Winter Has Already Overstayed It's Welcome!

SPRING. A word that represents hope and happiness. I think it's safe to say that the majority of people who are citizens of this wonderful, yet temperamental, country are not fans of the bleak, horrible season we call winter. Seriously. Who's the joker who thought of this?! It's actually not fun at all! I mean, there's some pretty sweet aspects about it, but once the novelty of those wear off, you're just left with cold, dirty, wet snow and a stuffed up nose. But I promise you, there IS a light at the end of the tunnel. And this light is called spring :) This still isn't my favourite season - that would be summer - but when spring comes, it always means that summer is close at it's heals.
Spring means not having to wear a winter coat anymore. Spring means days are longer and the sun is actually starting to peek over the horizon when you wake up in the wee hours of the morning for school. Spring means more sunshine, warm weather, and the beginning of tanning season. Spring means it's time for people to open their pools. Spring means I can actually walk to the bus stop without freezing to death. Spring means so many things, but most of all it means that winter is almost over.

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Like Totally 80's!

Tomorrow is the first showing of our school musical, Footloose. If you haven't seen this epic movie starring Kevin Bacon, you should probably check it out! Or come watch it being put on at W-O :) Whichever you choose, it's important to know that it's based in the wild 80's, the era of big hair and blinding colours. To honour the first showing of Footloose, we're having a themed dress up day at school. Everyone has the opportunity to wear 80's clothing to school.
In case there are people out there who are completely clueless to what was worn in those days, here are some handy tips that you can use when getting dressed tomorrow morning, or if you ever decide to dress up in 80's styles any other day.

This website is actually really helpful, if you don't get all that you need from this post:
http://www.liketotally80s.com/80s-fashion.html

First off, it's important to remember that more is better and the bigger, the better. Apparently people in this century were trying to "find themselves" through their fashion. What they wore was a way to express their creativity.
Some popular 80's fashions are listed below:
- oversized shirts
- leg warmers
- the preppy look
- 80's dresses
- sunglasses
- paint splatters
- chuck taylors
- acid wash denim
- jumpsuits
- knit ties
- neon
- jelly shoes
- parachute pants
- members only jackets
- the Madonna look
- friendship pins

And these are only a few of the trends from the 80's! There are so many more on the website above, including hair and makeup styles. Hope this helped, I know it helped me :)

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We Sell For More Every Day! Uh, I Mean...

So I was at Walmart with a couple of my friends one Wednesday night, and a sign near the front doors of the store happened to catch my eye. At first, the price didn't really matter to me. Until I glanced down and realized what the product was...

Since when does pop cost $97?! And it's not even the good stuff either... Somebody messed up when they were changing the signs! I almost wanted to go up to an employee and say something, but then that would ruin the fun for other people, wouldn't it? :)

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I Was Wrong...

My previous post about the co-president elections at school was actually written before the assembly where the candidates stood up and gave their speeches about how they would like to make this school a better place. And to be honest, I completely changed my point of view. Although my previous post was very true for other years, this year appeared to be different. Every single one of the candidates seemed to genuinely care about becoming co-prez so that they could do their best to better the school. They all presented entertaining speeches that seemed to address the concerns that most students actually care about. I mean, let's be honest... 99.9% of us DON'T care about the composting in the school! And before I have the entire environment club coming down on my head, I'll clarify that it's not because we don't care about the environment. It's just not one of our top priorities. We're teenagers, which means that we generally only think about ourselves. So really, the most important issues are the ones that are going to affect us directly. And I really think the candidates this year realized that and addressed all those issues.
So in summary, I apologize for my popularity rant on my previous post. I was wrong! Although my opinion still stands for previous co-prez candidates...

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We Live in a Political World... Everything is Hers and His

I thought I would continue the theme of lyrics as the blog post title... Those ones are from Political World by Bob Dylan.
The elections for co-prez at WO have always been and always will be a popularity contest. While it's always a lot of fun to watch the candidates put their all into vying for your precious vote, 9 times out of 10 they honestly don't care what your opinion is. Don't get me wrong, there's always the one or two candidates who genuinely do care about making the school a better place. But the other ones are generally only interested in the whole popularity aspect of it. Honestly, I'm not beating anyone up in this post. I like every single one of the contestants this year, I think they would all do a great job and they're all great people; however, even if they don't realize it, they're doing it to get attention. That shouldn't surprise you though, isn't that what politics is all about? ;) The majority of the people who run for co-prez aren't interested in actually doing the work that comes along with the co-prez responsibilities. Sure, being front and centre in the school assemblies might be fun. But that's exactly it. Most of them really just like the attention that accompanies the co-prez elections. I mean, who wouldn't want to have the most votes out of all the candidates? It means that people like you. And who doesn't want to be well liked these days?

