A Life of Performance.

Two weeks ago I finished a run of a play, Much Ado About Nothing.  It was amazing and fantastic and I enjoyed myself a lot!

Acting is what I love to do, it's part of me and I've done it since before I can remember. This year is my last year in high school, after this I will move on, go to college, go on a proselyting mission for my church, and whatnot. 

Anyhow, this will be my last year to be in a play for at least three years.  This year there is a large musical being put on and I was DYING to try out. The problem was that I had just been in a play (Much ado) and had been in one last semester and I was (And still am) very very behind in school..

  So I had to make a decision, I had to give up something so that I could catch up in school. So rather than give up acting, which I loved, I decided that I would have to give up the funness of the internet.  So as of right now I have decided a few things: I'm only aloud to use YouTube during classes or via class Modules, I'm not aloud on Facebook except for on Sundays. I can't listen to podcasts on my computer (Though, If I'm exercising and it;s on a mp3 player it's fine) and I can't play any games on my computer.  All of these are in hopes that I'd be able to catch up WHILE being in a play. 

It was interesting because I had to actually go through and decide, what is most important to me. I had to look at what my dream in life is. As Dallin Ward said over in the Williamsburg community,          

"Everyone needs a dream. That is how all great things have been done." (If you have time go read his entire thing, it's good, and then go to Wesleigh Smith's post and read all of those responses, they're beautiful. )  So I looked at my life and decided where I wanted to go.  I found that that path didn't involve wasting days on end on the internet, however fun that may seem to me at the time. MY path to awesome involved me being committed to getting work done and to being free of the distracting influence of the internet. 

This is now the second week I've been doing this and it's fantastic how much has changed.  I've been able to focus on school work and I have started to catch up, it's been great. 

It hasn't been easy.  For instance, there are some days when I don't get very much done because I am simply spending the time fighting the part of me that wants to just quit and go to YouTube and waste away the afternoon. I'm used to being able to just distract myself and I'm used to just having fun.  I believe that the carefree, "Do nothing" mindset is just as much of an addiction as anything else is, and I obviously must have got myself hooked to it. It's just weird, some days I will literally have to argue part of myself that wants to go play, I have to literally convince it that what I'm working on is more important. It's basically my Red/Yellow personality if you're at all familiar with the color code.  I used to be really red, I was focused and I was very leadership oriented and stuff, but then over the years on the internet my yellow personality has taken over and I'm can be very uncommitted and lazy and just like having fun. So basically I'm trying to exercise that redness that I know I have. I'm trying to get back the determination and drive that I used to have.  It's crazy, but it's awesome that I am finally able to sit down and work and get things done. 

So, look at your priorities see what you WANT and then organize you time well.  You will never have more time than you have now, something will always be taking up your time, whether it be school work, other school, children, you will never have more time, you will just have to prioritize. 

So find that path and follow it to the end. The path is straight and narrow, the path is hard and filled with brambles, but in the end, it will be worth it. 

Accountability, day one.

Here I am, at the low.  Just like I was last year at this time.  But LAST year I just sort of fell over and died until the last week when I got up and brushed past with barely a "B" and a couple of A's (Most pretty much undeserved. )
So, this year I'm not going to do that, I have made a set of commitments and I'm sticking to them, they are requirements.
It's going to be hard, but it'll be doable.
Along with that I'm going to try to give an update of how I did each day. I'll publish it each night.  Here is today's: (Tuesday's)

So, today I did four Aleks topics (Right along schedule)
And I did one Study guide.
This is  in 6 1/2 hours.
I could have done better... But that's acceptable for today.

Also, AHHHHHHHHUUUUGGGGG!!!!
I'm trying out for Aida the musical and I'm so worried!!! I don't know what I'm going to get!! And I won't know until Thursday...

Also, if you want to read Final Stand in it's entirety, here it is
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FU6cs1d9uq5poaO08_gm_KPbWEfdj6uWKMAnG9rPrBs/edit?usp=sharing

Grand Strategy

Before you read this you have to know a definition, this definition is Grand Strategy.  it basically means the strategy that people have about the direction for the country globally. 
There are four main ones in use in America now.
Primacy, Cooperative security, selective engagement, and Neo Isolationism.
Primacy is the idea That America should be the super power it is today, but that it should go further and whenever anyone needs help we should help them.  This Ideal supports treaties and alliances like NATO (which requires us to help the member countries if they are attacked).  The main believers in this are die hard republicans and others like such.  So this takes to heart the idea of spreading democracy to the world.
Cooperative security is the next level "down" this group wishes to have alliances with all nations and be in a lot of places, but not be EVERYWHERE protecting everyone, many more people believe in this strategy than primacy.  In this we would protect people if we like them or have interests there.
Selective engagement is basically when we only go into a country with military if we have people there, (or other things like businesses or other interests) 
Neo Isolationism is the easiest to understand: Isolation. Stay in America, don't go anywhere, focus on US.
So with that short, badly worded summary, here's the essay. :D

Here is my grand strategy.  If you disagree (which I'm sure that in someway you will)  You should say so in the comments, since that would be cool!

