Daisy

A Head for a Tree of Liberty: The Diary of a Fervent Parisian Revolutionary

Struggling from an impoverished, starving Parisian worker all the way to an astute revolutionist that proposed innovative laws to bring more equality and rights to the French commoners, this is Dieudonné Babin. Throughout the French Revolution, he, as an apprehensive and zealous juvenile, had internal conflicts of uncertainty, hesitation, and trepidation. Through the conflicts, he grew up, worked hard to fight as a soldier, and was able to gain more benefits for himself. He recorded his bravery, brilliant wit, self-reflection, and the fall of absolutism and unfairness in France.

The French Revolution was a 10-year-long gory and dramatic abolishment of monarchy and prerogatives to embrace a republic with equality, liberty, and fraternity. Was it successful? Are the great efforts that Dieudonné Babin put into the revolution worth it?

Although the French Revolution resulted in 17,000 brutal executions on the guillotine, drew France into wars, inflation, and starvation, and didn’t eradicate the corruption and poor administration of the government, the revolution was successful because there was more equality, access to education, secularism, freedom, and rights of the French commoners. In addition, a sense of nationalism fueled after Napoleon had a series of military victories. There was no more state religion, monarchy, feudalism, and France became a republic!

Over 17,000 Severed Heads: A Dramatic and Radical Embrace of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity

March 10, 2023 / Daisy / 0 Comments

Welcome to DJ (Daisy and Jasmine) Blogs! We made a common craft video about a brief introduction to the French Revolution (We each wrote half of the speech). I (Daisy) drew the contours of the images and colored a half of them and did the editing, Jasmine colored the rest of the images and provided the music and sound effects for our video.

The French Revolution is gory, dramatic, and entertaining to delve into, with the Sans Culotte peasants organizing an overthrow against the corrupted royalists, over 17,000 brutal executions on the guillotine, and France turning from a monarchial country into a republic. The Tennis Court Oath, taken on June 20, 1789, was the key event that set off the revolution. Pre-revolution France had an absolutist king (Louis XVI) and was constituted of three Estates, the First and Second Estates (very rich) took up only 0.1% of the French population and had privileges like not needing to pay taxes, but the Third Estates had to pay lots of taxes and had many less rights than them. When the First and Second Estates outvoted the Third Estate in the Meeting of the Estates General, the Third Estate people went to a tennis court, held their meetings there, and created the National Assembly. The second key event is the creation of the Declaration of the Rights of Man (introduced by the national assembly), which was originated from the Enlightenment and promised more equality in the society and more fair rights between all French people. The third key event happened in 1791, Louis XVI and his family were put in jail and he was convicted of treason. A newly established Convention chose to make France a republic, so Louis was executed on the scaffold in January 1793 (and later Marie Antoinette). The fourth key event resulted in 17,000 heads chopped off––––The Reign of Terror. A committee led by the Jacobins (Committee of Public Safety) passed two unfair and unethical laws that allowed convicting, imprisoning, and beheading anyone that was suspicious of being a counterrevolutionist or was alleged by someone. So many people, including the innocent people and poor peasants, died on the guillotine. Later, people got tired of this committee, so they beheaded the leader of the committee.

What big ideas did I learn about this revolution? First, it is a radical and violent grass-root movement that overthrew the monarchial governing system violently to embrace a better system: Republicanism. The Russian Revolution is similar to it, because it is also a grass-root movement and Russia also had a bad absolutist leader (Tsar Nicholas II), bad economy (widespread inflation), unfairness in social classes (the nobles and the rich had much better lives than the peasants), and food shortages (bad harvests) before having the revolution. Second, a revolution cannot change everything in the society. Because, even though there was more equality, education, nationalism, secularism, democracy, and freedom among the French people after the French Revolution, there were still wars (the French Revolutionary wars), government corruption (the Directory), and Roman Catholicism (many French people were still very religious). Enjoy watching the video, have a nice day!

My Notes about the Book “Trapped”

January 18, 2023 / Daisy / 0 Comments

Recently I read a literary nonfiction book called “Trapped“, written by Marc Aronson in 2011. Its main topics are mining, accident rescue, and late-stage imperialism. The book started off with a mine called San José that collapsed and trapped 33 miserable miners down in its shaft, which is 2,000ft below the Chilean Desert. Comapaninges and organiztions like NASA and Cementation Inc. of multiple countries came to Chile to try their best to rescue the trapped miners. Throughout the author’s descrption of the rescue, readers could learn the importance of hope and teamwork and people discovered an astounding reason of why the San José mine collapsed and trapped the miners : late-stage imperialism that existed in mining.

