Dissecting Quotes #10

         This is the tenth edition of the series "Dissecting Quotes", where I choose a quote and briefly describe what I think the quote means and how to apply it to our everyday lives. I hope the insight a high schooler can provide can help brighten a day or get you thinking.

"A man who wants to lead the orchestra

must turn his back to the crowd."

-Max Lucado

          Leadership is quite a precious thing, those of us who are leaders know what it is like to be looked up upon. It can be stressful for leaders when they are in charge or are being followed by others. But it can also be very profitable, leaders are the ones that become famous and the ones that are praised for victory or success. There is a way normal people become leaders, and the ways can be different for every person. One popular way, as Max Lucado said, is to go your own way, not to follow the crowd. The crowd follows, and you become one of them when you join the crowd. In order to be a leader, you need to not follow the crowd, but to go your own way, provided your way is appealing to others and is profitable for others. There are ways to come about being a leader, and while they are not necessarily impossible, they are not simple. We need to have determination and desire to reach the top and be someone who is looked up to as an individual.

Dissecting Quotes #9

        This is the ninth edition of the series "Dissecting Quotes", where I choose a quote and briefly describe what I think the quote means and how to apply it to our everyday lives. I hope the insight a high schooler can provide can help brighten a day or get you thinking.

"Always desire to learn something useful"

- Sophocles

         Desire can be a powerful thing. It can move mountains, and can alter lives forever. If used properly, desire can change the world for the better. If we as humans have the desire to learn, we can use what we learned to not only help others but to help the world. If people desire to profit from learning, they can change their mindset for the positive. We should learn to learn better, as it can help us and others. 

History of Pumpkin Pies

         Today, I baked four pumpkin pies for a Thanksgiving dinner we are having. After, as the pies baked, I wondered how the pumpkin pie had come about. I assumed the pie has always been around, just like rocks and dirt. But after doing some research, I found out the pie as we know it today has only been around for some 400 years.

         All the way back in 1651, a Frenchman published a cookbook called Le Vrai Cuisinier Francois. In this book, the cook tells how to bake the pie. The recipe is very vague, like the recipes of that time period. All he calls for is pumpkin, some milk, spices, and whatever else opinions want to add. The pie recipe must have been brought over to America, for in 1796, a cookbook was published in America called American cookery, by an American orphan. This cookbook explains the pumpkin pie as we know it today, with delicious spices and a creamy filling.      

  

        Pumpkin pie can be amazing to eat, unless it is made without dedication and contains the wrong ingredients. The best way to eat these pies, personally, is with whipped cream and a tall glass of milk. I hope all of the pies eaten this holiday season are good and filling.

Dissecting Quotes #8

        This is the eighth edition of the series "Dissecting Quotes", where I choose a quote and briefly describe what I think the quote means and how to apply it to our everyday lives. I hope the insight a high schooler can provide can help brighten a day or get you thinking.

"A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go

 back to its old dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. 

          The mind is an amazing thing. One second it can be changing humanity for forever, the next it can be dumb. The mind is influenced by everything around us, every little detail and experience. With these experiences, the mind is in a new state, the old cannot be achieved again. So good choices create a good mind, and bad choices create a bad mind. The choices we make should be made with our brains in mind.

Doing the Right Thing

          On Veterans Day, I participated in a school clean-up with environmental club. During the clean-up, about an hour in, one of my friends found a bunch of progress reports strewn about. He brought them over to where we were and I straightened the papers and put them in a bag. I noticed that on the reports, I could see the students grades and also their address. This is not a good thing for a school to be making available to the general public; anyone could have walked on the campus and found those reports. I walked the reports down to the office, but I doubted anyone would be there, being Veterans Day. We knocked on windows and peeked through doors, and finally one person opened a door and asked us what we needed. We told him what happened and where we found the reports. I set them down on a chair and walked back to my friends.
          On the Monday after Veterans Day, I went to the office before school and asked a lady if the reports went to the right person. She said they had not been moved, and so she asked me for my name and where I found the reports. I told her the information, then went to the class I had for first period. I thought about what I had done, and inside I felt good, like I did the right thing, which I did. I could have done multiple things, I could have thrown the papers away, I could have went to the media and told them, or I could have left the papers where they were when we found them.
          I know it can be hard to do the right thing, but if we ever find our self in a situation where we could do multiple things, make the right decision, not only will you feel good about yourself but you will help someone else by making their life easier.

