I posted on Emilie pollards blog

Homophobia

Brian Burke has made some very risky moves. For a man with a job in hockey, finding out that his son is gay is a very difficult thing. It is one of the most difficult things for a son to tell his father. His heavy load got heavier a few weeks later when his son died in a car accident. He decided to change his perspective and join a campaign that fights homophobia. Homophobia is an extreme and irrational aversion to homosexuality and homosexual people. It takes place in many of our school systems today. There are kids, and teachers that are afraid of homosexuals. You may think that it sounds kind of funny, but it is really happening!

I think that it is a fantastic thing that Mr. Burke has joined this campaign. People need to stand up to what they believe in, especially professional athletes. He has shown nothing but excellence by doing this. I think that more athletes should be doing this, but thy don’t. They think that all they can do is sports and there is no way they can make a difference. What they don’t understand is that because they are famous more people would want do follow them. They could make so much of a difference if they just tried. If more athletes did this, I am sure that more people would respect them and they might even become more famous than they were.

Everyone is different. Everyone can make their own choices in life, no one can stop them. If someone chooses to like the same sex, there should be no one in their way to stop them. “Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.” Coretta Scott King

LET US CHEW!

Every kid loves to chew gum. It is a fun and tasty thing to do. It also helps most people focus when they are working. It may be the best thing in the world, but our teachers are missing the point. It could improve out marks, but they don’t care. They only care about the past, and the past has ruined our chance for chewing gum. Dumbest reason ever...right?

They think that if we are allowed to chew gum in class then we will be too lazy to walk over to the garbage can to spit it out! Most of us are athletes and I am pretty sure that we are capable enough to stand up, take a few steps and toss our gum in the garbage. Our chances of chewing gum were spoiled by those in the past that WERE to lazy to stand up, and they stuck under their desks. We ARE different than them. They should let us have a chance to prove to them how much different we are, and show them that we CAN throw out our gum!

Why can’t we have a chance? What has the world come to? Teachers don’t know what they are doing! We should be allowed. Take this message and remember that more than 3/4’s of the school will agree with me! Everyone loves gum and we shouldn’t have to wait till after school to chew.

LET US CHEW!

Every kid loves to chew gum. It is a fun and tasty thing to do. It also helps most people focus when they are working. It may be the best thing in the world, but our teachers are missing the point. It could improve out marks, but they don’t care. They only care about the past, and the past has ruined our chance for chewing gum. Dumbest reason ever...right?

They think that if we are allowed to chew gum in class then we will be too lazy to walk over to the garbage can to spit it out! Most of us are athletes and I am pretty sure that we are capable enough to stand up, take a few steps and toss our gum in the garbage. Our chances of chewing gum were spoiled by those in the past that WERE to lazy to stand up, and they stuck under their desks. We ARE different than them. They should let us have a chance to prove to them how much different we are, and show them that we CAN throw out our gum!

Why can’t we have a chance? What has the world come to? Teachers don’t know what they are doing! We should be allowed. Take this message and remember that more than 3/4’s of the school will agree with me! Everyone loves gum and we shouldn’t have to wait till after school to chew.

Tim Hortons is SUPREME!!!

Tim Horton’s is a true Canadian owned company. Started by THE Tim Horton and carried on by many others. You may think that’s it, but there is so much more to Tim Horton’s than you think. They do something that Starbucks doesn’t have the decency to do and they have kept it to themselves for many years. They don’t advertise their greatness to the world.

Sustainable coffee. Do you know what that is? Probably not because Tim Horton’s and other places that do this, don’t advertise it. Tim Horton’s goes to the country where it buys its cocoa beans and helps them to become better businessmen. They build schools, medical centers, and they help them enhance their farming techniques.

Do you think Starbucks does this to? No, Starbucks only offers them a fair price for their beans. This is still good, but is it really making a big difference? Tim Horton’s takes fair trade one step further and develops partnerships with these farmers.

When you buy a pair of jeans from Gap and everyone thinks your a loser because they aren’t designer, you feel bad. Starbucks is the designer drink. If you don’t drink it, you feel bad because you either can’t afford it, or know that it isn’t good for you at all. Since when did this drink become a fashion? Holding that supposably crisp amazing cup gives you a whole new look. People notice you because you waste your money on some drink with an uncountable amount of calories.

