Contribution

Throughout some point in my life, I would like to be part of a contribution that helps part of a community or some part of the world, such as a country.  To me, this contribution could range from something little to something big.  However, in my opinion, I believe that I should do something big for a community or country because that is the type of person I am.  I like to do stuff for people due to the fact that I am a nice guy.  One contribution that I would like to make is to go on a missionary trip to a country filled with poverty.  While I'm on this trip, I would build schools, churches, etc. in order to help this country out.  Also to just put a smile on the people of this country would be an awesome feeling because I like to do that to people and that with a smile on there face I would feel like I have done something good for them. This is a contribution I would like to make due to the fact that my high school would go on these trips and they really interested me, however I could never go on them because I would have baseball.  However, I would really like to go on one now.

Mayan God - Itzamna

Throughout the Mayan civilizations, many people believed in gods that symbolized certain things, such as the sun, food, water, war, etc.  Out of all the gods that the Mayans believed in, one of the most important gods was known as Itzamna.  According to the Mayan language, is name means or symbolizes a lizard.  To the Mayans, he appears as an old man with a hooked nose and large eyes.  Overall, he is the god of creation, otherwise known as the ruler of the heavens and day and night, the god of corn, the calendar, writing, and many other things.  Throughout many myths of the Mayan people, Itzamna, has been seen as a cultural hero of some type due to the fact that he help create the foundations of civilization for the Mayan people.  All in all, this god is one of the most important gods in Mayan mythology.

Creation

Similar to the blog I wrote last week, we had a discussion about the speaker. Why is hip hop music so popular right now when most of it is violent or speaks about being violent and doing illegal acts?  In my opinion it is due to two main reasons.  One reason is because the children of this generation are somewhat rebellious and do what they want, even if it is violent.  The second reason is because many of the children are raised in homes that allow them to listen to hip hop music, so this in turn makes it necessary for them to be violent.  Also we discussed the creation myths.  How are the Popul Vuh and the Christian Bible are similar?  I believe that it due to the fact that they both talk about a creation story.  This includes explaining the creation of the earth, animals, and humans.  When do we register for our classes?  We discussed this briefly, so I should just see my advisor and discuss it with him.  What if I can’t get into a certain class?  Do I just what to take it the following year?

Hip hop

"Why is hip hop music so popular right now when the majority of it is violent, demeaning toward women, and vulgar?  What does its popularity say about us as a society and what we value or do not value?"

Hip hop music is so popular right now for a couple of reasons.  One major reason in my opinion is that many children these days seem to be somewhat rebellious.  As being rebellious, the children want to be like the people the rappers are rapping about.  They want to seen as "cool and fit-in", so they become more violent and vulgar as well as more demeaning toward women.  Another factor could be the fact that many people are raised to listen rap music, so it just becomes popular to them.  This popularity says about us as a society that we value the wrong things just to "fit-in".  This also tells us that society chooses not to respect people.

Time?

Time? What is time? Throughout the past week, the idea of time played a key role in our discussions.  But, what really is time?  I believe that time is just a way to organize your everyday activities.  For example, waking up in the morning or going to class.  We all have to do this everyday and it involves time because you wake up at a certain time and your class begins at a certain time.  To the Mayans, time played a very important role in their everyday life, such as night and day as well as the seasons throughout the year.  Numbers, however, was also a very important role to the Mayans.  What just amazes me is the fact that the archeologists found a way to understand the Mayan language and read the the numbers that the Mayans wrote down.  Like how did they come up with the ideas for what the Mayans were trying to say.  This just amazes me how they are so smart to recognize the language.