equivalent exchange

If you wanted something in life you must be willing to pay the price, that’s what I believe.
“Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange”.
I’ve been saying that for years. When I was young, I thought that that was the general principle for everything. That Nothing comes free.
After growing up, I found that equivalent exchange still applies but not to every aspect of the world. Some people can go there whole life without doing anything and get everything they want, but isn’t it because there family payed the price by working to making that possible. On the other hand, people that are born into poverty try to pay the price to get out of that life but some just can’t climb out of the hole of poverty. If the world revolved around equivalent exchange, then why can’t those people get ahead? How about when little kids are getting killed during a war, they didn’t pay any price for that they had no chance of buying out death.
I think that equivalent exchange still applies in this world. If you want to be rich then you must be willing to work hard and make it happen, or if you want a successful business then you must be willing to put the effort into creating that dream. Equivalent exchange even determines the little things. For example, a little while back I was hoping for a great weekend. I didn’t have to work nor did my brother, and that weekend went perfect, nothing went wrong it was fun and we did everything I was hoping we could do. But doesn’t that come at a cost too? Well it did come at a price the following weekend when I had to work every day and so did my brother, also on top of that I was super sick to. That weekend was horrible. Isn’t that considered equivalent exchange?
How about the people that spend thousands of dollars and many years of their life going to college, don’t they do that to be able to get the job they always wanted inst that equivalent exchange. You can also think of money as equivalent exchange because aren’t you giving up money that you earned to buy things.
Now I don’t believe in God or any religion for that matter, nothing against the people who do but I don’t. I believe in equivalent exchange. I think many people believe in this Law but many don’t know that it was the general principle behind all alchemy in the time when alchemy was practiced. Many people don’t believe alchemy is possible, and that’s fine because the first law of equivalent exchange is still widely believed, and when I was growing up just like many other kids my parents taught me that you must work hard for what you want. You must be able to pay the price.
In those days, I really believed that equivalent exchange was the world's one, and only, truth. But the world isn't perfect, and the law is incomplete. Equivalent Exchange does not encompass everything that goes on, but I still chose to believe in its principle: that all things do come at a price, that there's an end and a way, that the pain we work through did have a reward, and that anyone who's determined and willing will get something of value in return.

Why some can’t read

The point of school is to educate children for their future, so why is there is a ridiculous amount of high school graduates that can’t even read. Well there are a few things people seem to think is the problem. People think some of the major influences are the parents or the school or just the child themselves.
It might be the parents fault for not pushing there kids to do well in the classes. The parents just don’t care about there kids education and that affects the kids. The children don’t have motivation to do there home work, they want to do fun things and I don’t blame them. That’s where the parents come in and they need to push the kid to do well. Statistics say parents who read to there kids, when the child is young, will help the kid be a better reader in later life. Things like that help the child and make sure he or she reads when they are older.
Another cause of the child being illiterate is the schools just want to pass the kid just to get him threw the classes and get him out. And I have seen it even in my school. They don’t care about the kid they just want to move on and that’s unacceptable. Its there job to educate the children and when they don’t do that the kid loses his ability to succeed at life.
The last reason is the kids themselves, the kid just does not care about his life and thinks “I don’t need to read it’s stupid”. That motivation is just the thing to make sure the kid won’t be a good reader. So if one or all these things are the cause then the effect would be the child might not be able to read very well or at all.

after high school

After High School
What do I do after high school? This is what I had to answer my senior year in high school. It had to be a good answer to because it would stick with me my entire life; and at that time I had not thought seriously about it. I had to really think what my choices were, what would influence my decision.
I had not thought about what to do after high school until my senior year. So I had to decide and fast. If I just get a job, where would I work? Would it be good enough to support me? Unless I go to collage, and if I do that what do I go for? All these things I had to consider. I spend many nights staring at my ceiling contemplating this huge decision.
When I was thinking about this decision I would always come to the question. What would be a fun job? Because I want a job I like, not a job that I hate and never want to go to. So I took my teacher advice he told me to pick a job that has to do with something I like, and I chose computers. I already loved computers and when I took his class he furthered my love of them. He taught me things that most people don’t even know about computers.
So I decided I will go to college and I will enroll in a class that will teach me more about computers. This fall I will be a student at Western Wisconsin Technical College, and I will be in the program I.T network specialist, a perfect class to hone my computer skills. It’s supposed to be a hard class, but I think it will be more interesting then hard.
I had to make a decision that would affect my life, and I had to get a good answer in a short amount of time. The hardest choice in my life (so far) has been solved I will go to college, and I will hopefully get a really good job. I can thank my teacher, and my family for encouraging me, but most of all I thank my love for computers for this experience.

