Summer . . . sort of

So, we had our dance show on the 23-24.  The shows went really well.  We all had a blast, despite the tension that hung in the air.  Most of that was due to leftover from doing pictures and dress rehearsal at the same time the two days before.  Thankfully, we all made it through the performance with few problems.

After our final show on Sunday, just about everyone from the studio went to Godfather's Pizza for our annual celebration.  We had an awesome time!  There was pizza eaten, pictures taken, games played, and an overall feeling of camaraderie and relaxation what with the stress of the show gone.

After the big group picture was taken out in front of Godfather's, Jonathan challenged me to a game of Dance Dance Revolution.  He wanted a crowd, so we got a good deal of our friends from Musical Theater to watch.  It was so much fun!  Almost everyone started chanting my name when the game started, so it got pretty loud.  Here's the video of the second half of our game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYRr7v3c38s&feature=plcp.

Now that the show is over, summer is here and we're all relaxing to some degree.  I still have Algebra and Science to finish up before I go to Running Start in September, and because I didn't understand my Algebra, one of the moms from Scouts is going to help me out.  I'll be working with her an hour each morning.

Still going to be dancing all summer too.  I am teaching at EPO on Monday mornings for a bit, and come August will have 3 classes that I'll be teaching twice a week for two weeks.  Mom signed us up for Ballet at NSD with Mrs. Branner, which I am really looking forward too.

In the way of Scouts, I have summer camp just over the horizon.  We leave on the 15th for Camp Pigott.  I'll be doing the Shotgun and Metalwork badges while I'm there.

We're trying to plan get-togethers with our friends from Musical Theater so we can see each other over the summer.  We went to one of their houses on the Fourth of July and had a great time.  We all want to go to the local frozen yogurt place at some point, as well as have a party out at the park behind the tennis courts.  Don't know when we'll get that set up, but we'll figure something out.

Just an update

Well, last night was our last ever full band concert with Mrs. Richards.  Tuesday was Jazz Band's last concert.  None of us are very happy with it, but it is what it is.  Mrs. Richards is retiring, but someone is starting up a new Homeschool band.  I probably won't be joining though due to my schedule.

I signed up for Running Start at Olympic College.  I'm starting in the fall semester.  I'm doing Pre-Calculus 1: Algebra, English and Composition 1, and American Sign Language 1.  My friend Alexa signed up too, and wants to take the same subjects, so we're going to try to get into the same classes.

This summer, I'm teaching at Just for Kicks.  Two tap classes and a jazz class, twice a week.  I'll also be teaching the scholarship class over the summer.  I'm really happy, because I get payed for all but the scholarship class.  :D  If I'm lucky, I'll be hired on as a teacher for the next dance year.  I'll be dropping Progressions, but that's it.  At the Running Start orientation, they said we might have to cut back on extra-curricular activities.  Dad looked at me when they said that, and I told him, "Not gonna happen."  I'll fit in homework with my dance schedule, not dance into my homework schedule.

And on the subject of teaching, the scholarship class Jonathan and I are teaching is going very well.  They've had all their choreography known for a month, and have been working really hard on it.  Costumes are all figured out, and now all we have to do is continue polishing (and get music cut).  They are a great group of kids, and I can't wait to see them perform in the June recital.

I leave tonight for my Order of the Arrow Ordeal.  I'll be sleeping under the stars, working on a service project all day tomorrow, meditating the whole time (no talking allowed), and will have very little food.  All in all, it's looking to be a rough weekend.  This made more so by the fact that Dad (for who know's what reason) said he would take Noah Adams.  He said the Adams had a scheduling issue, so he would do it.  Personally, I would have told them too bad.  Granted, that's not very Boy Scouty of me, but I do not like that kid.  He's a pain in my rear end.  But, Dad picked up dried apricots to eat before-hand and on the road up.  Dried apricots both give us REALLY bad gas.  We'll tell Noah no talking allowed, keep the windows shut to keep the gas in, and blast rock and roll on the radio.  That way it's an ordeal in and of itself for the both of us.  Me because I don't like being anywhere close to him, and him because he gets to deal with me and dad farting and listening to rock and roll.