If you want to waste your money on coffee and other fancy drinks, you go right ahead. If you want to have the status of holding a crisp white cup with its prominent green circle, you can go right ahead. If you want to get fat from all of the calories, sugar, and cream you can just go right ahead. Just think about this one thing, is it really worth it?

I commented on Fiona's Blog.

“Swimmers, take your marks, GO!” I plunge into the deep blue sea of water and return to the surface short of breath. One arm, then the next. Breath, stroke, stroke, breath. Approaching closely is the other end, the wall. One last breath and then the flip. Water seeps into my nose and I once again return to the surface short of breath. Again, the same thing is repeated. Breath, stroke, stroke, breath. As I inch toward the wall, a shock of energy leaps through my body. I am now moving faster and faster by the second. I touch the wall completely out of breath and look around me, no one is there. They are all behind me. VICTORY!

You may think that swimming takes no skill what so ever and there, you are very wrong. There is a lot more to swimming than moving your arms in circles and kicking. The flip turn takes precise movements and if your foot touches the ground you are disqualified. You have to be smooth yet fast coming and leaving the wall or else you lose all of your speed. Each pull with your arm requires strength, and each kick is in need of power. One wrong move can cost you the race, and sometimes the gold. Although, you get a warning before you are disqualified.

All in all, if you think swimming is lame and effortless, come out and give it a try. You will think very differently about racing when you actually do it. "The water is your friend.....you don't have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move".
Alexandr Popov

Gainers

“It feels natural to be fat” Donna Simpson. How is that possible? You weren’t born fat, so how can that feel natural? Is feeling natural not being able to stand up, or not being able to look after your kid because you are too busy eating you life away? Everyone is different, but I don’t think that it is possible to feel natural and be fat. I don’t think that there should be anything done because you can eat as much as you want.

Donna Simpson doesn’t look after her health anymore. Instead she spends her life eating to become the fattest person ever to live. At the age of forty two it is not the most responsible thing to do when you have a daughter that needs care and support. It is not fair for her daughter to watch her mother eat herself sick all for a title of being the fattest person ever. Honestly I don’t see the point from all of this gaining weight, what is so great about being the fattest person ever? What does she gain from this, other than weight?

Day by day, more people are becoming morbidly obese and it is not a healthy thing for them, or their families. Through their experiences with their parents becoming fat, more and more children are becoming overweight too. Kids are now faced with an unhealthy future. “A fat stomach sticks out too far. It prevents you from looking down and seeing what is going on around you.” Norman Reilly Raine

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I commented on Fabe's blog

Too much homework????

Kids spend most of their days at school. Everyday they work their tails off learning knew things. Their lives are full of tests, quizzes, and TONS of homework. Now as an adult, you must remember the work load and how stressful it was for you. I personally, as a young adult, think that children shouldn’t get as much homework as they do.

Seven hours and forty five minutes we spend at school. Is it really fair to have all this time PLUS hours worth of homework? Young children can’t be expected to cover this much material and then have to go over all of it at home again. In 1999 nine to twelve year old's spent five and a half hours doing homework each week. Don’t you think that is a little much for developing minds? These are just kids and the amount of homework they are getting is at an all time high. For adolescents, they spend up to fifteen hours a week doing homework instead of enjoying time with buddy's.

To me this is such an unfair amount of pressure that has been dumped onto children. How are they supposed to go outside and get fresh air, or hang out with their friends? They can’t do that and their homework all in one night. We have to stop and think about how much kids are missing out on because they are too bust studying for a test, or doing another boring worksheet. These kids are our future.

comment- Emily

I commented on Alex Garcia's blog.

Everyone has the right to their own religious beliefs, but why are we being forced, as SJK students, to attend this chapel service every Friday afternoon? Singing hymns and praising God is not everyone’s belief. Maybe it is because our school is Anglican, but not everyone has to be Anglican to attend this school. I would like to know why we don’t have a choice.
Its not fair to those people who are not believers to have to put up with Evensong because it could be offending to them. People who are Muslim, Buddhist practice differently and they shouldn’t have to practice this too.

Young adults are usually undecided about which religion they are. I am sure that there is some Athiests in our school and they have to put up with our Evensong and Religious Knowledge classes. How is this fair to the youth of SJK? I know your thinking, well its just a chapel service, but it’s more than that. It’s that us as kids attending this school are powerless against chapel. There is nothing we can do to have a choice against whether we, as individuals, want to take part in it or not.

