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.