The
startling
appearance
of
my
friend
Fred,
destroyed
my
previous
conclusion
that
he
was
dead.
Perhaps
if
he
had
given
me
more
chocolate
sauce,
it
would
have
seemed
less
of
a
loss.
Monday, April 30, 2012
My Attempt At An E. E. Cummings-Like Poem
I hate love E. E. Cummings a lot. I think he is despicable and a pathetic excuse for a poet really cool. I even wrote a brief little poem which serves to mockingly illustrate how awful his poems were celebrate how neat he was. Enjoy.
The
startling
appearance
of
my
friend
Fred,
destroyed
my
previous
conclusion
that
he
was
dead.
Perhaps
if
he
had
given
me
more
chocolate
sauce,
it
would
have
seemed
less
of
a
loss.
The
startling
appearance
of
my
friend
Fred,
destroyed
my
previous
conclusion
that
he
was
dead.
Perhaps
if
he
had
given
me
more
chocolate
sauce,
it
would
have
seemed
less
of
a
loss.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Why Do We Allow Words To Lose Meaning?
You've probably been scolded once or twice when you used the word "hate" in a scenario where you could have simply used "dislike". "Hate is a strong word" those people would say, and I was one of them, trying to hold on to the meaning which came with that word. Sadly, that is actually incorrect. "Hate" is no longer a strong word. Each time we used it improperly, it became a little more mellow, until, no matter what the dictionary might tell you, it devolved into a synonym for "dislike". So now when we come into situations where we need to profess a strong detestment of something, we have to scrounge around for other words, if we can find them at all.
I think that part of it is that as a society, we want to use strong words all the time in normal conversation. Take "hell". It has taken the place of a swear word, or we use it as a comparison to things we don't like very much. But truly, when we think about the word and all that in entails, those things are nothing like eternal damnation in writhing agony. The one time that I can understand the use of the word is when it describes war. And not by someone like me, but someone who actually experienced war as a soldier on the front lines. Someone who actually knows about the horrors of war first hand. Those people can say "war is hell", and they are not swearing or making the word lose meaning. But really, even in this situation, hell is much more awful than anything we can experience here on Earth, even if war is the closest thing.
But what about other words that we in America use on a regular basis, such as human feces? Honestly, especially for us teenagers, is there truly ANYTHING in our lives which happens to us personally which bring to mind the disgustingness and sheer primitiveness of human feces? If you answer yes, unless you have a very good explanation, you probably aren't being honest with yourself. And even if you are, I doubt that such things are so common that they happen everyday that they warrant the use of such words. Truly, the vast majority of us live pretty cushy lives here in America, even in the good times. We honestly are not worthy to use words which hold a certain rawness that we have never experienced.
Negative words are not the only ones that can lose meaning though. What about positive words? Consider the word "awesome". I myself use it quite regularly, but I've heard of people who refuse to use the word "awesome" unless they are referring to something which truly is worthy of our awe, such as God. I know that it is these days merely the equivalent of "especially cool", but what if instead it was reserved, or set aside for our creator? Wouldn't "Our God Is An Awesome God" hold so much more meaning if we weren't referring to someone who is just pretty cool, but instead the One who is worthy of our praise?
I think that part of it is that as a society, we want to use strong words all the time in normal conversation. Take "hell". It has taken the place of a swear word, or we use it as a comparison to things we don't like very much. But truly, when we think about the word and all that in entails, those things are nothing like eternal damnation in writhing agony. The one time that I can understand the use of the word is when it describes war. And not by someone like me, but someone who actually experienced war as a soldier on the front lines. Someone who actually knows about the horrors of war first hand. Those people can say "war is hell", and they are not swearing or making the word lose meaning. But really, even in this situation, hell is much more awful than anything we can experience here on Earth, even if war is the closest thing.
But what about other words that we in America use on a regular basis, such as human feces? Honestly, especially for us teenagers, is there truly ANYTHING in our lives which happens to us personally which bring to mind the disgustingness and sheer primitiveness of human feces? If you answer yes, unless you have a very good explanation, you probably aren't being honest with yourself. And even if you are, I doubt that such things are so common that they happen everyday that they warrant the use of such words. Truly, the vast majority of us live pretty cushy lives here in America, even in the good times. We honestly are not worthy to use words which hold a certain rawness that we have never experienced.
