Thursday Morning

Just decided to blog after I finished my Religion unit exam. I didn't do a bad job. Today is the day we have a conference in the afternoon. Mr.Alger suggests that we should actually think today. Were going to be finishing Othello and Blood Diamond today. I think I would have done a lot better if we watched the movie first and than read the novel after. At least I'll understand what is going on, but that is just my opinion. Today is going to be one of those days, this morning we are going to be watching movies, and in the afternoon we have the UN conference.

3 hours later

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Finally, we finished a long day, I now have the math formal due, out of all the days. Unfortunately for other people, the gala is today will last until night, and that provides little time for them to do any work, but fortunately tomorrow morning, we are in the computer lab all morning to do any sort of work we need to do. The UN conference was cool, until the students from Texas started dissing Canadian culture with sterotypical jokes, but it was just friendly. So we said "How's the death penalty over there?" and then they disconnected. Turns out we were like a couple minutes late for the continuation of the UN conference.

At the end of the long tiring day, I threw out like virtually nothing, went to the bathroom minimal times, and barely ate dinner. I guess that's what happens when you work like a college student. Save the environment today, easily, by sitting infront of the computer doing homework the whole day! So at the end of the conference we did pledges, little things, or big, to create an impact on the world. I decided to turn off all the lights in the houses, except for the lamp infront of my computer that I use everyday to work.

Hump Day

I've decided to take the initiative and blog during the week instead of cramming it all on the weekend, so I actually have some decent time to work on my I.A on Friday. We are currently wrapping things up in S.S and L.A. I can't wait for the long semester break. I feel like I'm missing on a couple hours of sleep. The conference is tomorrow afternoon, and unfortunately, I miss a religion quiz. I have to make it up by writing it early in the morning at first period where I'm still delusional. Math is still a pain, as always.

In other news, I'm going to be moving houses this or next month. My parents have been having a lot of meetings lately to discuss the mortgage. If we sell this house, we can probably pay for 80% of the mortgage for our new house. So we had a mortgage consultant, and it is none other than Mr.Tong, the husband of Ms.Tong who currently teaches my friend's science I.B. class. She actually came in to said hi for a second, but unfortunately, I was in the shower doing my business.

For my ecological footprint as of today, I've showered, used the toilet, and many other things that consume water. I drink water itself. The more you drink, the more you pee, stop drinking water, stop flushing, and we will have freshwater for the next century! Just kidding. I'm actually worried about the future of our planet. Our population has nearly doubled since the past few decades, and it will only keep increasing. With more people, our resources will be depleted significantly faster. 

Toonie Tuesday

At home, on a Tuesday. We've just recently completed the epic three hour stress and management training session in hope of relieving any past tensions. In the stress session, I closed my eyes and began to relax from the words spoken by our wise Psychology teacher, who is currently on the quest of her ph.D. I began to feel at ease at our exercises and just fell asleep altogether. Then, out of no where, horrible blank sheets of paper flew at me in every direction! None other than the horrid, and dastardly I.A research project, ! It's monstrosity consumed me whole, and I was entrenched in its horrid dimension. The papers soon bled red, stained with the ink that will sign the notorious F on my paper.  As I climbed to the gradually closing exit, pieces of paper, flew at me again with their razor-sharp edge. Before they could destroy me... I woke up, picked up my stuff at the conclusion of the session and left casually like nothing happened.

Okay, I really let my imagination let loose, plus it was a sign that I needed to get going on this research project. My parents should enroll me in a creative writing class or something. On the other note, I have started on my I.A. I've accomplished gathering my ten sources, correctly sourcing them using the Chicago style format. Then, I started skimming through the sources to see which was most ideal on my research project. I have arrived at the conclusion of a paper written by a Harvard student, and a paper written by another.

My ecological footprint on Tuesday? A crap load. It was none other than Toonie Tuesday. We seriously didn't have anything to eat at home because my dad had a meeting while my mom had to work longer due to the absence of an employee. I was already tired from eating after the second drumstick. Those things are really heart-stoppers.  In the aftermath, there was a huge pile of red boxes all piled up on top of each other. We are really destroying the planet with all the waste that needs to be disposed after a fast food meal. Again, I arrive at the conclusion that our world will collapse. We can not see what future lies ahead. Maybe we will perfect a bio-fuel that is globally used? Or maybe we destroy thermodynamics and find a cheap way to create energy? (probably never going to happen)



The second law of thermodynamics says that everything will slowly deteriorate (die).