It's looking to be an interesting weekend.

Spring Break

I don't know who invented spring break in the first place, but I for one think it is STUPID!!! With spring break comes a week of no dance for us. With no dance, we get restless. When we're restless, we get grumpy. When we're grumpy, we get on each others nerves. And when we get on each others nerves, we get in trouble. Therefore, in my opinion, spring break = trouble. Then again, I'm homeschooled, and don't get spring break off from school, so I might be a little biased.

Thankfully, today is the last day of spring break. Aaron is spending the night, and we are playing Dungeons and Dragons with Mr. Sandor tomorrow. He's starting a new campaign with us. He has everything planned out on how to get our group to level thirty. I'm playing a swordmage in the group, and I'm the only tank we have. Because of my abilities, I can be considered a Jedi. I teleport and have a sword that turns green. And if I through the sword, I can call it back to my hand. JEDI!!!!

This Sunday is Easter. We don't have anything special planned though. It's probably just going to be spending the day as a family and celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. We need to get a ham though. We were going to pull one out of the freezer and let it thaw, but we didn't have one. We went to the grocery store yesterday, and forgot to pick one up.

My Educational Journey

This week one of the activities is reflecting on my education and what I think of it.

1) What kinds of experiences have you had? My education is not limited to just my bookwork. On top of English, Science, Math, and recently Geography and History, I have danced since I was 8 years old. This I've counted as my PE for a long time. Since my first class in Fallon, dancing has grown to be my favorite activity. I have started volunteer teaching at Just For Kicks, and am also hoping to be taken on as a paid teacher next year.

Joining BSA four years ago opened up more opportunities for me. The variety of merit badges has let me explore different "mini-courses" I guess they would be called. Among them are computers, animal sciences, and photography.

2) How much choice have you had over your own studies? When I first started school, I didn't have a great choice over my courses because of the curriculum. Once I started KONOS, I have had a much greater choice in what I wanted to dig deeper in.

Dance and Scouts have also given me choices in education. I choose which classes I want to take (which happens to be just about every on of them) and which merit badges I do.

3) Has your education been traditional, non-traditional, or a mixture of both? I would say my education has been a mixture. I don't have all the classes the kids in public school have, and now that I'm in KONOS, my learning for English is in a round-about way.

4) What direction do you see yourself taking in the future; are you preparing for college or university in the future? I see myself at this point hopefully heading to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. I want to join as an officer and hopefully as a computer programmer/tech dude.

Okay, so lately my life has been a bit hectic. In addition to my regular schedule of school, dance, band, dance, scouts, and more dance, I have started subbing more at the studio. I don't do it very often, but it's nice to be able to earn the money. Also, Jonathan and I are teaching a scholarship class on Saturdays for kids that can't pay for regular classes. We are doing a jazz class and will be teaching a dance to "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi.

Also, as a Life Scout, I'm now beginning my last steps towards Eagle Scout. I need to get the merit badges done and get everything for my Eagle Scout project set up. I want to redo the signs in Banner Forest, as everyone is always getting lost in there. The project itself isn't difficult, it's just getting people to be able to actually get the signs all put up in there at all the intersections.

For Christmas, Mom and Dad got me a P-bone, which is a trombone made of PVC pipe with a graphite slide. So, I'm trying to learn how to play that so that for the concert, I can play Trombone for Colonel Bogey's March, which has a low brass Soli section. Hannah is going to work on her Baritone so we'll have more than one low brass player.

Taryn and I have started a private together for Ballroom. We're doing a Salsa to "La Bomba." We haven't learned the actual dance yet, but we have learned some combinations and lifts that will get put together into a number. We're having a lot of fun with it.

