The Pear Crumble

Any one who goes to school with me here at the Inquiry Hub knows very well the Fruit and Vegi program. Basically, for those who don’t know, the Fruit and Vegi program drops off a big box of either fruits or vegetables at the school every once and a while, which us students, and teachers, then consume over the course of the day. It’s a neat little way to get youth to eat healthier, and almost always goes without any problem. But, the key word was almost, as sometimes problems occur. Such as a few days ago when they gave us more pears than we have students. Almost everyone ate pears, but there were still absurd amounts remaining. And so Mr. Sarte and I came up with a plan. In order for the pears to be used up and not go to waste, I would spend the day (with help from others at some points), making most of the remaining pears into pear crumbles. And it went well! Using a recipe I found online, with some personal twists to make it A) Taste better, and B) Use up way more pears, I baked 4 big peach crumbles. And not to brag, but they had to be some of the best crumbles I’ve ever tasted. While I was in class, Mr. Sarte distributed the crumble among the other students, who adored it as much as I did. Let me just say, I hope the Fruit and Vegi program screws up like this again.

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Treaty of Versailles Media

I have to admit, I had a lot of fun with my recent project. For Humanities 11, we had to preform a simulation of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. All the students formed into groups, and each group was assigned a country that was present and relevant at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. We had Italy, Japan, The United Kingdom of Great Britain, The United States of America, France, and Germany. There were also two students acting as moderators. They then all studied up then did a role-play of the Paris Peace Conference and the drafting of the Treaty of Versailles, and some things turned out differently in the role-play than they did in reality, and so our end Treaty of Versailles was different than the real one. What country group was I in, you may ask. Well, I wasn’t in a country group, I was in a group playing the role of the media. We recorded and reported on the project, and I think we did a pretty good job.

Carl, Estella, and I were tasked with writing both a newspaper and creating an in-depth video newscast, and don’t get me wrong, we came across quite a few problems. The biggest problem being that since this conference would go differently from the real one, we could only report on these things after they happened, and so we had very limited time to write, record, and edit, these news articles and reports. I’m going to be perfectly honest, I stayed up until 4:30 AM this Thursday morning working on finishing editing together, writing, and voicing over this project. So I really hope we did a good job. And personally, I think we did. But that’s only my opinion, you can go ahead and tell me your opinion in the comments.

Here’s a link to our media newspaper: Treaty of Versailles: Media Report

The Fantastic Summer of 2016

For me, the summer of 2016 was one of the greatest summers ever. Why? Because  of my summer job! (Does it count as a job if it’s unpaid volunteering?). This summer I worked at Evan’s Lake Summer Camp. A youth summer camp up in the mountains near Squamish, in it’s own little beautiful valley. My position was that of a member of the Volunteer Work Crew, a small group of volunteers in charge of a combination of the manual labor required around camp (moving rocks, building sheds, fixing roofs, staining benches.), and working with program (helping Cabin Leaders, running games, singing at campfire, running stations at rec time.). And let me say, I loved all of it! (Well, except for cleaning and folding tarps, I hated doing that). I hardly noticed the lack of cellular reception or wireless connection anywhere in camp, except for the boat dock, where I could get 1 bar of reception at night.

My days consisted of waking up at 7:30 (Sometimes at 7:00 and doing a fun wake up call for the kids, once involving trench coats, a leaf-blower, and heavy metal music.), getting to work at 7:45, working until breakfast at 8:30. Then working after breakfast until lunch at 12:30, then after lunch until 5:00, where we’d get a fun break until 5:30 that we called “5 o’clock on the dock” (which as you might expect was the work crew on the dock… at 5 o’clock.). Then we’d have dinner at 5:00, after dinner working until campfire at… I actually don’t know when campfire, which I was usually in charge of starting and maintaining. After campfire, the Work Crew would go and sit in on cabins and do “night watch” while the cabin leaders and instructors had staff meetings. After around 10:30 – 11:00, depending on how long staff meeting goes, we’d have the rest of the night off until a 12:00 staff curfew. Sometimes those “working” times are replaced by working with program and playing/running games. Also, if a cabin leader gets sick or has to do something, a Work Crew is their replacement cabin leader until they come back.

And so it went like that for most of my summer. And I loved all of it, from the manual labor to the forest games. To be perfectly honest, I think my favorite thing had to be chopping wood. I think the most fun I had this summer was when I chopped wood for 5 hours straight. Basically picture this. Me, swinging an axe with all my might, chopping wood to add to my already huge pile (which I’d have to move later), while Bonnie Tyler’s “I need a hero” blasts loudly behind me from my CD player.

I could honestly live there, and spend every day working like I did when I was there. Those late nights on the dock, watching the stars with close friends. Those sunny days. Those hikes. The food. I’d give anything to live it all the time.

Well, that was my summer, how’d you spend yours? Answer in the comments below 🙂

Back to the blog

Hey non-existent fans, guess who’s back! Okay, well, yeah, HE’S back, but I wasn’t talking about him. I’m talking about me! After nearly a year of silence on this blog, i have returned. You can expect more short stories and reviews coming soon, along with regular blog updates. And, to people who actually reads this blog regularly, which I know there are a couple of (Shout-out to my one South Korean reader.), thanks, it really means a lot.

Book of Mormon Musical Review

Yesterday i saw the hilarious musical “The Book of Mormon” which was written by the creators of South Park. The story tells the story of a pair of 18 year old Mormons who are sent on their mission as missionaries (One the Top of his class, and the other a complete dork who has no idea what he’s doing.), where they must spend two years helping people and spreading their religion. The thing is, the place chosen for them is Uganda. To make the situation worse, the village they go to in Uganda is ruled by a Ruthless Warlord who enjoys shooting people in the face.  The difference between the pure Mormons who go so far to avoid swearing that they say things like “bull-poop” and “OM-Gosh”. On the other side of the scale are the Africans, who are constantly dropping F-bombs and have the foulest mouths possible. At first look you may think that this musical is incredibly offensive, but the thing is, its only partially offensive, because its not like they show the Mormons as bad people. They do still mock their beliefs a little bit at times, but its not the the point where it was overly offensive. And the stories and things the Mormons preached where entirely accurate, since there were multiple Mormons in the original writing crew. I really have not laughed this hard at a musical in my whole life, it was just so gosh darn funny, i really couldn’t stop laughing. Especially when Jesus had the Cartman voice from south-park.

NOTE: This is not a musical for kids, it is very inappropriate, basically think, only let your kids watch this if you’d let them watch south park.

The Change of the Vampire Archetype

 

Vampires have changed a lot over time, now a days we see them plastered everywhere as some sort of boy band with fangs, but they weren’t always like that, they were originally much, much different. Back in the time of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, vampires were not something mainstream that people ever talked about, in their minds it was just some stupid ancient legend. But when Bram Stoker’s novel was released, Dracula was the population’s first true look at a vampire. The vampire depicted in the original book was very different than those of today in many ways however. Dracula when he first appears in the story, appears as an old man with extreme strength and very flamboyant outfit, with, what is possibly the strangest part, hairy palms on his hands. But, when he eventually drinks the blood of Lucy, the young British woman, his youth is restored, and he is seen a handsome young man, with, like before, very flamboyant and posh dress, along with the hairy palms from before. Another thing I should mention is his connection to wolves. He seems to almost control them, and he also has the ability to transform into a half man/half wolf, so pretty much what we see today as a werewolf.

So now let us take a look at today’s vampire. They are seen as handsome, strong, and very pale. They are also sold as total heart throbs instead of the scary monster they were back in Dracula. First of all, they have lost the wolf connection they originally had, vampires have split into two different beings instead of being the same being like they were in Dracula. Also, they lost the extremely religious ideals about them that they used to have, for their origin of powers and immortality were originally due to highly religious meanings. But as the world itself has become less religious, the vampires have too. Another thing to note is how they used to be scary monsters, but now are heartthrobs for teenage girls, who are about as intimidating or manly as one of the boys from One Direction.

