Wall of Fame at 10:35 AM

K guys, this is my wall of fame. I say fame because at my school, if you're white, you're famous. So, I realize that this collage is a little dismal right now, but that's no big deal, because all you have to do if you want your picture up here is mail one to me. =)
So far I have, Dave and Abby's wedding photo, Emili and her family, Mom and Dad, and a picture that Keely has sent me from her mission. So, if you want me to have your picture. Send it on over. The mail usually takes about 2-3 weeks. So send it soon because I'll be on vacation once February starts, hopefully earlier. (We never know when holidays are in China until the day before or week of at best.... chinese culture...)

So, here's my address.

Samuel Griffiths
C/O Mr. Zhou Zhixi  
Foreign Affairs Office of No. 1 Middle School of Yongzhou City
Hunan Province, P. R. China
Post Code: 425006

Love you guys

(In case you were wondering, I don't have a printer)
(Also, if you don't send one, don't think that I'll think you don't love me, I know you do)

The Evidence of Christmas at 9:16 PM

Seeing as how it's Christmas day, I thought I'd write about Christmas. Now in our culture (western Culture) Once Christmas day comes and goes we don't say anything about Christmas again until next November at the earliest. But, seeing as how I live in China, and there's not much evidence of Christmas anywhere anyways, I figure I can do pretty much what ever I want, which includes writing about Christmas even when the Christmas Season is practically over.

I've been listening to Christmas music all month, hoping that I could at least feel like it was Christmas. It hasn't really worked. Part of that is because there's no christmas lights, christmas trees, wossail, family, friends, mistletoe (I really miss this one), change in shopping habits for locals, or corner Santa Clauses.

To tell you the truth, it didn't feel like Christmas at all until I was wrapping a couple presents yesterday for school leaders. Christmas eve wasn't all that special. I basically sat in my apartment and read my scriptures and played video games, which I guess is what every LDS kid would want to do on the holidays anyways... Although, I did get some phone calls and emails from my family, which made all the difference in the world.

But I've a lot of time and opportunity to look at Christmas from a pretty different perspective. People here don't celebrate it, and in truth, they know about it, but they know about it the way I knew about Hanukkah when I was a kid, which is basically squat. It's one of those things I think you have to experience to understand. The joy that I've had from Christmas's past has carried me through this one in such a way that even though I had nothing of the things I loved around me, like family and friends, I've been fine. I could go on for ages about how much I love Christmas with my family, and how much happiness it's brought me in my life, but you would already understand and probably find it boring, but I think it's a point worth making and here's why.

When there's no evidence of Christmas, at least no visible evidence - mistletoe, Christmas trees, presents, stockings, tinsel you can see things a little more clearly. By you I mean the general you, not you the reader specifically. I mean to say that with out all the physical things, I've thought a lot more about all the things that really matter, the things we celebrate at Christmas. Our friends, our family, the spirit of giving and love, and our savior are the things that I celebrate at Christmas. Those are the things that really matter to me, and something dawned on me in the last 24 hours. Those things don't go away when the new year comes around. We may put away our Christmas decorations, take down our Christmas tree, and watch the reds and greens fade away from city centers, but all the things that I really love are still around. Maybe I don't have vacation time anymore to see them, but my family is still there. They still love me. The Savior is always there, and he always watches out for me. He doesn't care if it's Christmas, even in this remote part of the world where I'm farther away then ever before from everything I have known. I know He is mindful of me and has helped shape the experiences around me so they could be for my good. He was there for me before, and will be there for me after.

Now, my readers need not think that I'm not a fan of gifts, stockings, wossail, or mistletoe. I'm actually a big fan of all of the above, BUT thank goodness that family and all the other things that really matter are around more than once a year.

Attention span issues: Myself vs The Average Chinese Teenager at 8:57 PM

I've noticed a disturbing trend among my students. A lot of my kids just can't focus on some one talking. They can't really do it that well. The interesting thing is that it seems to be wholly independent of whatever the person is talking about. I had a lesson on dating this week. Now this may seem like a boring subject to some people, but I assure you to Chinese high school kids, it doesn't get any better than this.
My understanding is that most Chinese high schools tell their students they're not allowed to have a boyfriend or girlfriend. The first day I got here, when I was new and interesting to the students (which now I don't think I am...) They wanted to know if I had a girlfriend and when I said that I didn't literally, I had everyone's undivided attention. It was kind of awesome.

