Winterfest 2011: Worthy

This was my fourth Winterfest and I was looking forward to it. We had some fun 7th graders going, MG was gonna be rooming with Nick and I again, and Makennah was going for her first time.

The drive Thursday was fun and I got to listen to good music and play pokemon and use my laptop for entertainment some. I think what made this weekend seem shorter to me is we didn't have the "Central Arkansas Area Devo" at the hotel we stayed at which I guess makes it seem like you've been "at" Winterfest longer.

Getting there early on Friday was awesome and we didn't hit traffic. Hotel was a pretty good spot and anything seemed great after last years location. Randy Wood and MG were great roomates to have and had great stories and things to say.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the sessions were shorter this year and I was kind of disappointed at the small amount of time spent in sessions. Group Devo's were great and I really enjoyed them. The time spent roaming the town was fun but I felt like I had done the big stuff before and I didn't have a lot to shop much.

The new comedian guy was really funny so that was cool and a nice break from a familiar routine. I missed a drama/sponsor group type entertainment that I was used to and I feel like they had more speakers in times past as well but that could just be me. The poet/prophecy guy was really cool and spoke to me.

Having a group of seniors that I really look up to be there and lead songs like "At a Time Like This" was something that to me meant a lot and really helped me enjoy the weekend.

Playing "The Floor is Lava" and speaking for TV on mute with seven guys at one in the morning was fun too.

All in all a good weekend albeit fast. I feel like I left out a lot but I'm too tired. This is just some stuff and how I felt about it I guess.

Equality: When it's wanted and not

Recently in math we had a Guys v Girls game. 10 boys v 10 girls. You go around the circle and the people do problems and whoever gets the problem right first gets the point. Guys won 11 to 3 or something like that.

Half way through the girls claimed that it was unfair because we were too fast and asked for some of our smartest guys. I don't see how 10 boys v. 10 girls in the same class being taught by the same teacher isn't fair. I guess it kind of bothered me that girls complain about guys when we act like they can't do stuff without our help or that we don't treat they equal or like they are as smart but in a fair competition want a handicap.

On the other hand we've been talking about "Their Eyes Were Watching God" in English and the treatment of women in the 1930s I believe is the setting of the book. How women aren't expected to do the same work as men and men do manual labor for their women to earn money while women cook and clean and stuff. Not saying this is now, just then. So I think it is fair to say that everyone has certain things they are better equipped to do and there is plenty of evidence throughout all of history that men get to do more or more physical things.

However when it comes down to a math competition in 2011 in a classroom. 10 v. 10 is fair and they need to just be happy they're treated as equal and accept they lost.

Will anyway enjoy reading all this? Probably not. It's OK, I haven't blogged since October.

"That's Great Kid But Don't..."

If you heard Harrison Ford's voice finish that with "...get cocky" then you're right about what I'm going to blog about. Plus give yourself 10 points for getting a quote from Star Wars: A New Hope.

I got home from Bentonville High Schools annual Forensics Tournament. I got first place in Novice Debate. Two weekends ago I got second place at Novice Breakout.

Lets just say I feel good about how I'm doing in debate right now. The word of caution from all Champ debaters though is "Don't get cocky".

This is a problem for me. I like being good at things and coming home from somewhere with a total of three trophies (6th place speaks) this month makes me feel good. But there are plenty of great debaters that could beat me and it is only Arkansas and being cocky is never something that people like. I'm definitely going to try and make sure it doesn't become a problem. Props to my partner who got 4th speaks which is no doubt what rolled us over a team with the first place speaker.

Debate is fun but I shouldn't make it something where people don't like my attitude.

Chapter 9 World History Outline

Civilization in Eastern Europe: Byzantine and Orthodox Europe

I. Vlad chooses Byzantium (Orthodox Christianity)

A. Trade and Military activity complemented by a religion with wider appeal.

B. A new religion would show authority and end internal strife

C. Byzantine was a close ally and he wanted to marry the sister of the emperor.

D. Byzantine Art and Literature affects Russia

E. Separation from Roman Catholic Europe

II. The Byzantine Empire

A. Political, economic, and cultural activity.

1. Roman politics

2. Constantinople was a major city that radiated one of the two major branches of Christianity.

3. New culture in Balkan and western Russia.

4. Christian missionaries cause northward expansion

5. Polytheism->Monotheism

6. Separation between Eastern and Western Europe

a. Trade from North to South

B. Origins of the Empire

1. Began in 4^th Century

a. Eastern Roman capital

b. Able to ward off attacks while West was falling.

c. Greek instead of Latin.

d. Egyptians and Syrians joined Byzantium.

C. Justinian’s Achievements

1. Fought off Sassanian and Germanic invaders.

2. Tried to take back the West.

3. Susceptible to his wife Theodora.

4. Rebuilding Constantinople

5. Systemizing the Roman legal code.

6. The Hagia Sophia

7. Over ambitious military caused tax pressures.

D. Arab Pressure and the Empire’s Defense

1. Hellenistic and Christian influence

2. Able to hold off Arab Muslims but not without taking heavy losses.

3. Held capital, partly because of Greek Fire.

4. Loss of farmers and free workers and tax payers.

5. Island of Crete lost in 9^th century.

6. Defeated Bulgarians in 1014.

E. Byzantine Society and Politics

1. Similar to China

a. Mandate of heaven

2. Theodora as empress

3. One of largest Bureaucracies ever

a. Included aristocrats and talented scholars.

b. Eunuchs were close to the emperor.

c. Governors and spies held loyalty.

4. Military recruited from within

a. Many given land

b. Many became leaders

c. Blocked road to Europe for Muslims, Persians, Arabs, and Turks.