So in all, they really have changed, as the culture around it changed, and I believe they were continue to change as long as the culture does.

 

Inquiryhub.org VS. McAfee

Every time i open up my blog or another inquiryhub.org blog, i get a warning from McAfee saying that this site is untrustworthy, so i just thought i’d share it, because i find it kind of funny, since it is a school district run site, yet McAfee asks “Woah, are you sure you want to go there?”. Personally I blame it on the low budget of the school district, and the government’s overall disrespect for education, but it could be something else.

But really, I felt the need to share this because it is very funny, and thought it might cheer some of you up, have a nice day people!

Birdman Movie Review

Today i am doing a review on the Award winning film: Birdman. This film won 9 Oscars including Best Motion Picture, and in my opinion fully deserved them. The story is about a egotistical and delusional man who, after being the (fictional) iconic actor for the superhero Birdman, gives up hollywood, wanting to reclaim his former glory on broadway. While being haunted by a voice in his head and the feeling of not meaning anything, he tries to write, direct, and star in his own adaptation of a book for the stage. But his mental condition is far from perfect,that plus a drug addicted daughter and an angry ex-wife, and a huge but rapidly falling ego, ultimately leads to his mental decline. Much more happens in this film that i do not mention, because i feel it would spoil the story for you, but what i really find amazing about this film is how so little actually happens it, yet so much happens, it is so very psychological and metaphorical, and really deserved every award it won. Truly an exceptional film, and i feel it will do a lot for raising awareness mental illness. If you have not yet seen it, I highly recommend you do.

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#TheDress overshadows much cooler story

The internet has dove into chaos over #TheDress, and its ridiculous. If you have somehow not heard the stories (first of all, you must be living under a rock) But yeah, its a picture of a dress that shows up as a different colour to each person who looks at it. The internet has banded together into 4 warring parties, the people who think it’s white and gold, the people who think it’s blue and black, those who who have seen both, and those who are colorblind and believe it to be grey and black.

But as I was saying, #TheDress covered up a MUCH more awesome story. A pair of Llamas broke out in Sun City, Arizona, and a high speed chase began that lasted almost ____ and was covered live by multiple news stations who were happy to cover a story not involving death for once. You will find multiple news coverings of the Llama chase if you Google “Llama Chase”

The two different ways people see #TheDress

The two different ways people see #TheDress

Dracula [In a Minute] Project Reflection

I feel like we would have captured the essence of the novel much better had the acting not been so terrible. But what movie maker does not look back on his own movie and laugh at things that the normal person doesn’t know about. Even the most serious of movies has funny behind the scenes moments.

I am definitely content however, with how Dracula in a minute turned out in the end. Though still questioning our use of the green screen in a few of the scenes, I feel like the visuals turned out pretty well, from the castle gates to the decapitation scene, it all went pretty smoothly. Not there weren’t any bumps in the road however, like filming some of the scenes without laughing, and everything about adding the music in the background at just the right parts, there were lots of struggles we had, but we overcame most of them, and kept going.

I think the scene that took the longest to film was scene where Lucy Westenra (played by Mackenzie) was dead, and then came back to life. That 4 second or so scene took over an hour to get right, and I think the main reason was us trying to fit all three of us in front of the tiny green screen together, because if you notice, it’s the only green screen scene with more than two people, and because of Lyle’s height in comparison to Mackenzie, he had to actually be on his knees, and so did I, since Mackenzie was sitting down, and plus I still had to seem shorter than Lyle, because of the later scene where he is much taller than me. It wasn’t until after the first 40 minutes of re-shooting the same 4 seconds, however, that we came up with the idea of putting us on our knees, in fact, it wasn’t until after the first 20 minutes of shooting that we even put Mackenzie in a chair, for the reason of height problems. Originally she was going to be lying on a desk with a blanket on her as if it was a bed, but we abandoned that quickly for fear of damage to the table or Mackenzie.

If you noticed, Lyle actually portrayed three different character in the book combined into one. John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, and Quincey Morris. All three very different, one an American Cowboy, one a rich British gentleman, and one a British Doctor. Yet, as we realised, they play very similar roles to the story, all suitors to Lucy Westenra, all become pretty much sidekicks to Van Helsing once he arrives, and all three follow pretty much the exact same path through the story, so really it was easy to combine them all into one.

 

If I could do this whole thing again, the one thing I would certainly do differently would be adding costumes, because really, sure the Rolling Stones were British, but they weren’t around in Victorian London, they’re not THAT old. So really, it didn’t make sense for Lyle to be wearing a Rolling Stones shirt. So if I could change one thing for next time, it would be the inclusion of costumes.

Dracula iSearch

The detail from Dracula that i decided to research was the gold that Dracula was hoarding, ancient gold.

“The only thing I found was a great heap of gold in one corner—gold of all kinds, Roman, and British, and Austrian, and Hungarian, and Greek and Turkish money, covered with a film of dust, as though it had lain long in the ground. None of it that I noticed was less than three hundred years old. There were also chains and ornaments, some jeweled, but all of them old and stained.” – Jonathan Harker, Dracula.

I feel like this scene really had an impact on my view of the Count, for, after that, I went from seeing Dracula as a wealthy man to a extremely rich man.

It also leads me to believe that he may have more gold in the other locked rooms of the castle, and probably even some gold from Transylvania itself because I found out in my research, that Transylvania was very rich with minerals like gold.  I feel like Bram Stoker put the pile of gold in to add to his feel of mysteriousness and superiority, because you never know how he got it for sure.  The pile of gold may not be significant to the actual story, but it certainly was a good thing to include

“In his speaking of things and people, and especially of battles, he spoke as if he had been present at them all.” – Jonathan Harker, Dracula.

I feel like this also shows that Dracula actually was in those battles that he was talking to Jonathan  about, as it would seem that he got a share of the loot when he won, which is one of the first pointers full out given to show that Dracula may not be human, but rather something that lives a lot longer.

It also leads me to believe that he may have more gold in the other locked rooms of the castle, and probably even some gold from Transylvania itself because I found out in my research, that Transylvania was very rich with minerals like gold.  I feel like Bram Stoker (the author of Dracula) put the pile of gold in to add to his feel of mysteriousness and superiority, because you never know how he got it for sure.  I do not believe that the pile of gold plays a significant role in the story, but it sure adds to it for the reader, for it really helps develop the character of Dracula. I tried to research where the gold came from or any other details that I should know about, but I could find very little, since pretty much everything that came up were “gold deals” at hotels with Dracula in the name.

My first Short Film

I felt like me and William did a pretty good job on our short film. I mean, it would have been better if had had a better budget, but we didn’t, so I’m pretty proud wit how it turned out. The thing was, we didn’t really need to write the movie or anything because we directly based it off my short story “The Note”. The two things I need to do better next time are audio quality and less lengthy clips in which nothing happens. The main reason the audio quality wasn’t that great was because we were just figuring out Mr. Sarte’s fancy new microphone, plus it was like our thirtieth take, so I was starting to get sick of narrating. One thing I was really proud of was capturing the extremely depressing feel of the original short story. Another thing not many noticed. Go back over it and look closely at the background. Where in the school was it filmed, you won’t be able to figure it out and it’ll mess with your head, that is, if you go to the inquiry hub.

You can watch my short film here

Police Brutality in Today?

Have you heard the story of the happenings in Ferguson, you probably have Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. The disputed circumstances of the shooting and the resultant protests and civil unrest received considerable attention in the United States and abroad.Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson were walking down the middle of the street when Wilson drove up and ordered them to move to the sidewalk. Brown and Wilson struggled through the window of the police vehicle until Wilson’s gun was fired, either intentionally or as a result of the struggle. Brown and Johnson then fled in different directions, with Wilson in pursuit of Brown. Wilson shot Brown six times, killing him. Witness reports differ as to whether and when Brown had his hands raised, and whether he was moving toward Wilson, when the final shots were fired.