In this notebook page, I came up with a significant central idea about late-stage imperialism. The pages I cited show how the mine owners of San José opressed and exploited their workers, only caring about making money. I also putted this central idea in “Failure of Risk management” in “Issues” because it jeopardizes the society and is one of the reasons that caused the San José mining accident.

In this notebook page, I figured out another central idea in “Trapped”. It is the fact that people tend to believe more in religious things when they are in a desperate situation, because people can comfort themselves more with positive beliefs. I also wrote about the most crucial theme in this book, which is “The really great teams are the really bonded ones“, and embedded a text evidence to support this theme. It is about how the trapped miners cooperated and helped each other to survive in the collapsed mine.

I drew a mind-map about three connected themes in “Trapped”, they are related to the fact that tough situations could bring people toger, how teamwork makes a good team, and always having hope. By making this map, I relfected on and learned a lot about how to stay positive and collaborative in my life. I also wrote and connected some text evidence with the topic and main themes of the book. The sentences I highlighted or underlined in the same colors are connected too.

This notebook page included how I understood a section of the book after re-reading it and connecting it with a new idea in the book. At first, I did not understand why the miners were very imporverished and poor. But after reading more, I discovered a piece of evidence that revealed the cause, which is about the mine owners being very nonchalant and uncaring to their workers, so they exploited them and paid them very less.

I highly recommend this book, because it has many common sciences about geology, geography, and mining that we should learn more about and has many informative and frank languages that help you to read quickly. This book also teached me how important teamwork and hope are and how they can make my life more successful and positive.

Am I a Humanist?

October 14, 2022 / Daisy / 0 Comments

Personally speaking, I deeply believe in the ideology of humanism since I rated myself with 92% of a humanist.

I think education is really important and powerful, because we should study humanities, art, literatures, and philosophy to better know about the past, our ancestors ideas, and how to get smarter.

I believe that rediscovering and improving classical cultures (For example, studying ancient Greek and Roman writings and architectures and trying to make them better.) not only can help us to learn about what our previous world was like but also implementing the old ideas (whether improved by us or not) to our modern world to make it better.

Civic virtues are also important because we should all be good, helpful, caring, and citizens, not just caring about our own good but also others. If everyone is a good citizen, our society would be much better. https://www.worldhistory.org/Renaissance_Humanism/

I think we should often question the things in our world because we could find mistakes or problems in them, then we could rectify them to make our society a better place.

Furthermore, I also believe that our individual achievements weigh more than our social classes that we are born with. Because, a peasant could be great if they managed to do something great that other peasants could not, and a noble would actually be awful if they were not competent, no matter how rich or powerful they were. This idea emphasized a belief that I support: Individualism, which means to be dignified and free. file:///Users/daisy.zheng/Downloads/Ch%2028%20Humanism.pdf

“Thank You Ma’am” (Internal Conflict)

September 11, 2022 / Daisy / 0 Comments

This is my blackout poem! I drew a pocketbook on it, which relates to the story.

file:///Users/daisy.zheng/Downloads/1124_001%20(1).pdf

Above this sentence is a direct link to my blackout poem, below this sentence is the direct link to the story I blacked out.

https://www.commonlit.org/en/students/student_lessons/12081319

The explanation of my work :

I did a blackout poem for the realistic-fiction story “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes in 1958. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes

The internal conflict is the thief boy, Roger, was struggling and hesitating to choose either to run out of the house or stay with the woman that he had tried to steal a pocketbook from.

Now let’s sum up the story. I think the protagonists are the boy named Roger and the woman, Mrs. Jones, but there are no absolute antagonists in this story. The exposition started with Mrs. Jones walking back home with her pocketbook to make dinner as usual, then Roger suddenly dashed to her and tried to steal her pocketbook (because his parents were not at home, and he wanted money to buy a pair of new suede shoes) but failed as he lost balance and tripped. The rising action is Mrs. Jones caught Roger and dragged him all the way to her house, then she told Roger to wash his face (in which he did it reluctantly) and started making dinner. The climax started with Roger hesitating to choose either to run out from the door with the woman’s pocketbook, be free and hungry, or stay with the woman, get his face washed, and eat dinner with her so the woman could give him money to buy a pair of blue suede shoes. Finally, he decided to stay with the woman and eat dinner with her. The resolution is when Mrs. Jones told Roger about things like what she did when she was young when they were eating dinner, giving Roger 10$ to buy shoes, and allowed him to leave her house.

https://homework.study.com/explanation/what-is-the-main-conflict-in-thank-you-m-am-and-how-is-it-resolved.html#:~:text=The%20main%20conflict%20in%20%22Thank,Roger%20expects%20punishment%20from%20Mrs.

My poem started with “Roger, go to that sink.”, which is a dialogue I made for the woman, to show that the woman wanted Roger to stay and wash his face.