Lately

"No matter if you're Muslim, no matter if you're Christian, no matter the religion, we all are human," intones DK. War continues in the middle east, Iraq is having a hard time restructuring its economy. Giving the label of "3rd world country" to Iraq is even too generous. Their country is the center of war, a false crusade for peace. It's the stereotype that all Muslim's are from terrorist countries. What's next? Are they to be blamed for the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill?

Iraqi rappers voice reality, pain: 'We livin' in hell'

One of CNN's top headline news for today on December 5th. Lately in Iraq, rappers are expressing their thoughts and feelings through music, embracing western culture if you consider "North America" a culture. They speak not in their natural language of Arabic, but in English. The Members of Smashing Hits, models Eminem and Tupac Shakur.


The entourage wants to express the true culture of Iraq. Not the terrorists, and not the violence. Life is hard, even more than we ever could imagine. Be a Muslim, and your wanted for terrorism, become a Christian, and your wanted by your own people.

Rapped one member, "We livin' in hell and nobody hears our calls; everyday in Baghdad, our tears do fall."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/12/05/iraq.rappers/index.html?hpt=C2

Fast Food

Holy crap, I've never felt so fat in my life. All I had was fast food the entire day, and I can feel my arteries clogging up. Time to hit the gym or something. Now awhile ago, I embarked on a mission to track my ecological footprint. All the trash and garbage that comes from packaging is the result of the destruction of the environment. McDonald's used to pack their Big Macs in plastic made containers which doesn't decompose for a couple of centuries.

First world countries, the center of power, and corruption. We've come a long way from the early times of Christopher Columbus and colonization. Now we live in a world of prosperity and innovation, but at the cost of the exploitation of natural resources and developing countries. By our current resource depletion rate, were going to be in a crap load of trouble if our fresh water supplies run out. Oil sands are known to pollute water to an extent where you can not filter it at all.

Thankfully, we live in Canada and own 30% of natural water reserves. It's not bad that Canada is a cold place at all because all our fresh water comes from glaciers. Back in the past, water has been sold to us for like 3 bucks a bottle. Not only does it cost more than a bottle of coke, it creates a lot of pollution. None of it actually comes from mountains or wild life where Bambi came. It's just really filtered tap water. That's why 1st world countries is the center of power and corruption. We have a whack load of money, but we deceive, and ruin the lives of others to get it.

Wednesday

Before Mr.Alger departed on his trip to Florida, to unfortunately, go on a daily 10 hour conference, he left us with a challenge. During the course of that lesson, we learned more about sustainability and how resources are being depleted rapidly by the second. We probably have 40 years oil left in our life, until it is completely depleted. Fresh water is also depleting. The thought of future wars would be scary because, instead of fighting for oil, we will be fighting each other for water, because water is needed to sustain life on Earth. I remember in Grade 3 my teacher telling us that we'd probably have oil until we turn 40 or 50 years old. Now I know she wasn't kidding.

We did a test online for our ecological footprint. We went with the majority vote for each category and went with the average Canadian income. Turns out that if everyone lived our lifestyle today, we'd need at least 5.2 earths to fit the needs of all the resources required. In the end, before Mr.Alger left, he challenged us to blog about our daily ecological footprint, and I accept that challenge mainly because it gives me something to blog about!

Alright before I head off to bed, I will reflect on what I did today. For my dinner, I ate fish. Fish is like the main component of my diet, I eat it at least once every week. We learn last year in biodiversity that Earth's resource of fish has been exponentially decreasing by the introduction of new corporations arising. A company in Japan is actually buying all the Blue fish tuna they could afford, so that when they become extinct, they can have a monopoly on the fish that everyone craves. Its sad to see them doing this, because instead of trying to save them, they are thinking the extincting of the Blue fish tuna is inevitable.