And when people began protesting, though peaceful at first, the police brought in anti riot equipment, and seriously hurt some people, of course, after those events, serious unrest was caused, which included actual riots and the such.

It is like the bomber in Boston, when they tracked down a suspect and he fought back, they shot to kill, and missed. Eventually, he came out from cover, put his weapons down and hands up, complete surrender. So, obviously, the police took this as an opportunity to fill him with bullets. A completely unnecessary action.

Another great example is the shootout at Science World, Vancouver. The police chased a man until they cornered him outside Science World. Many Vancouver citizens have heard that part of the story, but most have not heard what follows: Bullets flew inside Science World, where a school tour was going on. Staff helped the students down so that they didn’t get shot, but what interests me was that almost all the shots that went into Science World came from the guns of the police officers, about this, i spoke to my cousin, who was working in triple O’s at the time. He took the following image of the bullet holes that are all from the police officers.

Police bullet holes through the triple O's in white  spot

Police bullet holes through the triple O’s in Science World

 

Where are we Essay

WHERE ARE WE

By: Liam Odynsky

When you look think of space, what do you think of? Do you think of alien life? Strange planets? Maybe you think of beautiful stars or galaxies? The universe is infinite, so any of these are possible.

Look at our beautiful universe, our many galaxies and planets. I say that it our universe for one reason, and one reason alone. We live here, and the country you live in you consider “your” country too, do you not? We see it as ours, even though we are only one infinitesimal planet in a vast and infinite galaxy. But there is one thing that sets earth apart from the rest of the planets.

We are home to advanced life-forms, and all sorts of them, there are us, the humans, fish, birds, and many, many more. We are spectacular and unique in that way, the way us and the other beings of earth have not only been shaped by our planet, but also shaped it back in return. Look around, there are not many places untouched by us, we have clear-cut forests, chopped the tops off mountains, dug tunnels deep into the earth. We have even long postponed another ice age with our pollution.

Now I ask you to look back out to space again, does it not make all we’ve done feel insignificant? Look at how far it goes on for, it goes on literally forever. Practically none of that has been touched by mankind. Look at the stars at night, each of those hundreds of times bigger that our sun, most with more planets orbiting it than our sun. Look at how many of those there are, more than we could count in a hundred human lifetimes, a thousand even. Do we seem so powerful now, now that you realize that all of humanity and our planet is as small in comparison to the universe as a single germ dying is to a blue whale? Now that you know all of everything we’ve ever known could be destroyed in one second by a single asteroid?

With the universe being this vast and unpredictable, and human kind advancing as it is, how long until we try to make ourselves significant in this universe?

The Change-room Dilemma

As many of you know, at least those of you who attend the inquiry hub, We have a serious problem with the change-rooms. And during a delightful discussion today involving watermelons and personal therapists, we realized that we need to do something about the change-rooms. They are cluttered to the point of being a nuisance, the toilet stall is broken, the water fountain is too low for a kindergartner,  and the shower is full to the walls with random junk. And i mean, the taps on the sink are the kind of tap that snap back into the off position the instant you let go of them, making it impossible to wash your hands properly, but that’s more of a secondary problem, that and the water fountain.

So, what can we do about it?

We will be breaking off into separate groups for a designed thinking project soon, and i’m thinking i could form a group around fixing this problem. The solution wouldn’t be too hard to fix, that is until you really think about it, cause then you realize that it’s more complicated, for example, what are you going to do with all the junk you take out, it’s still school property, and what about all the chairs? And getting permission to do it?

We will have to work on a well thought out solution, but for now, one thing is certain: It’s definitely a problem.

Fire False Alarm

Today at lunchtime our school’s fire alarm went off. The teachers said it was not a drill, and soon firetrucks came, three of them.  Since the teachers said it was not a drill, everyone was scared for their stuff and Joey ended up bringing all of his electronics with him, his laptop on which we watched the first couple minutes of “Space Jam”. Pretty soon a lot of students claimed that they saw some guy bolt out of the school, jump the fence, and run into the forest. I personally am not sure of the truth in that, but you never know. People dispersed from those weird lines teachers always make you stand in (which make sense at first, but after attendance is taken, they kind of serve no point) and we all got really bored really quickly.

After what felt like forever, the firemen finally came back out, looking both confused and annoyed. A couple of my peers say that they heard the firemen say something about none of the fire alarms being pulled, but of that they have no proof, and don’t believe them. At this point, multiple were undergoing a struggle not to follow the mysterious boy from earlier into the woods, to see if they could catch him, but they quickly thought better of it and went back to watching “Space Jam”.  Eventually we were allowed to go back in, which was nice, since we were out in the hot sun. After a quick check around, there wasn’t the slightest traces of a fire anywhere, and we couldn’t find any fire alarms that had been pulled. I was confused, but then remembered that there were two other schools sharing the building, and adult learning center, and an aboriginal learning center, either of which could have done it. But what really annoyed me in the end, was that that took up our entire lunch break, and we didn’t get an extended lunch. Me, William and Joey were planning on working on Dungeons and Dragons characters for William’s new campaign!

Oh well, i guess we can work on our characters tomorrow, what matters is that this school wasn’t burned down, this haven for those who don’t fit at normal schools.

The Addition Of Short Stories

I have recently added a new thingy on this site where you can read short stories that i have written, and leave comments and advice for future short stories. I have quite enjoyed writing these and though some are quite heavy, i believe i did a pretty good job, so thank you if you read them, for i am proud of my work, and i think you’ll enjoy them.

The New Tank Conundrum

Today we tried to add bedding to the tank, you know, like gravel or sand. But the thing is, the rest of the group insisted that we used natural gravel, and that we could clean it out so it was just the rocks. But the thing is, that didn’t work out. We tried to clean it, but all we could get out was the silt, it was still 50% sand and 50% gravel. But they put it in the tank anyway, thinking it would be okay, but it wasn’t not at all. I was rocky and dirty, and because of how much sand there was, it would take hours to settle, just before Oscar stirred it up again. So what could we do? Well they could order me to fix it of course! So i try to shovel it all into this bucket with my hands, which didn’t work very well, meanwhile, Evan finds out that the supports we built to put under the desk where just slightly too short. So now we’ve got two problems to deal with, so, logically, we swap problems.

So as i try to shove different things under the support beam to make it taller, Evan is using paper towels to soak up the extra water that was in the bucket with the gravel. Eventually Evan gets most of it, along with most the gravel, and comes to help figure out what to do about the supports. Soon he figures out a way that if he cut a little off the bottom of the support, then he could fit this wooden 2 by 4 under it. So, i guess everything’s resolved now, but considering it took us a couple days to get and clean that gravel, it was a bit of a let-down when Chris changed his mind and told us to buy real fish tank gravel, but i guess its for the better.

The new fishtank

We finally got a new, bigger fish tank than our old smallish one. We used to have a 23 gallon tank,which was dwarfing the size of Oscar, (our albino tiger oscar cichlid), but now, with this big 75 gallon tank, he can grow to his full 1-2 feet long. As well as Oscar and Jack Dempsy (A Jack Dempsey cichlid), we plan on getting more tropical fish, just to add as scenery, despite the fact that they will most likely get eaten once and a while. I personally think we should get a blood parrot cichlid, and name it polly (Get it? It’s a blood parrot?). A tank this big could easily hold 3 cichlids, and probably with little aggression between them, And there are so many cool decorations you can get for a tank this big. Over the summer, i had to spend a lot of money on these fish, from hiding spots for Jack Dempsey, to a new filter, i’ve paid a good amount, so now that were back at school, me and Evan made an agreement: He would pay for the tank if i paid for decorations (Not including gravel).

So, overall, this tank saved the fishes lives (The old tank was getting unhealthily small for them.)

NOTE: face of person blotted out due to non permission to post their face online

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Why to be happy school is finally starting

Everyone is so horrified by the fact school is coming back, saying that they wish that school wouldn’t start till like Christmas.