What grand strategy do I believe in?  Well, this is complicated, I believe somewhat in Neo-Isolationism, but I don’t want to completely cut ourselves off from the world.  So maybe selective engagement?  Yes I do believe that we should have contact with other countries, but I don’t like alliances like NATO that hold us down.  Yet sometimes I believe that we have to go in and help someone, like a primacist. In a class we had we talked about this, and rather than me just saying, "Yeah, sounds good"  and going along with this ideal because it's easy to say that you agree with everything  I actually have thought this ever since we learned about grand strategy, and especially in the last month or two I’ve thought about it.  So something’s I believe are:  (this last part was in here because in the original essay it was to one person and I wanted them to know that I hadn't just taken this idea and written about it because I knew they believed it. )

I believe that we SHOULD try to make better relations with China since we’re kind of at a bad area with them and they don’t really like us at the moment.

  I think that we should also try to talk to North Korea to see if we can see why they are so aggressive towards us and see if we can turn down that flame before it burns us.

I also think that we should pull back many of our troops and perhaps cut down on the expense of having military abroad, but still have and train military at home, since we don’t want to be weak and disarmed.

We should focus a LOT on our debt and try our best to figure out a way, if not to lower, to at least halt the rise of our national debt.  We need to figure this out.  Some ways to do that are, like I said pull the military back home unless they’re in a position where leaving would prove more dangerous than staying, then we can leave them for now. Another idea would be to cut massive amounts of money off of welfare and Medicare and then run a campaign of advertising trying to get people to help the people who they know who are in need. Perhaps have the government set up a system in which people can donate to a fund which will help the people who need it.  And once we’ve done that we will be able to get rid of national government funded welfare.

Another thing I would do in the way of grand strategy is try to meet with rising nations to see what their goals are and while I wouldn’t give them an official alliance I would try to see if we could help them and vice versa.  With these and other changes I think that we could do pretty good in this increasingly global world. 

Welfare: the poison of America.

Well, I've been doing non-stop school for the past few months, But I finished!! :D
So I'll be able to post some things on here now. :D

(This is an essay I wrote for Extra credit in my world history class, I'll be posting a lot of similar things  for a while, also, in many of them I take a stand and defend it, even though I might not agree with it. for instance, I have two essays that are contradictory, since that was easy and fun to write.)

You read this title and you think one of two things, the first thing might be: “You heartless person!” And the other opposite will be: “YEAH! They didn’t earn it! We’re just enabling them!” Now, I’m obviously generalizing, and exaggerating, perhaps you understand the real problem, and solution.  And if so, I salute you, you already know what I’m going to talk about.  Here’s the thing.  Welfare IS a poison, but, many of these people still do need help!  We can’t just let them starve, jobless!  I have a solution, but first, let us look at an example

Let’s take Rome.  A strong empire indeed, but this is where most republicans get their data.  The roman government gave the people something called, “The dole” which was a daily ration, if they needed it.  So, what did this do to the people? they all stopped working! Free food!  so then the government had to pay them huge amounts to work, and then the government lost money.  but that’s not the point.  The point is that, the dole made them weak, it made them rely on the government! This is one of the big problems republicans have, they don’t want the entire population of America to become reliable on welfare. 

THIS is why it’s a poison! Because it’s true, welfare is a poison but it’s not the kind that immediately kills.  It’s like a drug, it gets you addicted, then, if you try to quit suddenly you get VERY sick and can die.  But we can’t just let them starve.  That would be stupid, heartless, and from a purely economic view, bad for business everywhere, to have a bunch of starving unemployed people wandering the streets.  So, what do we do?  

Well, there are a few things.  Firstly we must wean them off of it, exactly like an addictive drug.  But then we can’t just leave them there, like I said.  We as people must help them!  If there are real people helping them, people who they can see, and have to face then there won’t be those who cheat the system, but the people who actually do need it will get it.  This is the only way to do this, we must help each other to get better, it’s the only way.  IF we keep letting the government poison us then we cannot be free as an economy and grow.  We must help each other and be a better country.

Finals

I've been busy with finals, still am. That's why I haven't posted much lately... But I had this thought a minute ago:

...I think I can make it.
I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. Its nowhere close and the tunnel is caving in around me, but I think I can do it.

That's pretty much how I feel right about now, all semester I've been walking through a lit tunnel knowing that I'd eventual reach the end, but all of a sudden, the lights turned off and the rumblings started, then I realized how far I really was from the exit. I coulden't see the end and rocks were starting to fall around me, I started jogging, but I figured that the rubblings were not that bad and the end was just around a corner, and then I found a map, and I realized that I was NOT anywhere close, in fact, I didn't think that I'd get out in time. I started jogging again, I was to tired to run, I wasn't used to it, I was "out of shape" so to speak and then I decided, if I want to even get close to getting out, I've got to run. So I started running, by this time there were rocks falling everywhere, and, looking back I noticed that the tunnel had collapsed behind me (by the noise, or maybe a torch in the wall or something. ) so I started running for my life. it was all dark, no hope of getting out, since the cave in was right behind me. and then about two hours ago I saw the light. and I put on a burst of speed, I have to finish. I have to get out. The cave is collapsing right on my shoulders, but I won't stop running, its going to be WAY to close, but I'll make it. And it will make me feel awesome.