If you are a teacher reading this, think about when you were young. Did you believe what we have to believe? Think about how powerless you were and how much you wanted to have a choice whether to attend this chapel service.

“What do I believe? As an American I believe in generosity, in liberty, in the rights of man. These are social and political faiths that are part of me, as they are, I suppose, part of all of us. Such beliefs are easy to express. But part of me too is my relation to all life, my religion. And this is not so easy to talk about. Religious experience is highly intimate and, for me, ready words are not at hand.” ADLAI STEVENSON

Best City Ever

The excitement of traveling to a new place is almost unbearable. As we entered the plane to fly to a new and unfamiliar place, I was almost overflowing with excitement. What will this new place be like? The plane finally takes off and my family and I were set on your adventure to New York City. Waiting on the aircraft has always been dreadful. The awful smell of the food is discomforting, the humidity is almost overpowering, yet, we manage to sit through it.

Oh the time is here. After and hour and a half it is landing time at last. The sharp downward turns are exhilarating, and the descent is stomach turning. The wheels of the aircraft sweep the runway and soon enough we were back on solid land. The seatbelt light dings off and you are free to exit the plane. The first whiff of the New York air sent goose bumps running through my body. Every day, when we would walk through the city, I smelled the same thing...hot dogs. I will never forget that mouth-watering smell.

At the end of the week after seeing the Empire State Building, cheering for Canada at a hockey game, shopping at Macy’s, sauntering down 5th Ave.., going to a musical, being shoved around walking in Times Square, spotting the Statue of Liberty, learning at the Museum of Natural History, remembering the tragedies of 9/11 at Ground Zero, having an amazing dinner in little Italy, hiking through central park we were in terrible pain. There are two great things about New York City. One, it gets you into good shape because you have to walk everywhere, or if your lazy you take a cab. Two, you get soo tired from walking everywhere.

In all my life I have never seen such an amazing city. There is no word to describe how much fun that trip was. If I were to recommend an educational and entertaining holiday, New York City would be number one on my list.

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I commented on Lauren's blog

As you unfold the golden wrapper to a lustrous piece of magnificent chocolate, you feel like you have been blessed by angels. You cover the milky goodness with your mouth and chew. The tiny bubbles explode inside of your mouth and it feels like a blast of energy and happiness. No word can describe what you are currently feeling.

Chocolate is a great thing. It comes in many forms and each one is amazing. Things like chocolate pudding and chocolate sauce, but best of all...Aero bars. Not everyone will agree with me, but i know that millions of people will. I know what your thinking. How could Aero bars be so special? What makes them so yummy? How are they different from other chocolate bars? One reason, they contain tiny bubbles inside the chocolate bar. If you let the chocolate melt in your mouth, it feels like the tiny bubbles are popping inside of you. It is such a sensational feeling.

There are so many kinds and brands of chocolate on earth. I believe that Aero bars have to be one of the best. These tiny bubbles are what makes this chocolate bar so remarkable. Who knew that something so small could make this chocolate bar such a fabulous thing. "Small events and choices determine the direction of our lives just as small helms determine the directions of great ships."
-- M. Russell Ballard

When the morning sunlight awakens you to a beautiful new day, you realize that there are so many great things to do. You get dressed into your shorts and t-shirt and walk out the door. The heat of the immense sun tingles your senses and you walk down the street to a new day of fun and excitement.

My favourite season of the year is most definitely summer. There are so many fun activities to do and so many places to go. For example Canada’s Wonderland. This is the best place to go when your looking for some extreme roller coaster rides and a fun time with your family or friends. Another place would be Bingemans, more of a water park with really fun slides. I enjoy both of these places because they are so much fun and they are great places to go with your family.

Some family places that we go to are to our cottage. We have had our cottage for a long time and we spend a lot of our summer time there. Sometimes my mom’s family from Scotland will come over and we take them to our cottage. There are many great memories from there that I will always remember.

I have many great summer memories that will stay in my heart forever. I believe that the summer has brought me and my family closer because we spend so much time together doing fun things. I hope that every summer I can do these amusing things with my family. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~Albert Camus

Winning the Lottery

Winning 40 million dollars would be the greatest thing. There are so many places to go and many people to see. Most of the time, we never get to do all of the things we wish to do in our lives. Its important to do some of these things, but there is no way you could do everything on your bucket list because it would be so expensive and take so long.