But what they don’t think about is that there is an exact amount of work that has to get done over the course of the year, so basically , we would still have to get done all the work that we missed, just have much, much less time to do it in.

So tell me, which would you prefer, having to quit every moment of your social and out of school life for homework, or go to school and have enough time to get it done PLUS have a life outside of school. You tell me.

Hi-Ho Hi-Ho Its back to school we go

I really can’t say I’m excited for school to come back, but i also can’t say I’m sad. I’ve kind of missed everyone over the break, and we’ll all see each-other again on Monday, so that’ll be fun and stuff. Though I am very happy that the teachers and government came to the agreement, I am still disappointed with how much school will be changed for the worse for future generations. For one, schools are getting rid of Libraries (or in some cases just the librarian) and my sister tells me that many schools are loosing cafeterias…

But at least the teachers didn’t fully loose, cause that would be much, much worse. We probably would have such big class sizes that it would end up like college courses size, gym would start sucking even more due to the lack of new gym equipment, Schools would probably loose their computers labs, there would be no support for the mentally challenged, schools that still used text books would start having to share them even more, and not be able to study because they couldn’t take them home, and worst of all, the Inquiry Hub probably would have shut down, our sanctuary for those who just don’t fit quite right in normal high schools.

But lucky for everyone, the teachers and government came to an agreement, and now school is back, and not as bad as it could be. Let’s not complain about what sucks, let us be happy that what would have been even worse didn’t happen.

Let’s be happy with what we have, and grateful that it’s not as bad as it could be.

Guardians of the Galaxy Review

I have to say this. Pure brilliance,

but then again what else could you get when you combine amazing comic book material, a soundtrack of classic 70’s music, an amazing set of actors,  and a band of misfit clumsy heroes?

You get beautiful work, that’s what you get. With the main character being a clumsy player from earth, who can get himself into more trouble than most living beings, and the supporting characters including a talking military minded raccoon and a tree-thing who only knows how to say one sentence, how could you go wrong. Howard the duck even makes a joke appearance in the scene after the credits :p

With everything beautifully done from beginning to finish, Guardians of The Galaxy is a must see movie.  And definitely my new favorite.

My Callback!

I got my first callback today, so what if it is only for a commercial, i am genuinely exited!!!

I have had an agent for a couple years now, but have only gotten a couple auditions…. But now I have a real callback! I’m so exited

The World of Comics is changed forever

How would you react if someone messed with your favourite comic series was changed forever? Well recently they have been.

1. Archie takes a bullet for his gay friend

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Archie Andrews himself died recently, while taking a bullet to save his gay friend. He is still alive in alternate universes, but the fact that in Any of the Universes Archie dies seriously pisses me off.

2. Thor’s a woman

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Let me get this strait with you, this is not She-Thor, Thor Girl, or some weird fan fiction. That’s right, Thor is now a She, as announced recently by Marvel. Our favourite Thunder God is now a Goddess, plus, with this not only are they messing with one of the coolest most loved comic book characters, but they are also messing with an ancient mythology, and for some, a religion even. This is like making Jesus a chick!

3.Captain America has become black

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Marvel Continues to apologize for 75 years of sustained stereotypes by giving the world a black superhero. His name is Sam, and he’s our new Captain America.
Out of all the changes, this is the least controversial, but it still is very much so, I mean, you can’t just change a classic superhero after so long, it simply is not done.

I’m not at all mad about a superhero being black, I mean, Nick Fury is pure awesome, but you just can’t change someone after so long, and this goes for all of the ones on this list, it just isn’t done, it’s not allowed, It can’t be!

Comment your opinions on these big Comic book universe changes, love you all 🙂

Happy Canada day!

What’s a better way to spend Canada than working my butt off at Britannia’s Canada day festival! If you remember, that’s where my dad works, so spending all day there wasn’t actually that bad! I enjoyed myself! And got SERIOUS sunburn on my neck….

I spent my Canada day carrying really heavy things around, setting up tents, hanging with strange tiny infants I’ve never met, and taking down tents.

All in all an amazing day! Comment how you spent your Canada day below!

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Northern Gateway Approved by Government

With the Government’s approval of Enbridge’s $7.9-billion Northern Gateway Pipeline, the project has jumped a critical hurdle that could easily see construction start as early as the fall of 2015.

What does this mean for the environment though? With the status of humpback whales being changed from crucially endangered to meh, they’ll be fine, just so that the pipeline can cut through their mating grounds, and the ridiculously high risk of oil spills….Our government clearly doesn’t care about the environment at all. Something has to be done about this, and the way our government works.

Fish solution

I found a space in my room where the fish can stay over the summer, so that they don’t die like I thought they might, they seem happier now….. Though that is probably because I cleaned the glass and replaced all of the water….. But now Jack and Oscar are in my care over the summer…. God help us all

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Today to be last day of school

Today is supposedly supposed to be the last day of school, due to the fact that tomorrow is this weeks rotating strike, and monday is next week’s, and with full strike supposed to start tuesday… wouldn’t that leave all students of SD43 screwed? I mean we’ve all procrastinated until the last week…and without the last week actually being available…

I mean, other that Harry, who has already completed all of his course somehow, we are all rushing to get everything done. Even I myself am taking a couple minutes of my valuable time to bring this information to you, readers.

I understand that this teacher strike is necessary, but students could at least be allowed inside of the school instead of being forced to stay home, and maybe at least one teacher allowed to come in and help, but no, it is to be a full on lockout.

I will bring more information on this strike as i find out more

European first landing in North America affect on Aboriginals

The moment the Europeans stepped foot onto North America, the lives of every aboriginal man and woman was changed forever.

Whether that was for the better or for the worse is debated, but we know for sure that it wasn’t the same. Not long after the first Europeans, Christopher Columbus and crew landed in the New World, they began trading with the natives, or as they called them “savages”.  Christopher Columbus discovered this new world when he was hired to make a new trade route to India, and unknowingly landed on a small island off the coast of a massive continent that was completely missing from their maps. Columbus, not the sharpest sword in the armory, was convinced he had ended up in India, believing the natives of the New World to be the people not of North America, but of India.

So, of course, Columbus began to trade with them, he gave them things that the likes of which the Aboriginals had never seen before, such as Forks, Knifes, and pretty much everything metal, guns Bullets, and all sorts of weaponry. And in return the Aboriginals gave Columbus furs, legend has it that the Aboriginals traded not everything but the clothes on their backs, but literally EVERYTHING they had brought with them, leaving them naked and running back to their village to get more things to trade.

So I guess you could say that from that the Europeans changed the lives of the Aboriginals for the better, but what happened not long after may change your opinion. When Columbus left the small island and thought it be a good idea to bring some “savages” home with him. They didn’t last the trip, if disease didn’t kill them then the poor treatment given to them by the sailors did. And the ones left on the island didn’t fair too well either. Columbus and his men had unwittingly brought across diseases the likes of which the natives had never even heard of, hence weren’t even slightly able to resist them. Maladies like small pocks quickly wiped out every last native living on that little island. Columbus himself eventually died as well, never learning that this new world was not in fact India.

Not too long after more Europeans showed up, now realising this new world was actually a new world. They sent people to colonize and fish and trade, slowly over centuries taking over North America. Wars broke out back in Europe between different countries, causing the colonies to fight too; forming some of the bloodiest wars ever fought on American Soil, one of these battles was the civil war itself. The Aboriginals were constantly forced to pick sides, only to be betrayed and left for dead by the colonists that swore to protect them.

You always hear about famous North American wars, and the natives are always there in the background, always getting the short end of the stick, with the English trying to make them “civilized” and the French trying to kill them, nothing ever went the way they really wanted it too. After many years the Europeans made residential schools, where they’d take aboriginal children away from their families and try to force them to be “civilized”. The survival rate of these schools was very low.

In the end I believe that the Europeans changed the lives of the Aboriginals for the worse, in many more ways than one.

