Think Through: Faust.

There once was this Emperor named Leo, who ruled the land of Popsicle. Leo was a new emperor, and just experiencing the tasks that an emperor had, and getting used to ruling over people.

Now, Popsicle wasn't the biggest country there was, not by far. Surrounding countries were far larger than Popsicle, which was only the size of a small town. Although it was small, it was nice and cosy. Everyone knew everyone, and liked it that way. The only person that didn't like it was Emperor Leo. The trouble was, he wanted more. More land, that is. All of the successful emperor's he'd heard of ruled over miles and miles of land. Since he was new, he wanted more, and wouldn't be happy until he had it. He needed more to rule over, he was power-hungry, and he was going to get what he wanted no matter what.

So, Emperor Leo assembled an army. He ordered all of the men in the country to join and train with the army. About half of the women were ordered to go along, to be nurses and to help the wounded soldiers, or to keep track of food and weapons. He needed the most skillful women, and one to lead them and keep them in order. The one person who could do this job best was none other than his wife, the empress, herself.

Of course, this was unheard of. Everyone knows that royalty doesn't go into battle. But Emperor Leo didn't care. He needed the best of the best in order to conquer other lands and gain more power. He was going to stop at nothing to achieve this.

So the army set out to the surrounding lands. After the first battle, they had won, and now Leo owned the land of Icecream. It felt so great to win, and now he ruled over two countries. He had to have more. So on he went to the next country, and again, the army succeeded. Although there were more causalities than the first battle, the men could still fight. Onward, he ordered them, to the neighboring country of Itsakadoozie. Here is where things started to get bad. The army of Itsakadoozie was really strong and confident. Leo's army was reduced by half by the time the fight was over, and Leo had conquered Itsakadoozie.

His wife told him that he should probably turn the troops around and head home to rest and let the soldiers who were alive heal. But Emperor Leo would have none of it. The way he saw it, he still had half of an army left, and they were plenty capable of conquering at least two more countries.

The next country they moved on to was Freezer. The battle was long and gory. Leo's army could barely stand up against the other army. The women were forced to rush on and off the battle field, trying to save the wounded soldiers so they could make it back to the first aid tent to get treatment for their wounds. It was during one of these times that the Empress rushed out to save a badly wounded soldier, that she got shot by an oncoming bullet. She died instantly, leaving the women to finish the duty themselves.

Emperor Leo barely blinked at this. He ordered the troops to keep fighting. He must be the new ruler of Freezer at all costs. Finally, after two days, Leo's army prevailed. Now the Emperor of five countries, he couldn't stop. The feeling of this power was just so good, he couldn't pass up trying to conquer the next land, Cookie.

With only about 100 men left, he ordered them to march on, towards the direction of Cookie.
Emperor Leo was aware that the Cookie army was strong and had many more numbers than his army. He knew that they were basically the replica of the Spartans. But he didn't care. He just had to rule over this land.

The battle began, two days later. It was over fairly quickly. Leo's army was defeated in a matter of hours. Leo wouldn't surrender though. Surrendering was a sign of the weak, and Leo certainly wasn't weak. After all, he ruled five countries now. They fought until the last man was dead.

With everyone dead, reality started to dawn on Emperor Leo. His wife was dead. His army was dead. The army was basically the whole town, so the town was dead. Sure, he ruled five countries, but he couldn't share his pleasure with anyone. He finally had what he wanted, but he wasn't happy, and should have been happy with what he had. If only he hadn't let his mind run away with greed, maybe he would be happy in the castle, sitting on his throne next to his wife.

Where are you from?

I live in Sarasota, Florida and attend Booker High School. I go to Booker High for the VPA music program, which means that I spend half of my day taking music classes. My dad is from Ecuador and his family came to the United States when he was about two years old. My grandma (from my dad's side) was from Germany. My mom's parents were from Copenhagen, Denmark. So even though I have lived in Florida my whole life, I have many different nationalities in my background.

The Cider House Rules.

I just watched a really great movie called The Cider House Rules. It's a story about, Homer Wells (played by Toby McGuire from spiderman) and it's set back during world war two. Homer lives in an orphanage and finally decides to leave and gets a job working as an apple picker in Maine. The orphanage Homer left he was training to be a doctor. The doctor he was apprenticing under was the only qualified doctor who preformed abortions, illegally of course. Before Homer leaves, the doctor is hoping that Homer will take his place working in the orphanage, and being a doctor as well. But Homer has been at the orphanage for about 20 years, and decides he really needs to figure out what he wants to do with his life. While he works as an apple picker, the workers stay in a house called "The Cider House". During his stay there he experiences other migrant workers and makes friends, and discovers things about himself he didn't know, and makes other relationships. There are two twists that I won't tell you about, I really hope you will watch the movie, or either read the book by John Irving. It's really a wonderful movie, and I'm off to read the book now, cheers!