A Day to Remember

Blood, squawking, the sound of an axe, and then the sudden shock of horror. These are the impressions that I remember from killing a suffering chicken.

It all began in the dark of night, September, 22, 2014. The night was calm and dry and the predators were out searching for prey. It was an average peaceful night in the chicken coop. It was then that one particularly homicidal beast, a fierce mountain lion, spotted its prey. The prey may have been protected in a sturdy chicken coop, but times were tough, in the drought food was scarce, and 6 chickens asleep was an undeniable feast.

After searching for a way into the chicken coop the mountain lion saw its entrance. The door’s support had been broken, thus making the door vulnerable to attack. After a brief struggle, he was in. And then, his reign of terror had begun. He bounced back and forth feasting upon innocent chickens and even chicks, causing high-pitched squawks and screeches. Luckily these noises would be the chicken’s salvation. It was these noises that awoke my mom, who then grabbed her pellet gun and scared the beast away. By this time one of the chickens was dead, and two were injured.

One of the injured chickens was blessed enough to not have a fatal injury. The other chicken however, was in the worst condition imaginable; half of her stomach was completely gone, her vital organs were falling out, her wings and legs were broken, and you could see her heart and intestines bleeding out on the floor. The tortured bird was powerless to do anything but scream through the endless agonizing pain. Her pain needed to come to an end; it was too much. We had to put an end to the bird’s misery, and so my dad and I set out to kill the bird in what we thought was the easiest way possible; by chopping its head off. As if this wasn’t a hard enough decision to make already, my little brother felt that this was a good time to have an emotional breakdown.

And so, with our minds clouded with the sound of my brother screaming, “Don’t kill it!” my dad grabbed an axe, and I held the chicken’s head. As hard as it is to cut a living thing’s head off, two things made it even more difficult: First, this was my favorite chicken because it actually laid green eggs and was unique, compared to other chickens; secondly, as it turns out, cutting a chicken’s head of is the hardest way to watch a chicken die. When the head was finally removed and I saw the brain fall out, I was hoping for silence and for the suffering chicken to be still at last. Instead, when the head was gone, the headless chicken jumped up and started running around wildly, leaving its head behind. Then, after about three minutes, it dropped dead. After this my brother Jakob, appalled by the gory mess that lay before us yelled “guts are everywhere”.  Not only was this moment sad but it was also terrifying. When the chicken was finally dead, I turned, only to find the chicken hopping all over the place.

In conclusion, the moral of this story is that owning pets is a living nightmare of pure agony. You may think that owning pets is fun and games; you may think that owning pets is a rewarding experience; you may even think that owning pets is a “big responsibility” yet still is enjoyable. Well, I’m here to tell you that all of these ideas are false; owning pets is the most horrifically, atrocious you will ever attempt. Once you have pets, you clean up poop, chase after your pets, and feed and water them twenty-four seven straight until they die, and when they finally do die, chances are good that it’s your fault. And so, if you’re thinking about getting a pet, stop.

I am also telling you this: to let you know that mountain lions are pure evil and chances are highly likely that they live near you and are ready to eat you if you sleep outside. Also, you may want to know that, to this day, the surviving chicken lives on. She wears bandages and moves slowly, but she lives!

  

Owning a Business (Making a Difference)

Businesses, the very foundation of the economy. While the insides of businesses are often investigated, many forget about the most essential character in a business:  the owner.  It is due to these people that businesses exist; it is these people who carry the economy in a capitalist society.  In today's world, large publicly-owned corporations are taking over the world's economy, leaving no mercy to small family-owned businesses.  For these family-owned businesses, it has become a matter of survival.  About a week ago, in order to investigate the world of owning a business, I interviewed the owner of a local family-owned business, Western Waterworks, to see what it is like to own a business.

Western Water Works is a large family-owned business located in Chino, California with five other satellite offices.  The company sells everything from fire hydrants and pipes to valves and gauges. They also install these things in public and private places like parks, national parks, state parks, and nature trails.  

    The owner, Bruce Himes, said, "In college I was never interested in pipes; I just wanted to do something where I could know I was making a difference."  

    When I interviewed him on September 3 of this year, I asked what the hardest part of his career was.  Himes replied saying that it was finding good people to hire.  He said, "At Western Water Works we're always on the look-out for good, diligent people."  Rather than hiring people based on their college degree or skill set, Himes decided to hire people based instead on their work ethic.

    Himes also said, "My favorite part of my job is watching people grow."  He said that he once had a gardener who was a really hard worker.  Although he had no background or notable skills, Himes gave him a small job at one of the company's warehouses. That young man went on to become warehouse manager and eventually transitioned into sales. Today he is the company's number one sales representative.

    When asked what an average day was like, Himes said that on an average day he gets to his office at 6:00 A.M.  He studies there until six thirty, when people start to show up.  Around 10:00 he starts meetings with his salespeople, financial advisors, and warehouse managers. His meetings end around 5:00 when his work day ends.