Apollo

My first blog I wrote I was bummed because I had to right about the usual thing. Something that everyone probably writes about, well I’m going to do it again and this one’s about the coolest dog ever
Apollo is my sisters’ dog; he is half yellow lab and half English setter. He is white with brown spots. Apollo is so funny to watch when he comes to my house because he gets so exited that he can’t stop running around. The whole time he is at my house he does not lay down because he is always playing with something (ether a person, other dogs or just anything he thinks is fun). When Apollo sees someone he runs up to them and jumps at you because he wants to play. Apollo will run around and around for no good reason and he will run so fast that when he takes a turn he will wipe out and everyone will laugh, but that does not stop him he will keep on going like his life depends on it. As time goes on he will get tired and lie down and not move a muscle like he is dead, but not long after he will be chasing something or playing with the other dogs like a crazed hyper kid. I hate to see Apollo leave because it’s so fun to have him at my house and I love to play with that dog. When I hear Apollo is coming I get excited because I know I will have an enjoyable afternoon. Even when I go see him at there house he get so exited that there is a visitor that he cant stop shacking and his tail wags for like the first half hour your there. And he will just randomly come up and start to play with you, no matter what you are doing, he wants you to play with him now and you can’t refuse because he makes that face at you that dogs do so well. And I will put pictures to show you just how cool he really is.

Are you happy?

Recently I was asked if I was happy. And I had to think about it. I told that person I would get back to them with an answer later. Well I think that I am happy even though I will never be able to do what I always wanted in life. I know when I am done with school I will get a job and raise a family like everyone else in this world and that’s what I am suppose to do, and that’s fine but that’s not what I wish to do in life. Now this is something I have never told anyone my whole life, and the reason for that is because I am afraid of what people will say. But I wanted to say it for a while now. And it really doesn’t matter because I will never be able to carry out my dream. Ok enough stalling my dream, the thing I want to do in life is I wanted to be a ronin back in the time of feudal Japan. That kind of freedom is impossible in this period of time. Now for the people who don’t know what ronin are they are master-less samurai with no home, no job, they just travel the land searching for someone to rival there own strength and to master there fight skills. . And I know when people read this they are going to groan or sigh because this is something I have been writing about for like 5 blogs so far. Well they have all been leading up to this. The whole reason I wrote about feudal Japan is because I love that time period, and when I was told I have to write one of these things a week I figured I may as well write about something I like to write about, because if I don’t what’s the point. Anyways the reason I wanted to be a ronin is because of the freedom. Ronin just traveled the land looking for other strong warriors, and that’s what I want to do. I want to travel the land not being tied down by jobs or a family or anything thing to worry about. I want to just travel the land and get in adventures. But there is no such freedom in this world anymore. Everyone is expected to get a job and raise a family. Well I don’t want to conform to what the world expects of me. But no matter how I fight it, I have to be what is expected because if I don’t I could not succeed in this life. The path of the ronin is a path of blood and a path of fighting and I would gladly trade that for this boring life, I want to be free to do what I want, when I want, where I want, and how I want. I love samurai and I want to be a great sword fighter, why because I love swords if you gave me a choice between guns and swords I would choose the sword. When a person picks up a sword they must be skilled in using it or you will fall in a duel. Anyone can kill with a gun, but when you use a sword you must be skilled in the art of sword fighting. Maybe that’s why I want to be in that time, where to be able tolive how u want, to be able to fight you must be able to beat your opponent skill. Don’t get me wrong I love my life and I will live it to the fullest. But if I could choose I would want to be in that kind of situation. And I am not picking to be a ronin so I can go and kill people that’s not why I am picking it because ronin are free they can do what ever they want, and I love the whole concept of traveling the land for strong opponents to fight. So I am not complaining about my life I am just stating what I want to do with my life and I can never do that because of the time I live in. but I will live my life and I will still have tons of fun and enjoy every moment of my life, but I will still have this burning desire to be a sword master, and I wish I could train in being a sword master but in this day in age sword fighting is almost completely dead. So this will be my dream that I can not fulfill. But when I meet this person again I will answer yes I am happy, but I want to be something I can never be.

the baslilsk

Now I know what you’re thinking what does this title have to do with this story well if you don’t know what a basilisk, is it’s a lizard that eats the eggs of birds and such and lays its own and when that eggs hatch the babies devour the mother bird. And I chose this name because of the Iga leader kind of doing the same thing. Well won’t ruin the story anymore enjoy.

