“Hello?”
“Hi, may I please speak to Jason?”
“Umm…I think you have the wrong number.”
“Oh…is this 244-7691?”
“No, it’s 224…”
“Oh…well I’m calling from United Blood Services…are you a blood donor?”
This conversation took place about five minutes ago. It marks the first time that someone has solicited me while attempting to contact someone else. That’s some damn good stuff they’re teaching telemarketers these days! I just hung up on him.
Lately I’ve had a lot to say and felt as if I couldn’t quite get it down. Several times I started writing and immediately stopped and closed my browser as if it wasn’t worth the trouble. Well, that’s trouble in itself.
On the plane back to school I looked through my writing history, from elementary school to present, and I realized that in sixth grade I wrote a very impressive, if not somewhat naive, paper on jellyfish. The structure was nearly perfect and I am 98% certain that no one helped me write it, because my self-motivation was one of my best attributes as a child. I also wrote a factually-inaccurate account of the Sioux.
Here is the jellyfish paper:
What really are jellyfish? They are not jelly, nor are they fish. They are actually made of more than 95% water! They have no heart, brain, blood, bones, or eyes. But they do have nerve cells that help them react to food or danger. Sensors tell them if they are up-side down, inside-out (yeah right), or up or down. They breathe by absorbing oxygen and releasing carbon-dioxide. They are also made of 3-4% salt and 1-2% protein.
Their habitat can range from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from Chesapeake Bay in Maryland to 3,200 feet below the surface of the ocean, although some do live in rivers, streams, and lakes.
They eat mostly zooplankton, small fish, and often other jellyfish! However, their predators are, again, other jellyfish, sea turtles, Glaucus sea slugs, and the ocean sunfish. They all find their prey very tasty. A jellyfish’s mouth is an oral cavity on the bottom of their bell.
Usually, jellyfish have long tentacles with stinging cells on them, most often with nematocysts, which do the job of stinging prey. They have dome-shaped body called bells that are sometimes frilly. They have a layer of “jelly” called mesogloea. They are almost transparent, giving them great camouflage in the open habitat they live in.
There are many different types of jellyfish. Comb jellies, Lion’s mane jellies, Moon jellies, and Upside-down jellies to name the common ones. But the deadliest of them all is the Sea wasp. Its venom is said to be deadlier than the most poisonous snake in the world and can kill its unfortunate victim in less than 3 minutes!
Life cycles of jellyfish depend on wether or not it is a Scyphozoan or a Hydrozoan-Cubozoan. (Scyphozoans are true jellyfish, Hydrozoans and Cubozoans are not.) Life cycles of a Scyphozoan start out as a fertilized egg, then become larvae, then become a polyp. Polyps look like buds on a tree, they cling to coral and then comes the next step. When they are a polyp the transform into a young medusa and, they are free to move about now, as they grow older, they become an adult medusae. Hydrozoans, however, are a little bit different. Hydrozoans start out like the Scyphozoans but when they get to polyp, they form a hydroid colony, then they bud into a young medusa — sort of like a flower — and grow to be an adult medusa. Adult medusae usually live about 2-6 months, but usually perish in rough waters.
“Communication is the Key!” That is sort of my dadís motto. However, I was unable to find out if they communicate, and if so, how. My inference is that they communicate using echolocation.
Jellyfish are truly amazing creatures. I had a hard time with the communication section. I e-mailed some person and they mistook “Jellyfish” as a band! It was fun, though, even with all the hard work. I just need some more information!
Here is the Sioux paper:
Almost 400 years ago, the Sioux Indians came from Asia across the ice bridge and into a new life. Today the Sioux live in areas of North and South Dakota or they determine camps from buffalo herds.
The Sioux worshiped Wakan Tanka, or the Great Spirit. They believed that he had power over everything. They also believed that everything had a spirit and worshiped the spirits daily. The way the set their tipis, ate, and worked was supposed to please the spirits.
The Sioux had no written language, but Siouan was spoken among the tribes. Since the Sioux had no written language, they drew picture calendars instead. A picture calendar is a series of symbols that makes up a story, sort of like a journal.
The Siouxís dwellings were tipis. A tipi is 6 to 8 wooden poles covered with 12-15 buffalo hides. They built tipis because they are very easy to take down and put back up when traveling. Usually, the men would paint scenes of war on the outside of the tipi.
Food was not so much grown, but hunted. The Sioux hunted buffalo with spears and arrows. When the horse came to North America it was a big help to the Sioux because they could run with the buffalo, instead of sneaking up on them. They grew very little crops, but they did grow wild rice.
The Sioux had a vast variety of clothing: some for dancing, some for everyday life. For a powwow, a fancy dancer would wear bustles and beads. But a shawl dancer would wear a long fringed shawl and beaded dress, moccasins, and leggings. For every day life, men would wear a shirt and jeans, boys would wear the same, women would wear beaded necklaces and ornaments, girls would wear vests, and infants would wear the skin of buffalo calves.
For entertainment, the Sioux would play various games, usually centered around learning skills. Races would be on foot or on horseback. The boys would have contests like running, jumping, and shooting arrows. One guessing game was the Moccasin Game. You would put a pebble under one of three moccasins and then other people would have to guess which moccasin the pebble was under. Seasonal activities consisted of swimming, sledding, ice sliding, and spinning tops on the ice. At night, there would sometimes be storytelling and maybe even a powwow. The adults loved to gamble.
The Sioux made few crafts, because they would break during frequent traveling. They did make some crafts, though. An arrow case, moccasins, medicine shields, anklets, talking sticks, and applique designs are some of the crafts they made. Leather, wood, and skins were what these were made of.
The Sioux’s weapons were taken from other armies as well as made by hand. The guns would usually be taken from a warsite, while the bows, arrows, and spears would be made by hand. The bows consisted of wood bent in a U shape, then sinew was tied to the ends of the bow. Arrows were carved from branches with sharp stones. Spears would be made the same way except for the arrowhead made of obsidian on the head of the spear. The Sioux didn’t have many tools, but a common tool was the Travois. A Travois is two branches tied together with sinew and was used for transporting goods or people.
The Sioux didn’t have pets, but dogs and horses were used to pull the Travois. They did not consider animals as pets, just working animals. If they fed the dogs, the dogs would follow them to another campsite.
The Sioux had a war-filled life, and not really a pleasent life. Life in the Dakotas was hard in the 1600ís, but the Siouxís resources helped them survive the battle. The Sioux were an amazing tribe of people.
In retrospect, the Sioux paper isn’t that bad, besides the part that states the Sioux traveled on a land bridge 400 years ago. I hope someone explained to me the real timeline here.