But now, I the second class starts some kids shut off before I can even say what the lesson is on. I think that most of this is due to technology. It's not all kids, but it's a fair few. Most kids don't do it in my classes because they know I'll take their phones if they're caught (of which I've already taken 2 today and I've only taught two classes so far). Now here's the thing that scares me. Is as a business student at BYU I was the same way. I still paid attention in most of my classes. I got good grades and I knew what the teacher had talked about. But I had played games on my laptop too and I'm definitely guilty of checking my email in class and reading the news too.

So what is it? Why is it so hard to at least listen to somebody for two or three minutes before we shut off in a lecture setting and decide that they're not worth listening too when we can hook up to our ipod or our cell phone. Luckily they're no laptops in church. But at the same time, I'm still guilty in that setting to.

Elder Hales used to seem so boring to me when I was a kid. He's not a flash speaker and I don't remember him ever having my full attention before I was 19. Lame I know. Anyways, as I got older and a little more mature I started going back to read the conference talks within a month of two of watching conference. I remember one specific time where I went back and read his talks and it blew my socks off. It was amazing. I thought 'how could this be? He's the boring one!'... nope, he sure isn't. I just didn't have the patience to sit and listen to him. Now he's one of my favorites. His talks never cease to have an impact on me.

I think 100 or 200 years ago this wasn't the case. There were no distractions and listening was easy. You went to a church and all you did was listen. You had things to talk about, but it was never so serious you talked about it IN a church meeting. Especially not for the whole meeting. Now things are different. In a classroom we have so many gadgets that I think it's legitimately hard to give you're attention to a teacher. We're too used to 15-25 second commercials and fast changes in what we're paying attention too that it's hard to sit and listen to someone for a half hour. I think listening is a form of work for our generation. Wierd I know. Maybe it's always been true, but it's totally true for us. We live in such a time of information that is so readily available that we don't realize how much it's worth. Some people do, and those people are my heroes. One of them is Mike Wilson. I've never known someone who was a doctor that taught political philosophy on the side. That alone is a testament to his love of knowledge. For a guy that practically has ADHD (me), I can't help but admire someone who has that much focus. Another one is my uncle Gary. He's really good at keeping up on technology. He know's a lot and he makes it his business to understand what's going on in the world. I think if I had half the discipline either of them have, I'd be set.

 I watched part of a conservative rally outside the capital building in DC. This was right after the health bill had passed in the house of representatives. I can understand why conservatives didn't like the health bill, but it was funny. As I listened to this man I heard him say that this (the new health bill he held in his hands) is 2,000 pages of crap. Now it may have been crap. But it was funny because he didn't say why, he just ripped on democrats. I don't think a single person walked away from that meeting understand more about life or government, but I think they did all leave more angry then they had come. Productive? I don't really think so.

I think had people really been listening, it might have made a big difference. Not in the sense that they would have changed their minds, but that a person who has an opinion ought to be able to defend himself and ought to be able to listen to the opinion of someone else even if they don't agree. At least it promotes education and progress. I think it would even lead to a solution if we gave it a chance.

I really believe that listening is a gift. It's a talent that people don't think about often, but it's worth gold if we can develop it. I think one of the problems with politics today is that people have forgotten how to listen. I realize these are all random stories, but they all point to the fact that if people can listen, it could make a world of difference.
In conclusion I think listening would bless America, Chinese teenagers, and me.

And it's cool that I have a blog, cause than I can write about whatever I want. But this for me is a forum too. I love people's comments and I'll always listen. Or at least try to.

Demographic Winter at 3:15 AM

The decline of the human family.

http://www.demographicwinter.com/index.html

If you have a few minutes, go to this website, and on the right hand side, there's a tab that says trailers.
I just watched the trailer for the movie "Demographic Winter"
And it's pretty intense. These people predicted our financial crisis before it happened, and they did well.
Let me know what you think.