask why a lot.

Aristotle was a philosopher who lived long ago, 384-322 BCE.  He lived in Ancient Greece.  His father was a doctor, and Aristotle ended up studying the physical world.  He dissected more than 50 different species and wrote up descriptions.  Aristotle wrote a book called Physics and he also said that the reason a feather falls slower than a rock is that it is lighter and it has more air resistance.  I can see why Aristotle became so famous because he studied so much!

 

From Philosopher Jokes:

A boy is about to go on his first date, and is nervous about what to talk about. He asks his father for advice. The father replies: "My son, there are three subjects that always work. These are food, family, and philosophy."

The boy picks up his date and they go to a soda fountain. Ice cream sodas in front of them, they stare at each other for a long time, as the boy's nervousness builds. He remembers his father's advice, and chooses the first topic. He asks the girl: "Do you like potato pancakes?" She says "No," and the silence returns.

After a few more uncomfortable minutes, the boy thinks of his father's suggestion and turns to the second item on the list. He asks, "Do you have a brother?" Again, the girl says "No" and there is silence once again.

The boy then plays his last card. He thinks of his father's advice and asks the girl the following question: "If you had a brother, would he like potato pancakes?"

The three above jokes were contributed by Owen Herring.
He attributes the third to Elliot Sober.

Book Resource:

Great Scientists (DK Eyewitness Books): Jacqueline Fortey: Books ISBN: 0756632978 ISBN-13: 9780756632977

Review of Jason & The Argonauts

Retold Felicity Brooks

A prince named Jason went on an adventure to find the golden fleece.  The current king made him do so to become king because he was greedy.

In his travels to find the fleece, he visited a king and killed the harpies that terrorized him.  He also fought two bulls made of bronze that breathed fire and killed people.  He went through two rocks that clashed together and destroyed ships.  And he married Medea, but awhile after he met another girl that he wanted to marry, and Medea got angry and tried to kill him.

There are a lot of other books that I would rather read, but if you have to pick between Greek myths, then I would choose Jason.

How To Celebrate Calvin & Hobbes Day

I declare October 4th and 5th are Calvin & Hobbes Days.  On these two days, you celebrate everything about Calvin and Hobbes. 

Today, I dressed up like Hobbes and had fun.  I got a water pistol and squirted my sister.  She did not like it, and bit me.  I already climbed some trees, and I'm waiting for my dad to get back so I can pounce on him.

Here are some of the things you can do on Calvin & Hobbes Day.

1.  You play the national sport, Calvin Ball, where the only rule is that you can't play the same way twice.

2.  You steal cookies.

3.  You have to get in loads of trouble.

4. You have to be very specific about how your parents should make your PB&J sandwich. 

6.  You have to throw water balloons at the kids in your neighborhood, preferably girls named "Susie."

7.  You have to climb loads of trees.

8.  Get a water pistol and squirt everyone.

9.  Play with a bunch of cardboard boxes.

10. Read a bunch of Calvin & Hobbes to get your own ideas.

Find out more about Calvin & Hobbes on The Funniest Comic Strip - Calvin and Hobbes.

Games I Like

I used the Animoto Website to make this video about games I like, mostly FunKeys. It was between easy and hard to do.

It was hard to get the pictures, but I did a Google Image Search. Then, I uploaded them by using "Save Picture As" and then on Animoto I just hit the upload button. Clicking "upload" was the easy part.