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Courtney Mercedes (Yes, Like The Car) Hart

This is Courtney Mercedes Hart. Best friend since grade 9. Make-up artist extraordinaire. Dance fanatic. Also a natural blonde, I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this ;) Overall, I love this girl! From the first moment when I said I liked her Cars pencil case and she complimented me on my necklace, we were the best of friends. Of course it wasn't always perfect... We've had the occasional fight and falling out but we always manage to reconnect and become friends again. I can tell her everything and she never judges me. She always laughs at my cheesy jokes, and I always laugh at her's. It's a little understanding that we have :)

Although she's one of the most beautiful girls I have ever met, she never seems to think so. She's gorgeous, inside and out. She has a love for life that shines right through her eyes. She tries not to be bothered by what people think. She's been through so much in her life, but she still manages to keep going. I've always looked up to her because of that.

To show my love for this amazing friend, I decided to write this blog post for her! I know that if you ever met this girl you would love her just as much as I do!

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Feud Between Families

I would bet an arm and a leg that the majority of you have at least heard of the popular TV game show, Family Feud. Personally, I love it. I can't get enough of it! I'm not actually able to watch it at home, but every time I'm at my friend Emily's house it's on. They're as bad as I am for it! It's just so entertaining to watch, especially when some of the questions should be so incredibly obvious, but the families still manage to screw it up a lot of the time. It actually gets me fired up sometimes! Seriously, they miss the most obvious answers to the most obvious questions. It just makes me want to give them a good shake.
There's also an 'app' on Facebook where you can play Family Feud. You can even play Fast Money, where you guess the answer to several questions, then you can choose to send it to your friends on Facebook, who will help you achieve the required 200 points by choosing different answers to the same questions. It's actually addicting, I can't stop playing it! Unfortunately you're only allowed playing one episode a day but trust me: I'm on every single day :)

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My One True Love

So I realize this post is several months overdue... But since I never did get around to writing it, I thought I would do it now! It's never too late :)

I can't really remember having a constant crush on someone when I was growing up... I guess you could say that I wasn't very picky when it came to the male species, so really any boy who I thought was "cute" was on my list. And yes, I had a list. There were several classmates on that list, mostly the rowdy boys who thought it was cool to grow their hair so long you couldn't see the top half of their faces, and who were also dressed head-to-toe in West 49 apparel. Ah, let's just say my taste has gotten slightly better, thank goodness. But one who especially caught my eye was a man - and I mean man, I wasn't picky about age either at this point... - by the name of Chris, who was a firefighter alongside my father. Although he must have been at least 20 years my major, it was true love. I was almost sure of this, for whenever I tagged along with my dad to the firehall, I would almost always find myself thrown over Chris' shoulder and on my way head-first into the garbage can before he valiantly decided that this fate was much too horrific for a classy little lady like me. Yes, I really could pick 'em. Unfortunately, he decided to get married and have a couple kids, so that dream was quickly extinguished. Sigh, I will always wonder what could have been. Our romance could have revolved around piggy backs through the firehall and daily dunks into the child-sized garbage can. What more could a girl dream for?

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Wouldn't Change for NOBODY

Yes, I do realize that's horrible grammar in my title... But it's for the sake of simply proving that I really wouldn't change for anybody! Just go with it ;)
Even though I'm not perfect, not even close, I'm still so happy with who I am. I know I'm unique and sometimes people really don't understand my jokes... But I love how I can laugh at myself, even if nobody else is laughing along! I'm confident in who I am and although I still care about what people think about me, I try not to let things bother me and I never feel the need to change for anybody. In the end, most people in our lives aren't worth the stress and worry that we usually go through for them. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent". Life isn't about impressing other people. The only person you should be impressing is yourself.
I guess if there was one thing I would change about my personality it would be to not be so hard on myself when I fail at something, no matter how small it is. I tend to beat myself up if somebody else lets me down, also, even if it's not my fault. So even though I'm content with who I am as a person, this is one thing that I would probably change about my personality.

Careless Scribbles in the Colouring Book of Life

Coloring Book

Connie Wanek

 

Each picture is heartbreakingly banal,
a kitten and a ball of yarn,
a dog and bone.
The paper is cheap, easily torn.
A coloring book's authority is derived
from its heavy black lines
as unalterable as the Ten Commandments
within which minor decisions are possible:
the dog black and white,
the kitten gray.
Under the picture we find a few words,
a caption, perhaps a narrative,
a psalm or sermon.
But nowhere do we discover
a blank page where we might justify
the careless way we scribbled
when we were tired and sad
and could bear no more.

This was really the only poem that caught my attention while looking through one of the sites given to us. I couldn't really relate to any of the other ones and to be honest, I thought most of them were irrelevant to my life. But this one is so cool, in my opinion. She tied in both the carefree ignorance of childhood and the struggles of adolescence and adulthood. She first describes the simplicity of being a child through a favourite childhood activity: colouring. And then by the end of the poem, without warning, she describes a feeling that I'm sure everyone has felt at one point in their adolescence or adulthood. What I got from it is that sometimes you come to a time in your life when you're fed up with pleasing everyone - by doing what everyone expects and wants of you. You just become fed up with life and don't want to try to stay inside the lines anymore. And I think that's okay. It's okay to stop trying sometimes and do what you need to do for you. That's why I loved this poem. I think everyone can relate to it.

