Careers - Firefighter

Ken North came in to talk to our class about being a firefighter. Although he was very informative and well spoken, I do not think that being a firefighter is the job for me. It is a very hounorable job, and they have a lot of respect from a lot of people. I just don't believe that it would be a good fit for me. Have to be that physically fit would be a real challenge for me and it would not be enjoyable for me. The risk is also something that comes into play and how it would affect my family. Also firefighters have to be great leadership qualities and although I am not a horrible leader I will admit it is not my strongest skill. All in all it seemed to be a very interesting job and he did a great job at explaining what he does, but it does not look like at this time it will be in my future.

The Manatee

This animal is one of the cutest animals I have ever set my eyes on. The manatee is often refereed to as the "sea cow". There are 3 different species of manatee two which live in the fresh waters of Africa, and one that inhabits the shallow, marshy coastal areas and rivers of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. These sea cows show understanding of discrimination tasks, and show signs of complex learning and long term memory, their intelligence level is similar to dolphins. The manatees diet consists of over 60 different plant species that grow in the warm waters. The manatee has very few natural predators, other than man. Manatee's are often hit by speedboats, that are zipping through their shallow marsh homes. Slow moving, and curious nature along with desnly developed coastal region is a big factor in this. This happens so often that scientists and other people identify different manatees from the scars along their backs. For this reason and more, the 3 species of manatee is listed in the World Conservation Union as Vulnerable to go extinct. There are many different organizations working with the manatees to bring their population to a more stable place. Boats are now being built that are souly propelled by water jets to protect the animals from harm. Steps have been taken to help these animals, and there are many more that need help. Do your research and see what you can do.

Personally, I don't really understand Vegetarians. I find this funny.

No offense intended. 

Mandatory French in school.

I think learning french in school is a very useful thing. It opens children up to learning about a different culture and lets them explore another language. Some children are very interested in learning french or other languages and may not have the change to discover this if french was not mandatory in school. It is a great idea and helps with a lot of things throughout life.

Carrie Snyder - Guest Speaker

I guess it was two fridays ago. Carrie Snyder writer came in to talk about what she does as a professional writer. Recently I have given being a writer a serious thought. I love writing, and I believe I am fairly good at writing fiction stories. It is also something I enjoy and I think I would enjoy for the rest of my life. The thing is, and this is what Carrie Snyder pointed out is that is a hard go. You do not make a lot of money when you first start or if you are not successful. Only successful writers make a lot of money. So this brought be to being a columnist or writing for a news paper. What I am going to do when I'm older is still in the air completely and will probably change, but thanks to Carrie Snyder I have started thinking more and more about what I want to do, and hey maybe I will stick with it and achieve what I am planning.

Kony 2012

Alright. Why should it matter if Joseph Kony is not powerful anymore? Why does it matter that his army is not nearly as big as it use to be? In my opinion, him having ONE child in his hands is to many and he needs to be brought to justice for ONE of those children. I should not matter that he isn't doing it anymore, he should be punished for what he DID. He ruined thousands of peoples lives through out his rain and THAT is what he should be brought to justice for. Many people died because of him, and they will die for nothing if he does not pay. Yes there are some issues with the invisible children company. But, some of these people have to spend 24/7 on this campaign and they also need an income. So if not 100% of the money goes directly to the cause, I may not be happy about it, but I agree and understand why it is happening.

Transgender Beauty Queen Asks for Change in Rules.

FIRST READ ARTICLE: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Transgender+beauty+queen+Jenna+Talackova+calls+Miss+Universe+change+rules/6405413/story.html

Now that you have read that. I can begin. I usually do not follow beauty pageant news what so ever, but I did see this on the news today and it struck me. So I did more research.

Yes, she has been allowed to compete in the Miss Universe Canada Competition, but the issue is not about the outcome. It is about why this happened at all. From 1985 - 1998 transgender people accounted for 20% of all murders and they face a huge amount of discrimination from getting a job to finding an apartment. This should simply not be the case. Why should it matter what gender you were born as? Who are they to say she is not allowed to compete? Her passport, drivers licence, health card, they all say she is a female. She has all the female parts. What more evidence do you need? She is a female and she has every right as any other female would. 

"Provided she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada" Why does this even exist? You should be able to be whatever gender you want. If you say you're a woman.. you're a woman. Say you're a man? You're a man. That is all there should be to it. I understand for somethings it is need to be known your true gender, but other than medical records, and possibly birth certificate, it should be no one else's business whether you are a boy, girl, both, whatever. 

But that is just my opinion.

