Adolescence, the critical time in the life of any person when they transition to adulthood. The rite of passage in many cultures. Nowadays, the perception of teens brings images of a spoiled, coddled generation, glued to their screens. Perhaps our society puts little value in giving the youth responsibility, but rather wants to protect these formative years. As a student of history, I have come across many examples of children and teens holding positions of power and responsibility. Among royalty and commoners alike, the responsibility of youth was to be an equal partner in providing for their families. I’m by no means idealizing the past as a utopia of responsibility. History is full of the horrors of child labor. But I would like to take voyages through time to look into several examples of youth being capable of executing complicated tasks. First, we shall see those who went on to be great. Louis XIV, the Sun King, succeeded his father at five, while France was fighting Habsburg Austria in the Thirty Years’ War. He helped negotiate the Westphalia treaty, but even though France won, this caused bankruptcy. Then, revolution caused collapse and until the end of his reign, Louis would rule the country on his own behalf. To save France, he wisely appointed Jean Colbert as Finance General to improve the economy. Louis increased exports and took power away from the military aristocracy and, cunningly, he supported the Netherlands in a war before defeating them, expanding French territory. In the next decades, he defeated corsairs attacking French shipping, and spread European goods around the world through embassies to Asia. By the times he died, France was a metropolis. Another powerful child ruler worth mentioning is Shapur of Persia. After coming of age, this young emperor set to work removing the effects of a humiliating treaty. Shapur then started a campaign against the Arabs and Eastern Romans. He took over part of Armenia and defeated the mighty Romans in battle. Persia then annexed Armenia. He died in 379. Shapur is considered one of Persia’s greatest kings and left a lasting legacy. On the converse side, there are some ineffective sovereigns who died early, and failed to preserve their nations. One example is Edward the VI. He ascended to the throne at age 10, made several not-so-great decisions, including emptying the English coffers, and caught ill and died at fourteen. Then there was Puyi, the last Emperor, who came to power at the inept age of four. His rule was marked by the Japanese invasion of Korea and civil unrest, leading to his deposition. He was made Manchurian King, but he had his servants beaten or even killed for his own amusement. After the war, he died a commoner in Beijing. In conclusion, this shows us that while some child rulers have excelled, others have not. Which path is right for young people, power or a normal life? The more we teens are allowed to do may (or may not) let us become responsible adults. I’ll let you decide.
A Collector’s Armory Ep. 1: All About Collecting By Ayaan Pirani, 11
A Collector’s Army is Stone Soup’s newest podcast about collecting everything from stuffed animals to baseball cards, hosted by Ayaan Pirani. https://stonesoup.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/A-Collectors-Armory.m4a Welcome to A Collector’s Armory! This is a podcast about collecting different things throughout the stages of life. You might think of an armory as a place where weapons are kept, but I’m using the word broadly to name a place where any collectible could be stored. We’ll cover questions such as why would I collect these items, how do I display my collectibles, and where do I find collectibles? I’ll be your host, Ayaan Pirani, and I’ve been collecting things for a long time. My obsession started from a very young age with Hot Wheels and stuffed animals and has now progressed to Funko Pops and sports cards. The name of this episode is “All About Collecting.” We’re going to start off with what are collectibles? Well, collectibles can be a variety of things, from action figures to shoes. In short, collectibles are items that one keeps for personal satisfaction. On to question 2: how much money do collectibles cost? Well, for starters, the cost of a collectible can range from super cheap to really expensive. I have around 160 collectibles in my room at this moment. An example of a moderately priced one could be this Elf Bonnie plushie from Five Nights at Freddy’s that sells for about $6 but has a value of $40. An example of a more pricey collectible could be my Wander Franco pink fireworks rookie baseball card from Donruss. This card is worth about $45. An example of a super expensive collectible that I sadly don’t own is a Willy Wonka Oompa Loompa 2-pack golden ticket Funko Pop that recently sold for $100,000. Now that you know a bit about collectibles, you may ask, once I have a collectible, what do I do with them? Well once you have a collectible, you can find out a personal way you want to store or display them, so it can look good. For example, personally, with my Funko Pops to display them I purchased a baseball bat case and placed LED lights in the case. This allows my case to have good lighting. After that, I placed my out-of-box Funko Pops in the case. However, depending on what you collect, you might invent a different way to display your collectible. Lastly, you may ask, do celebrities collect things? The answer to that question is of course! Many famous people collect things for personal enjoyment. For instance, actor Leonardo DiCaprio collects action figures and has an absurd collection of them. Another example of a famous collector is Elton John, a musician who collects shoes. A final example of a famous collector is Jake Plummer, a quarterback for the Denver Broncos. He collects Hot Wheels. This wraps up your introduction to A Collector’s Armory. This is your host, Ayaan Pirani, signing off for today! Next month, we’ll be talking about collectibles from a young age. Leave a comment down below, stating what you would like to collect. Until next time, see ya!
Blox Fruits, Reviewed by Elliott Whang, 12
A beam of light comes zooming at me faster than I can dodge. I shoot a fireball back at my enemy. And…I die…but, I quickly spring back to life, fuming to get my revenge. This situation has happened to me multiple times. In a video game, of course. The video game I had just died in is called Blox Fruits. You might be thinking, “Why would beams of light and fireballs be going off in a game with fruits?” Well, these fruits are not exactly normal. In fact, these fruits can give the player special powers if eaten by your character in the game. To gain fruits in this game, you can either find them on the map, buy one with real or game currency, or trade fruits with other players. Speaking of other players, every server, which is a group of people in an online world, has random players in it, unless you play with your friends. You can join a game online with your friends and do challenges and quests with each other. You can gain levels by killing non-playing characters, which are generated by the game, therefore completing a quest. Each successful quest gives the player an increase of around 1-2 levels until you reach a maximum level set by the game developers. Playing with friends makes the game more fun and easier than just playing by yourself. It is also more efficient because teamwork can speed up the process of completing quests. The main goal of this game is to get to max level, where you can annihilate people. By gaining levels, you receive stat points that you can put into several different categories. These categories are combat/stamina, health, sword, gun, and fruit. Each stat point gives an increase in damage or health. In addition to leveling up, there are also other side goals, like getting different combat styles, clothes, swords and guns. But why would swords, clothes and guns be in a fruit game? By having swords, guns, and clothes in the game, it allows the players to also focus on getting different items besides just fruits. Clothes, swords and guns all have different rarities just like fruits. Clothes can give stat boosts, while swords, guns, combat styles, and fruits cause damage to opponents. Swords and guns are also added because this game is based off a show, which happens to have swords and guns. This game sounds really complicated, likely because there is too much to cover in a single blog post, so instead you should play it yourself. You can play this game inside a game called Roblox. You can download Roblox for free on an Iphone, PC, IOS, Android, and some Xbox models. If you don’t like the sound of fruit giving you superpowers, there are also many other fun and free games you can play. Stay tuned for my next blog about a game that requires less time and more skill. Are you ready?