In my free time (which seems to be dwindling), I have been reading more. Some books that I have read recently are the Uglies series by Scott Westerfield, The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, and I'm trying to read Beowulf, but it's a bit slow as it's a poem. Books I'm going to get at the library or get at Barnes and Noble are Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke, The Hunger Games (I don't know the author), and the second Dragonlance series.

When I'm not reading during my free time, I like to play my iPod. Samantha told me about this app called Temple Run, which essentially the scene from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark where he takes the idol and gets chased through the temple, except in the app, there are a lot of obstacles, coins to collect, power-ups to grab, and your character runs faster with every checkpoint. It's extremely easy to get addicted to it. I've only had the game for like 2 days and I have played about 170 times.

So, that's my current life in a nutshell. As the year goes on, I have no idea what is going to change, but I'm ready for it.

Becoming an Adult

This week is studying Medieval Daily Life. One of my activities for the week is to write about becoming an adult, so that's what I'm gonna do.

At my age, I don't think I would be able to take on the world. I have VERY little experience being out and doing things on my own. Because of that, I would probably flounder a bit in the real world. Also, maturity is a factor to consider. I can be mature and make good decisions most of the time, but there's always those times when I need help with what I should do. Decision making and owning up to mistakes are probably the two things I need to learn the most before I head out into the world.

I think the reason we have such a long adolescence period in today's day and age is because a lot of kids don't learn to do things themselves. They get an adult (parent, teacher, etc.) to either give them the answer, do the work for them, or help out so much that the kid does nothing that it becomes the parent's project more than the kid's. I think if today were a bit more like when settlers were still moving west, when boys had to start work at the age of 15 or 16, and girls were expected to know how to take care of the house by that time, the time of the adolescence period would decrease significantly. I'm not saying we should go back to what it was like during Laura Ingalls Wilder's time, but maybe if kids had a bit more responsibility put on them, and they were held responsible for it, then things might change a bit.

Christian: What it Means to be One

This week I'm studying Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire. He tried converting the entire Empire to Christianity by passing a law that said everyone had to follow the rules of the Church or the would be put to death. Not exactly a good way to get people to look kindly on Christianity.

Being a Christian is much more than just going to church and attending the services. It is more than tithing to the church, or even being baptized. It is thoroughly believing, with your whole being, that God sent his Son Jesus Christ to be the Savior of mankind and take away our sins. You have to believe that Christ's blood has cleansed your soul, and that God will accept you as his child if you repent of your sins and ask Him to lead you on the path of righteousness.

Obeying a law that decrees you to follow the rules the Christians follow is not the same as being an actual Christian. When you merely obey a law that requires you to do that, you are merely stepping through the motions, not actually doing them. I think that the Lord does not like enforced Christianity. When someone is forced to do something, they generally do it with a grudge. The Lord doesn't want you to serve him with a grudge. He wants you to serve Him with all your heart and soul and mind, and love him while you do it.

I don't think America would be the same if everyone were forced to be Christians. A majority of the people would be unhappy about having to worship against their will. Also, it would be against what America was founded for if a law like that were to be passed. America was founded so our forefathers could worship the way they wanted.

November 8, 2011

Well, time for an update on my life and what I've been doing. To make a long story short, DANCE DANCE DANCE!!! In the last 8 days, I've danced 8 days. And I have dance all week (including the weekend) this week and next, unless something comes up. A lot of it is because of Nutcracker. I am the Prince this year, and I have pas de deux rehearsals almost every day to make sure the choreography looks good. Also, I have Russian and Battle scene rehearsals on Sundays.

In Scouts, I just made Life Scout, so now I just have Eagle to go. Also, we just had elections, and I am the Patrol Leader of the new Venture Patrol. We are still working on a name. My friend Alex and I want to be called the Seagulls, but we're waiting on the other two in the patrol for ideas and input. So I have more responsibility as the PL, but I enjoy it so far (one meeting :P) and am working on getting the boys in the patrol motivated and working on some merit badges. So far, we are planning on doing the Communications badge (Eagle required), so I'm looking forward to it.