Baby Vanga

Supposedly, WW3 is suppose to happen in the month of November as prophecized by Baby Vanga. I don't believe any of this is true, but the tensions between North Korea and South Korea are heating up. Maybe because of the fact that Kim Jong Il is about to choke any second now and he wants his son to lead the country like his father and himself did in the time of war.

Baby Vanga has been notorious for predicting the fall of the twin towers in 9/11 and she also correctly predicted the fall of the nuclear Russian submarine, the Kursk. Some of her other predictions is that China will become a world power, which has been clearly evident since their economic reforms in 1978 which led them to be successful as they are today. Look at Shanghai, the financial capital of China, all their skyscrapers are the result of China's economic success.

Apparently in the next thousands of years, we develop time travel, cloning, and get new diseases. Eventually we colonize Mars and search for more extraterrestrial life. A new prophet will come and a new religion will arise. All of these crazy things are the predictions of Baby Vanga. It is up to the person to believe these outrageous predictions or not.

Friday

Ah yes, Friday at last. We started watching the Truman Show, a man played by Jim Carey is trapped in dome world since birth. Everyone in his life is a paid actor which is creepy. Imagine if everyone you knew was an actor. He is unaware of this fact and is stalked by a thousand cameras daily all disguised as trivial things in this "Seahaven." Despite being unaware of the outside world, the quality of life is pretty good, because, he is the main character. The show has been running for thirty years before it collaspes due to the fact that Truman inevitable escapes.

There are many biblical references in the Truman Show, Christof sits in the man made moon/sun as the creator of the show, the world, that Truman lives in. He is related to God in a way that he created the world, where as Truman can be related to Adam because the world was created for him. Lunar control of the world can be related to the story of Noah's Ark, where God wiped the earth from sin by wiping out the entire world with 40 days and nights of endless rain. The ocean controlled can be referenced to Mose's parting the sea, as the ability of God imbued in Mose's staff.

Truman, deceived for thirty years finally figures out everything that's going on. He tricks the camera and departs for the sea, escaping in the basement through a secret tunnel. Ironically he sails on the Santa Maria, the name of the ship that Christopher Columbus used to sail to the New World.

Hump day at last, I still can't find out why hump day is so special, maybe I'm just missing out on football or something like Mr.Sauer says. Othello has been going by really fast, were probably going to be finished by the end of this week. We can probably expect an analytical critical paper in the distant future or a major assignment. At the conclusion of Act 3 in Othello, Iago is finally promoted lieutenant in place of Cassio and has provoked Othello into a state of vengeance. Is Iago finally satisfied? or will he continue to crumble the relations of everyone?

Next period we had a social quiz, the first component went by really fast and the written component was a notch up higher on the difficulty scale. Many people exclaimed, "I failed that quiz," when lunch passed, so people were probably really troubled. It was about time we had a quiz anyways. I enjoyed that last week of freedom, now things are starting to pick up the pace again.

Things are going fast in math, we're learning new concepts left and right. Each department is trying to get students to donate some money, or a food item to help the less fortunate. To do this, however they are bribing us some free extra marks, so I thought why not. I'm still troubled by our MDG presentations, we are planning that they will take place on the last week before Christmas break, however Christmas is usually the time where people go forth and do major volunteering work. Unfortunately, I may have to squeeze in some time before Christmas break.

Friday

Friday's are always nice, school starts later, ends sooner and all the periods are shortened.  It would have been a perfect day if there wasn't a Unit Test in math worth like 50% of our grade in this unit. Tony and I have decided to volunteer at the Sunrise community down at 17th av. The program strives to reduce poverty and increase the quality of life in Calgary in communities, so it is perfect for our MDG Pursuit. I have to suck up the fact that we have to wake up and go out into the blistering cold and snow.

The Sunrise Community tends the less unfortunate and provides foods and access to basic necessities. Tony and me are hoping to develop some new skills and give back to society. Volunteering would look excellent on a resume. We're hoping to go next week or when the sun rises again in Calgary and melts all the snow away. Originally we were looking at a different place, but this place is look the best so far.

This week hasn't been stressful at all, I'm thinking that things are going to pick up the pace in the distant future. This weekend is probably the best to go all out on any remaining work before we are drowned in a bunch of assignments again. There's no greater time to work when there's snow outside, everything is cold and dreary, and your stuck inside for the majority of weekend.