Teacher Strikes Cut into School Time

I support the teachers fully and all… but it certainly is making a lot harder to pass grade 9. Cutting into days when i could take tests and certainly removing much potential inquiry work time. And with news soon of a full out strike instead of just this rotating one, this is a bigger deal than most people realize. This stops year end field trips from happening, it takes up time students could work on their finals, and certainly cancels a lot of school grads or proms.

Let us pray that this does not carry on next year, that the government finally gives in and returns to properly funding schools instead of having them resort to fundraising for everything. Schools really need the funding to keep going, the government talks about a better tomorrow, but they really need to think about a better today as well, for without a better today then there will be no better tomorrow.

Godzilla 2014 Movie Review

CAUTION: THIS POST WILL PRE-RUIN ANY HOPES FOR THE 2014 GODZILLA MOVIE! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK

I recently watched the 2014 remake of godzilla, and overall, i have to say, it was painful.

First things first, it’s bad enough that it takes about an hour until you actually see godzilla, and i would be able to live with that if they didn’t randomly stick giant radioactive parasites that feed on radiation in the middle of it. Second of all, they completely changed godzilla’s story, he is SUPPOSED to be a lizard in an area near an atom bomb when it went off, the radiation mutating him to his massive size. He is also a monster that destroys cities without thought. He doesn’t care what so ever about humanity, even dislikes them.

But now? Now they’ve made him a monster that is born to protect the balance of the universe, a guardian of sorts. He protects humanity from threats, which, in this movie, happen to be a pair of giant radiation eating parasites.

At least they kept godzilla’s blue fire breating power….. and a cartoonish face…..

But making him the hero…… I can’t stand it…… When i saw the comercial i expected it to be and awesome movie of godzilla attacking the world and the world desperatly trying to fight back, and maybe entangling some epic storyline for the PEOPLE in there. But not for godzilla himself!

I’m in a magazine!

I may not have made the front cover (my friend got that), but still!! Also I may look like I’m on serious crack (which I assure you I am not, nor will ever be) in the picture, but that’s cause I’m in character…. I’m just so happy that I’m at a loss for words. Give it a year and I’ll be on TV and in Movies! I have a very good agent after all!

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Running on Empty

Today and yesterday we (the population of Ihub) made posters about the rising population and what the world will be like in the future. See, I myself chose the subject of Oil, and the simple fact that the worlds oil took between 50-300 million years to form, and yet somehow, we have managed to burn through roughly half of it in merely 125 years or so.

We have become so dependent on the very limited resource of oil, and and less we change our ways soon, then we’re screwed.

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Book Review: Dark Life

Dark Life is a dystopian future book that stands out amongst the rest. It takes place in, unlike every other dystopian future book (which take place after wars wipe out the way the world works today), a world where colossal earthquakes have shattered the world, throwing entire countries into the ocean, tossing everyone together in extremely crammed cities known as stack cities, in which no one has any elbow room.

The only people left in the world with any room to move are the settlers who took to the bottom of the ocean, the Dark Life. They live in massive underwater homesteads, with aquatic farms in which they grow things they can sell on the surface and eat for themselves. Ty is one of these settlers, and was the first person to ever be born in the deep sea, and one day while looking over the edge of a massive underwater canyon, he stumbles into an adventurous young lady around his age named Gemma.

He soon finds out that Gemma is a topsider (someone from above the water) whose brother had disappeared, and he brings her home to ask his parents for help. But a new threat has been rising in this underwater sanctuary. A new gang led by a notorious man named Shade has been raiding homesteads and transport submarines. Survivors of his attacks have said that he has filed his teeth down to points and that he has the ability to blend his skin into his surroundings and use that to seemingly appear from nowhere.

Along with this, rumors are beginning to spread that people born deep sea are born with special powers. Do deep seas born children really have powers? Will Gemma ever find her Brother? Will they ever put a stop to the dangerous Shade? Find out in Kat Fall’s Dark Life.

Update on my Acting Career

I have recently met again with my acting agent, And he has told me of an opportunity to be a main character on a new TV show called “Intruders”. I will most likely audition for a role in this TV show soon, along with auditioning for many other things. I will inform you all of my eventual first appearance in something….anything….

Tomorrow after school i am getting professional photos taken for my actor portfolio, which is basically an actor’s equivalent of a resume. The main reason that i am doing this tomorrow is that my agent cant put me forward for auditions until i get these photos taken, due the fact that the most recent photos he has of me are from when i was 12….and now im 15….

I will update you as more to update you with comes into existance

Whales loosing Threatened status over Northern Gateway Pipeline

The Canadian government removed the “Threatened” status from humpback whales when they found out that the highly profitable northern gateway pipeline is to cut strait through a critical humpback whale habitat.

This has enraged many people, but that didn’t stop them from making the whales no longer endangered, making it much less illegal to hunt and kill them

Comment your opinions on this matter!

Updates to come when I learn more!

Starwhal

A game where you play as duelling narwhals in space….. Seems legit. It’s on steam for 10$, or you can play the free version online, this game is actually quite good! We even got our Vice Principal Mr. Truss Playing!

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Industrial Revolution – Revolution or Evolution

A Revolution is an action taken to change the order of things, an example being a rebellion against an existing government or authority. Real life examples would be the French Revolution and the English Revolution.

Evolution on the other hand is a natural occurrence of events or a progression of events. Progression is not necessarily rapid and could refer to natural development or it could refer to intentional development. I.E. computers have evolved a lot since the cumbersome early computers, and frankly, their still evolving.

Overall, The industrial revolution was not a Revolution at all! No one rebelled attempted to overthrow a government, so what aspect of revolution does it hold? It was without doubt an Evolution, a period of time where our technologies developed a lot.

What I’ll do on mars

On mars (you know, I plan to join the mars one program when I turn 18) I really hope to eventually build radio towers and be Mars’s first radio station. I would tell people of what’s now going on on earth and the news happening on mars itself. That would be beutiful… I might cry…

Of course, my news about earth would be very belayed due to the fact that it would take months AT MINIMUM for any kind of signal, because for a person it would be a ten year voyage…. Or…. Well…. For any physical solid object

Working with Sparki

Sparki is a small robot that runs Arduino code, we are working on these midget-like mars rovers for science class, most people in our class are trying to make it work with a remote, but Nolan, Leslie (Lyle, we just call him Leslie) and I are working on getting our Sparki (we named him Hershel, after the recently killed off walking dead character) to move around and make decisions independently.

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I have realized what i want to do with my life

I’ve been doing much thinking, and i think i’ve found out exactly what i want to do starting 2024. I want to join Mars One, a group going to mars to terraform and colonize the red planet.

Life itself here on earth is to monotonous and boring, but on Mars, everything would be different. I can easily live without my earth family and friends. If they ever do manage to get internet work, I will continue blogging and tell of life on Mars. Preferably I’ll do a video blog.

But I can’t apply until I’m 18, so I’ll wait, working out and getting in prime physical shape for the mission.

Wattville Inquiry Reflection

Looking back on my most recent inquiry, I think I was pretty successful, but not fully.

You see, my inquiry was the programming of a text based game with a compelling storyline and well developed characters, which, though it took time, I really got somewhere with. I got the idea for it when playing a really old but really fun text based game entitled “Zork”. After a while I realized the code must be moderately simple, and got to thinking, maybe I could make one? So I went straight to Nolan – the only person I’d ever seen program even a simple text based game – and asked him if he would be able to help me and he told me he was. After that I told Mr. Soiseth about my idea and he helped me form it into an inquiry question:

“I will program a text based game with a compelling storyline and well developed characters”.