5. Lots of trade and focus on food that kept the peasants out of power.

6. Hellenistic

7. New architecture and art.

F. The Split Between Eastern and Western Christianity

1. Western Church translated Greek->Latin

2. Eastern church recognized the Pope

3. Eastern priest could marry.

4. Mad patriarch excommunicates all Roman Catholics.

G. The Empire’s Decline

1. Turkish invaders in the East

a. Took Asiatic provinces and cut off the most prosperous sources of tax revenue and agriculture.

b. Lost battle of Manzikert in 1071.

2. New kingdoms such as Serbia arose.

3. Tried to get help from the West

a. Inspired Crusades to Holy Lands

b. Crusade turned against Byzantine and took Constantinople.

4. Turks take over in 1461.

a. Affects later the Ottoman Empire.

Staying Busy

I have to wake up in seven hours and forty minutes. It's a really nice time to wake up. Thanks to knowing a junior with a car I get an hour and ten minutes more sleep this year than I ever have since first grade.

Even this makes me tired throughout the day. Just earlier I fell asleep while waiting for my laptop to install some updates. What's worse is that I know so many people, kids and adults alike, that are getting a lot less sleep than that and probably do more in a day than me.

If anyone reads my blog or loves me enough to go reference it, I wrote a blog at the end of August entitled Optimism http://scbennettamc.blogspot.com/2010/08/optimism.html in which I talked about how this was the first year I was ever overwhelmed with work. For some it has always been like this and for some I know its worse. AP World is a beautiful, in a terrifying way, example of a lot of work. I guess that's implied by the name but its a really hard class and the 30 page double column 12 size print with no pictures that fills the whole page...is a lot to read in a night. But more than that it is certainly a lot to digest and understand and take a quiz on the next day.

I know a kid that read the chapter 4 times tonight. I read once and did an outline on it and fell asleep at one point. He has an A in the class, I think I have a high C. The time needed to do all of this is beyond intense though. He had to spend at least three hours doing that, I know because I was talking with him, and he studied for Chem and Spanish in the same night.

The US is behind in education and Arkansas is the worst here so I don't even want to know what it's like other places but if you have a hard schedule and you want to pass your classes now in a high school in Arkansas I'm gonna say it takes a good three hours a night. He spent more. Who knows.

I think it's way too much. I know I sound like the generic kid fighting about no homework but we spend 7 or 8 hours at day at school and then getting home and school related activities, add 3 hours to that and that is 11 hours of our day. Then factor that they tell you to get 8 to 10 hours of sleep that doesn't leave a lot of time in between and we know we like to play around and goof off with friends. A social life is needed at this age and stress and lack of sleep are not helping at all.

Anyone that is doing Debate like I've started knows that if you want to be good at that its super time consuming too. It's all too much. We need more sleep, less work, and less stress. Educational reform is needed but with No Child Left Behind it'll probably only get worse.

I might've just covered about 10 different topics in a very unorganized way but I felt like writing it all out.

If you read it all good for you, you must like me or agree with me.

I'm gonna go get my minimal sleep now.

Cafeteria Preaching

First off, I had a hard time considering what to call this post. I guess what I was looking for was of course Street Preaching but that generally has a bad rep and I figured people might not be interested. See what happened was at lunch at school today but once again I wasn't really in the cafeteria. Central is big and I was on the "Freshman Patio" eating lunch despite the fact that I'm a Sophomore.

For all intents and purposes it was Cafeteria Preaching. Oddly enough it came on the day of "See You at the Pole" rallies which our school of 2,500 has a dismal attendance of about 40 kids. However this kid wasn't even talking about God or any religion he simply came to our table and asked why we all looked down. This is a pretty legit question because we were all really tired, highschool does that to you. Then he goes "man this is a great day! it feels good out here today! this is a great day to be alive and happy! you're at a great school, you have money and clothes and food man you could be dead! I've been shot at I've been to ACL (Alternative Learning Center) Man its good to be alive its a great day!"

Some kids left the table and some laughed. It didn't matter to him he sat down and kept talking to those of us who stayed. While he used a lot of yelling and perhaps some language he had a really good message that when I thought about it we really could've and should've given some more thought. I mean we are really lucky to be where we are and to have the things we have. And while we like to say that a lot at church its a real wake up call when some random kid gets on to you for looking so down when you're so blessed. Preaching about religion or not it had religious implications to me. Life lesson for the day.

Purpose or Perhaps, Just Interest

I liked the word Purpose for this blog post and really wanted to make a link to the Matrix with it. Any time I hear that word I hear Agent Smith emphasizing each syllable.

As I thought about what I really wanted to say in this post though it turned a lot more into Interest.

I was thinking about how after doing a lot of homework I just voluntarily worked on some Debate stuff. The last time I was voluntary in doing schoolwork was probably 7-8th grade EAST lab. Without going into a huge history (which I'm tempted to do) EAST is a program that focuses on service learning and is a class that is self taught. We didn't have a teacher we had a "facilitator" that basically did the adult things for us that kids couldn't do. But all in all the point was for us to be doing the adult things and learning.

Lots of service projects, improving the school, running recycling programs, fixing computers, running the morning announcements through the TV's, doing the schools yearbook.

All of this was our classes job last year (we were the 2nd year class) and as the only 13 2nd years we got all the fun and hard jobs. At one point I got to go to a website design training workshop and missed two days of school. The class was hard and rewarding but because of an amazing cast of kids and a "facilitator" that won the facilitator of the year award I loved being in that class and doing work for it.

EAST is an amazing organization but is often limited by the host school ie. why I'm not in it at Central.

Because of this I haven't had a class that has sparked my interest until Debate. We have one of the largest teams in the country with 150 kids. While not service oriented it's fun and teaches you a lot of higher level thinking skills.

I have an interest in that class and in some sense a purpose. It's fun to have one of those, you should all look into it.