That Religious Guy: All the world in your webcam!

..... Whoever said that one couldn't see the world while staying at home was definitely living under a rock.
..... But of course, if he was living under a rock, he probably couldn't see the world, so we'll forgive him this time. That's the beauty of aboveground housing: Internet capabilities. As in many posts, I tend to digress and meander, making my way by some sheer luck to the whole point of why I'm writing... Skype!
..... Skype is not only a great way to distract friends from home work on a Saturday afternoon but is also a tool to get to know people from other countries. I've met a few individuals online on forums and Facebook groups myself. It's one thing to talk to someone online via IMs or e-mail but it's another thing to actually speak face-to-face. Of course, I don't recommend simply going online and meeting total strangers. Get smart before you Skype with someone!
..... There's basically two different ways to use Skype: the call function and the video call option. The former is basically a hands-free telephone; you'll be talking to the other person using you're webcam's mike. This is probably the safest and less expensive way to get to know people from other countries. No more racking up the phone bill with calls to France... In order to utilize the video call function, one needs a webcam however. This feature allows you to actually see the person you're conversing with and so it's like you're speaking to them in person. I do want to stress once again that people should be familiar with Internet etiquette and such before meeting random people online!
..... From speaking with "foreigners" (a word which I place in quotation marks since it's sounds negative) on Skype, I've learned a lot about how others perceive America and our values. Practically everybody I've met from the UK to Canada loves Barack Obama... One also gets to hear different accents and forms of slang (i.e. in Canada, people say "settle your kettle" to say "calm down"), which is something we language nerds love! All in all, Skype allows people to become well-rounded in terms of knowledge about the world. You also get to appreciate fun facts you pick up along the way like how the British refer to AP Calculus as Further Pure 1-2. Sounds so futuristic right?
..... Any technology like Facebook and Skype, however, has it's cost: safety. Be sure to get to know the person you want to talk to on Skype before actually calling them. Anyways, one can always have fun simply speaking to friends from school so people, Skype on!

- Jeremy Dela Cruz

Fanatical Faith: "The Dei Rossis"

Yes, that's what our wonderful Stagg teachers, Erica and Kyle Dei Rossi, are often called- "The Dei Rossi's." And personally, I think they are grouped together this way because they are so connected. If I didn't know any better, I'd think they were the same person.

For the most recent issue of the Stagg Line (Distributed January 28th) I decided to take on the story of the Dei Rossi's for our features page. I went into the interview thinking it would be a simple love story about how these two teachers came to be together. Once they started talking, I immediately knew it was going to be much more. I quickly noticed how perfect this couple was together, and it made me further realize the importance of compromise and understanding. Not only in a romantic relationship, but in a friendship as well. In order for people to get along, there has to be that sense of "give and take."

The Dei Rossi's are a perfect example of this: Erica doesn't mind doing laundry if Kyle prepares their lunches. And even though she's not the biggest sports fan, Erica agrees to grade students work while Kyle cheers for his teams.

Though these may seem like small things, they're extremely important in any kind of a relationship. These kinds of agreements, combined with a great deal of unsderstanding, make for a more mutual relationship. With this sense of togetherness, it's almost inpossible to feel controlled.

Even our high school couples could benefit from trying to compromise. Rather than seeing the chick flick that the girlfriend wants to see, or the horror film that the boyfriend wants to see, why not see a comedy?

Small compromises like these can help a relationship better than you'd think. Always having one person make decisions, or having everything going one persons way is no way to have a relationship. If one of them feel like they have no part in the relationship, they may not be happy in it, and they may feel controlled.



Compromise takes a lot of patience and a lot of practice, but it will definitely better any kind of realationship. The Dei Rossi couple showed me that. They are so happy, and it's because they know what it means to give and take.

That Religious Guy: Perfect Rhythm

..... I have maybe the oldest New Year’s resolution in history: exercise more. Unlike previous years, however, I’m actually doing something about it. On January 2, I purchased myself some running shoes from WalMart. The only painful thing about the transaction was that I was cutting into my Christmas financial loot.