Shake Hands with the Devil

We watched "Shake Hands with the Devil," a movie about the Rwandan Genocide and centers around Romeo Dallaire, a general in the Canadian army. He is sent to Rwanda to settle down the dispute between the Tutsi and the Hutus. 800,000 people were killed in the aftermath and dead bodies were used to build bridges, it was an awful sight but delivered a powerful message. Although, Romeo Dallaire's intentions were right and just, he was unsupported by the UN council and was left to fend off with the little troops he had.

In the end, he saved many lives, but with the lack of resources, he was unable to stop this entire madness altogether. Romeo Dallaire was struck with a mental breakdown seeing so many dead bodies and being unable to do anything about it. There was a scene where the ground was littered with dead people, and Romeo Dallaire and his men had to actually lift up the dead bodies and move them away so they could pass through.

Mr.Sauer said that recently a year ago, a person got the chance to get Romeo Dallaire to speak at our school Father Lacombe, right before he carried the Olympic Torch. If only I was born a year later, I would have gotten the experience to see him in person. Shake Hands with the Devil is one of the most powerful films I watched, it opened my eyes to something that I've never experienced before, something I would never want to experience. With people like Romeo Dallaire, Canada can become a better place to live in.

The Gods must be Crazy

We watched a movie in L.A called "The Gods must be Crazy." It was the closest thing to "Things Fall Apart." In the past, the movie was popular that broke box-office records around the world. There are many sequels however, only the first two movies were directed by the original people.

The movie is about a tribe of bushmen who lived in the sub-Saharan Africa peacefully until a pilot chucks a bottle of Coke down and coincidentally lands near where the bushmen settled. The coke bottle was useful and made executing daily tasks easier to accomplish. It was a fire starter, a cooking utensil and an object of mere controversy. In a couple of days, the bushmen started fighting over who gets to use it, so Xi decided to travel and throw the bottle off the edge of the world.

I can see why this movie is related to "Things Fall Apart," because they are both similar in the way that something new is introduced in an old traditional the way of life. Needless to say,  "TFA" and "TGMBC," differ only in the way that the Ibo got colonized while the bushman continued their status quo after Xi threw the coke bottle off the "edge of the world."

Remembrance Day, Keynes vs Hayek

So today, in the aftermath of the Remembrance celebration, half of the class was present in Mr.Alger's class. Somehow we treaded off the topic of current events and went into the topic of sexism. In the end, it was a debate on who was tougher, the male, or the female? I'm relieved that by the end of this week, we have a four day weekend. This can either be great, or horrible depending on what people got on their report cards.

Next week we are starting Othello, written by none other than William Shakespeare, credited to be the father of modern English. I read like the first couple of pages and I am confused. Thankfully there is a little short summary on the left of very page because the way that Shakespeare writes is very hard to anaylze. Shakespeare's writing style was probably more easier to understand for people who existed during the times of the Renaisance.

On Monday, we are starting a brand new look on economics and why they differ. Hayek economics focuses on less government control where as Keynes economics focuses on more government control. These two different economic philosophies have been going head to head since the last century, the following video pretty much sums everything up.

William Ernest Henley

Yes, after a 24 hour period of unsuccessful googling attempts on Erin Moure, Patrick and me decided on a last minute attempt on Sunday to finish the project. The information on Erin Moure was scarce, and her poems were hard to find on the internet, so Patrick suggested that we do the poet who wrote "Invictus." William Ernest Henley was popular only to the literary class, for he was a journalist and admits that "there were as much readers as writers." Henley was the eldest of six children and throughout his life, he faced difficulties with his health already being the host of tuberculosis at the age of twelve.

Due to his health complications, his legs were forced to get amputated. He was the patient of Joseph Lister, a man who came up with the germ theory, stating that there were "microorganisms at work which created all the illness in the world. Many people started accepting this idea, because babies who were delivered by surgeons died more often that babies  who were delivered at home. The reason was that mothers wash their hands often, getting rid of any germs that were on their hands, while surgeons delivered baby after baby without washing their hands at all, spreading infections everywhere.

