Future Voters.... Oh Boy....

I am concerned over the future of our government. Talking to some of my classmate I discovered a rather alarming trend. While they spouted the dogma of their parents well, they could not explain any details nor, in the more extreme cases, could they even tell me who the head of the executive branch was.
After an impromptu explanation of what the various functions of government are, I realized that if in the two or three years that these individuals are not taught right, we will have a problem. People who are uneducated about government are just scary to think about at the ballot box.
I know that there is a requirement for schools to teach about the government and stuff but still, are these classes really enough? This is the future of our government we're putting at risk! We have a system of classes that clearly are too difficult or just too boring for a vast number of kids and does not stress enough the importance of political education? Can we really afford to keep such a system?

Music...

I play the violin and am proud of it! I feel however that violins and other stringed instruments, and music in general, are both underestimated and undervalued in our culture starting in the schools. Fremd has a great music program and we have consistently sent people to IMEA (the musical equivalent of IHSA) for the past several years. This year the concertmaster of the regional IMEA orchestra for our district was from Fremd yet ask any non-music student in the building and they won't even know what IMEA is! If a team or person of a sport is sent to state and places high you can be sure that the school will know even if it's only through the pep assemblies thrown in their honor yet for a music department triumph and not a peep. Mainstream students don't know or hear about the long hours of devotion spent to mastering and instrument and don't appreciate the dedication it takes.This thinking of musicians as wimpy, unless they're playing the guitar, bass or drums of course, just keeps continuing in adult life. People don't seem to realize that you can hook an electric violin up to an amp and it will be amazing. Violins can play things other than pure classical music and can the same with all the other string instruments. People don't seem to be able to see the possibilities of different instruments because in school and in other places they feel that their peers don't value it highly. Today I saw a group called String Fusion. it was amazing and the played everything from country to Hendrix. Guess what, their lead musician played on the electric violin! Yet somehow this awesome group that came in to our school to play for free didn't manage to gather a audience the same size as the one during writer's week during the student poetry hour. And even some of the people that did show up decided that their cellphones were more important that the people preforming for them. musicians are underrated in our culture and as a musician I feel our culture and artistic history is slowly slipping away except in the small groups that try to keep it alive.

Discworld (and maybe some Good Omens)

It has recently come to my attention that I love Sir Terry Pratchett! I know that that may sound really weird and perhaps overdone but I honestly didn't know the extent of my mania toward Discworld till I found myself reading quotes form the books at four in the morning. But seriously, if you were reading them, you wouldn't be able to tear yourself away either. I'm not sure if it's his style of writing, the targets of his satire, or just how he combines all these elements into a plot with interesting and likable characters but something about Discworld just draws me in.

And not to keep you all up till four in the morning too... here are some quotes from both the Discworld books as well as Good Omens (written by Sir Pratchett as well as Neil Gaiman):


"Real children don't go hoppity-skip unless they are on drugs."
           -- Susan, the ultimate sensible governess (Terry Pratchett, Hogfather)

"Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time."
           -- Bursar 1 - Hex 0 (Terry Pratchett, Hogfather)

A number of religions in Ankh-Morpork still practiced human sacrifice, except that they didn't really need to practice any more because they had got so good at it.
           -- (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)

The shortest unit of time in the multiverse is the New York Second, defined as the period of time between the traffic lights turning green and the cab behind you honking.
           -- (Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies)

The Monks of Cool, whose tiny and exclusive monastery is hidden in a really cool and laid-back valley in the lower Ramtops, have a passing-out test for a novice. He is taken into a room full of all types of clothing and asked: Yo, my son, which of these is the most stylish thing to wear? And the correct answer is: Hey, whatever I select.
           -- (Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies)

Tourist, Rincewind decided, meant "idiot".
           -- (Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic)

Sister Mary headed through the night-time hospital with the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan and Lord of Darkness safely in her arms. She found a bassinet and laid him down in it. He gurgled. She gave him a tickle.
           -- The antichrist is born (Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens)



I'm not sure how he specifically relates to goverment and economics but this does... sort-of...
Stock... Futures... Pork? 


"Pork Futures Warehouse was…one of those things, the sort that you get in a city that has lived with magic for too long. The occult reasoning, if such it could be called, was this: pork was an important commodity in the city. Future pork, possibly even pork as yet unborn, was routinely traded by the merchants. Therefore, it had to exist somewhere. And the Pork Futures Warehouse came into existence, icy cold within as the pork drifted backwards in time"
           -- (Terry Pratchett, Thud)



My source and possably yours as well: http://www.lspace.org/books/pqf/index.html

Why do people post idiotic videos and comments?

I can understand if people want to express their opinions, however, there should be a line between opinions and insults. When people post insults the only thing they're doing is showing how judgmental and narrow they they are. The video that sparked the protesting in the Middle East, for example, it is responsible for the death of at least four people. Paraphrasing my friend, the people who made the video should be charged with third degree murder because while they didn't intend for people to die over their video... well you know what the road to hell is paved with. Also, while I fully support freedom of speech, there is also a responsibility that comes with any right, privilege, or freedom people have. In this case it is to know when opinions should be aired while doing so appropriately and to take responsibility for what one does just as you are suppose to take responsibility for ones actions. If someone can't follow this simple rule, they clearly can't handle living in America and don't get the concept of living in a community and should leave. The sooner the better! *hint hint*

The Shoulders of Others...

Its true that all that we do is possible because of other people. Our math is based off of ancient mathematicians and who ever came up with the arabic numbering system. Our medicine is based off of the properties in herbs and has grown gradually from those early herbals. Our science is based off of people that decided to look and think in ways no one ever though of before such as a guy in a monastery growing pea plants or some crazy guy writing proofs about the movements of stars seen through glass.

I guess this makes me wonder if any of my contributions will help others and if my name will be mentioned in some dusty tome somewhere. Thinking of helping new generations discover new things that I can't even imagine just makes me want to work harder to help them and not letting anyone, both in the past and the future, down!

Strike!

I had heard Monday morning on the radio that the Chicago teachers union was striking. I guess I wasn't that suprised because it had been simmering for awhile. What did suprise me was the e-mail I got at 6:30 ish in the morning from a friend of mine who happens to be a high school student. He lives in Chicago and informed me that his school had been called off. He later then e-mailed me that while checking out the strike: he got roped in and ended up holding a sign getting his picture taken by one of his teacher. I found this pretty funny and repeated it to my art 3D class. Then one of my classmates responded that they thought that striking is wrong and that the teachers that are doing it are selfish and denying their students an education. That sorta got me wondering what other people though of strikes. My point of view is that though strikes do deprive others of the sevices provided by the striking party, they are nessessary as an action of last resort. They are however nessessary because sometimes it is the only way to get the company or organization to take the striking party seriously and listen to their demands. As for the teachers, well its common knowlage that teaching isn't the best paying job in the world and even me, as hermit like as you can get in the suburbs, I have seen this comming a mile off. Obviously one side or the other wasn't listening and the strike was the teachers only recourse to put pressures on the negotiations and hurry up the procces as well as get taken more seriously.