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.