In the end, we were terribly unsuccessful in our last ditch attempt. Unfortunately, we weren't able to come up with anything unique because all of this occured on Sunday. We went to Mr.Sauer for help on the day before the weekend, but even him, had little information on Erin Moure. Since we couldn't find any more information after googling
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Gandhi

We've watched another movie! Thankfully for me that gives me something else to blog about! Gandhi was a strong political figure in Indonesia and is credited for his peaceful nature. When the British come to conquer, Gandhi came to the idea that India and Britain should have non-violent, non-cooperations. However the British ignored Gandhi's philosophy and massive riots took place and some lives were taken. The British took interest in India because the country it was a gigantic source of cheap labor. The British wanted to outsource and make jobs in India so they could pay them less and earn more.

The British wanted cotton for cheap, so they could make cloth and sell it back to them for a higher price. In the end, all it did for India is reverse its economy for the worse. India retaliated and burnt all the cloth they made as a sign of protest, the British thought Gandhi was the mastermind under the whole operation and went out to arrest him. India was seeking another way to make money, so they came up with the idea of exploiting their nature resource, salt. India is full of salt, you can take a bucket into the ocean, scoop up some water, drain it, and voila, there is a bunch of salt.

We didn't get that far in the movie, and what I've written is basically what I've gotten out of the movie. In the end, Britain finally acknowledges the rights of people. Gandhi is considered the national hero of India, for his non-violent campaigns and his quest for India's independence. Britain's economy was too wounded in the aftermath of World War 2, that they decided to hand over India, back to it's people, for they righteously deserve.

We watched a movie called "Simon Birch," where there was an adult man named Joe played by Jim Carey. He narrates his childhood about his best friend named Simon Birch who gave him faith to continue to believe in God. Simon Birch was considered an outcast, because he spoke the word of God which everyone had strong disbelief in. He is often alone except on most occasions where he hangs out with Joe.

Simon Birch died before the age of twelve. He died, saving children in a driving accident, and by doing so, practiced what he preached. Inevitably, the church community probably has a different perspective on Simon Birch for what he has done. Birch's message probably changed the lives of people around him, because he kept going on about God having a purpose for all of us, which is true.

Everyone in the world has a purpose, it's just that bad things keep happening in the world that we doubt the existence of God. Everyday we are faced with world catastrophes displayed by CNN headline news and people start to ask, "Is there really a God out there?" We need to stop worrying about our world and live life as it is, because before you know it, we'll be in Heaven with the big man up there.

Sigh, what a brutal week of math. Thank God, Mr. Alger was merciful enough to make the IA assignment due on Thursday. Apparently we are writing the Math midterm on Wednesday rather than today. We were intending to mark the Math midterm review, but it turns out that Mr.Green's class isn't planning to use the review as marks, so our class decided by a really unequal vote to not use the math midterm review for marks. I am really disappointed because I put all all into the review last night. It was brutal. I didn't have much time to work on my essay which really sucked. Sigh. I can only imagine what horrendous trials wait ahead for me on my report card.

Finally, this horrendous week has ended, and things are finally starting to settle down again. Term 2 is coming closer and closer, and I'm excited about going from Foods to Religion. My fellow I.B. students are envious because they have to take Science until December, hehe. Due to the surprising intensive nature of Foods class being replaced by Religion, I can finally have more time to focus on my other numerous assignments and projects.

Next week, I should begin worrying about my pursuit, I'm going to talk to Mr.Sauer if he has any ideas on where to volunteer. Snow is coming soon, so I want to volunteer before mother nature steers for the worse. I'm surprised that it's been this warm this year because by now we would be under 1 foot of snow already. I'm afraid that the library is after me, because I have an overdue book that I was suppose to hand in like a decade ago, they're probably going to put it on my school fees until I hand in the book.

Milton Creagh

Wow, what a surprising presentation today. We had a man who goes by the name of Milton Creagh come speak to us about abuse and domestic violence in our daily lives. He shared some frightening statistics like 1 in 3 women are being abused at home. At first,  I thought it was just going to be one of those really boring assembly's or something like that, but when time passed it got interesting and the message that he conveyed was powerful.