I personally thought it was a pretty good question, but at the time I didn’t know where to start, so I started with writing the storyline. What I came up with was a unique, one of a kind story in a unique, one of a kind setting. You see the setting takes place 500 years into the future after an apocalypse wipes out all of humanity with the exception of 43 survivors. In the years after, the 43 formed a new city, the last city. They built great metal 100 foot walls around the borders of the city. These walls had no doors, windows, or even ladders in it, the city was completely sealed off. The 43 named this great walled city “Wattville”, after their leader, Lucius Watt. Ironically enough to the city’s name, the main thing that was lost in the apocalypse was electricity, the new city was run purely by steam and coal. The second was modern fashion, Top hats and Trench Coats came back into style, yet shorts never left style and etc, causing a very strange era of style. The third thing lost was democracy, this new city was ruled in the form of an Monarchy, Lucius Watt and his descendants having ultimate power.

Eventually, after many generations all information on the apocalypse was forgotten, and only the direct descendants of Lucius Watt knew the truth about what happened. But that didn’t stop anyone from honoring Lucius Watt as their savior and founder. But all was not well in this new world, Great coal mines had to be built built under the city to power the rich (who lived in the central, more luxurious part of the city)’s luxuries, such as heating and lighting, whereas the poor were left to fend for themselves in the rundown areas between the luxury areas and the wall.

Anyone who was poor hated the king by the time of King Lucius Watt XII, because of the way he and the nobles treated the poor. They treated the poor as disposable; sending them into the coal mines not expecting them all to come out, hardly giving any money to them. This caused a terrible chain reaction, The King and Nobles had servants doing everything for them, so they never paid the shopkeepers of the city any money, which caused them to go poor, so they had to raise the prices of all of their wares to afford to live, but because of the raised prices the poor couldn’t afford anything. And soon the King started taxing people, just so that he could have money to pay for all of his luxuries.

You play as an orphan in this world, and you choose your gender and name, and every choice you make will affect the game, and who your character becomes as a person.

Okay, so I had a great storyline and all at that point, which was about halfway through the time we had to do the inquiry, and I still had the programming to do, so, I went back to Nolan. Nolan explained to me lots about Java and showed me a couple online forums about programming that can really help me out, then he introduced me to a Java compiler entitled Eclipse.

In the following week and a half, with much help from Nolan and online forums, I programmed Wattville, but I still couldn’t get it working! There was some sort of flaw I was missing, something very important…

I spent a lot of time over spring break trying to get it to work, but I just couldn’t get it working. Eventually I will get Wattville working, but it will probably still be a while. From now on, since it’s no longer my inquiry, I will work on it in my own free time.

Wattville will eventually run properly, but not today.

Dead Poppies

Okay, so i definitely do not have a green thumb….Remember how i planted those poppies to honor the Francois, Raphael, and Demetree Von Suessenhaggen, of whom i planted to honor Saint Sir Doctor General President Chief Mr. Phil and Saint Sir Doctor Baron Admiral Archbishop Mr. Bill (The Dill)?

Well those poppies died while had had them home for spring break…i’m starting to think that i’m doing something wrong….

Physics or Biology

I just found out i can only take one of the two, and i can’t decide between them. Since kindergarten I’ve been interested in both of them, and exited to take them… AND NOW I CAN ONLY CHOOSE ONE???

This is so stressful, i can’t decide between them. I kinda wish i could be all like Hermione and use my freaky magic key-chain to travel through time to take both classes… and you know, meet Abraham Lincoln..and maybe the wright brothers…And maybe attend an Elvis Concert………………..and give cavemen a cellphone and see what happens….

We don’t live in igloos!

In fact I’ve never actually seen an igloo in my life, and I’ve lived in Canada all my life. Everyone in the USA is so convinced that were all cold loving hockey players with Bob and Doug McKenzie accents, yet they couldn’t be further from the truth. Here are some interesting facts for you Americans.

-New York gets more snow that southern British Columbia (Its a province, our equivalent of your states except ours are bigger.)

-Not all of us love and play hockey, In fact, i hate playing hockey! Always have, i don’t even enjoy watching it!

-Sure we enjoy Tim Horton’s, but we don’t eat there 24/7!

-Before you ask, no we do not have states inside of our provinces.

-We watch all the same TV as you

-Our cities are basically the same as yours except with less homeless and more sushi stores.

Final Inquiry Presentation

Yesterday we did our final presentations for our inquiries, but since my game still isn’t fully complete, and because since it’s coding so i can’t play it if there’s even the slightest flaw in the programming, i couldn’t present the game itself. So i talked about the storyline of the game and the issues i had while coding the game. I also told of my original question and how Nolan helped me along the way while programming. All in all it was a pretty plain presentation.

Phil and Bill’s Passing

Phil and Bill the dill have recently passed away. They never really grew at all, but that doesn’t make it any less tragic. After they died i had had to plant a new plant, so i chose poppies, you know to honor the fallen saints– Saint Sir Doctor General President Chief Mr. Phil and Saint Sir Doctor Baron Admiral Archbishop Mr. Bill (The Dill), –and i named these Francois, Raphael, and Demetree Von Sueseenhaggen, but they died too.

Eventually they made me replant AGAIN, so i planted poppies to honor the Francois, Raphael, and Demetree Von Suessenhaggen, of whom i planted to honor Saint Sir Doctor General President Chief Mr. Phil and Saint Sir Doctor Baron Admiral Archbishop Mr. Bill (The Dill).

Coffee

I just realized why so many people drink coffee.

You see, during your teenage years you do most your growing, which generally means your the most tired.  So coffee is the most useful way to become less tired. Right? So you drink a lot of it during your teenage years and by the time you reach adulthood you’re addicted to caffeine.

PEAK Dance Competion

So, recently I attended a dance competition in surrey, where i competed in four different dances. My Jazz (A Little Party), My Lyrical (Piano Man), My Hip Hop (Kriminalz), and my musical theater duo (Guys and Dolls). I, luckily, got first in all of them. But Ironically to that, the thing i liked best were the rides to the competition and back, where i read the signs of so many stores. Some were dodgy, some were catchy, some were written in sharpie, and a lot of them were just funny.

Some of the funnily named places were Manny’s Hemp Store, which was next door to SWAGG apparel. Another place, this one just confuses me, was RED HOT CHILI PEPPER Indian Style Chinese Food. What in the world is INDIAN STYLE CHINESE FOOD. I mean SERIOUSLY!

This Week’s project on Wattville

This week I didn’t work on my inquiry as much as during past weeks, this week I put most of my effort into core courses, so this weeks update is pretty much nothing more than getting a bit further into the programming. I would give you closer details on the exact story line, but that would just spoil the game, so instead i’m going to finish making it and then let you go through the story yourself.

Second Internet Copyright and Stuff Class

In our second Internet Copyright and Stuff class with Mrs. Sophie’s Mom (Mrs. Gable) we Skyped a teacher in Regina after stalking him on the internet for fifteen minutes, he taught us all sorts of stuff that we already new, and a few things that we didn’t.

Soon the Skype chat ended and we started working on these poster things that describe what we would want our online profile to contain if we had control. For mine I made a mind map, but apparently no-one knows what a mind map is, because everyone just kept telling me that it was all over the place and unorganized. They say that and yet all they did was randomly list stuff. My mind map was VERY organized! Just apparently no-one knows what a mind map is.

Just saying, try to stick to positive comments cause i had like 13 negative comments and 4 positive comments.

Using Pivot For French Revolution Project

Me and Joey (joeys.inquiryhub.org) are working together on our socials project about the french revolution and have decided on using a very simple animating system entitled PIVOT. Most people only use Pivot for little GIFs and things like that, but you can quite easily do much more with it. For example, tell the story of the french revolution. Here is a little GIF i took like ten seconds to make in PIVOT.