..... About an hour later, I gave my new size 11 Dr. Scholl’s Relays out for a spin. That’s right. No fancy jogging gear for me. Just some cheap footwear from WalMart which comes in a wide selection of vibrant colors: red or blue. I chose blue.

..... So for the past few days, I’ve been trying to squeeze in a few bursts of running into my daily routine. I usually run at night. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to be seen huffing and puffing. Maybe it’s because it was nighttime when I purchased my shoes. Maybe it’s a mixture of both reasons. Anyways, I simply prefer the cool, evening Stockton air when I’m running in my Stagg shorts.

..... Tonight, however, was no ordinary night. Tonight, I realized a couple of things about my personality. Tonight, I found some temporary peace in my currently fast-paced life.

..... As you all may know, the seniors have less than five months left of high school. Before you guys pat us on the shoulders and tell us how lucky we are, just remember this: once high school ends, a whole chapter of our lives does to.

..... Amid all the college applications and scholarship essays, my life has been pretty hectic for some time now. I’m experiencing a wide array of emotions, from jealousy because my friends are already receiving acceptance letters while I have yet to receive mine to fear because I’m afraid I’ll be losing some of the greatest people I’ve ever known…

..... Running tonight helped me gain some momentary peace for a while. I’ve always enjoyed running. Ever since sophomore year with the cross-country team, my passion for the activity has grown. When I run I try to achieve what I like to call the perfect rhythm. It involves maintaining a brisk speed, while inhaling through my nose and exhaling through my mouth. So when I’m running, it sounds a lot like “Sniff sniff, huff huff.” Breathing too much will give me a stomach cramp while not breathing enough will just make me fall into a dead heap. Finding a middle ground is the key, finding the perfect rhythm is my goal.

..... I guess what I’ve learned from tonight’s run is basically that I need to find my own perfect rhythm when it comes to life in general. I need to stop comparing myself to others (especially to my evil arch nemesis, Jose J., who also doubles as my best friend) and to stop overloading my plate with too many projects. Life is hard as it is without making it more difficult. All I need to do is just go through life at my own pace.

- Jeremy Dela Cruz

Clear and Present Damon: Its the most wonderful time of the year?: Part 2

Didn't Thanksgiving go by fast? Oh well, now its time to break out the Christmas lights and deck the halls because Christmastime is here again.

But it seems like more and more as the years go by, this holiday becomes more and more commercial and less and less secular. So an appropriate place to begin this column is where it all began in the little town of Bethlehem. But how do we know that Jesus was actually born in December. Actually, nobody knows at what exact time of the year when he was born, but to adhere to pagan winter solstice celebrations across the world, the church decided it was the appropriate time to put the savoirs birthday at this time. After all, there were no other holidays in that timeslot yet(besides Chaunakah, but thats another story).

Christmas was a widely adopted as a secular holiday by the Catholic church, but not all Christmas festivities were religous. Christmas festivities across Europe involved drinking and dancing, a lot of citizens went about the streets drinking and the church thought it was getting out of hand. Surprisingly, this is where we get many of our festive Christmas carols from. And you thought Christmas wasn't a big drinking holiday.

When the puritans came to the new world, they banned Christmas saying that it was too pagan along with many beloved holidays of today. Of course we know how much of a killjoy the puritans were and America soon grew out of the whole anti-Christmas thing. And America would give birth to the defining character of the holiday. The jolly Santa Claus.

There was an actual guy called St. Nicholas who lived in what now is modern day Turkey. An old legend says that in order to save three impoverished girls from selling themselves into prostitution, St. Nicholas dropped three bags of gold down there chimney. In time Santa would downgrade from bags of gold due to budget cuts at the north pole. Hey, even he is feeling the effects of the economy. Another legend is that of Sinterklaas, a European variant of Santa. Sinterklaas also delivers toys but also has another person come with him that was lost in the American version of the Santa legend. A devil figure that comes with Sinterklaas to scare naughty children. Also due to budget cuts, the devil companion was laid off and Santa resorted giving coal to the naughty children. Don't worry about our devil friend here. I here he's open to doing the next Exorcist move.

The American version of Santa was epitomized in Clement Clarke Moores poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas." You know, the one that goes "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the etc..." Also new to the Santa legend is the reindeer. Actually their described as eight tiny reindeer, which is necessary, because regular sized reindeer are huge.

