Aragorn from Wichita

We saw this license plate owner today at the Medieval Festival in Norman, Oklahoma. He is losing his plate, however, because Kansas is no longer issuing personalized plates by county. Someone has had Aragorn longer as their Kansas tag and will therefore get to keep it. This fellow will switch to Dunedein. Very cool.

Burial Practices

This is a project I did for English:

Burial Practices

We will always remember past kings or great heroes whether they had a great temples or not. The Inca had a very religious burial practices and afterlife. Like the kings of Egypt, important Incas were mummified and typically buried with their rare objects and provisions that would be needed for the journey to the afterlife. Their long list of burial possessions even included, on some occasions, freshly sacrificed humans, for slaves to serve them in the afterlife.1 If an Inca, rich or poor, had been a good Inca, the warmth of the Sun awaited. Bad Incas got an eternity or more in the cold, damp earth. There would not have been many “bad” Incas, since prisons were unheard-of and there was no need for thieving in a society of plenty. 2

Egyptian kings were the only people who could afford a pyramid. It took hundreds of slaves and rock to build a pyramid. When the Egyptian civilization was just starting out they built labyrinths underground, but as the years went by they got bigger and higher off of the ground. The pyramids have stood for thousands of years, although slightly diminished. The tombs use to have lots of jewels and riches to be taken into the afterlife, but over thousands of years many have been looted and are now empty. There are many different building styles of the pyramids including the step pyramid and the true pyramid.3

In The Lord of the Rings there are many different examples of burial customs. Like the deep pit/tomb that Rohan sends their past kings into. Also the closed rooms/tomb that Gondor puts their past kings into. But for the common soldier death in battle was honored. The wining army usually burns the dead of the losing army and buries their own dead. Sometimes if hast is great, and you have few casualties then you do what you can, and float them down a river like in chapter 5, of book 2 .

Footnotes:

  1. Inca Burial Etiquette – http://latinamericanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/inca_burial_etiquette
  2. Ibid
  3. Overview of Pyramid Construction – http://www.touregypt.net/construction/

Fictional Prank War

This is a fictional story I wrote for English using google docs:

Prank War

It had been an interesting day at school, they had been introducing a couple of new programs. I was now thinking how this would change my day so I fumbled  with my key to open the door. What happened next was so unexpected I jumped and dropped my backpack.
I picked up my backpack and the noticed my sister on the ground laughing. Then I realized the big red bouncy ball laying on the ground at the edge of the carpet and figured out that she had dropped it on my head from the stair way. I started laughing at that point to because I was so consecrated on my thoughts I didn’t even notice her. I was already thinking of how to get back at her for that one.
Even though I thought of many ways to get even it soon passed out of mind. Today hadn’t been as bad as I thought it would be, but it was still a change of schedule and had kinks that needed to be worked out, it was good over all though. When I walked in the door today instead of a thonk on the head it was a trip at the feet. I landed on a pillow, she obviously did’t want to do any permanent damage, then I noticed the trip wire made out of a jump rope, she had really thought this throw.
I then asked her, “Are you just trying to tick me off because if you are you are doing a pretty good job or did someone dare you to do this to me?”
She then said through gasps of laughs, “No, I just enjoy playing with you and messing up your concentration. Is it working?”
“Yes,” I yapped at her, ” and you know what, I am going to get you back for this one just wait.” I then picked up my stuff and walked up to my room. But just before I looked away I caught a smug look on her face. This was going to be a long war, a prank war.
When I got up to my room I flung my backpack in a empty corner and sat on my bed. I did’t have any homework today, which was unusual because I almost always had a packet to work on or a chapter to read. But we had just graded it today so I was good. I had a lot of ideas but one seemed the least ovice and the easiest.
Right when I got home I activated my plan. First, instead of going throw the front door I would go around the back, check. Second, enter throw kitchen and sneek up on her, but my mom was making cookies so she would be here-.
“BOO”
She earned another point, I didn’t win this battle. Grumbling to myself I grabbed a cookie. They were chocolate chip, my favorite, but I didn’t care I was in a bad mood. I didn’t even hear my mom asking how school went, I was already thinking of new ways to get back at her. This was not over yet.
My mom noticed that something was wrong or upsetting me so she came up to my room. She asked about it so I told her, I told her about the ball, jumprope and finally about my attempt to get her back at her.
“Then right when I thought I had everything planed out you backed cookies so she wasn’t there and she got me,” I told her.
“I’m so sorry,” she told me, “but I think I know how to help you.” I looked up then from where I was laying on my bed. “Here’s the plan…….” I smiled at it this might work.
There was one thing my sister was afraid of, being laughed at. My mom explained to me that she was doing a presentation for the entire school tomorrow. She was also doing a powerpoint and if we replaced that with a slideshow of baby pictures she would never mess with me again.
The plan ran smoothly and I never had any problems with her again. I thought I saw her pass some money to a friend, but I might of be mistaken.
By: Alexander Fryer