History of Capture the Flag

          Today during cross-country, I played capture the flag. I had not played this game in a while, and when playing with runners, is exceedingly difficult. I thought back to all the times I had played this game, and when I thought about it, I realized capture the flag is a classic game. The game supposedly originated when soldiers would capture the enemies flag. When the flag was captured, it was a sign that the war was won. My guess is that when soldiers came home from battle, kids would hear stories about the soldiers battle, and then want to "fight" themselves. I personally think that the game evolved through the ages, and became what it is today.

Extreme Capture the Flag

         The game is very fun, and can be an action packed battle to the end, or can be a lame stare down for the whole time. The game I played today was an action packed one, as one can imagine with 30+ runners. I am not the fastest in sprinting, so I was not able to ever get the flag. Our team won, however, with a mad dash right before the game was over. It is a game to remember, and one not limited to children.

Dissecting Quotes #7

         This is the seventh edition of the series "Dissecting Quotes", where I choose a quote and briefly describe what I think the quote means and how to apply it to our everyday lives. I hope the insight a high schooler can provide can help brighten a day or get you thinking.

"Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to

open it and remove all doubt."

-Unknown

         I have heard this quote before, but never really thought about it until now. What it is talking about is opinions of people, how people judge based on bias. The first part of the quote, "Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool," describes how a person could go about life. Those who are quiet, all of us have met them, are regarded in the eyes of others as respected and even possibly intelligence.  But the second part, "than to open it and remove all doubt," describes how if a person talks and is foolish in doing so, is thought to be a fool. Contrasted to the one who is regarded wise and is respected, I do not think any one of us wants to be a fool. So before we speak, think about what we are about to say. Is it the wisest thing to say in that situation?

Daylight Saving Time

What is it with Daylight Saving Time (DST)? Why do we get so worked up about one hour change? And how did DST start? All your questions will be answered in the following article.

          Back in 1895, a man by the name of George Hudson proposed the idea of setting the clocks forward for the summer time, giving more light to enjoy. While accepted by many, DST was not started in many countries, mainly ones that already receive a tremendous amount of sunlight. One of the other reasons DST was accepted was the lower cost of electricity in the summer days. While this sounds like a great savings, in reality, only four dollars a day is saved. However, over 400 billion is lost in the week following the jump to DST because of tired workers. This past time change, the time went from 01:59 to 1:00, adding one hour to the day. This helps those who need to catch up on sleep, but can be disastrous for those who set their clocks an hour ahead. Many different regions do not follow DST, such as Arizona and Hawaii. In Arizona, there is a region who does follow DST, which has a region inside that does not follow DST. This confusion can be explained in the picture below. The pink is non-daylight saving time zone, and the yellow is. As you can see, there are tiny pockets in regions who do not follow or do follow DST.

Arizona's Crazy Timezones

         While many of us may never really understand DST, I hope the short article above answered some questions. Even though every year the same thing happens, there are still people who cannot get used to a hour change. DST is a confusing concept, but if one really wanted to, they could master why and how DST works. 

Dissecting Quotes #6

         This is the sixth edition of the series "Dissecting Quotes", where I choose a quote and briefly describe what I think the quote means and how to apply it to our everyday lives. I hope the insight a high schooler can provide can help brighten a day or get you thinking.

"Beauty and folly are old companions."

-Benjamin Franklin

          Beauty could be classified as how a person looks. Or, it could be classified as how a person acts. Whatever it could be, beauty has been sought after for ages. Folly, I hope, has not been sought after, but with the search of beauty, many find folly. Folly is a foolish decision, a costly risk that ends with failure. Most people do not think about folly when they think about beauty, but sadly, both beauty and folly could be related. As Franklin said, beauty and folly being old companions means they are related. Beauty could lead to folly, contrary to the beliefs of most people. I want us to think about whether we are in search of beauty and to think if it could lead to folly.

Dissecting Quotes #5

        This is the fifth edition of the series "Dissecting Quotes", where I choose a quote and briefly describe what I think the quote means and how to apply it to our everyday lives. I hope the insight a high schooler can provide can help brighten a day or get you thinking.

"Begin to be now what you will hereafter."

-William James

          Change is hard. I grew up being home schooled, and then for high school I jumped right into an environment I had never been apart of. It was a big change, but a change for the better. According to William James, a notable psychologist, the easiest way to change is to act how you want to act. The first part of the quote, "Begin to be now," describes how if we want to change, we must start at that instant. Putting off change will never change anything except make you more lazy. What will happen to us if we start to change is said in the second part of the quote, "what you will hereafter." If we start to act how we want to act, it will be easy to change. This reminds me of when I was little, I would have a hard time falling asleep. My parents used to come into my room, and to get them not to talk to me, I would pretend I was asleep. It usually worked, not only did my parents not talk to me, but I fell asleep. I hope that if any of us want to change, we will realize we have to start today.