Creativity Continued

I watched my feet as they stomped on the ground moving me closer to my destination, the air pushing against my face, my cheeks going red. My breathing had become louder and faster, I could feel my legs giving in. I yelled out and the bus driver saw me and waited as I got on.

Blog choice: rant

I remember waking up earlier than I needed to on a school day, pouring myself a bowl of Nestle Quick cereal and turning on the tv to watch Little Lulu before I had to go. Singing along to the theme song "Little Lulu, Little Lulu, the freckles on your skin, always..." well you get the point. The Golden days they call them, the days when you were a kid and all you wanted to do was watch your favourite cartoon on tv. Now when I turn on the tv I barely see any cartoons and the shows that do air are hardly ever original. I miss the "classics", called the classics not due to the fact that they were made "back in the day" but because they're original, the days when the word "spin off" was never uttered. The shows then weren't afraid of comedy, they weren't afraid of being bold and making a joke that may offend some people if it meant laughter for so many more. Now everything is offensive to parents if it regards their children "I can't believe this show! how dare they teach my child to lie to a teacher" sorry TJ, looks like you and the rest of the Recess gang aren't tricking your way out of this one. Those lies taught us so much though, like how bad you feel after deceiving someone, the power of doing the right thing or how fun it is to pull the wool over somebodies eyes. Even the educational shows were fun to watch, I know you all know what I'm talking about, Ms. Frizzle and her magic school bus, such an unreal concept yet so unbelievably entertaining. I know the networks today wouldn't dare to air such a show as Johnny Bravo, one of my favourites, a middle aged Elvis fanatic that lived with his mother but still tried to pick up the ladies. Remember those skimpy clothes the women used to wear? And how Johnny always found a way to objectify the woman, or the fact that he got shot down more times than any man alive today. That made for a great cartoon, no thought as to whether anyone would get offended or that he wasn't a successful family man like they all seem to be today, all anyone knew was that he was funny and that was enough. So I say bring back the classics, no more spin offs of fashionable rockstar/teen girls going to college. Lets learn our lessons ourselves instead of them being made so obvious and having Hannah Montana say to her dad "you're right daddy I did a wrong thing because....". I'm tired of bad tv and I know that I'm not the only one who wants to relive their golden days.

The road less traveled

1. As a female from India my mom knew that she was meant to get married and have kids and the only job in her future was taking care of her family. When I asked her what she wanted to do with her life as a child she said she never thought about it seeing how it was pointless to want something that she thought she couldn't have. My mom works at a farm now and everyday she has to drag herself out of bed and force herself to go work in the sun with mosquitos and spiders picking grapes and other painfully boring and repetitive tasks. So I asked her what she would rather be now instead of an orchard worker and she said more than anything she would love to be a police officer for the uniform. Its hard to make yourself do something if you know you dont want to especially if you know that there's something else you'de rather be doing. I believe passion is very important when it comes to choosing a career path. A job isn't just something you're going to do for one day it's something that you have to work hard in and do every day for a long time. My mom hates going to the farm but it's something she has to do to help provide for the family, however it would be so much easier for her to go to work every day if she could put on a uniform and do what she's passionate about.

2. After highschool I'm moving in with my cousin and sister in Coquitlam where I'm gonna work a full time job until January. In January I plan on going to Douglas College and taking some courses to upgrade so I can later apply for other courses at Douglas College. Next year in September I'm going to apply to Douglas college and major in criminiology and minor in psychology to get a Bachelor's degree. Then after graduation I'm going to apply at a police force where I will attend police academy, and work as a 4th class constable. After I graduate from there I hope to get assigned to entry-level work of a constable. I'm going to have to work for 3 years as a police officer before I can ask to work as a detective, which is what I'm hoping to become. 