Negative words are not the only ones that can lose meaning though. What about positive words? Consider the word "awesome". I myself use it quite regularly, but I've heard of people who refuse to use the word "awesome" unless they are referring to something which truly is worthy of our awe, such as God. I know that it is these days merely the equivalent of "especially cool", but what if instead it was reserved, or set aside for our creator? Wouldn't "Our God Is An Awesome God" hold so much more meaning if we weren't referring to someone who is just pretty cool, but instead the One who is worthy of our praise?
Friday, April 13, 2012
Sincerity
Sincerity. It's not something we think about a lot, but it is in my opinion one of the most important virtues that is often overlooked.
The bane of sincerity is doubt, both purposely deceitful and otherwise. I will begin with the non deceitful variety. Let's consider a somewhat competitive activity which requires a good deal of skill, such as Mock Trial. Say that I do absolutely horrible on a cross examination. I completely flubbed it up. How do I know that I for sure did a mediocre job? If immediately afterwards my team mates say "good job". Don't get me wrong, compliments are great. But if you know for a fact that you didn't do very well, and you hear a "good job", that only further cements in the despair. This is where doubt comes in. How can you ever really know for sure if a compliment is sincere? Someone might just be saying that to make you feel better. A nice thought, sure, but in affect it only serves to do the opposite of the intent.
When you think about it, how many of the compliments we give are actually truly sincere? When someone asks you what you think of something, you almost never just say "terrible", even if it truly is terrible. Oh sure, we might give some constructive criticism, but it almost always ends up being "it's good but....". The word "good" is still in there. It just seems that the word has so little meaning now. Of course, the alternative would often just lead to meaningless nonconstructive criticism, which one could argue is much worse. I guess the point is that we should take care that, when we compliment someone for something amazing, to make it stand out. Not necessarily by using tons of words such as "awesome" and "amazing", although they can be good, but to actually describe why we think something is cool. That way it is easier to discern insincere comments from the sincere.
What about doubt with purposeful deceit present? Google something like "fake lottery prize winners" and you'll see numerous videos show up of people screaming in joy, only later to find out that it wasn't real. See, practical jokes in general, though they can be funny at times, bring unnecessary doubt into our lives. You ever heard the saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"? Of course you have. In fact, you would probably be pretty weary of something like someone winning a lottery ticket just like that too. It's because we've been conditioned to doubt the improbable, so that we don't end up looking silly when it proves to be fake later. In a way this is very good: it keeps us all from being too gullible, and we avoid a lot of embarrassment. But imagine, wouldn't it be great if we could trust EVERYTHING that our friends say? I'm not even including complete strangers or acquaintances here, I mean close friends. We wouldn't have to worry if we were being the focus of some sort of joke. Relationships with friends would go to a whole new level.
To close, here is a quote from David Foster Wallace. I have no idea who the guy is, but it is a good quote.
The bane of sincerity is doubt, both purposely deceitful and otherwise. I will begin with the non deceitful variety. Let's consider a somewhat competitive activity which requires a good deal of skill, such as Mock Trial. Say that I do absolutely horrible on a cross examination. I completely flubbed it up. How do I know that I for sure did a mediocre job? If immediately afterwards my team mates say "good job". Don't get me wrong, compliments are great. But if you know for a fact that you didn't do very well, and you hear a "good job", that only further cements in the despair. This is where doubt comes in. How can you ever really know for sure if a compliment is sincere? Someone might just be saying that to make you feel better. A nice thought, sure, but in affect it only serves to do the opposite of the intent.
When you think about it, how many of the compliments we give are actually truly sincere? When someone asks you what you think of something, you almost never just say "terrible", even if it truly is terrible. Oh sure, we might give some constructive criticism, but it almost always ends up being "it's good but....". The word "good" is still in there. It just seems that the word has so little meaning now. Of course, the alternative would often just lead to meaningless nonconstructive criticism, which one could argue is much worse. I guess the point is that we should take care that, when we compliment someone for something amazing, to make it stand out. Not necessarily by using tons of words such as "awesome" and "amazing", although they can be good, but to actually describe why we think something is cool. That way it is easier to discern insincere comments from the sincere.
What about doubt with purposeful deceit present? Google something like "fake lottery prize winners" and you'll see numerous videos show up of people screaming in joy, only later to find out that it wasn't real. See, practical jokes in general, though they can be funny at times, bring unnecessary doubt into our lives. You ever heard the saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is"? Of course you have. In fact, you would probably be pretty weary of something like someone winning a lottery ticket just like that too. It's because we've been conditioned to doubt the improbable, so that we don't end up looking silly when it proves to be fake later. In a way this is very good: it keeps us all from being too gullible, and we avoid a lot of embarrassment. But imagine, wouldn't it be great if we could trust EVERYTHING that our friends say? I'm not even including complete strangers or acquaintances here, I mean close friends. We wouldn't have to worry if we were being the focus of some sort of joke. Relationships with friends would go to a whole new level.
