Awe, insignificance, pure amazement; these are all feelings that people feel when they see the great Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is an Indian mausoleum, and one of the current seven wonders of the world. It was ordered to be built by Mughal Emperor Shan Jahan in the memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, hence the Mahal in the name of the building.
This structure has many magnificent and famous aspects to it. One of these, is the towering pure marble dome at the top, which in my opinion, makes you realize how fantastic these empires must have been to build such immense pieces of art. Another one of the famous aspects is the four minarets that surround the tower; these towers are constructed in such a way so that it makes them much less likely to fall over. Also, each of the towers emphasizes the building in between them and causes the building in the middle to completely grab your attention.
There are many reasons that overly prove that this deserves to be a piece of art and one of the seven wonders of the world. To begin, all of what I mentioned above proves this alone, but the inside also has stunning features, of which most prominent is the marble screen that goes throughout the structure. It is made up of eight marble panels, each of which is decorated intricately and has precious stones in it.
The world is absolutely overflowing with wonderful pieces of art belonging to completely different populations and constructed in completely different time periods. But how is it possible that even things that are so different to each other are put in the same category? You just have to Think about two very famous works of art, the Empire State Building and the mask of Tutankhamen. The answer to this question is human sense. A thing that is present in every human and that makes him decide what is amazing and what disgusts him, whichever object it be. Three wonderful works of art are the dome of Milan, the Moai of Easter Island and a disgusting painting I made. These three things are completely different but they are all works of art. The dome of Milan has a stratospheric engineering, it is so majestic you can't describe it in words. It is a work of art because it was made a lot of time ago when it was very hard to do it and it is wonderful. The Moai are not the most beautiful sculptures existing but the fact the people who made it used sticks and stone hammers makes them a work of art that many people go and see every year. The last one is a typical example of the thing that differs in every human being, opinion. My drawing is a work of art because I personally like it a lot and if that wouldn't be enough I also worked on it at Art class, so it is a work of art or at least a work at art.
A work of art can be as big as the Taj Mahal or as small as the English crown, old like the pyramids or new like the golden bridge, it can came from Africa or from China but all of them have one thing in common, people like them. But not anyone, a work of art is what it is only to the person looking at it. When people look at something and say it is horrible and a second says no it is a work of art the second is wrong because it is a work of art only if the person likes it. But in my opinion everything is a work of art because everything is liked by a person.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Space Oddysey 2009-2012 a.k.a. THE HIGH SCHOOL DECISION, DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN
The high school decision, though not as big as a decision as the college decision, is an important decision that requires much time to think about, as it can determine a great many things and alll the schools will have some sort of thing you really like usually. An example of such is that if you go to a musical high school, than you may be more likely to succeed in music and you may be really happy because you love music, but less likely to succeed in intellectual ways; while at an academic high school, you may excel in areas that allow you to be a scientist, an engineer, a businessman, and many other jobs.
I made this decision but two weeks ago, and it was the most difficult decision I have made so far. I had made it into three awesome high schools, Kehillah, the high school that was not so intellectual but hugely musical. Crystal is the immensely intellectual based and close to home one, and finally, Lick-Wilmerding is the intellectual and hands on one with the great writing system but is far from my home.
This was impossible for me to decide at first, as all the schools had one topic/program that I wanted, but I knew that if I just went through the schools in my mind, I wouldn't get anywhere in my decision. Then to solve this high school mystery, I started thinking about ways to help me with the decision, when I thought of the idea of writing down pros and cons. There was one problem though, I couldn't write a proper Venn diagram between these schools, because some things were worth more to me than others, and that was when my dad came in with the wonderful idea of making a matrix on Microsoft excel.
A matrix is a chart in which you put how much each topic is worth to you and give each high school a score, for example, if you put College Preparation as your number one choice, you label it #2 and then give each school a score, one for the best, two for the second, and three for third. Then, you multiply the topic weight by the school's ranking in the topic, and once you do this for multiple topics, each one weighted, the one with the least points loses.
After I made the matrix, it boiled down to come between Crystal and Kehillah, who tied, while Lick was left behind by six points. Then, I created a new matrix, just between Crystal and Kehillah, and they still tied. I had no idea what to do when my mom thought of how to make my decision, and she told that if I was stuck in between them when thinking about my schools, to think about where my friends were going and how far away the two schools were away from our house. Crystal had more of my friends going to the school, which was a plus for me, and in the end, I chose Crystal for those exact reasons mentioned but five seconds ago.
Then, I made it my job to see how other people made there decision in my grade and people in older grades who had already made this hugely important showdown between schools, and according to many of my friends in later grades, and in my current grade, that it also all boiled down to friends and how far away it was was also a factor in many of there choices as well. This made me think about how at the end of this mind-raking process, the decision isn't that hard after you have two dead even schools, as then you can just go to the one that has more of your friends going to it, and is easier to access from home.
I made this decision but two weeks ago, and it was the most difficult decision I have made so far. I had made it into three awesome high schools, Kehillah, the high school that was not so intellectual but hugely musical. Crystal is the immensely intellectual based and close to home one, and finally, Lick-Wilmerding is the intellectual and hands on one with the great writing system but is far from my home.
This was impossible for me to decide at first, as all the schools had one topic/program that I wanted, but I knew that if I just went through the schools in my mind, I wouldn't get anywhere in my decision. Then to solve this high school mystery, I started thinking about ways to help me with the decision, when I thought of the idea of writing down pros and cons. There was one problem though, I couldn't write a proper Venn diagram between these schools, because some things were worth more to me than others, and that was when my dad came in with the wonderful idea of making a matrix on Microsoft excel.
A matrix is a chart in which you put how much each topic is worth to you and give each high school a score, for example, if you put College Preparation as your number one choice, you label it #2 and then give each school a score, one for the best, two for the second, and three for third. Then, you multiply the topic weight by the school's ranking in the topic, and once you do this for multiple topics, each one weighted, the one with the least points loses.
After I made the matrix, it boiled down to come between Crystal and Kehillah, who tied, while Lick was left behind by six points. Then, I created a new matrix, just between Crystal and Kehillah, and they still tied. I had no idea what to do when my mom thought of how to make my decision, and she told that if I was stuck in between them when thinking about my schools, to think about where my friends were going and how far away the two schools were away from our house. Crystal had more of my friends going to the school, which was a plus for me, and in the end, I chose Crystal for those exact reasons mentioned but five seconds ago.
Then, I made it my job to see how other people made there decision in my grade and people in older grades who had already made this hugely important showdown between schools, and according to many of my friends in later grades, and in my current grade, that it also all boiled down to friends and how far away it was was also a factor in many of there choices as well. This made me think about how at the end of this mind-raking process, the decision isn't that hard after you have two dead even schools, as then you can just go to the one that has more of your friends going to it, and is easier to access from home.
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