Novel Research

"The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" was written by Karl Stig-Erland Larsson or better known as Stieg Larsson, a Swedish journalist and writer, born August 15, 1954. Stieg Larsson changed his name from Stig to Stieg to avoid confusion with his friend who was also named Stig Larsson and who was also an author. The name change was decided by a coin toss in which Stieg Larsson lost. Larsson was initially a political activist for the Communist Workers League a photographer and a science fiction fanatic. As a science fiction enthusiast Larsson first started off writing science fiction fanzines (amateur magazines) in 1971. Stieg Larsson founded the Swedish Expo Foundation, which was made to counteract the growth of the extreme right and stop racism in schools.  In 1991 his research of right-wing extremism in Sweden led to his first book, "Right-Wing Extremism". He then began exposing Swedish extreme right and racist organizations. In 1977, Stieg Larsson trained a squad of female Eritrean People's Liberation Front guerrillas in the use of grenade launchers. He developed a kidney disease and was later forced to quit. When he returned to Sweden, he worked at the largest Swedish news agency as a graphic designer. Stieg Larsson died November 4, 2004 from climbing 7 flights of stairs to his office due to a broken lift which led to a heart attack. After his death manuscripts were found of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure in the evening when he returned from work and never tried to get them published until right before his death. The first of the three novels, "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", originally named "Men Who Hate Women" was published in 2005. The book was awarded the glass key award as the best Nordic crime novel of 2005. The second novel, "The Girl Who Played With Fire" got the best Swedish crime novel award in 2006. And the third novel of the series was called "The Air Castle That Was Blown Up" and was published in America as "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest" in May 2010. A fourth novel was left un-finished, his partner, Eva Gabrielsson is going to continue writing the novel on Larssons's behalf. After Stieg Larsson's death there was contraversy between Eva Gabrielsson and Larssons father and brother. A will was found stating that Stieg Larsson's money be donated to the Umea branch of the Communist Workers League, however since there were no witnesses when the will was written all of Larsson's assets went to his father and brother. Eva Gabrielsson and Stieg Larsson wanted to get married but couldn't because of a law that stated a married couple had to make their address publicly known. Due to Larsson's involvement in politics, having his address known would have been a security risk, so the two never married, but Eva Gabrielsson argued that some of her lovers money should have gone to her. When Stieg Larsson was 15 years of age he witnessed a girl by the name of Lisbeth getting gang raped, he never forgave himself for not stepping in and helping her. However the tragic rape became his inspiration for his novels and the reason why violence and abuse against women was such an important issue for him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stieg_Larsson

Writing a Review

Unicorns are amazing. They are the most majestic creatures in the whole world although some may argue that they don't even exist. A horse with a horn on its head is the most beautiful thing anybody could possibly conjure up. Not only are they beautiful to look at but they weild a magic power. Their magic power is unsure to the people of this world. In Harry Potter if one were to drink the blood of a unicorn they would live for the rest of eternity, even though they would live a cursed life it would be a magical thing of course to live for eternity. Unicorns make the world a better place, nothing excites a child or even an adult more than when someone yells "LOOK, IT'S A UNICORN". I cannot even make up a negative thing to say about unicorns. Remember when Ralph from the simpsons stuck an ice cream cone on his forehead and said "look, I'm a unitard" and the joy in his eyes? That joy is the joy of the unicorn.

Walk a Paragraph

I walked over to my door and didn't bother looking through the peep hole since it had become a daily routine for my friend to wake me up with that incessive knocking. He bantered at me to get ready so we could begin walking to the mall. I took a shower and got dressed, pulling up my suspenders one arm at a time and grabbed my old grey tattered hat that completed my outfit. I walked out of my room and saw my old comrade waiting for me on the couch having helped himself to a glass of water. "Lets go" he said placing the glass on the table and leading the way towards the exit. After jiggling the door handle to make sure it was locked, my friend held his hand out to take the key from me so that I wouldn't lose it. We both walked in silence with slow strides inching our way closer to the mall. He grabbed the door handle and held it open as I walked through thanking him on the way in. Our eyes were planted on our spot, the two seater table closest to where the giant chess board had been. I sat there reading the newspaper my friend had brought while he unpacked the thermos and sandwiches his wife had packed for us. After we had taken the last few bites of our egg salad sandwiches and drank the remaining sips of our coffee I wiped away the crumbs into my hand and walked over to the garbage followed by my dear friend. And so we began our journey to the chess board where an exciting yet intense game was to be played.