Out of the use of ninjas there developed two main clans, the Iga of Mie prefecture and the Koga of Shiga prefecture.
The Koga and Iga inhabited the same mountain range, in two valleys divided by a mountain. Being completely isolated from military and Samurai, they lived as farmers and they helped the locals with medicines, and farming.
Most of the Koga and Iga were descendents from other Warriors that settled in the region. Other Iga and Koga groups consisted of wandering Ronin, who were master-less Samurai. And even thought they lived in the same valley and studied the same arts they were enemies and they hated each other. They would often go to war with each other to prove who the better clan was.
For a while there was a stalemate and nether attacked, but the mood was still bad between them, after a while they started to talk to each other and some even became friends with each other. Most of the people in the clans still hated there rivals though and they did not like the new friendly mood.
There were even stories told where the next leader of the Koga would marry the next leader of the Iga to unify the two warring clans. But the some of the people of the clans did not like this idea, and would not agree to this unifying proclamation.
Even thought the 2 were going to marry for there clans they still loved each other and wanted there people stop the war, but before that could happen there was betrayal. One of the head leaders of the Iga hated the idea of the two clans joining, he thought that the Koga were vile creatures and would stop at nothing to keep them from joining the ranks of the Iga clan. So in the cover of darkness the Iga ninja attacked its own clan killing many and staged the whole thing on the Koga which they knew nothing about the attack. Of course the Iga were furious that they Koga would attack them and break the treaty so they set out to confront the Koga. Once they got to the Koga village they approached the leader and asked him of the attack, of course the leader knew nothing of the attack on the Iga village. The Iga were angry because they thought he was lying so they raged war and started killing the Koga ninja, and so the war raged on and the to clans had many battles and many died,
Even though the two clans were constantly at war they were still the greatest ninja’s in the country. And the shoguns knew this and constantly enlisted there help in their campaigns. Once the warring states ended they ninja’s had to use anymore so they started teaching people the ways of the ninja passing there knowledge down to there students and kids. Even thought there were tons of ninja clans the two main clans koga and iga are still known today for there story of to lovers tore apart by there warring clans. Movies and shows tell this story and it’s a great story even more so because it’s true. The greatest ninja clan’s have rivals too. And they didn’t bother with a code or honor they were there to win and to prove there skills, and they would stop at nothing to complete there mission.

ninja's part 3

Continuing with the last blog about ninja tools and weapons this one is more about combact weapons
Ninja would also use various fight weapons too like the bow staff, they would use thins long staff because it kept the enemies at a distance, Also the kusarigama which I wrote about before. Swords of course where the main weapon still. Scythes were also used but not very often because of there sizes. Sai’s where also used because of there 3 prongs they could catch incoming swords in them and quickly twist the sword disarming the enemy. Yomi’s were used just like the bow keeping them at a distance and with the sharp edge making it an affective killing weapon.
Shurikens have many designs and there to many to count, and they range from stars to spikes to crosses, in modern days the Shuriken looks wild and amazing but the ninja used simple shapes because they were disposable and he could not get them back, they also had to me small because they carried a lot of them.
A weapon people don’t relate to ninjas or don’t even know are the knuckle dusters. knuckle dusters are what commonly called wolverine claws because they are the same thing as the comic character has. But the ninja actually used them because it left there hands open to grab the sword when they blocked it with the claws. Or even some ninja’s used other weapons with the knuckle dusters. Like a tanto (short sword) or Shurikens something small.
But possible the main weapon for the ninja was the blow dart which enabled them to kill enemies from affair while staying hidden. The blow gun was small and easily concealable. The blow gun also was used as a breathing aperatice when the ninja was under water. The ninja would wait under water for hours using the blowgun as a breather and then there target come into view they would nail him in the throat with a dart. Ninjas were so accurate with that blow gun they would hit the target in the jugular causing massive bleeding or with a poison dart, causing death even faster. They had to be accurate because samurai wore full body armor and the dart would not have enough penetration to get threw it so they would have to get them where their skin was venerable, and sometimes the only spot was the face.
Another tool to the ninja was not what they used but what they wore they would be in a costume to sneak by guards unnoticed during the day. But in the night they would be in full black garb. And ninjas did not wear a lot of body armor so fighting was usually avoided.
But the most important tool for all ninja’s was the knowledge they had to survive. They knew about nature and how to adapt to it. They knew about chemicals for making poisons and smoke bombs. They knew how to sneak when to move when to avoid battle. They knew how to adapt to there surroundings and how to change a plan based to the situation.