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Jellyfish: "A Clever Hunter For a Creature With No Brain"

You may have seen one of these squishy little creatures lying on the beach while strolling along the shores of any ocean in the world and tentatively poked at it's tiny little body. They're even featured in the popular 2003 Disney movie "Finding Nemo". But other than these brief encounters, jellyfish are extremely underappreciated and fascinating creatures!

They have no heart, no eyes, no bones, no brain... and their bodies are made up of 95% water! But they still manage to be efficient ocean predators.

The jellyfish is made up of a "bell"-shaped body, which contains a jelly-like substance, as well as tentacles, which are also sometimes called "flaps". These tentacles are used to eat it's prey. The bell is called a medusa, because it resembles the Gorgon Medusa of Greek mythology, with her hair of many writhing snakes.

There are more than 200 species of jellyfish. They range in size from the small thimble jellyfish which resides in the Caribbean, to the Arctic lion's mane, which has a bell that can grow up to 2.5 m (8 ft) in diameter and tentacles that can reach up to 60 m (200 ft) long. That's twice the length of a blue whale! This huge "thing" is also thought to weigh more than 250 kg (550 lb)! All I can say is HOLY MOLY. Imagine coming face-to-face with one of these bad boys.

Some jellyfish move by propelling themselves through the water using jet propulsion, while some of them attach themselves by a stalk to other materials, such as seaweed. Their movement is strongly influenced by the ocean's movement, so therefore they're often known as zooplankton (animal drifters).
So far they don't really seem that harmless... right? Wrong. They're able to stun and kill their prey with stinging cells called nematocysts. Each tiny cell conatins a harpoon which shoots into the prey and delivers a a debilitating toxin when triggered by touch or movement. The potency of this toxin varies, and reactions in humans ranges from a mild, irritating rash to death. Basically, these puppies don't joke around.

So this was a lot of reading! But hopefully you found it as interesting as I found it. There's still so much more information on the jellyfish that you can research and I KNOW you'll find it fascinating :) The jellyfish is for sure an underappreciated animal that most people don't know that much about. Thanks for reading! :)

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In My Opinion...

Even though my attention span is often too short to complete assignments and hand them in on time, I LOVE THIS COURSE. This blog post was really difficult to write because there's really nothing wrong with the course at all. I guess that shouldn't make it difficult to write but it actually did! I have nothing to talk about because I have nothing but good things to say... For example, I love how you try to actually relate to us. And most of the time you succeed - not all the time though ;) Just kidding! Ur the k00lest. But in all seriousness, the fact that you incorporate your personal life and things that we can relate to into your lessons, such as technology, makes the course something I really look forward to. Your lessons are always fun and creative and even though we may groan and complain about having to do yet another assignment, they're the best darn assignments I've ever been assigned! Kudos :)

After looking at the list of upcoming units, I have to say that I'm most looking forward to poetry/song lyrics. They're actually pretty fun to try to decipher and if your lessons will be anything like the ones you're presenting for this unit, it'll be a blast to learn about poetry.

My initiative, on the other hand... needs some improvement... Oops! No matter how much I rant about how much I love the assignments, it still doesn't change the fact that I'm in no way good at school. This makes me sound like the laziest person ever, but I hate the schoolwork involved with school. And although I'm still planning on attending, I am in no way excited to go to university and continue this education that has so far taken up the majority of my life. What I'd like to do with my life is travel and help people. That being said, I hate the fact that I have to obtain a post-secondary education to actually be able to make a good living in this world. So unfortunately, my initiative with assignments in general is largely lacking. I promise, I'll try my best from now on... But I can't make any promises that I'm going to be excited about it. Whew, that's a load off my chest!

Anyways, all I can say is keep on doing what you're doing. Your way of doing things in class is intriguing and I thoroughly enjoy it everytime. You're the best!

PS - reading over this blog post, I realized that I seem like the biggest suck-up you've probably ever had as a student... But cross my heart hope to die, every word I've written here is true!

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A Grinch or A Who?

Sooo clearly I'm a TAD behind on my blog posts... But let's just pretend that I'm not, let's just not even pay attention to the date of these next few posts ;)

Anyways, about this current blog post... Am I a grinch or a who? Is that even a question!? I LOVE CHRISTMAS. It's my favourite time of year!! I could watch Christmas movies allllll year long. As much as I love summer and I'm not a big fan of the cold, the happiness and joy and excitement that Christmas brings every year is something that I always look forward to. Not to mention the same songs being played over and over on the radio, the Christmas tree decorating with the family, the craziness of the shopping malls, and the stress of getting all your shopping finished for your loved ones. Although some people HATE this time of year with a stressed, fiery, burning passion, I just can't seem to get enough of it. Christmas means it's okay to wear your mother's tackiest Christmas sweater to school. Christmas means it's okay to waltz around school singing carols at the top of your lungs with your vocal class. Christmas means that it's okay for you to be overly happy and joyful, even though it makes some people want to smack that huge smile off your face. This is the most wonderful time of the year. I can't help but smile when thinking about it :)
So THAT'S my answer; I don't think I would ever have it in me to be a grinch. I have too many good things in my life to even consider losing the spirt of Christmas.

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff... Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and a Happy New Year! :)

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