Bowling for Columbine

1.Michael Moore in Bowling for Columbine uses wit and humour to reach out to the public. He doesn't just appeal to the viewers by using facts, statistics or the history behind Americans obsession with firearms
instead he uses irony in relevant situations related to the use of firearms in America. His approach to the problem of gun related violence is to entertain the viewers by showing humorous cartoons and asking questions that we as viewers must find the answer to ourselves. Michael Moore gives us the information and leaves us, the viewers, to figure out what we think about the issue of gun related violence in America. He uses visual entertainment to inform us of the history of violence in America. Although it does appear that he has a biased opinion in Bowling for Columbine, there is room for our own thoughts and opinions towards the issues that are discussed in the movie. Michael Moore provides the information about the history of gun related violence in America by terrifying and captivating the audience.

2.Bowling for Columbine is more likely to be considered slanted journalism than a documentary. Michael Moore interviews people and asks for their opinions on gun related violence in America rather than simply stating the facts of the issue. He attempts to manipulate the thoughts and views of certain people like Charleton Heston by showing the damage firearms can do. This film doesn't just go into the lives of the people affected by gun related violence but everyday people are also asked what they think of the issue.

3.Michael Moore's interview with Charleton Heston was unethical journalism because he attemted to manipulate the view that Charleton Heston had on firearm use in America. Instead of just asking Heston how he percieved the issue, Michael Moore tried to push his thoughts on him by tyring to make him feelremorse towards his decisions to speak after the death of a child who was shot by a school mate.

Black widow questions & Fear Paragraph

1. The widow will deliver a series of bites as the creature dies, injecting substances that liquefy the organs.
2. I hunt black widow.

I am afraid of spiders. Their grotesquely long, hairy, rapidly moving legs put the fear in my eyes. The thought of their diminutive little bodies crawling into my mouth while I sleep makes me cringe. I don't see the webs they weave as beautiful works of art but rather as soiled pieces of string that came out of an 8 eyed crawling nightmare. What I hate most about them is how in the blink of an eye they can move from the dark corner where the ceiling meets the wall to your shadow, cast right in front of you. Most spiders are harmless, or so I've heard, but it doesn't matter to me whether they can kill me with their venomous poison or if their intention is to just crawl around my house in search of food and shelter. They are, in my eyes, the worst thing out there.

Perception is everything

Imagine climbing to the top of a mountain and standing at the peak looking out at the view and your friend is with you looking out at the same scene. You look out and see a quiet, peaceful and beautiful world. Birds flying over the still entrancing water, mountainous terrain reflected in the water. Your friend looks out at the exact same view but they see a busy world, cars driving along the highway and people the size of ants moving about, playing outside. Both you and your friend are looking at the same thing but your perception of what you see is different. You may percieve the world as a serene and silent place but your friend sees it as loud and full of life. In Beau Otto's presentation on optical illusions he talks about how what we percieve may not be real. Beau Otto shows examples of his theory by holding up certain colours behind translucent paper and asking the audience what colour they see. Half of the audience will say one colour and the other half will say another. Our eyes have been trained to see colours in a certain way but when we look at colours in a different way, like through an optical illusion, they get confused and use the colour that is most often seen used on that object. So maybe my red isnt the same as your red, maybe what I see as red could be what you see as green. Who's to say which perception is right? Yours or mine? What Beau Otto means by "what we see may not be real" is that the way one person sees something to be isn't necessarily the same as way another person sees something to be. If everyones perception on something is different, then how can we be sure whats real?