He has already spoken to hundreds of thousands of students before us and said his gift of being an orator was "ordained by God." Milton Creagh mentions how he was born in North Carolina but spent most of his time in Chicago, where he started taking an interest in public speaking. He is a workaholic and appeals to to his lecture schedule. Despite being so busy, he still has time to devote to his writing passion.

He talked about having $3 shoes and that Converse shoes were all the rage back in his time, instead of Nike and  Reebok etc. Milton Creagh showed us how deeply we are related to one another, because most of us have lost our close ones due to the violence in our world. We live in such a treacherous world, because we allow those things to happen. It takes just a little effort to make the world a better place.

Finally, we are actually given free time and assignments have stopped coming. Haha, just kidding, we have midterms this week. I've yet to present my Historical Globalization and Identity project and I envy the people who are already finished. It's like dropping 50 pounds off your back. I can not give up my childish desires for candy and treats, so people can expect a knock on their door this coming Sunday. I hate the non-spirited people who just keep their lights turned off to wade away the sugar craving mob of kids. At least we aren't dressing up as grim reapers and knocking on the windows of old retirement homes.



Hump day comes slowly to this week ridden with major assignments and midterms.  I didn't do bad on the Social unit test, which has given me back a bunch of confidence and relief back. This week isn't much of an interesting week either, but I've heard that we have some presentation that will take place during T.A tomorrow. Hopefully it is interesting and not one of those agonizing presentations where most students stare at the ground for an hour or so. Aside from that, it's was an easy Wednesday today, that's all I'm thanking God for right now.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for my pursuit. It's already October, so I don't have a valid excuse to say that I don't have an idea for my pursuit. I seriously don't want to raise money, but I want to raise awareness. Maybe, I'll go volunteering to a homeless shelter, and drag like a few people along. Then again, that sounds really boring. I'm such an uncreative person. I need to consort with people of greater knowledge, hehehehe.

I seriously question why we have to do so much assignments. I know that homework is given when there is not enough class time, but creating more work on top of that such as multimedia presentations to convey information, posters, or other technological means to reinforce the information we've learned is really crappy. I miss the days when all we had to do were analytical papers, critical thinking, answering textbook questions, and responding to the text with supportive evidence. I miss old pen and paper work. How many times did we open our textbooks this year?

Through my eyes, education is becoming more reliant on technology. Learning was always on a hellbent mission to make it more "engaging" and "fun." "By creating more rigorous tasks to be done online, we can make students enjoy learning!" Seriously? It's no surprise that only 10% of Canadian children are physically active. We're cooped inside all day doing stressful homework. What do we do when we're stressed, we eat to try and cope with it.




Health nuts and scientists are blaming parents for bad eating habits, but can stress play a role? Teenagers can't go out and exercise and follow dreams and ambitions if a huge brick wall is in their way. Physical inactivity leads to osteoporosis, heart disease, diabetes and much more. What's the use of working hard and being successful if your childhood health is affected leading to an earlier death. Man, it sucks being in I.B.

I completely and utterly failed the TFA essay on my standards. On the bright side, it's Friday! I don't know what to do for the weekend, except homework. I did so much homework this week; it has become a second nature for me. It's the weekend of spirited trick-or-treaters who go door to door seeking pleasure in wondrous treats of sugar and candy. Monday is a Faith Day, where we are given a day off. Thank goodness, I can relax for a day and then focus completely on my essay re-write and Math midterm review.

I still need to present my country research presentation which has been like 10 pounds of bricks on my shoulders. The introduction of this IA thing is interesting because we can research something we have a passion for; although I think we are limited to the bounds of Social class. Nothing interesting has happened this week, so there is a limit to how much I can spew out my thoughts. Finally there is a Math midterm on Wednesday that I have been drastically trying to study for, just by doing this three page double-sided page

We are starting a new module in Foods class, luckily for me, I've earned two credits so far by passing the past few modules. For this module we are going in depth with milk and egg products. Finally, something I'm actually competent in with cooking. I was really surprised when I first walked into Foods class, because despite being a three credit course, there is much work to do. I was expecting that we would just finish a bible long worth of notes and assignments, and then we start cooking consecutively for the next three months. Boy was I wrong.