As Football is Thanksgivings must watch event, Christmas is packed with specials. As a kid I used to love these. Now there all sort of humdrum to me. The most sucessful special of them all is 1965's "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Why it is so sucessful i have no idea. It has no reindeer with a glowing nose, or a talking snowman. The Charlie Brown catoons normally have him taking a lot of verbal abuse and i'm surprised he is not in a mental institution as of today, I guess because it talks more about the secular part of Christmas more tha the commercial side is what has made this special last as long as it has.

As I spend my Christmas break relaxing at home and anticipating the "Doctor Who" Christmas special, by the way, this is the first time that it will be aired on Christmas in the U.S. Usually we have to wait till spring in order for the BBC to let us see it. Anyway I wish you a merry Christmas and try to avoid last minute shopping. It's a madhouse out there. I'll see you at New Years.

Clearly Claire: Taken advantage of by my childhood

My friends and I walked into the theatre, sat down and got ready to watch some inappropriate teen movie. We sat through the trailers and at the end, there was one for "Toy Story 3." I sat feeling a strange feeling, not sadness, not joy, but something different. My friend, Sarinna, whispered in my ear, "Don't you feel so nostalgic?" Nostalgic. That was the word. I was instantly brought back to childhood and my first time watching "Toy Story."

It had been a good ten years since I had last seen "Toy Story." I had long since reserved myself from all of that. Then my littlest cousin, Santiago wanted to see "Toy Story 3." He had been begging for months and even though it looked good, I didn't really want to see it. It looked like something that would further ruin the happy image I had of my favorite toys. There is nothing worst than watching a sequel to a movie you once loved and finding it awful.

Finally, a few days ago, I broke down and saw it. I have to say, I was almost in tears. Tears from the movie, yes, but also from remembering the good times I had watching the first two with my dad. This was all before the age of 3-D and super high-tech computer animation. It was all about the art. Yet, that day and days later when I rewatched the trailers, I realized that that is what Pixar does. They play on our heart strings. They remind us of simpler childhoods times when we all believed toys were real and that we would see them if we opened our doors and surprised them quickly. Or at least, that's what I believed.

Pixar has a way of making us feel like we are home. Even the new Pixars, the "WALL-E's" and "Ups" of the bunch, really hit our heart strings. I dare anyone to watch Up without crying. This is all part of a master plan that none of us can get out of. No matter how old we get, we still feel like we are kids. I look at my cousin's youthful innocence and realize that that was once me, sitting in the theatre cheering as Woody popped onto the screen with Jessie and Buzz.

But maybe being taken advantage of by these corporate executive who know how to get us isn't a bad thing. For an hour or two you get to escape to a simpler time, a younger time, when there were no deadlines, no jobs, no homework, no essays, and you were allowed to dream.

So I would recommend watching this movie, not because it is awesome, which it was. Not because it was funny, which it was. And not because it had heart, which it did. But because it will make you believe again, even if just for an hour. --Claire Scheffer

Its the most wonderful time of the year? Part 1

Now that were all done with our Halloween candy, it's time to celebrate holidays that revole around the time that most of us call the Holiday season.

We can't call it Christmas time any more because that would be offensive to other religions besides Christianity. The Holiday season has come to include many different celebrations. Thanksgiving, Chaunakah, Christmas, even Black Friday got into their somehow. Basically anything you can make a holiday special out of. Though I have no idea why "It's the great sale Charlie Brown" never caught on.

The first holiday that devotes itself to family, football and stuffing our faces is Thanksgiving. Could it be any more ironic that this name came from a religous day of fasting. The old grade school tale about how the pilgrims and indians came together after a bountiful harvest is also extemely sketchy. We know very little about what actually happened that first feast in Plymouth. The only surviving account of the first Thanksgiving is from a man named Edward Winslow. In it, our friend Eddie hints that fish was more likely the main staple of the dinner, not turkey. The Wampanoag indians helped out and brought deer and perhaps duck to the dinner. The Wampanoag themselves outnumbered the pilgrims, there were 90 of them. Afterward the pilgrim men played "guy games". Yeah, they called them that. Games like foot races and musket shooting. Even pumpkin pie was absent, since the pilgrims had no sugar left from England.