 

Random Peice

My Inquiry Progress

My Inquiry has been coming along quite well. If you are a long-term reader you will remember that my current inquiry is me trying to program a text based game (If you don’t know what that is then Google is your friend) with a compelling story-line and well developed characters. So far i have developed the story-line and characters, but am still struggling through the programming, but my friend Nolan (nolanis.inquiryhub.org) has been helping me a lot with that. The setting of the game is as follows:

500 years into the future an apocalypse wipes out all of humanity with the exception of 43 survivors. In the years after, the 43 formed a new city, the last city. They built great metal 100 foot walls around the borders of the city. These walls had no doors, windows, or even ladders in it, the city was completely sealed off. The 43 named this great walled city “Wattville”, after their leader, Lucius Watt. Ironically enough to the city’s name, the main thing that was lost in the apocalypse was electricity, the new city was run purely by steam and coal. The second was modern fashion, Top hats and Trench Coats came back into style, yet shorts never left style and etc, causing a very strange era of style. The third thing lost was democracy, this new city was ruled in the form of an Monarchy, Lucius Watt and his descendants having ultimate power.

Eventually, after many generations all information on the apocalypse was forgotten, and only the direct descendants of Lucius Watt knew the truth about what happened. But that din’t stop anyone from honoring Lucius Watt as their savior and founder. But all was not well in this new world, Great coal mines had to be built built under the city to power the rich (who lived in the central, more luxurious part of the city)’s luxuries, such as heating and lighting, whereas the poor were left to fend for themselves in the rundown areas between the luxury areas and the wall.

Anyone who was poor hated the king by the time of King Lucius Watt XII, because of the way he and the nobles treated the poor. They treated the poor as disposable, sending them into the coal mines not expecting them all to come out, hardly giving any money to them. This caused a terrible chain reaction, The King and Nobles had servants doing everything for them, so they never paid the shopkeepers of the city any money, which caused them to go poor, so they had to raise the prices of all of their wares to afford to live, but because of the raised prices the poor couldn’t afford anything. And soon the King started taxing people, just so that he could have money to pay for all of his luxuries.

You are an poor orphan in this world, and your destiny is not written in stone.

Well…I have to delete every project i’ve EVER done…

So today i learned a lot about creative commons and so did my teachers. But the problem with that is, now i can’t use anything with copyrights on it…for an example on how hard that makes it to find pictures with creative commons, when i looked up Nicolas Cage, I got like 200 cat pictures. None of them were even funny!

So soon in April i have a book commercial to present, and i am utterly screwed. I don’t have a scanner, so i can’t draw anything myself, and don’t go and say i can digitally draw it, i can’t even master PAINT!! But apparently my commercial has to have a lot of pictures, but i have no idea where the hell i’m going to find any. I already made like an A+ grade commercial, but almost everything in it is has been copyrighted.

And I’ve been putting together projects out of copyrighted material all of my life, so now, with the “PLAGIARISM” bomb dropped on me, i’m totally and utterly at a loss of how to do any presentations.

What happens when you get ME to do poetry

The Shadow in the Window
-By Liam Odynsky

A normal old day in the normal old present.
I slunk to my room,
my room was quite pleasant.

I had a large Dresser,
that was painted a dark green,
I painted it myself,
me and my late father.

I looked out the window and saw a dark figure,
a dark figure in the yard,
The dark figure made me shiver.

I ran through the kitchen to my cluttered up hall,
I locked the front door,
then ran back down the hall.

Once in the kitchen i glanced back out the window,
the dark figure had moved,
he had moved closer and i felt as though my eyesight was starting to dwindle.
He had hands,
but not hands,
he had feet,
but not feet.
But i must say the most horrifying feature of all,
was that he was almost a dozen feet tall.

How i did not notice his height earlier,
I still do not know,
it came closer to the window,
It’s apperance becoming less and less pleasent.

It’s face was not that of a man,
Yet not that of a beast,
It stared into my soul,
then dissapeared from sight.

I thought it was gone,
I begun to relax,
but my relaxing was in vain,
for a knocking begun on the window in my room.

I ran to my room,
And looked out the window,
the man was gone,
but he never stopped knocking.

They tell me i’m crazy,
They tell me i’m mad,
But i promise you that what was outside my window that night,
was really that bad.

I now live in isolation, to hide from the thing,
the shadowy figure that now haunts my dreams.

Roundhead or Cavalier

I have looked a lot into the history of the roundhead and cavaliers, the two sides of the English revolution, more than we had to for class, because I really enjoy that age of history, or, well, from that point through the industrial revolution. I’ve put a lot of thought into this, and I really think that I would probably end up being Cavalier, but have to say I disagree with a lot of their beliefs.  I agree with their flamboyant behavior and dress and the way they all found a way of being unique. But I must say that I really do think that they should have been more organized in their battles, instead of just randomly charging.

But I also agree that there has to be a bit of roundhead around too, for without it we would be chaotic, without the roundheads, the only rules would be made by kings, and we would not have the democracy we have today. Without that little bit of roundhead in all of us, we wouldn’t be doing our work at school, we would be all serving a king’s every will. The world would be a very different place without the roundhead’s influence, but it would also be a very different place without cavalier influence.

The roundheads had simple beliefs, that they were all equal and had to act as such. They all wore very plain black and white clothing, believing that wearing anything flamboyant would show against their beliefs. They were very organized fighters, but at home, they were the most boring people ever. They believed that any luxuries or self-indulgent behavior was bad, they didn’t dance, they didn’t drink, they didn’t listen to music, and they did away with all holidays like Christmas and Birthdays, and made it so that as soon as they had command, you weren’t legally allowed to do anything on Sundays except eat, sleep, go to church, and go to the bathroom.

On the other hand, the Cavaliers were very different. They believed in individuality and were very fond of self-indulgent behaviors. They danced, they partied, they drank, and they listened to music and made it. They celebrated holidays such as Christmas and Birthdays, and they believed that the land should be ruled by a single all powerful ruler, not a democracy voting for everything. They believed strongly in the royal system. But they fell not because of any of that, but because of their arrogance in battle. They did not fight in formations or in unison, they simply tried to kill every enemy in the battle. Period. No strategies just kill, kill, and kill. They slaughtered for quite a while but it didn’t work forever. They were no match for the roundhead’s organized, elite trained force.

Overall, I must say I’m more of a Cavalier, though there is a good amount of roundhead in me. You may see this world as being Cavalier ruled, with all of the parties, nightclubs, and overall Cavalier like lifestyles, but really, if you look closely, roundhead influence is everywhere.

Cyber Questionare

1. Who do I want to be online?
Anyone I want to be at the time.
2. What is a digital footprint and how can you control yours?
A digital footprint is what you leave behind online, what people can find about you, and you can control yours by moderating what you post and comment, or you can have an online alter ego, like a different person with developed history that you pretend to be while being online.
3. What recent embarrassing story of a celebrity has developed online?
Pretty much every one of them originated online.
4. What are some strategies that you use to keep you safe online?

There is NO guaranteed way to keep you safe online.

5. Which categories of people are more vulnerable online and why?
People who are unpopular in real life are more prone to be bullied in the cyber world than others, but really, everyone is vulnerable

6. Are offline and online risks different and why
 Online risks can be permanent, but then again, so can offline. The only difference is, that with online bullying, EVERYTHING is permanent, whereas with things in the real world, most things are only permanent in your memory. But offline risks can affect you both physically AND mentally, whereas cyber can only be mental

Wattville

If you read some of my earlier posts, you would know that my current inquiry is about making a text based game. My text based game is entitled Wattville for reasons that you will find out if you play it. I have developed around 30 different storylines that could unfold due to your choices in the game. I have completed writing the story, and am now struggling a little bit with the programming. But hopefully I can get it done soon.

Cleaning the lunchroom

As soon as they introduced this cleaning groups thing, i had to take matters into my own hands. Out of the goodness of my heart I cleaned all of the dishes and and wiped down the kitchen. Riley helped me out too, and when we finished we made a sign saying “Please clean up after yourself” in comic sans and then wrote a version translated in to wingdings below it. We could probably do this every week, cleaning the kitchen and doing the dishes. Here’s a picture of Riley wiping the counter, i took the picture so i’m not in it, but i was the one loading the dishwasher. The fridge was open cause we were wiping it down, though even a good scrubbing with soap couldn’t get off some of the grime.