We had an amusing class discussion in Mr.Roculan's class on Friday. He did a survey on the stress level of students on a scale of "1-10." Most people raised their hand on the 10 mark. Mr.Roculan's perception on the stress level for the grade 10 honors class should be around 5-6. The stress level for grade 11 kids should be around 8. Now for the people who are really stressed out, imagine what grade 11 will be like. I'm going to be honest and say that out of all my classes, 90% of my stress comes from S.S and ELA. It's worst enough that the human mind is exhausted after thinking for 2 hours, now imagine working for 6 hours. I see that most of my peers are having troubles keeping up with their blogs. It sucks when your week is so busy, your forced to use the remaining weekend to frantically blog, which is exactly what I'm doing right now. Now imagine having an exhausted mind, it only becomes harder to pull words out of your head.

Here's what one of my most stressful days looked like. Alright, I walk into ELA and hear that the Igbo research assignment is due on Monday. I think it's cool, I'm sure I can complete using the weekend but the people presenting on Thursday should consider themselves EXTREMELY fortunate. I walk into my next class and hear that any outstanding work is due next Friday. I become a little more worried because I still had to finish a novel for the Conquest of the Broken Spears assignment. Yeah, I know that it was awhile ago, but it completely slipped my mind with the introduction of new assignments. I have lunch and go into my Food's class. Wonderful news, we have a unit exam, and I have 5 pages of information to memorize, along with a grain research project also due on Monday. Math class was no different, we have a formal worksheet due on, you guessed it, Monday, and our unit test was on the day after. It couldn't possibly get any worst when I had three blogs to catch up on.

The source of the stress is the amount of time we have to use each night to complete each separate task. As the day progresses, the more my thoughts get jumbled, and soon,  my judgment becomes impaired and my actions are carried out without thought. I almost brushed my teeth with vaseline one night because I was under so much trauma. The weekend; a three day grace  period where average North American families stay home from work and school to associate with each other, attend mass, go swimming, or paying a trip to the Saddledome to see their hockey team play. All of these things, I missed because of the numerous amount of work I had to do. I reflected upon my actions that week and honestly admit that I have not once procrastinated or goofed off that week.

Tight schedule this weekend,country historical globalization and identity presentations are coming. I envy people who still have "free time" to spend on their jobs, assignments and what not.

Presentations due dates for our country has come closer, and we can breath a sigh of relief because we don't have to add an MDG component to it since we are not that far advance yet. We don't have to present to the entire Grade 10 honors class so we can breath another sigh of relief. At first, I thought that we were presenting to like 80 kids and 3 teachers, but now I'm a whole lot less worried. Many people complain about blogging constantly which tremendously increases our workload, but I think it is a good thing because blogging for your country forces you to research and what you researched can be used for future presentations.

I'm planning to volunteer for "The Mustard Seed," an organization that helps the less fortunate in Calgary. Last year, they've provided emergency shelter to 2800 people, 397,000 meals, independent housing opportunities for 530 and much more. They are offering guest speakers to come and speak to church communities, organizations or schools. I might try to get a guest speaker to come to our school and talk about volunteering, maybe that will make it easier for some students to find a way to participate in the community, because people are running around panicking about how they are going to fail.

I can't say I'm excited about the whole grand scheme of things. I even regret joining I.B. For a person like me who has completely no spare time on the weekend to expend on assignments, I choose the wrong path to take. From day til dawn whether weekend or weekend, my mind is completely focused on school. Maybe that's why my old social teacher said that she envied the way I still had "free time" to burn last year. Of course, there's always the option of going partial next year.

Today, Martin, a marathon runner and trianthalon champion came to our school to raise awareness about Right to Play. The 54 year old althlete has raised $110,000 by running across the country whether alone or with fellow Canadian students. In his daily life, he has to manage his eating habits by taking in 5,000 calories a day to maintain his weight. At his age, he’s probably going to be more physically active than I’ll ever be in my entire life, unless I become a WWE wrestler and not some accountant filing papers and doing your taxes with my face glued to the computer for 60 hours a week. Sounds like a really fun career.