Then there's band. The three of us that were in band last year are all playing first on multiple pieces. We also have three more trumpets, so we have a wide range of technique and ability, making it a lot of fun. We are also doing more work with the Homeschool Strings this year. We are doing three orchestra pieces this year: Salute to the Cinemas, West Side Story Suite, and Procession of the Sardar.

So that's how life has been for me for the last month or so. A lot of people call it over-scheduled, but I call it doing what I love. :)

Now for more recent stuff. On Sunday, the Dance Driven Youth Ballroom team went to Tacoma to perform in the Instep Dance Showcase. As a group, we did a Lindy Hop to I Can't Stop It, a Cha Cha to Dynamite, an East Coast Swing to Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and a Waltz to Flying. A lot of people gave us congratulations and said they really enjoyed watching us. My friend Jonathan's mom said we completely stole the show, so I personally feel really good.

Still in progress, my friend Alexa and I are working on a Swing routine to take to performances and stuff. So far, it looks really good and I am having a blast. There are some fun lifts in there. During the first private, Ms. Christine (our teacher) had us try a lift called the Tower, where the girl does something like a handstand on the guys shoulders, but on her forearms instead of her hands. I'm really hoping we get to do that in our dance. If we can get it right, it will look really awesome.

And to round everything out, I'm turning 16 in less than two weeks! I'm really looking forward to it, even though I'm not doing anything fancy. I am hoping to do a Magic tournament at our house, followed by pizza and cake. I only have four friends that play Magic, though we are teaching another. So I'm not going to have many people coming over. However, I think it's going to be a blast.

My birthday list is not huge, but the things on it are somewhat expensive. Among them are Inheritance, the final book by Christopher Paolini; a decent pocket knife; Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke; Magic: the Gathering cards, be the boosters or decks, or just awesome single cards; an iHome with a radio; an iTunes gift card; and a Barnes and Noble gift card. Again, not a whole lot, just expensive.

What the barbarians brought to Europe

When the barbarians from Asia invaded the Roman Empire, everything ground to a halt, including trade, learning, and civilization. The barbarians essentially ground out everything Rome had been building for hundreds of years.

However, many good things were brought at the same time. Instead of one massive empire, the barbarians split into separate, independent civilizations. They allowed for Europe to become what it is today, with its diversity in countries and people.

Had the Romans continued to rule through today, Europe would be a massive pit of debt, just like the Roman empire was becoming towards the end of its time. Instead, many European cultures flourish, producing magnificent pieces of art and architecture to name a few things.

Monday, October 10

Just thought I'd put a bit about what's been going on lately.

We got our Nutcracker roles yesterday, and I managed to get Prince this year!! :D It's been my goal since we started at this school, and it's been that way because the Prince gets to do a lot of lifts. When I was Prince with Academy of Dance, I was a toothpick, and couldn't do a lift to save my life (not that I tried, due to the fact that they weren't choreographed, or even an option). But, I'm really excited. Should be a hectic two months trying to put the Nutcracker together.

Was enjoying the sight of the rain in the trees earlier. I love watching the leaves when they seem to spontaneously move around. It's almost like the tree is waving at you. Despite the fact that all we have is grey skies around here, and that it will remain like that for most of the next 3-5 months, I enjoy seeing little things like that. Kind of lifts my spirits.

Busy busy schedule now that dance and band are in full swing. I'm dancing 5 days a week, and at least an hour and fifteen minutes every day. The most hectic is band, when I have band all morning and dance from 3 until 7. It's definitely worth it though. I'm doing a swing duo with my friend Alexa, and we are having a blast with it.

Wednesdays I have a ballet private with my friend Samantha. She wanted to work only on ballet partnerwork, and Jonah, the only boy at Academy of Dance old enough to do partnerwork, isn't very good according to her. So we work on it for a half an hour every Wednesday.