Then I highlighted “Roger looked at the door, the woman, the door, and went to the sink.” (Paragraph 23) and “The door was open, he could run.” (Paragraph 32), showed Roger’s hesitation. Roger wanted to run out with the woman’s pocketbook and be free, but then he knew he will be hungry, mistrusted, and could not buy new shoes. At the same time, even though the woman trusted Roger and he wanted to be trusted by her, Roger was frightened and kind of reluctant to stay, wash his face, and eat dinner with her.

In my blackout poem : “The woman ‘trust’ him, he ‘want’ to be trusted.” (Paragraph 36) shows that the woman trusted Roger and he wanted to be trusted by the woman, and he also wanted to show that he was believable. Roger would feel guilty if he ran away from the woman. He was having a contradiction to choose whether to leave or stay, which is the internal conflict.

There is a section of my poem (Paragraph 35) where I used the word “I” instead of “He” (Though there is no “He” in that section of the text) : But I did snatch the pocketbook, I have not “eat”. This is the thought of Roger; he was hesitating to whether stay with the woman or run out of the house.

There is an illustration of a beige-colored pocketbook on the page of my found poem, it represents Mrs. Jones’ pocketbook, it supports my poem because it is a part of the conflict, since the conflict started with Roger trying to steal Mrs. Jones’ pocketbook and when Roger was having his internal conflict he thought of running away from the house with the pocketbook.

Notre Bougie Violet Clair

April 28, 2022 / Daisy / 0 Comments

Howdy, folks! I'm back!

I just made a new dry lavender candle with my friend, but the unexpected thing is that our candles came up to be light purple instead of dark purple...
That was fine for me, actually. My friend also liked it.
So, next time we will add 5 drops of colorants to make the candle's color darker.
The recipe we used today for this candle is the dry lavender recipe I posted before, just without lavender seeds but with purple colorants.

I think we really did a good job today making a candle, and we cleaned the beakers and utensils well.
I showed my courage that I stood up and poured the melted white beeswax into the clear candle container by myself, hoo-ray!
Anyway, I advised my friend to light this new lavender candle in her house!

Alright, that's all for today. Farewell and see y'all soon!
My friend and I had discussed about trying another candle recipe soon...!

Notre Bougie de Mandarine Sucrée

April 18, 2022 / Daisy / 0 Comments

How to Make a DIY Tangerine Candle:

 

Ingredients:

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 White beeswax (25g)
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 Tangerine essential oil (25 drops)
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Materials:

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 Glass jar
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 Gloves
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 Goggles
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 Candle wick
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 Double boiler
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 Pipet
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 Stirring stick/ Spoon
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 Beaker/ A measuring cup
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Steps:

 Get all ingredients and materials and measure the (Make sure all materials are cleaned before use.)

```
 Make a big double boiler with water.
```

 Melt your soy wax (30g) using the double boiler.

 While it is still melting, make a candle wick and stick it on the bottom of the glass jar. (Do not forget to clip its tip that is sticking out.)

 Add 25 drops of tangerine essential oil into the melted soy wax and stir completely.

 Quickly pour the melted wax into the glass jar when the temperature drops a bit.

 Unclip the candle wick and trim it if need.

 

All right, you have just finished making a tangerine candle, enjoy using it!!! XD

Candle Reflection No. 1

April 18, 2022 / Daisy / 0 Comments

Howdy folks! I am back, finally! XD
This is a brief reflection for the first DIY lavender candle I made with my friend on last Thursday,
and we came up a brand name: Bougies de Lavande (it is in French, the meaning is "lavender candles").

I did not expect that our first DIY candle can be nearly perfect,
but we really worked hard on the recipes and collaborated well in the experiment.
Anyways, I have to mention that we spent too long on melting the main ingredient of our lavender candle: white beeswax.
So, maybe next time we shall build a bigger double-boiler and turn the heat of the hotplate to "5" so we can gain more time to clean up.
Furthermore, we forgot to put on gloves while running the experiment!
My hands felt extremely hot near the hotplate when I forgot to put on gloves! Ouch!

This is a DIY lavender candle because we added around 30 drops of lavender essential oil to it,
the fragrance is just as strong and amazing as lavender buds and it really lingers in your nostrils.

Alright, this is the end. Hope you are doing great. Here is our miraculous candle, hope you like it:
 
The purple spot is a purple flower we putted inside the white beeswax as an eye-catching decoration.

Lavender Candles Recipe

April 12, 2022 / Daisy / 0 Comments

How to Make a DIY Dry Lavender Candle:

Ingredients:

Soy wax
Dried lavenders

Lavender essential oil

Materials:

Glass jar
Gloves

Goggles
Candle wick
Double boiler
Pipet
Stirring stick/ Spoon

Beaker/ A measuring cup

Steps:

Get all ingredients and materials and measure them. (Make sure all materials are cleaned before use.)