China, as a whole country has never been successfully colonized. Maybe 5-10% of the country (important lands and seaports) have been under control by foreign countries. Hong Kong has been colonized by the British; however the Chinese were surprised by how prosperous their economy has been and how well the government has been established. The Dutch invaded and colonized Taiwan. Portugal got its hands on Macau. Hong Kong has been given back to the China recently in 1997. Western countries have supported the separation of China. Outer Mongolia, with the help of the USSR got its independence. North east and west regions were controlled by Russia until just recently.

In other news, China and the US are facing disputes amongst each other on the Dalai Lama. China is threatening Obama to not meet the Dalai Lama or else it will sever the trust between the two countries. I don’t know how this works, but Chinese officials say they don’t want inferences in their country affairs. China is also not open up to any sort of negotiations. The US was recently involved in a 6.4 billion arms deal with Taiwan which has angered Beijing. At the time being, the deal involved only defensive armaments but if this case was the opposite, Beijing would be infuriated.

Rescuers rush to reach 11 trapped in China coal mine

11 miners were trapped in a coal mine explosion; relatives and friends are standing by, hoping for the safe return of their companions. It has been confirmed that 5 more people have died by Sunday, increasing the death toll to 26. This has come in unexpectedly just shortly after the similar Chiliean mining incident. The world is still celebrating the safe return of 33 miners in Chile, but I'm sure that they will deal with this cautiously like the previous incident. I'd say that China's mining industry is the most dangerous in the world because a similar event occured at the same mine last year and killed 23. Thousands of miners were killed last year and leaders are trying to improve mining safety.

China is the largest producer and consumer of coal. The Chinese produce about 40% of all the coal in our entire world. Their vast reserves will last for another 48 years and some coal reserves are yet to be developed. Mining in China is said to be the world's deadliest because of their worst safety record. Most of the accessible coal is in northern China opposed to the south where it is polluted by sulphur and ash, making it unusable for most things.

Tommorow is quiz day for math and presentation day for our Igbo project. I'm researching religion for our group presentation and I was not suprised at how accurate Chinua Achebe depicts the Igbo in Things Fall Apart. The life of an Igbo was heavily centered on religion. There are many gods in Igbo culture. There was a god of the sky, a god of the earth, water, etc. Their supreme deity, the god of all gods in Igbo religion was called Chukwu. Sacrifices were made to please the gods.

The Opium war began in 1839 between the Qing dynasty and the British.The British wanted goods but the Chinese would only accept silver currency.When Opium began to be used recreationally, the British traded opium for silver.It became a highly effective solution due to its addictive nature.People started spending all their money on Opium which reversed China’s economy.

The Chinese dumped smuggled Opium into the sea and the British troops retaliated by wreaking havoc.An unequal treaty was signed, the treaty of Nanking, China had to open four ports to trade, and cede Hong Kong over to Queen Victoria.

In terms of colonization, China is interesting, because as an entire country, it has never been successfully colonized.Maybe around 5-10% of the country (consisting of important lands and seaports) has been under control by foreign countries.

-The Dutch took control of Taiwan.

-Portugal got its hands on Macao

-British got its hands on Hong Kong.

Friday

Friday at last, and the weather looks grim. There's suppose to be sunlight tomorrow, but I don't see how that's possible. From yesterday's news, China's five year growth plan is on it's way, but analysts discover an economic imbalance. They will also looking for China's new leader in 2012. Today, the leaders of China are coming together to discuss further actions in their economics. 23 Communist Party elders signed a letter to to stop restrictions on the freedom of speech. Leaders are addressing the issue with the economic imbalance by trying to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor, thus annihilating strikes and differences in pay.

In present day, traditional Chinese dresses are not worn anymore. These days, those dresses are used for celebrations. Jeans are common in China, as they are anywhere in the world. This is the result of globalization. In Chinese weddings, the bride would wear the a bridal gown like the ones we wear. Black is a popular colour in traditional clothing and bright red is preferred for special events, holidays, and ceremonial events. Few people wear shorts in China, especially men.

The Chinese have a concept called "face." It can be easily associated with the reputation or credibility of a person. Insulting, embarassing or demeaning a person in anyway will cause them to lose "face." A Chinese warrior, during ancient times may commit sucide because he has lost "face," after losing a battle. The concept of "face" is still around in modern China.