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!

Think Through: Songs that Celebrate.

3. The relationship between humans and gods is pure adoration. The people depend on the gods to give them things, and keep them safe and when the gods follow through with that, the people praise them and prostrate them. Humans always have to be on good terms with the god, or the gods could ruin all of the good that has been happening on earth. The gods have ultimate control, and so if you upset them, the consequences could be catastrophic.

4. The tone is very serious. All three of the praise songs are not to be taken lightly. They are full of strong beliefs, concentration, and over all seriousness. After all, this is what these people believe in, and they certainly wouldn't joke about such a pensive topic such as these.

5. Over all, I think that the river goddess orisha, Oshun, appealed to me the most. She seems to be really well rounded, thoughtful, and full of care. To her everyone is her child, and she would treat everyone like this with no diminished value. She is the reason many of the people are here on this earth, and nobody ever forgets that. Everyone adores her so, and is always grateful for the acts that she's performed. I would say that out of all of the orishas, she is the one that the people appreciate the most.

Capital Punishment.

I am not strongly for or against the death penalty. It has its pros and cons, and depending on the circumstance I can be swayed either way.

I believe that if somebody killed a person, not out of self defence but for whatever the reason may be, then they should as well receive the death penalty. Nobody has any right to decide to kill another person or not. It's just something that you don't do (duh).

Now, if someone killed a person out of self defence...say someone broke into a house, or you needed to protect yourself, then it would be alright to kill the person. Provided these circumstances. It still doesn't make it right to kill anyone, but if you're doing it out of self defence then that could be understood.

Horrible crimes deserve horrible punishments. When the horrible people who kidnap and rape kids, then deserve to go through the same exact pain that they put the child through. This is where it gets kind of wishy-washy. Death just seems like an easy way out of what they did. They don't suffer enough, and I think that they should go through the amount of pain that they've caused other people.

But since the government doesn't believe in that, the worst punishment you can receive is death. So, for now, for the people that deserve the death penalty that's what they'll get. Quick and it's done, and they'll never be able to act however they acted before they ended up on death row again.

Critic's Review.

When Rain Clouds Gather.
By: Bessie Head
3/5

In When Rain Clouds Gather, we've been introduced to many characters. Makhaya, Gilbert, Dinorego, Maria, Mma-Millipede, Paulina Sesbo, Chief Matenge, and Chief Sekoto.
Makhaya has escaped from his old country to go to Botswana. Once he finds himself inside of the Botswana borders, he is hiding as a refugee inside of Dinorego's house. When Dinorego first met Makhaya, he took Makhaya under his wing, and introduced him to his daughter, Maria, and his good friend Gilbert.

Gilbert has big plans for Golema Mmidi; plans to modernize the country and open the people's eyes to new cash crops and other doorways. He needs to change the way that the people of the country see things. Introducing tobacco, millet, and other cash crops is just the start of his plan. With those cash crops in order, the money will be reeling in for all of the people in the country, and with that money will come intelligence, with intelligence comes women's rights. The women would be able to speak out for theme selves, and the brutal actions towards them would be stopped. The men would be able to stay home with their family and not have to travel around with cattle and children will be able to stay home and go to school. Although all of this sounds like a wonderful plan, bigger people have other ideas about Gilbert and his friends.

Chief Matenge highly dislikes Dinorego and Gilbert. He feels that they are trying to take over (especially Gilbert) when really they are only trying to help. When the Chief finds out about both of them hiding a refugee in the borders, he is absolutely furious and wants to get Makhaya thrown out A-SAP. The Chief only wants to stay in power and rule over all of the land which can't be done on account of his biggest enemy: Chief Sekoto, his brother. Both of the brothers despise each other, and can't stand to be near one another. Hence why their ruling areas have been split in half. Chief Sekoto rules one half, while Chief Matenge rules the other half. These two characters are pretty sketchy, and Chief Matenge thinks that his brother is plotting to kill him so naturally his hate only grows for his brother.

This book is pretty good so far, although the plot has kind of come to a level right now. But I'm sure it's only a matter of time when some more action starts up. Hopefully something will happen between Paulina and Makhaya.

A Typical Day at School.

My school starts at 7:30 every morning, and we get out at 2:15. At my school we only have 4 blocks a day for 2 quarters. We're on something called block scheduling which means that after our first 2 quarters, or semester, is up then we switch classes, so all in all we take 8 classes a year. Four classes a day seems really small, which it is, but each period lasts 90 minutes. Also, I know that that sounds long as well, but it's actually really great because the teacher gets to teach the whole lesson, give you your homework, and you're able to do your homework in class. I rarely have any homework, and when I do, it's max. a half hour because it's only the other things that I didn't get to finish in class. So it's really great, and it makes it so much easier for you to have a job and do extracurriculars.

Currently I am taking Alg II, Wind Ensemble II, English II and Jazz Band II. So I pretty much spend half of my day in some type of music class or another. Last semester I took Chemistry Hon, Wind Ensemble II, World History Hon and Jazz Band II.

And then there's lunch...every one's favorite time of the day, aside from school being let out. At my school there are two cafeterias: the east and the west. Some kids eat in the cafeterias while others, such as myself, eat out in the courtyard on picnic benches or on the grass. We also have a pavilion where kids can eat out by the soccer and softball fields. I usually bring my lunch because I'm on the Track and Field team and can't eat the cafeteria food and then end up running out in the heat at 2:45. Lots of kids do eat the school lunch though. The most popular meal, by far, would be the nachos. Everyone looks forward to nacho day, and the lines to both of the cafeterias are so ridiculously long.

In my city there are 3 public high schools, and my school is the smallest one of the three. Although my school is a VPA (visual and performing arts) school our whopping 1,734 students barely compares to the two other school populations. You would think that an arts school such as mine would reel in more kids, but it doesn't. It's actually nice though, because you get to know just about the whole school, where as at other big schools you could be in the same grade as someone and never even know that the person existed. Being a small school also makes it so much easier get across campus and to learn in class. We have 7 minutes to get from class to class, which is more than enough time and you never have to rush. The average number of students in one class is 19-20.

So overall, I really don't mind going to a small school. It's great also because being at an arts school, kids get to focus on the arts and what they really aspire to do. Music, dance, art, theater are the VPAs students have to choose from; there are also different academies such as the law academy and environmental science academy and ROTC. It's really just a great atmosphere, and it really makes you enjoy school, and it makes you actually like being here to learn and hang out with your friends.