To close, here is a quote from David Foster Wallace. I have no idea who the guy is, but it is a good quote.
“An ad that pretends to be art is -- at absolute best -- like somebody who smiles warmly at you only because he wants something from you. This is dishonest, but what's sinister is the cumulative effect that such dishonesty has on us: since it offers a perfect facsimile or simulacrum of goodwill without goodwill's real spirit, it messes with our heads and eventually starts upping our defenses even in cases of genuine smiles and real art and true goodwill. It makes us feel confused and lonely and impotent and angry and scared. It causes despair.”
Thursday, April 12, 2012
There Is No Such Thing as "Just A Game"
I was recently talking with a friend of mine on Facebook chat, and knowing that we both played Minecraft he suggested that we should go grief a random server. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, to grief on the internet means to annoy or aggravate others for no reason besides one's personal pleasure. Think of this as internet terrorism, causing as much mayhem as possible. For Minecraft, this often means to go to a server and destroy as many creations made by other players as possible, thus eliminating all the hard work they put into the building. As you might expect, I have more than a few problems with griefing. But what was especially surprising was that this good Christian friend of mine had no problems with it whatsoever. In fact, he found it funny. Now to be precise, to the best of my knowledge he hasn't actually griefed anyone. Although if I had agreed to do so with him, then he would have surely had went ahead and griefed without hesitation. (Dear Friend, if you ever happen to read this, which is unlikely. No hard feelings for mentioning you in my blog? At least I didn't say your name...)
Now what sort of excuse did my friend offer to why he saw no problems with griefing on Minecraft? That it was only a game. Now this is what I have my main problem with, and what I will direct the attention of this post to. Imagine that a young child built a sandcastle on a beach. He had spent the entire duration of his stay at the beach working on the castle, and the hours of hard work resulted in a magnificent castle. But then I came along and kicked it down just because I felt like it. There would be a public outrage all among the beach, and I would have been thought of as a completely despicable person. How can you get lower than that? Now imagine that the same child signed in on a Minecraft server and again spent quite a few hours building a detailed castle. Then I come along and destroy it. Now some people on the server would get mad at me, any admins would for sure ban me. But some people would find it funny. Now I ask you, what difference is there between these two examples? Absolutely none.
To those of you who kind of dozed off the second I mentioned "Minecraft" (*cough*Abby*cough*), don't worry, this stuff affects you too. Think about the internet, truly a wonderful and fantastic place (I should know, I live here). The thing is, it is almost entirely devoid of responsibility or real consequences. But as I showed in my last example (is it okay if I keep mention the sandcastle example? I'm sort of proud of it), the virtual world isn't all that different from this supposed "real one". It is never "just a game" or "just the internet". It's true, you can get away with a lot of things on the internet. But just because there isn't always immediate consequences doesn't mean that it isn't wrong. Being on the internet doesn't give anyone an excuse to swear, spam, or generally be immature. Many people would disagree with me on this point, though.
I did a bit of research on this topic just for fun, and I noticed something. The griefer movement does in fact exist, and it isn't entirely made up of 12 year olds being immature just for the sake of being immature. Look at this, a youtube channel devoted to making Minecraft griefing videos. They have over 118,000 subscribers, and their videos have only slight margin more dislikes than you would expect of a popular youtube channel, which was quite depressing. Right on their channel page they wrote this: "We like to make people angry in games. It's hilarious, trust me". Why in the world is it that we the internet, as a community, are showing support to a channel such as this?
To go back to my main point, it is never "just a game". Who we are on the internet or in any online game is a reflection of who were are in "real life". A bully on the internet is a bully in real life, period. We shouldn't adjust our character or moral values just depending on what sort of situation we are in.
Now what sort of excuse did my friend offer to why he saw no problems with griefing on Minecraft? That it was only a game. Now this is what I have my main problem with, and what I will direct the attention of this post to. Imagine that a young child built a sandcastle on a beach. He had spent the entire duration of his stay at the beach working on the castle, and the hours of hard work resulted in a magnificent castle. But then I came along and kicked it down just because I felt like it. There would be a public outrage all among the beach, and I would have been thought of as a completely despicable person. How can you get lower than that? Now imagine that the same child signed in on a Minecraft server and again spent quite a few hours building a detailed castle. Then I come along and destroy it. Now some people on the server would get mad at me, any admins would for sure ban me. But some people would find it funny. Now I ask you, what difference is there between these two examples? Absolutely none.
