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.