The first thing that I would do with my winnings would be to buy a pack of five gum. I just really need gum. In fact with 40 million dollars, I may as well buy all of the five gum in stock. Next I would take my family out to dinner at the Keg in Toronto, because we just love steak so much.

I would also use my money up for when we go to Quebec at the end of the year because then I could eat good food, and buy mementos from the various shops. It would just make the trip more enjoyable for me and my family because I would pay my way for the trip. Then anything that was left would go towards my university fund.

My parents have taught me many things in my life, and I believe that saving my money was one of the more significant lessons. So far, it has helped me through many situations and it will help me likewise when I move out. I have learnt to seek my happiness in limiting my desires, rather than attempting to satisfy them. ~ John Stuart Mill

Repeating a bad picture day!

In life you very rarely get a second chance to repeat a day or an exam etc. If I were to pick one of these days it would be the picture day in grade five. This was the WORST picture that had been taken of me on any occasion. It was embarrassing to look at after wards.

If I were to repeat this day, I would’ve written in my agenda the day before “Picture Day Tomorrow”. Yes, I admit it, I forgot that it was picture day and it was pathetic. Thats would have been the simplest way to make it a special school photograph.

I never took the time to make my hair look nice, and I wish I could have. That day I had a messy half pony tail, I would have done my hair in curls. I also might have straightened my tie and did the top button up on my collar.

From that bad experience I learned a lesson that will help me through everything. Use your agenda because it can REALLY help you, also to remember when your picture days are!!!

one amazing SPECTACULAR super star hero!!!!

“If you had asked me back in grade school what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said my first choice was an actor, but if I couldn't be that, I'd want to be a superhero.” Vin Diesel. If I were to be s super hero, there are lots of powers that I would like to have. The list would be endless, but I’ll narrow it down to my favourite.

To be a super hero, you have to be able do defend any sort if power. To do this I would use me defensive shield and my super strength. A defensive shield would be key to triumphing over all sorts of felonies because it could block every move with an indestructible shield. I would use my super strength to damage the villains evil creation. Another technique to overpowering the villain would be to fly anywhere, at anytime and at any speed. This allows you to travel all over the world and to stop any other sort of crimes that are happening on the planet. Invisibility is also a great power to have because evidently the villain wouldn’t be able to see you, this would authorize you to kill the villains plan.

Overall if i were a super hero, they wouldn’t be able to call me one specific name like Elastigirl or incredible hulk, because I would want to have most of the powers combined into one amazing SPECTACULAR super star hero!!!!

The olympics are thought to be the best thing in the world. Every few years the olympics take place in a different country, and every time there is an olympics buildings are assembled for it. Millions of dollars are spent on those buildings and the money comes from our taxes. The people with low income watch as these monstrous buildings appear and only hope for their future.

The olympics should take place in one area so that millions of dollars aren’t spent on putting up different buildings. It’s not necessary for these huge establishments to be created because they aren’t used after the olympics are held. We could be using that money for a more important cause such as poverty. People look forward to the olympics because it brings the many cultures and races of our world together in one place.

It’s not fair and it’s not right to have people in our world that are without a cent and to have people that are rolling in money. Why cant everybody have the same? Boycotting the olympics for a second time and using the money to help the less fortunate would be an amazing thing. If only that dream...could become reality.

I Didn’t Know

Recently our class was shown a youtube video called “Did You Know”. This film surprised me and it made me think about how we are living. The part of the movie that stood out the most was the technology portion. People these days depend on technology to live, while back in the 1800’s they lived quite happily without advanced mechanical development. My question is why...

The world is evolving every year and new devices are introduced to us quite frequently. 31 billion searches are made on google every month, in 2005 that number was 2.7 billion. From this statistic you can see that more into the future, people are using these technologies as an advantage. I think that we should cut back on our use of technology, because we use it quite routinely.

I think that the message that was trying to be sent was that there are a lot of things that we don’t know about yet. Before I watched that video, I didn’t know half of the statistics that were showed. It just goes to show that there are many things in our planet that are still to be discovered. Maybe there will be a way to make the earth a better place for our children.