    When it comes to owning a business, the most essential skill is leadership.  Leadership is needed for training and motivating people, as well as many other things. In Himes's case, the quality of his leadership affects over seventy people.  Creativity, quick-wittedness, persuasion, and money-management are all very useful skills for owning a business as well.  Not much education is "required" for owning a business.  However, it can still prove to be useful for things such as building a reputation.    

     According to Himes, more horrible than all the rest, the most horrendous obstacle is taxes. Like any other business owner, Himes has seen taxes skyrocket time and time again. In today’s sad world a small-business is robbed of more than half of its income by the malevolence that is taxes.

     Still the company has miraculously survived, and even though owning a business is grueling work, full of trials and tribulations, Himes wouldn’t have it any other way.

            And so, whether it’s a massive, publicly-owned company rushing in to buy you out, permits you can’t afford or obtain, or not making enough money due to half of it all going to the government, owning a business is a nearly impossible task.           And yet even after all of these things, I’ve reached the conclusion that owning a business is still well worth it. Through owning a business you can personalize your company, you can be your own boss, you can be independent, and best of all.....YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

           

Levers

Levers may not seem like much, however, they are among the most commonly used items around. Levers are everywhere, and it’s not a new thing at all. Levers have been who knows when. Even Archimedes of ancient Greece said “Give me a lever long enough and I can lift the world”.

Levers may not be that powerful but they sure do make heavy lifting one heck of a lot easier. That’s not all levers can do though, for instance a car relies almost entirely on spinning levers, also known as gears. This video will show you all about that though.

 

Levers have also been used many times in weapons. One classic example is the catapult.

 

So the uses of levers are never ending so

          How do levers work?

For starters, the dictionary defines the lever as a rigid bar used for leverage.

But before we even begin learning about how levers work we should know about a few basic items.

1. The Fulcrum.
A fulcrum something that supports something else that relies on only the fulcrum to hold itself up. In the case of levers that something is a lever.

2.The Load.
The load is what you are trying to lift or balance. The load is sometimes referred to as the resistance force or just resistance

3.The Force
The force or effort is basically the force or weight you are using to lift or balance out the load.


There are three different classes of levers.

(Class one, two, and three levers in that order.)

In a first class lever of  the fulcrum is underneath the middle of the lever. The force is on one side and the load is on the other. A good example of a class one lever is a balance scale.



In a class two lever the load is put on the middle of the lever, the force is put on either side, and the fulcrum is put on the opposite side of the load. A good example of a second class lever is a nutcracker.


In a class three lever the force is applied to the middle of the lever, the fulcrum is on one side of the lever, and the load is on the other side of that. A good example of a class three lever is a claw hammer.

One cool example of a class one lever is a trebuchet. A trebuchet is a medieval siege weapon that uses a very basic lever to throw huge projectiles at an enemy. In a trebuchet the fulcrum is positioned very close to the effort which is a much heavier weight. The load is hung on the other side of the lever. When the very heavy counterweight or effort is quickly applied to the other side of the much lighter load the load goes flying.

To see what a trebuchet was like have fun playing around with it by crushing medieval castles and people here :

 To learn more about levers you can visit World-Star Academy's lever post here :Levers-World Star Academy

Did you learn anything? Please tell me if I did a good or bad job by commenting. If I did a bad job please tell me how I can improve this post.


 

 

Japan and the Samurai

As we all know the samurai were epic warriors with weird hats and razor sharp katana, but…

Who were the samurai actually?

The samurai were among the best warriors in history. Each samurai was a one man army compared to the European knights that were around at that time period. For one thing the samurai were masters at just about every martial art that was around back then, for another they not only had the best weapons around, but they also were experts at using them. To learn all there is to know about samurai warfare watch this video. And don't worry it is actually entertaining.

                              

That’s pretty cool huh. As the video kind of explained the katana is pretty amazing, but believe it or not the katana is even cooler than he described. To get a grasp of the katanas full power watch this guy compare it to the European alternative at the time by slashing stuff with both the katana and the English long sword.

How the samurai were first created?

It all started back when Japan was made up of lots of city states. A city state is a city that has its own government. But anyway back then some barbarians were running around looting villages, robbing people, and stuff like that. So the daimyos (or rulers of the city states) were forced to hire expert warriors for protection. Over the course of time these warriors developed new weapons, martial arts, and codes to live by like the code of bushido. But it was not until Tokugawa, one of the daimyos, united Japan that the samurai became the government’s goons.

How did the age of the samurai end?

To learn about how the age of the samurai ended and what followed you can watch this crash course video, and don’t worry it’s not too boring.

Did you learn anything at all, or was this post about as good as crap. Please comment and tell me.

P.S

Sorry I could not find any games or activities about this subject.