Make a double boiler with water.

Melt your soy wax (30g) using the double boiler.

While it’s still melting, make a candle wick and stick it on the bottom of the glass jar. (Do not forget to clip its tip that is sticking out.)

Add 4 drops of lavender essential oil into the melted soy wax when the temperature gets to 85 Celsius and stir completely.

Quickly pour the melted wax into the glass jar when the temperature drops to 55 Celsius.

Get your bag of dried lavenders and pour some into the glass jar, no matter what!

The last step is to unclip the candle wick and trim it if need.

Alright, you’ve just finished making a dry lavender candle, enjoy using it!!! XD

Lip Balms: Feedbacks

March 16, 2022 / Daisy / 0 Comments

Hi everyone, I’m back! Hope y’all are doing good! XD

Today, my friends and I collected a bunch of feedbacks and comments for our four lip balms, enjoy reading them! (I recorded down all of them by myself~~~)

Cindy:

1st lip balm smells like cardboards, too stiff and hard.

2nd lip balm: likes the color, it’s really soft, it smells good.

3rd lip balm: lemon smell is cool and the texture is oily, which is good.

4th lip balm: smells like mosquito spray and smells too strong.

Favors the second lip balm the most.

Mr. Handy:

1st lip balm: smells pretty neutral, it’s really sticky.

2nd lip balm: has a shrill lavender, pretty nice and smooth but doesn’t go way too fast.

3rd lip balm: smells really good, deep, and great like lemongrass, it’s not as thick but very smooth.

4th lip balm: it’s pretty strong and goes all the way up in the noes, pretty thick, and has good stinging powers.

Favors the third lip balm the most, or the fourth one.

Mrs. Cheng:

The first one is very dry.

The second one is very smooth and less dry.

The third one is also very smooth and moisturized, it’s extra smoothy and has extra softness.

The fourth one also smoothes good and smells really good.

Favors the third lip balm the most, and it smells good.

Mrs. Rivera:

1st lip balm: doesn’t smell pleasant, and the texture is a bit dry and not so moisturizing.

2nd lip balm: smells nice, the scent a bit too strong, but it’s very soft and moisturizing on the skin.

3rd lip balm: the smell is nice, likes it better, but it’s super powerful, it’s very smooth.

4th lip balm: it’s a little softer than the third one, the lavender kind of covers

Favors the fourth lip balm the most.

Mr. Jeng:

1st lip balm: this one smells very waxy, it’s dry.

2nd lip balm: it’s heavily scented but much softer, it’s lavender. √

3rd lip balm: loves the smell and favors this one the most so far.

4th lip balm: ……

Favors the third lip balm the most.

Ms. Lyndsey:

1st lip balm: The smell is too plain, it’s not that good but it’s not bad, likes the color but not how it moisturizes.

2nd lip balm: Loves the smell, it’s like grandma’s garden, it moisturizes good, and will smell it when feeling sad.

3rd lip balm: Loves this, this is like lemon, will like to put it on the lips but it’s too strong compared to the lavender. Loves the color of all of them. Number three is a bit better for the application than the fourth one.

4th lip balm: Likes the smell, likes this one, it smells too strong. Thinks number three smells stronger. The application of this one is perfect, it’s perfection.

Favors the fourth lip balm the most.

Joana (She’s a pretty honest person):

1st lip balm: Why is there a hole in here? It smells plain.

2nd lip balm: It’s so good! It’s smooth. This one’s application is better.

3rd lip balm: Why are there black things? (Nodding––––) The texture is good. This one’s application is the best.

4th lip balm: Thinks three and four smell the same.

Favors the third lip balm the most.

Ms. Annet:

1st lip balm: It’s not making anything……The first one is a bit dry. Doesn’t prefer number one at all.

2nd lip balm: It’s glowing a bit, a bit much oily than the third one, it’s glowing. This one’s also good.

3rd lip balm: Really good, it smells good, can’t really see the glow, put a lot of scents?

4th lip balm: Wow, the scent shouldn’t be that strong for the lips.

Favors the third lip balm the most, even more if we reduced the scent.

My friends and I will try our best to improve our recipes and make better lip balms using all the feedbacks from above, I promise!

One more thing, can y’all believe that we added 13 drops of essential oil for the fourth lip balm?!

It was way too much for a normal lip balm! We should’ve added 3 total drops instead of 13 drops…

So, I bet one of our improvements in the future is to add less essential oil…… XD

Alright, that’s all. Farewell everyone and thanks for reading! XD

"I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein