I’ve always been known to be quite a storyteller. My family says it’s because I’m part Irish. Whatever the reason being behind why I can tell a amazing story doesn’t matter. I’m here to tell the times where I almost died, dented my skull, thought about killing my sister, and broke my arm. I have had a lot time to showcase my story telling abilities. This is one of them.

This project is about showcasing our own past as a part of history. Down below are some of the most memorable events I’ve had to go through, excluding child birth of course because I don’t remember it, but it was mandatory.

1st: Childbirth 

Ever since the beginning it hasn’t been easy. Childbirth was no simple or pleasant task for my mom. When my mom was in labour, I wouldn’t come out and it got so bad that I stopped breathing and the hospital was in code blue. This means basically no breathing. So my mom had to get a c-section. My dad ran down the hall behind my mom and I and the doctors and then they threw iodine or something along those lines, it was red on my moms stomach. They pulled me out and then put my mom back together. They raced me over to a me over to a table and got me breathing, I hadn’t taken a breath in a minute, 2 doctors got me breathing and crying. Meanwhile they were getting my mom breathing again since we were both in bad shape. Then after everything had settled down my dad was standing in between the two of us and said “look at the size of bis feet” they looked almost as big as my legs, so everyone started laughing, which was kind of an ice breaker in the room, but my mom was still out of it. Me and my mom then spent three days in the hospital together.

2nd: Wooden Go-Kart

One day my sister found this wooden go kart beside this dumpster. I was 6 she was 9. One day I was playing with it on a small hill and testing how it all worked. It was behind a garbage can and we brought it home. Then we tested it on the small hill outside of our house to see how the brakes worked and how well it handled. After we knew all the specs and details, and knew our parents would be gone, we convinced our babysitter to let us take it down the big hill. Imagine the hill as steep as the one on the parkway. We had all the neighbourhood kids there hyping us up. I was in the front of the go kart, my sister was in the back. We went down the hill, the babysitter following us in her bike. We noticed we were picking up to much speed, so we applied the breaks and found out actually only one side worked. So no joke, we swerved left straight into a truck. My sister was a little cut up, although not as bad as me since I was in the front. I dented and sliced open my head, had to black eyes and some cuts and bruises. For whatever reason the babysitter thought I was ok and didn’t take me or my sister to the hospital, despite having a dent and slice in my head. I also had black eyes, a swollen head and was beat up. All she did was put me in a bath tub… I was lucky to be alive after smashing into the vehicle with no helmet or something on. My dad was out of town for 5 weeks, and my mom was panicked.

3rd: Lego Ship Building 

My parents bought me a very expensive lego ship I had always wanted. At the time my parents couldn’t really afford the lego ship, but I really wanted it and my parents eventually caved in and bought it. This ship was like 1800 pieces. When we got home with the ship, I went to the corner of my parents room and dumped the box of lego. I spent two hours organizing the lego. I worked day after day on this lego ship, it took my dad and I three days to complete. This is one of my most fondest memories. I loved building lego because it let me showcase my creativity and I remember it was a great bonding experience between us. Side note, I once had one of my lego creations shown in legos magazine. After I was done the ship, I put it in my room near the door. Not only twenty minutes after it was completed it, my sister came around the corner and she says she’s “accidentally” stepped on the ship and destroyed it, I was so mad I almost killed her.

4th: broke my arm

One day I was in a car, pretty much like any other day, and my dad and I got into a really bad car crash. I ended up having two compound fractures in my wrist. I was rushed to the emergency room to get my arm re-straightened. After it was straight again, I had to get nine screws and two metal plates in my wrist. I kept it short because everyone has heard this story a million times.

 

 

Right after winter vacation are class was put to the task of learning about the difference between a utopia and a dystopia. This study was very interesting and actually one of the more enlightening discussion i’ve had in PLP. It was very interesting to point out that a utopia can only be a utopia without people, but once people are put into the mix it kinda becomes well… a dystopia. 1984 is a dystopian novel, in fact it’s a really good one definitely worth a read. If you don’t know much about the novel here you go.

 

BackGround Info

Ever since the dawn of mankind there has been fear. In some cases fer is what drives people to do a lot of the things they do. 1984 is a book that was made just after World War II was over, and was really the start of the Cold War. American people were scared that communism would take over and 1984 played to those fears. Winston Smith a charter in the book wrestles with oppression in Oceania, a place where Big Brother is always watching over you. Winston Decides deys against the group in his diary:in this dairy he talks about all the things he dislikes about Big Brother. Big Brother is a very controlling party almost like an totalitarian government. Another Character in 1984 is Syme, he is a very intelligent man. Syme is put to the task of creating a dictionary type thing called Newspeak. In New Speak they would remove old words so that everyone would get dumber over time and none would be smarter than Big Brother.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvHnGF6RNho

 

To make such a video we made to cut out a human sized person and draw a character of 1984. We animated his brain to show how he is an intellectual anddoes a lot of thinking. But before that we had to choose our character but before that we had to break down a character into a poem.

The poem kinda looked like this.

But in our case it was about syme.

 

The whole point of this assignment was to create almost a symbol of a character through a life size portrait made of paper. I’m going to break down what all these drawings mean so pay attention.

 

The Break Down

 

1. The Duct Tape Around His Mouth

This represents his dilotting the dictionary, and his lack of ability to speak out about it.

“The smallest thing could give you away.’

2. The Pen

The pen and paper in his hands represents his work in the Ministry of Truth.

3. The T.V screen.

This represents the connection to Big Brother and over all his faith.

“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen”

4. The Chains Weighing Him Down

This symbolizes himself being held down by Big Brother because he is unable to share his intellect.

5. New Speak

This represents the 11th edition of the Newspeak dictionary.

“… you see… the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought… every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten.”

 

1984 was a very interesting book. I find it really cool how sales have spiked up on this book right when Donald Trump was elected. Anyways like I said it was a good book. I found it investing but i’m glad it is over because it was a long read.

 

South Korea is in the spotlight right now with the Olympic Games going on. But what about North Korea? Right before the Olympic Games all everyone was talking about was North Korea and their missile threats to the U.S and South Korea. North Korea wasn’t always like this. It has only been for the last 80ish years. What happened you might ask? Well what happened is that Kim il sung founded what was called the Korean Workers Party in 1946 and ruled as a internal president until 1996. After his son Kim jong il took over until he died and then his son Kim jong un took over and is still presently leading the country. I’m going to talk about why Kim Il sung becoming the leader changed our would.

 

To look at one single event like a historian you need to break it into 6 main factors. To figure out why something is historical and why it impacted our world.

Historical Significance 

More often than not people know what is history but they don’t know why we get taught it. That is where historical significance comes handy. We determine is something is historically significant looking at three main factors.

1.) How notable was the event at the time.

2.) How wide spread and lasting the consequences of the event was.

3.) If the event became symbolic or representative of key historical issues and trends.

When we look at what is historically significant of Kim il sung’s start of North Korea we think about those three things. Firstly this event was notable at the time. Prior to the start Korean Workers Party, Korea was informally divided into 2 sections after the Second World War. The south was in control by the U.S and the North was in control by the soviets. Kim il sung starting this Party was notable at the time because it was really was caused the Korean War. Secondly the consequences of this event can be seen almost 80 years later. We see still the same family. Control as a direct consequence of the Korean Workers Party. Thirdly this event has become somewhat symbolic in North Korea because it highlights Kim il sung, who birthday is celebrated as the start of the the world to North Korea. In the rest of the world the year is 2018 in North Korea it is 105, because that is how long ago Kim il sung was born.

Evidence and Interpretation 

Determining what happen a long time ago can be difficult. However that’s what the second main concept is used for. Evidence and interpretation is used to see what really happen back then using primary and secondary sources. Again you have three main concepts

1.) Can we trust the source of information?

 

2.) Do the sources provide evidence that is relevant to the questions we are trying to answer?

 

3.) Does the evidence support the interpretation offered?

 

 

When we look at the Evidence and interpretation of this event it is difficult to say what truly happened. This is because North Korea does not disclose a lot of information about this topic.
When seeing weather or not we can trust information of this event, you take a look at primary and secondary sources. We can look at what went down of the day based off of a average of what both sources say. Typically the sources do provide evidence that is relevant to this event because, primary sources lived during the “birth” of North Korea. Also secondary sources took information of what what happened at took a new perspective of it.

Continuity and Change 

The third thing a historian looks at when depicting a historical event is the continuity and change over time. what this means is what is the overall impact today. Like the previous two there are main aspects that we have to look at.

1.) How have things stay the same? And how have they changed?

2.) Where the changes negative or positive?

3.) How rapid or slow where the changes?

4.) Did it mark a turning point in history?

 

Similarly when looking at the change we go through the factors. Things in North Korea have stayed the same. In the sense that it is still in complete family control. Although it has changed when somewhat because it is no longer Kim il sung in charge. While determining if the changes where negative or positive it depends on who you ask. While America might see the changes negatively, Russia or North Korea might see them positively. The changes that resulted from the Korean Workers Party where quite rapid because it lead to Kim il sung becoming the leader. Also it definitely marked a turning point in history because it changed the way the world looked at North Korea.

Cause and Consequence 

Another important thing historians think about while looking at past historical events is the Cause and consequence the event had. Again there are main factors we look at.

1.) The range of factors contributing to the event.

2.) What was the most influential cause?

3.) what were the unintended and intended consequences?

 

There were many contributing factors to why Kim il sung became the self proclaimed president of North Korea. The main one being the divide between South Korea (in U.S control) and North Korea (in soviet control). The most influential cause from Kim il sung becoming the founder of North Korea was the complete family control he had. Unlike many places in the world North Korea is in totalitarian control. One of the main Intended consequence from this was like I just said to become in complete control. An unintended consequence was for South Korea and North Korea going to war. They went to war because South Korea did not want to be a part of the Korean Workers Party

Historical Perspective 

The fifth thing you need to look when taking a historical lens is His historical perspective. This basically means that we have to take a historical perspective of the event we’re looking at,
not the perspective that we usually look at past events.

1.) Using the values of the time that the event took place to interpret It.

2.) Are the interpretations representative of the believes, practises and values at the time?

 

When looking at North Korea beginnings the people did allow Kim il sung to become the president. This is because their values reflected of what the soviet valued. So the N.Korean people did not mind the complete control at the time. For the second part of historical perspective the beliefs and values where represented for the same reason.

Ethical Judgement

The last thing historian look at when looking at past events is ethical judgement. The basic premise following this is was it right or fair for this to happen?

1.) Are there any ethical judgments?
– clear praise or blame

2.) Do the judgements consider?
– the interest of key groups
– the beliefs at the time

While looking at North Koreas ethical judgement it really depends who you ask. Most people not in N.Korea don’t find the dictatorship very ethical. Although if you look at it through the lens of a citizen they might see it differently. The people of North Korea now days most don’t mind or openly mind about the complete control. However back in the day most people where on board with what was going on.

I always thought history was the the study of the past. Well that’s the denotation, but many people have a connotation that’s different. A wise person once said without history we are nothing, and after studying in depth about history I have shifted my connotation on the word. History has never been my most favourite thing to study, although after learning that there’s so much more to it than I thought it’s got a little cooler. If we take in count all of the six factors we can understand why something are in a history book and somethings aren’t. That’s the cool part history literally is the study of the past, but when we break it down it’s so much more than that..