The Hunger Games Movie Review (Possible spoiler if you have not read the book)

         Last Friday the first movie of The Hunger Games trilogy hit the theaters everywhere. The movie started off to a great start. It was interesting, and gave you a lot of information you needed, for example the reasoning behind the games.
         The book stuck to the book very well. There was only one minor part that they left out. I understand why they did it, seeing as the movie was already 2 hours and 22 minutes, but I was still sad to see this part missing. Other than this part the movie did a very good job getting everything in. I have heard a lot of people say that they pictures District 12 a lot differently, along with other things such as The Captiol, Cinna, and more. The fact is, everyone pictured them differently, and this is just one way someone pictured it in their minds.
         The action packed movie was also full of heart wrenching parts. Rue for example. Even you did not have much time to get to know her in the movie, you quickly saw her innocence and quickly loved her. When she passed away I found this a very sad part in the movie. A mixture of helped pull this off, the music, the camera angles, and many other things.
         Another thing that made this movie so strong was the acting. Jennifer Lawrence (Katniss) did a fantastic job. A lot of what happens in the book happens within Katniss' mind and when put on the big screen a lot of which can be lost. Lawrence did a very good job with her acting. You could always tell something was going on within her mind. Also I found the Career tributes did a fantastic job in making you dislike them.
        All in all this movie was fantastic and I would defiantly recommend it to anyone. I give it a 5 out of 5.

Lit Circle Books.

Hominids      by Robert J. Sawyer
Hominids examines two unique species of people. We are one of those species; the other is the Neanderthals of a parallel world where they became the dominant intelligence. The neanderthal civilization reached heights of culture and science comparable to our own, but with radical different history, society and philosophy.


This book is my number 1choice. The parallel species is a really interesting concept to me. I believe it would be a very interesting book to read. Science fiction kind of books have always fascinated me.


Lord of the Flies     by William Golding
Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrayal of human nature.


This book also seems like a good choice. It seems that it would have a lot of action within it and would be very interesting to read. Brutality within a book is always fun.

Father Shooting Laptop in Punishment

So I recently read this article about a father who shot his daughters laptop for a punishment to publicly complaining about her parents, and chores around the house. a) Most teenagers that use facebook have complained about their parents at one time or another, it's what we do. And b) The father I believed over reacted. Yes it was not a smart thing to do, but shooting the laptop is stupid. What a waste of a laptop. Personally I think it was immature and over the top.


Here's the article and the link to the video is within.
http://www.cheaplaptops.org.uk/20120212/dad-shoots-laptop-viral-video-daughters-punishment

Literary Devices

Comments

http://just-another-hand.blogspot.com/2012/02/celebrities-bad-examples-or-role-models.html?showComment=1331215401966#c3879414960915349494

http://just-another-hand.blogspot.ca/2012/04/what-about-architect.html?showComment=1334686854401

Favorite Things

LGBTQ Teen Suicide Rate

Lance Lundsten, suicide following alleged school bullying.

Kameron Jacobsen, suicide following alleged bullying over Facebook..

Justin Aaberg, suicide following school bullying.

Billy Lucas, suicide following school bullying.

Asher Brown, suicide following school bullying.

Seth Walsh, suicide following school bullying. 

These all may just be names, but to me they are all people that have taken from this earth to soon in 2011.  The amount of suicides of LGBTQ teens throughout Canada and the United States is astonishing. Gay teens are about 5 times more likely to attempt suicide. Teens in a unwelcoming environment are 20% more vulnerable. The social environment is so important, to the well being of LGBTQ students.  A study was done in high schools although out the state of Oregon. 32,000 grade 11 students were surveyed. The studies showed that 21.5 percent of gay teens surveyed reported suicidal emotions and/or actions. Meanwhile only 4.2 percent of straight teens reported the same. It is time to find a way to stop this. For people to stand up, and defend those who cannot defend themselves. Adults need to show their acceptance, these teens need help. Personally, within schools, there should be a lot more investigation into bullying. There needs to be more people getting punished for what they are doing. And possibly if other people see bull's getting in a lot of trouble, they'll think twice about opening their mouth and lives could possibly be saved.

Same Sex Marriage

In Canada, same sex marriage is legal everywhere. This is one of the many reasons I am very proud to be Canadian. Even though same sex marriage is legal here, it is not legal in the majority of the world. United States is suppose to be on of the most civilized and forward moving countries in the entire world. Except only 6 states out of 51 allow gay marriage. Personally, I believe this to be utterly unacceptable. 10% of the population is gay. Say the population was evenly distributed between states. This means that 27,088,813 in the United States alone cannot get married. It should be your choice who you marry, your choice alone, and no one else's. Who gave the government the right to have this much power over our lives? Why should they get to decide this much of our personal life? "Marriage should not be extended to same-sex couples because homosexual relationships have nothing to do with procreation. Allowing gay marriage would only further shift the purpose of marriage from producing and raising children to adult gratification." According to this statement, infertile  women should not be able to marry, women who have gone through menopause should not be able to marry. There are many people that see same-sex marriage as a bad thing and there are many arguments that "support" this, but personally they are all so close-mindedly stupid and invalid.


For more close-minded and completely stupid ideas go here http://www.balancedpolitics.org/same_sex_marriages.htm