To those of you who kind of dozed off the second I mentioned "Minecraft" (*cough*Abby*cough*), don't worry, this stuff affects you too. Think about the internet, truly a wonderful and fantastic place (I should know, I live here). The thing is, it is almost entirely devoid of responsibility or real consequences. But as I showed in my last example (is it okay if I keep mention the sandcastle example? I'm sort of proud of it), the virtual world isn't all that different from this supposed "real one". It is never "just a game" or "just the internet". It's true, you can get away with a lot of things on the internet. But just because there isn't always immediate consequences doesn't mean that it isn't wrong. Being on the internet doesn't give anyone an excuse to swear, spam, or generally be immature. Many people would disagree with me on this point, though.
I did a bit of research on this topic just for fun, and I noticed something. The griefer movement does in fact exist, and it isn't entirely made up of 12 year olds being immature just for the sake of being immature. Look at this, a youtube channel devoted to making Minecraft griefing videos. They have over 118,000 subscribers, and their videos have only slight margin more dislikes than you would expect of a popular youtube channel, which was quite depressing. Right on their channel page they wrote this: "We like to make people angry in games. It's hilarious, trust me". Why in the world is it that we the internet, as a community, are showing support to a channel such as this?
To go back to my main point, it is never "just a game". Who we are on the internet or in any online game is a reflection of who were are in "real life". A bully on the internet is a bully in real life, period. We shouldn't adjust our character or moral values just depending on what sort of situation we are in.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Iowa Mock Trial State Competition 2012 Part 2
It's been almost two weeks since State, and I've had some to think about the entire Mock Trial experience. Really, each year Mock Trial affects me deeply. I seriously don't know what my personality and character would be like without it. Even though I know technically we still have a celebration party, in truth Mock Trial is done for this year. And that is depressing. But that doesn't take away from how it all affected me.
One of the more infamous parts of this year was the "um bell". Basically, whenever someone said any filler word like "um" or "uh", someone else would ring the um bell. The point of it all being that if everyone was made aware of their frequent "ums", they would be able to control them in the future. Even though I personally haven't ever had a problem with saying "um" (trust me, I have more than enough other problems to compensate), I, along with the rest of my team, are extremely conscience of whenever anyone says "um", even if it be a family member of friend, and it be in an informal situation. An "um" cannot be said without warning bells going off in my head.
Another thing that Mock Trial helped me with: being able to calmly, confidently, and intelligently talk on the fly (such as ad libbing some questions or answering an unexpected objection). I've never had problems with public speaking, but I think we can all agree that thinking quickly in high pressure situations is not the sort of thing that comes naturally. After Mock Trial, any sort of off-the-cuff speaking seems easy in comparison.
And of course, the thing I love about Mock Trial the most is friends. I only got to really know some of my closer friends because of Mock Trial, and each year I get the opportunity to become friends with more and more people. What I've learned about my current group of friends is this: no matter what we do together, it is guaranteed to be enjoyable. So even in the most boring times, just being around everyone was all that I could ask for.
One of the more infamous parts of this year was the "um bell". Basically, whenever someone said any filler word like "um" or "uh", someone else would ring the um bell. The point of it all being that if everyone was made aware of their frequent "ums", they would be able to control them in the future. Even though I personally haven't ever had a problem with saying "um" (trust me, I have more than enough other problems to compensate), I, along with the rest of my team, are extremely conscience of whenever anyone says "um", even if it be a family member of friend, and it be in an informal situation. An "um" cannot be said without warning bells going off in my head.
Another thing that Mock Trial helped me with: being able to calmly, confidently, and intelligently talk on the fly (such as ad libbing some questions or answering an unexpected objection). I've never had problems with public speaking, but I think we can all agree that thinking quickly in high pressure situations is not the sort of thing that comes naturally. After Mock Trial, any sort of off-the-cuff speaking seems easy in comparison.
And of course, the thing I love about Mock Trial the most is friends. I only got to really know some of my closer friends because of Mock Trial, and each year I get the opportunity to become friends with more and more people. What I've learned about my current group of friends is this: no matter what we do together, it is guaranteed to be enjoyable. So even in the most boring times, just being around everyone was all that I could ask for.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Iowa Mock Trial State Competition 2012 Part 1
Well, I just got back from the Mock Trial State competition in Des Moines yesterday. It was quite truly a wonderful experience.