Also, I am going to homecoming with Samantha. We are going to go hang out and just have a good time. She and her friends, according to Samantha's grandma, want me to teach them a bit of ballroom, so it should be pretty fun. :)

Well, that's about all I've got so far. Ballet and scouts tonight. Hoping my Scoutmaster can fit in enough time to work on my Citizenship in the World and get a Scoutmaster conference done tonight. Fingers crossed!

The Corvus

In ancient Rome, battles were not won on the open sea as often as on land. This was due to the military power of Rome's soldiers. During the First Punic War, Rome invented a device, called the corvus (crow in Latin), to board Carthaginian ships and use her disciplined soldiers to win the battle. The corvus was a bridge mounted on the prow of the ship. It was lowered onto the deck of another ship by a system of pulleys, which also allowed the bridge to be brought back up if needed. On the bottom of the bridge was a large spike, much like a crow's bill. This pierced the enemy's deck and allowed a good connection for the Roman soldiers to cross on.

The drawbacks to this device were 1) it weighed about a ton, which drastically decreased the ship's maneuverability, and 2) it was of no use in stormy weather, for it could seriously damage either the Roman or the enemy ship.

Test Summaries

While I studied the Greeks, I learned about their politics, mythology, and the way their leaders turned them into one of the most influential militaristic and economic forces of the ancient world.

During my study of the Hebrews, I learned about the time from when God helped Moses lead his people out of slavery in Egypt to the time of Solomon and the building of the great temple.

Studying the Egyptians was interesting because I learned about the food they ate, the way they worshiped their gods, and the mythology that was ingrained in everything they did.

Roman Disease

This week I have been reading the book Ancient Rome: How it Affects You Today. It talks about how the Roman empire and it's ideas can poison modern day culture and affect us and our futures.

Fascism+Roman Model = Roman Disease = "Whatever is necessary" = to protect our interest.

Fascism is a government "philosophy" that is really nothing more than saying the government does whatever it wants if it thinks it is necessary. The Roman Model replaced common law (see my last post) and is a central government that controls every part of citizens lives. They adjust the taxes, pass laws on whatever they want, and the citizens have no choice but to obey. These two things added together create the Roman Disease, which caused the fall of many great empires including those of the Romans, Russians, and Nazis.

Common Law

In Roman Times, common law used common sense and believed that there was a higher law than the government: God.

Common Law = 1) Do all you have agreed 2) Do not encroach on other persons or their property

Common Law = 1) Do all you have agreed 2) Do not encroach on other persons or their property

Common Law = 1) Do all you have agreed 2) Do not encroach on other persons or their property

Intergalactic Dance Show 2011

Yesterday concluded our week long dance show rehearsals, pictures, and performances. We had a lot of stuff to do! On Monday, our acting class was practicing on stage for Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Tuesday was an extra rehearsal for our hip hop class. Wednesday brought around Tech rehearsals for several classes, especially those with black lights (Mom's and my tap classes), props (my tap class and acting), and smoke machine (musical theater and Mom's tap class). Thursday and Friday were both dress rehearsals from about 2:00 until 8:00 or 9:00. On topof dress rehearsals on Friday, we also had class pictures, which took up most of the morning. And then came our performances on Saturday and Sunday. It was a blast, although dancing from noon until nine can be rather tiresome. Here are some pics from the various days.

This is from our mini-production of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. From left to right: Charlie, Grandma Georgina, Grandma Josephine, Willy Wonka.

My brother Evyn played Willy Wonka. He had a speech of sorts in part of the play where he essentially spoke a bunch of mumbo jumbo. He was very enthusiastic about it.

The President and her staff after Wonka's speech. From left to right: Chief Financial Advisor, Chief Interpreter, President Gilligrass, Vice President Ms. Tibbs, Military Chief of Staff.

Our Hip-Hop dance was to a combo of Rocketeer by Far East Movement and Show Goes On by Lupe Fiasco. It was about a minute and a half long, but was a lot of fun to learn.

Our class was an all boys one, and there were five of us in it, if you don't count the teacher, who was also a boy(?). He turned 21 middle of the dance year, but acted like an goofy teenager, just like the five of us.