Perils of Indifference

1. The danger of equality
2. During the 16th century in Mesoamerica the Aztec would sacrifice one human being every day as a way of helping the sun to rise. No one wondered how a human sacrifice pertained to the the natural phenomenon that is the sun. They just did what they had been doing for years because the Aztec people believed that the sacrifices were the reason the run was rising, and so it became tradition. In the same way that the Aztecs went with their tradition of human sacrifice the townspeople in "The Lottery" would sacrifice one person every year. The townspeople would all draw a piece of folded paper out of a box and the person who received the paper with the black dot would get stoned. In The Lottery no one questioned why a human sacrifice was required, it was simply tradition so everyone went along with it. Objections would only come from those who were to be stoned otherwise there was no questioning what they believed to be "the norm".  Both times practiced human sacrifice as a way of achieving what they wanted, and they believed that it was abnormal to stop doing it since it had been going on for so long.
3.Perils of Indifference and The Lottery both include the bystander affect. In Perils of Indifference by Elie Wiesel he talks about how people just stand by and watch as injustice takes place in the world because they are too lazy to do something about it. Hitlers reign went on for so long that Germany had turned into "Hilter's Germany". Why did it take so long for the Holocaust to end? People weren't willing to rebel against the disaster sooner, it didn't need to take so long for change to occur. In the Lottery the townspeople would gather in the town square and do roll call to make sure no one was left out of this event. When Tessie was pleading for her life no one stood up for her and asked for the stoning to stop, they just wanted to get it over with and continue on with their daily routines. People are lazy in the sense that they believe it is simply easier to be a bystander than to step in and make a difference and speak out against conformity.

Creative Pursuits

25. Write a story from the perspective of the parents who tried to sell their newborn baby on the Internet for $10,000.

My husband and I tried to sell our baby on Craigslist for $10000. People seem to have a problem with this for some unknown reason. If I can grow a flower and sell it on the internet than why cant I grow a baby and sell it as well? I dont see what the big deal is anyway that baby will obviously be in a nice home because the parents were willing to pay so much for this child. I mean its not like a pedophiles gonna buy our baby, what are the chances of that? Most people think we did it to make money but thats not the reason at all. We clearly did it for the interest of our baby. So what if we get a little bit of money out of it, our baby is the one who's really getting the good fortune. That child will get a wonderful home with a wonderful family and get to grow up knowing that they were sold for $10000, thats a lot of money. I can see it now, at 20 years of age, no longer a child, walking with their head held high because they know that they are worth a whopping $10000. We will gladly take full credit for that childs bragging rights. I'm sure my husband and I aren't the only couple trying to make a few dollars off our child anyway. We're simply just the most creative.

21st century education

I think the most important skills needed for post high school life are skills that can help us communicate with other people because we cant go very far in life if all we know is what we read about in books. I think the skills that we're learning in highschool revolve more around the intelectual part of who we are instead of trying to define who we are as individuals. Given that we do alot of group activities and partner projects but sometimes people are paired with others that they dont normally associate themselves with. Which I dont think helps us be more social but makes us more afraid of communicating with others because people are more likely to be social on their own rather than when they're pushed into it. The education system works in the beginnning while we're developing because it expands our mind so that we can understand more in the future but as we get older and we come to the final years of highschool we should be learning things that we want to to help us build our future. In highschool we should be able to take the courses that we want instead of the required courses with the optional woodwork or cooking class. Middle school should be the years for required courses because than we atleast have a foundation of education and it could give us an idea of what we might want to do in the future. People waste alot of money on university classes that they later realise wasn't what they wanted to do. If we could make those mistakes in highschool it would be easier to change our minds and explore other fields of work. This year I took a lot of different courses to see what I'm most interested in but I'm still unsure of what I want to do. So after highschool I plan on staying home and working for a year and trying to figure out what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Superpowers

If I could have any superppower in the world it would be the awesome super power of flying. No more traffic, no more pedestrians bumping into me, just me in the air with the birds. Occasionally the birds might get in my way but thats where it gets good because I can just change my elevation. When it comes to villians they dont stand a chance, the second they come running at me I'll simply fly up and away from them and come back when they least expect it. Flying gives me the element of surprise you see, for you can't see where I've flown too, if I've flown far enough away that is. Flying is better than super speed because when you're running you could hit a dead end and get blocked by a wall but when you're flying you just go into the open sky with tons of space to be free and super.