Cleaning the lunchroom

Cleaning the lunchroom

My three most trusted websites

At school we have to make a list of our top three most trusted sites. Here are mine:

1. liamo.inquiryhub.org

2. wikipedia.org

3. youtube.com

Runners Up = sd43.bcln.ca  ,   something.com   ,   gaben.tv   ,   gnomeparty.com   ,   zombo.com   ,   www.dutnall.co.uk   &   rileyg.inquiryhub.org   ,   thepiratebay.org (or whatever their current domain is)   ,   joeys.inquiryhub.org

Phil and Bill the Dill

Ok, so everyone in the school are planting their own personal plants, and i chose two dill seeds, I have named these dills Phil and Bill, and the are the most awesome dills on the entire planet. They are going to grow scrawny and short like good healthy dills should be, i’ll make sure of it.

How did people discover milk

I`ve been thinking, how did people discover cow`s milk. I mean, it`s not something that would happen normally. And how many different parts of cows did they have to suck on before they found the one that gave the milk, and how did they know to look for it? Maybe they were bored one day and saw a baby breastfeeding, and were all like, I wonder if cows give milk too! And imagine if the first cow they tried was a male cow! These are the kind of things that make us wonder if we really are the most intelligent species on the planet.

Writing A Movie!

Hello People of the Internet, I am writing a new movie, i’m almost completed casting! It is the story of a high school student who loves a girl, Beatrice Gereodor, but the she couldn’t care less about him. Tormented by the fact that every girl he has ever loved was taken by another boy along with the constant bullying by schoolmate Mars, young Benjimen Sweet begins to become overwhelmed by hatred toward his best friend Tom, who asked out Beatrice. Eventually his hatred grows too strong.

I will release the cover of this film as soon as it is done. And soon after, the film itself.

Number Palindromes

A Palindrome is something that is the same forwards as it is backwards, such as: racecar becomes racecar when reversed. Now try doing that with a number, easy right? Well now take a normal, non palindrome number (say….31) and add it to itself reversed.

31+13=44

See, quite often you can get a palindrome when doing equations like that, but it doesn’t always work in only one equation, sometimes it takes more than one, like with 75.

75+57=132

See, not a palindrome, but, if we continue the equation;

132+231=363

There we go, a palindrome, almost all equations that are a non palindrome added to itself reversed will eventually come to a palindrome, some equations take longer than others, like 89, which requires you to do 27 equations to reach a palindrome.

89 and 98 (essentially the same thing when doing this kind of equation) are the the two numbers that i have tried that requires the most equations, but i still have MANY more to do, and, to be truthful, it really is impossible to finish all of them.

Try some yourself! See if you can find one with more equations than 89. Tell me if you can!

Designer Jeans

Designer Jeans, why the hell would you buy em’.

They aren’t any more comfortable, they don’t last longer, and they are like $60 dollars more expensive, so why do you buy them?

For a word.

Written on the inside.

Of the butt of your pants.

Or in some cases the front. But i mean SERIOUSLY! It’s not like someones going to randomly come up to you, open the front of your pants, look inside, just to see if your jeans are designer! Its completely pointless! And then there’s the jeans were the designer is printed on the outside of the butt. This certain placement of the brand is only really in girls jeans, which almost worsens what that placement causes.

You see, when someone wears something with words on the outside, people automatically read it, and the person wearing it wants people to read it. But what about when the words are on a person’s butt, cause when people try to read it, the wearer freaks out, kicks the reader, and accuses them of being a pervert for looking at their butt.

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE PEOPLE LOOKING AT YOUR BUTT THEN DON’T WEAR PANTS WITH WORDS ON THE SEAT!!!!!

An Open House to Forget (or remember if you have a good memory)

I’m very happy with the turnout of last night’s open house, most of us expected maybe 10, at most 11 possible students for next year to come to the open house, NOT 41!! But, alas, 41 was the number, and that isn’t even including the families of the candidates for next year!

Yesterday i manned the 3D printer station. Wait, Have i EVER mentioned the 3D printer on here? I don’t think i have! Okay, so at the Inquiry Hub we have a 3D printer which more than half of us know how to use. It’s not actually that hard, it just requires 3D models in GCODE format, which you can easily achieve by slicing an stl file in coordia (that probably makes no sense to most of you :b ) Then stick it on an SD card and then slide it into the 3D printer’s SD card drive, and then hit print! (Wow i’m really bad at making stuff sound easy)

So i was manning it and answering questions, but I also had one other job. Doodle3D. I had an iPad wirelessly hooked up to a little special box which is the core of Doodle3D , which was then wired to the printer. Doodle3D is a program in which there is a little box inside which you can doodle anything as long as you try to keep it all in one stroke. And then you can customize it in many of the available ways on the site, then hit print. And the 3D printer will print it out. So, as you can guess, the station where you get things you can take home for free (mine) was the most popular.

a 3D 3D made with Doodle3D

a 3D 3D made with Doodle3D

 

Skydiving Helmets

Have you ever wondered why companies make you wear helmets while skydiving? I mean, what is it supposed to do? Save your skull if you fall to your death? I mean SERIOUSLY, what is a helmet going to do for you if your parachute doesn’t work hundreds of feet in the air? If you hit the ground its more like its wearing YOU for protection.

THERE IS NO POINT in wearing a helmet for sky diving is my conclusion, and that goes for bungee jumping too. the only difference is, with bungee jumping you have a one in eight million chance of hitting your head on whatever you jumped off, but that’s never going to happen in sky diving unless gravity suddenly reverses for no apparent reason.

3 Humans, 2 Monkeys, & 1 freaking Gorilla.

In Digital Media class today we had to complete the following brain challenge with my friend Nolan (nolanis.inquiryhub.org):

There are 3 Humans, 2 Monkeys & 1 Gorilla, and need to get them across a river. We were given different colored Popsicle stick to represent each of the animal (yes, humans are animals). But that’s the easy part. You see, only 2 animals could be on the boat at the same time, and only the the Humans and the Gorilla could paddle the boat, the Monkeys could not. Also, the primates (monkeys and gorilla) could not outnumber the humans at any geographical location or the primates will kill the human(s).

Try that one yourself, its not as easy as it sounds, Also, the title of this post is very misleading, the Gorilla wasn’t the really annoying one, it was the monkeys because they couldn’t paddle the boat.

After many attempts we thought we got it, but then got the boat stuck on the opposite side.

After that we started to get really pissed off at the puzzle, And started thinking outside the box and came up with one plan where the monkeys ran off, one where the Gorilla eats someone, and one where we tied a rope to the boat so we didn’t have to keep sending people back to return the boat.

Soon pretty much everyone had figured it out but us, and Nolan decided that we should go outside, to get away from everyone trying to tell us how they did it, outside the classroom we still couldn’t figure it out, even when Leif tried to help.

In fact, we didn’t figure it out until after everyone was doing their reflections on these blogs, but, at least we eventually figured it out 🙂

My New Inquiry

I’m working on a new project: Programming a text based computer game in which you can do more things than in like, Skyrim, and a story line more intense than a novel. For now I’m writing the story more than the actual programming but i’ll get to it. I got bored the other day and programmed this short 2o second game, that, to this day, no-one has beat.

It wont let me put the game on here, since it runs in batch, so just save the following file as Hack the Alien Computer.bat instead of .txt

I’m getting a pet bearded dragon

I’M SO EXITED!!!! In about a weeks time I’m getting a new pet, a bearded dragon. In case you didn’t already know, Bearded dragons a docile reptile that can grow up to 28 inches long and live more than 10 years. I’m so exited i cant stop smiling!!!! It is going to be so AWESOME!!!!! They love being held, I once met a man who walked everywhere with his trusty bearded dragon always sitting lazily on his shoulder.

Adult Bearded Dragon on woman’s shoulder

Young Bearded Dragon