Today, the romanticism may overshado the actual story of the 1621 feast. But then again, we've created a lot of modern Thanksgiving traditions. I mostly spend my Thanksgiving break playing my PS3 and watching movies based on Tom Clancy novels("Patriot Games" is my favorite). The rest of the country likes to watch the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade. It was originally called the Macys Christmas parade, celebrating the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. I don't see why they changed the name because it's more of a Christmas celebration than anything else. I mean why do you think they save Santa for the very end. I always used to enjoy the big baloons of cartoon characters. They've been there since the parades founding. When the parade was over, they would simply release the baloons into the air. That all changed when one nearly caused an airplane to crash after it was flying over by. Can you imagine if they were to release Kermit the frog into the sky today. Besides the baloons it is a rather humdrum annual event. Without the baloons it would just be the years singer celebrities doing Christmas carols on festive floats(how much do you want to bet Justin Bieber will be on one of them. How much do you wanna bet!!!).

Another tradition is the playing, or more likely watching of the all-American sport of Football. An all-American holiday calls for an all-American institution like Football. Thanksgiving wihout foot ball wouldn't be the same. Ever since the Detriot Lions met the Chicago Bears on the gridiron many years ago, the Lions have played a Thanksgiving game since the 20's. The Dallas Cowboys have been playing Thanksgiving since the 60's. In recent years, NFL network has added a third game to the Thanksgiving lineup, this one played at the same time were going to be eating our turkey. The game was added probably because people got sick and tired of watching the Detroit Lions.

The traditions may very for everyone. But the most important part of the holiday is that we spend time with freinds, family and gear up for the madness that Black Friday holds for us. Remember comrades, eat, drink, and be merry!

Seyma Says: Music has no boundaries.

"Hey Seyma, what kind of music do you listen to?"

"Hmm, well I mostly listen to J-Pop (Japanese Pop)
and.."

"Wait, are you Japanese?"

"No."

"Do you understand it?"

"Not really, but I'm working on it..."

"Then why do you listen to it?"

Other very common questions are:

• "Are you ashamed of your culture?"
• "Do you want to be a different ethnicity?"

It angers me so when I encounter such an ignorant person like this one. Is it music's only purpose for us to be able to understand it completely? When I ask this question, the answer I usually get is: "No.. but what's the point of listening if you can't understand it?"

That's like asking, "What's the point of listening to a teacher's lesson when they're often saying things that we don't understand?"

The possible answers are the same:

1. I want to learn.
2. I like the challenge of having to piece things together.
3. I enjoy it.

Now who the hek enjoys listening to a teacher talking for hours without having a clue on what they're saying? Well, let's not get into that. This blog post is about music not teachers.

Music is art. Art is diverse and abstract. Drawings, writing, photography, and graphics are all forms of art.

Is it so easy to understand every single piece of art? Can we extract the meaning of every painting as easy as dissecting every single sentence in a book? Can we comprehend the structure of every photo as easy as finding the propaganda of an abstract graphic?

The answers are no, no, and no. It's impossible to understand every single piece of art. Therefore, it's impossible to understand every piece of music you hear.

We understand a piece of music because we, as people, are able to interpret it on our own.

May it be a different genre or a different language, the only barrier that prevents us from understanding music is ourselves.

Music does not speak to us through language. It speaks to us through sound. And so in this case, language does not act as a barrier. Instead, it is one of many instruments alongside vocals and various other mechanisms that help create it.

Is it so uncommon for someone to listen to music that they don't completely understand language-wise? Is it so unusual for someone to be listening to music that's not common in their area?

Just because I listen to music in a language other than my own doesn't mean that I'm ashamed of my culture or ethnicity. My reason is because I love being exposed to different languages and cultures. I can learn many things about them just by listening to their music.

So I hope you understand my points:

• Music does not have any boundaries.
  
• Language, culture, religion, and heritage should and does not matter.
  
• We should not judge others based on their music preference, no matter how 'unusual' and uncommon it may be.