While Hip-Hop is not my strong suit, I had a lot of fun in the class, and wish our teacher was going to be back next year. Sadly, he's going to go teach at another studio.

Our tap dance was to Grim Grinning Ghosts. For those of you that don't know the song, it is the one played on the Haunted Mansion Ride at Disneyland/Disney World. We got to dance in a black light, and during tech rehearsal, we goofed off a bit. One of us started doing the arms for jumping jacks and we all caught on, and this was the resulting picture.

We all wore white gloves and put socks over our tap shoes so they would light up in the black light. Sadly, the ghosts on our hoodies didn't light up until they had been painted with glow in the dark paint, which two of the girls from the class were able to find and supply.

We got to suggest ideas for the end of the dance, and we came up with a kick line. I personally think it would have been cooler in a black light, but we still had a lot of fun doing it. It took a few tries to get right and synchronized, but we eventually got it.

We also got to choose our final pose (sort of) and my friend Jonathan (far left) and I made a tent over the two girls in between us. We ended up having four of us do it and groups of two in between each pair doing their own thing. Again, probably would have been cooler in black light, but oh well. We still had a ton of fun.

My second favorite class this year was my ballroom class. We did a swing routine to Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen. I think swing is my favorite ballroom style that I have learned so far because it is fast paced and has a lot of lifts and tricks, which I enjoy doing. Dips I have a bit of trouble with, but the one our teacher put into the dance was more of a lift than a dip, and it was pretty easy to do.

Again, lifts are one of my favorite things about swing. This lift, I think, is called a cherry basket, but I might be thinking about something else. Jonathan took classes at another studio with the teacher, and he kept telling me about the lifts and showing me pics, so I might be mistaken about the lift names. I am hoping to join the performance team with him next year and do a lot more ballroom. I have found that I really enjoy it.

My partners and I had a lot of fun this year in ballroom. Hopefully, both will return next year. As a thanks for a great year, I gave each of them a pair of earrings that I made myself.

Everybody likes to save the best for last, and I am no exception. My hands-down favorite class this year was Musical Theater. Our teacher Ms. Stephanie combined her three Musical Theater classes for one dance to Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was by far the most fun I had this year. We all learned the words to sing as we danced. Evyn (top) got to jump over me in the beginning of the dance. The words were "But listen closely . . . BUT NOT FOR VERY MUCH LOONGGEER!" I came forward like I was going to say something, and he came jumping in disrupting the whole secretive effect.

Towards the end of the dance, we did a jump called a Barrel Jump. To do it, you jump with your leg up at waist level or so, and bring your other leg over the top of it. It was a challenge to learn, but we managed to finally get it. There were several twisted ankles in the process of learning it, but it was all worth it.

This pic is another version of the Barrel Jump, but this time, we had the smoke machine going, so it created an awesome effect.

After the three boys (Evyn, Jonathan, and me) from our class and the Intermediate Musical Theater class came back up on stage from dancing in the aisles in the auditorium, every one in the whole group (all 36 of us) did one more chorus of Time Warp. The final pose took about fifteen minutes to set up, due to the amount of kids. The final effect was rather astounding in my opinion.

As with every other summer dance show we've done with Just For Kicks, we ended the Sunday night with a pizza party at Godfather's Pizza, one of the studio's sponsors. We spent about an hour or so their. During that time, I gorged myself on pizza and soda, kicked butt at multiple games of Ninja, and did one more round of Time Warp. Several of our classmates were there, and we all started singing at the top of our lungs and dancing on the patio of Godfather's. It was sort of like a flash mob, except there were only about 5 - 10 of us.

Before we dispersed for the night, we all gathered for a group picture, which included just about all the kids that came to Godfather's. I am in the back of the picture on the wall with my arms raised. I could name everyone in the picture if I tried, but that would take forever. Suffice to say that just about all of my friends were their and we all had a blast over the last week.