It was different from last year in a lot of ways, though. First of all, we were much better prepared and thus we actually did fairly well. Sebastian and Cole both got astounding witness awards, and Ryan got an astounding attorney award. In addition, the other team got seventh place over all and an award for being civil and sportsmanlike. Out of all the schools that competed this year, Marion was one of the most decorated, if not THE most decorated (in terms of number of awards, anyway). Compare this with last year, where didn't get a single award and where we didn't actually win a single round. Some of this came from putting a lot more work into Mock Trial, and some of it came from a fundamental change in coaching philosophy. The point is, Mock Trial was the life of everyone on the team.
So the first round at State was an extremely close match against Harlan. We did Government, which was our stronger side. In many ways it was a good easing into the unfamiliar territory of State. Nervousness began to fade and everyone on our two teams were pumped up for the next day. Back at the hotel, both teams had team meetings where we "talked about our feelings", after which we all went straight to bed (more or less, anyway). I luckily was in the same room as Gabe, who is pretty much the most mature person on either team. So unlike a few of the other more crowded rooms, we managed to get quite a bit of sleep.
Day two brought forth two more trials. In the second round we were matched against Urbandale, which just so happened to be the second best team in the state. Suffice to say that we lost, but I'm happy to say not too badly. For some reason, when we were against the best team we had ever faced, I think we ourselves did the very best that we had ever done. By the third round we were all exhausted after a long day of trial, but we managed to pick up another win against Wappello (which by the way won third place at State last year).
Now the thing about going to State is never about winning, because our skill isn't at that caliber yet. Instead, it's about the experience. Both in knowledge gained from competing against strong teams, and the great fun that comes with hanging out with friends. The thing is, due to the fact that some of my favorite people in the world being on my team, good times are guaranteed. In fact, virtually any time spent with these people almost always becomes a treasured memory. I mean, let's look at all of the reminiscing throughout this year I've had about last year's team. And I wasn't nearly as close to everyone as I am now! Here's hoping that the team from Marion Homeschool (or Highschool, if you want to be politically correct) will be just as good next year! And why don't we have another sentence with an exclamation point! Because exclamation points are cool! Seriously, I can't stop! Please help me!
It was different from last year in a lot of ways, though. First of all, we were much better prepared and thus we actually did fairly well. Sebastian and Cole both got astounding witness awards, and Ryan got an astounding attorney award. In addition, the other team got seventh place over all and an award for being civil and sportsmanlike. Out of all the schools that competed this year, Marion was one of the most decorated, if not THE most decorated (in terms of number of awards, anyway). Compare this with last year, where didn't get a single award and where we didn't actually win a single round. Some of this came from putting a lot more work into Mock Trial, and some of it came from a fundamental change in coaching philosophy. The point is, Mock Trial was the life of everyone on the team.
So the first round at State was an extremely close match against Harlan. We did Government, which was our stronger side. In many ways it was a good easing into the unfamiliar territory of State. Nervousness began to fade and everyone on our two teams were pumped up for the next day. Back at the hotel, both teams had team meetings where we "talked about our feelings", after which we all went straight to bed (more or less, anyway). I luckily was in the same room as Gabe, who is pretty much the most mature person on either team. So unlike a few of the other more crowded rooms, we managed to get quite a bit of sleep.
Day two brought forth two more trials. In the second round we were matched against Urbandale, which just so happened to be the second best team in the state. Suffice to say that we lost, but I'm happy to say not too badly. For some reason, when we were against the best team we had ever faced, I think we ourselves did the very best that we had ever done. By the third round we were all exhausted after a long day of trial, but we managed to pick up another win against Wappello (which by the way won third place at State last year).
Now the thing about going to State is never about winning, because our skill isn't at that caliber yet. Instead, it's about the experience. Both in knowledge gained from competing against strong teams, and the great fun that comes with hanging out with friends. The thing is, due to the fact that some of my favorite people in the world being on my team, good times are guaranteed. In fact, virtually any time spent with these people almost always becomes a treasured memory. I mean, let's look at all of the reminiscing throughout this year I've had about last year's team. And I wasn't nearly as close to everyone as I am now! Here's hoping that the team from Marion Homeschool (or Highschool, if you want to be politically correct) will be just as good next year! And why don't we have another sentence with an exclamation point! Because exclamation points are cool! Seriously, I can't stop! Please help me!
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