Summer Plans

Ok, so other than the fact that school is not on my list of things for the summer, I have a few other plans for the best time of the year.

1) Get a job.

2) Get my learner's permit.

3) Hang out with friends and otherwise have a good summer.

I already have the first plan set in motion. I have applied for a job at the Candy Shoppe downtown, and I think I have a good shot at getting it. They are looking for help with candy buffets at weddings and stuff, as well as help at manning the store. Also, I am hoping that Ms. Tanya, who owns the studio, will let me teach a few classes next year.

Mom and Dad have agreed to get me my permit after I finish school, finally. I have in Geometry, if I don't do more than one lesson a day, 3 weeks of school left. But I don't have three weeks. I am doing 2-4 lessons a day and will finish within a week and a half, especially if I work on weekends. Fingers crossed I can get it done before things get too hectic with the dance recital.

I was talking with Mom about joining the dance troop at the studio, and I asked if, if I can pay my way through the competitions, could I join troop. She said talk to Dad, and I am hoping that I can, because the troop kids get more challenging dances, as well as seeming to have more fun. Here's hoping.

Wisdom and Knowledge

There is a big difference between wisdom and knowledge, even though many people count them as one and the same. Knowledge is merely knowing various facts about a subject. With knowledge, we take exams and use what we have learned in school.

Wisdom, however, is using common sense and logic. Wisdom is knowing when and when not to do something, and how it might affect those around you. With wisdom, we go about our everyday life, judging our actions and others.

Pythagoras' Secret Cult Religion

Today I focused my activities on the one's based around Pythagoras, the famous mathematician, who brought us the Pythagorean theorum, a squared + b squared = c squared. Despite his fame, he believed that only a select few should be allowed to study the secrets of numbers and that mathematics should be kept secret from the general public. So, he formed a cult of sorts with which he shared his secrets.

Personally, I think that keeping knowledge like what Pythagoras discovered away from the public is wrong. I think it should be shared so that everyone gets a chance to grow mentally. I believe that all knowledge that could be useful in helping a community grow should be shared. That way no one can say that they are better than someone else because they have a secret knowledge that only they were entrusted with.

Philosophical Questions

This week is all about science and philosophy. Zeno, a scientific philosopher, had two problems which he gave to his students that have been passed down to us since then. I am going to ask them and post the answer tomorrow. Please comment with your answers.

1) If a man shot an arrow at a target, and every second of travel the arrow went 1/2 way to the target (1/2 of the distance it had left to go), how long would it take the arrow to reach the target?

2) If a man had a boat, and as the boat began to wear out, he replaced each worn out part with a brand new part until at last teh entire boat was replaced with new parts and all the original parts were gone, then would his boat be the same boat he had in the first place? At what point could you say he had a different boat and why? What if he had licensed the original boat, would he then have to re-license the boat at some point? If someone asked him how long he'd had his boat, what would he say?

Other teachings of Zeno were that is was foolish to try to change things from the way they were to the way we would like them to be. He believed we should just accept things as they are. These were the beliefs of the Stoics. I think that this might be true about some things, but others, like war, or poverty, or other problems should be changed and not just accepted. I think it is important to accept some aspects of life the way they are. But we should always strive to better the bad things of life. That way everyone is able to bask in the glory of the world God gave us.

Spartan View of Life

When Spartan women had children, they had to have them inspected by the authorities. If the child was sickly looking, weak, small, or had birth defects, it was thrown off the edge of a cliff. This ensured that only the strong and vigorous were allowed to live. They did this so the Spartans developed a shield against guilt for killing another human being. It also encouraged a contempt toward those that weren't perfect.

In today's society, we do not kill people to create a callousness against others, but we develop one just the same. Slamming those that are different than us, or do something wrong, builds a contempt in us towards someone that does those things. Some people teach their kids that people of a certain color, race or tradition are bad and therefore are inferior to them. All these things do to us exactly what throwing a kid off a cliff did to the Spartans: we just don't care about those that aren't like us or aren't perfect.